There are three main barriers to inclusion identified by Sokal & Katz (2015) are a lack of teacher education and training, ineffective funding models, and mental health issues. While a change in funding models and systems is needed, many of the more specific barriers to inclusion (i.e., a lack of UDL) can be addressed through teacher education and training. This should be seen as empowering as it is something that can be addressed at the school level. We can advocate for change to funding, but beyond that we are limited in our ability to make an impact on this barrier. Provision of effective professional development in the area of differentiation and UDL is an actionable step all schools can take towards becoming more inclusive. 

Mental health issues is another area that schools can address through incorporation of SEL practices. The BC curriculum provides the perfect foundation on which to build these practices, as they align quite nicely with the core competencies. Once again, teacher education and training will come into play as many teachers will need to be supported in this area. An intentional, consistent and proactive program implemented schoolwide could help to alleviate struggles with mental health for both students and staff. 

“The focus on personalization and the flexible structure of the curriculum support the configuration of combined grade classrooms.  Classes of students of more than one grade provide opportunities for teachers to develop a mindset that sees all the students as a group of learners with a range of needs and interests. Multi-grade programs should find a comfortable fit with the curriculum.” (Province of British Columbia)

A Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction | Cult of Pedagogy - If you haven't encountered the work of Jennifer Gonzalez before, you are missing out. She has a wonderful podcast, The Cult of Pedagogy, and a website full of tips and resources. 

The UDL Guidelines from CAST is, in my opinion, the best resource out there. This site is incredibly easy to navigate and breaks each domain down into action items. If that's not awesome enough, each action item is further broken down with the "why" and "how" for each suggestion. 

Making Adaptations and Modifications to Improve Learning from the book Learning in Safe Schools: Creating classrooms where all students belong by Faye Brownlie and Judith King, explains the differences between adaptations and modifications, includes planning tools to help determine which is necessary, and has lists of ideas for adaptation. 

Individual Education Planning for Students with Special Needs: A Resource Guide for Teachers by the BC Ministry of Education, includes a guide to adaptions and modifications. Check out the super handy flowchart on page 85 to help in determining whether an adaptation or modification is appropriate! 

SET-BC is a provincial outreach program designed to facilitate use technology and tools as aides in learning. Among their offerings are an assistive technology loan program for students with low-incidence needs. Be sure to check out the "Resources" tab for a searchable library of resources, everything from tutorials to resources to use in the classroom!

What is Guided Reading? by Fountas & Pinnell This is a good, brief into to guided reading. If you poke around their website you will find many literacy resources. F&P publishes and sells literacy materials, so there will be some links that lead to purchasing details. 

I've been using this as part of my literacy instruction for many years. It's a game changer! Bonus, there are so many resources out there for this word study program.  Check your library or curriculum room, there's likely a copy in there already.

Link to Pearson site

Graphic Organizers - HUGE collection of graphic organizers for reading and writing, compiled by SD44.

Dr. Nicki Newton I am a big fan! After attending one of her workshops, I completely restructured my math instruction. She has published many books and offers a free download of the chapter from Guided Math in Action that gets you started.  Her online presence is a little all over the place, but I've added links to some places she has resources...

Dr. Nicki Newton's Padlet 

Dr. Nicki Newton's YouTube Channel

Applying UDL to Math
Katie Novak has a quick and easy to use tip sheet for ways to incorporate UDL!
Tips to Implement the UDL Guidelines: Math Examples (novakeducation.com)

Using flow charts to make programming decisions - Flow charts can be used to determine whether adaptions and/or modifications should be made for a student. This can help make the process efficient and can provide a visual support when explaining why these decisions were made to other staff or parents. Flow charts can be created to help with myriad other programming decisions as well. Once developed, these can help to ensure that components and resources are not being overlooked. Use of flow charts in SBT meetings  can be helpful as a visual reference when discussions take place. Team members might identify options that have not been considered and added to the flow chart, or they may be introduced to existing options they have not considered before.

Summary sheets - Creation of summary sheets for students on your caseload will be extremely beneficial for classroom teachers to include in their TTOC binder and for support staff who may work with the student. Similar to the student profile, these should be reviewed periodically to ensure they are an accurate reflection of the students needs, adaptations, modifications, and other pertinent information.

Strength Based Student Profile - Another fine resource by Shelley Moore. This template is similar to forms I have used in the past. Short and sweet, gets the basics of what you need.

Who am I?  - This template lends itself to being completed by the student. Each question has some space they could choose to draw pictures for their answers as well as using text. 

Inclusive and Competency Based IEP - I feel like this Shelley Moore creation is more in line with the direction we want to be heading as far as incorporating the competencies goes.