Rita G.

IEP

Hailey Peck

Introduction to Special Education 203

IEP Assignment

22 November 2017
 During the Individual Education Plan for Rita G., the team determined strengths that Rita

has in her academics. Rita’s strengths include word recognition, which she does at a fourth-grade

level, during reading and in auditory discrimination. Her favorite subject is music. Rita’s

weaknesses include mathematics, writing, reading comprehension, spelling, and social skills. In

mathematics, she scored 1 ½ to 2 grade levels below her own grade level and her most severe

problems were in the areas of numerical reasoning and word problems. Writing in cursive is very

difficult for her and she often asks her teacher if she can write using manuscript writing rather

than cursive. While she can recognize words well, her reading comprehension is below grade

level and she has difficulty with higher conceptual reading skills. Rita has trouble with spelling

words that are spelled differently than the way they phonetically sound (ex: “tok” instead of

“talk” and “laf” instead of “laugh”). Socially, she has little friends and mostly plays with

children younger than her, such as her younger sister. Rita does not have any medical diagnosis

so it would be logical to assume she has an unspecified learning disorder.

For Mathematics, Rita will have goals that improve her ability to understand numerical

reasoning and word problems. I believe her inability to understand numerical reasoning ties in

with her lack of reading comprehension skills. In order to bring Rita’s skills up to the 3rd grade

level, she first needs to review what was missed at the 1 st and 2nd grade levels to understand the

Mathematics in a new way. Rita’s annual goal with Mathematics will be to be able to read a

single step word problem and be able to answer the question and explain it. In order to achieve

this goal, we will use different strategies with Rita such as tactile mathematics so she can

visualize how the addition and subtraction works. In order to understand multiplication, Rita

must first understand addition and subtraction more thoroughly. Rita will be able to compare

numbers such as 40 and 50 and identify which number is larger. Rita will be able to define math
vocabulary such as “addition, subtraction, and multiplication.” She needs to be able to identify

the type of problem she’s doing and understand it in order to be able to properly solve it. Rita

will be able to understand representation of numbers, such as understanding that with 5 + 5 = 10,

5 is half of 10. Visual representation will be important for her to understand numbers, how they

work, and the language of Mathematics in general. Rita will be able to use blocks or draw

pictures to show different ways to add and subtract numbers. The visual aid will help her better

understand the numerical reasoning behind her strategy.

In order to help Rita with her Mathematics skills, we can utilize peer tutoring.

Encouraging peer tutoring will give her the chance to develop both her social skills and her

Mathematics skills. However, it is important to teach peers how to guide her rather than do the

work for her. For example, Rita can use drawings or blocks to work out a Mathematics problem

with the help of her peers and then explain to them what she did. They could then switch roles

and her peers would work out a problem and explain to her what they did. Does the math make

sense and how can she change the math to make sense if it does not? Vygotsky’s Social

Development Theory works for this strategy because it encourages her peers to work with her

and in turn encourage her to work with her peers. Her strengths will help their weaknesses and

their strengths will help her weaknesses. Building her language and social development will in

turn build her understanding of other subjects.

Rita’s reading comprehension skills tie in with her math comprehension and social skills.

Rita’s long term annual goal will be to be able to read a 5-10 sentence paragraph and clearly state

what the paragraph means and how she achieved her reasoning. In order to achieve this goal, we

will move Rita back to the basics of 2 nd grade where she started losing her comprehension

abilities. Rita will be able to define and identify 3rd grade level reading words. The first level of
comprehension includes knowing what words mean rather than just knowing what they say. Rita

will be able to match words to pictures to show meaning. Rita will be able to sort words into

categories such as feelings, sports, occupations, etc. Rita will be able to use reading strategies

such as context clues and picture clues to understand the subject and meaning of simple

sentences. Rita will be able to use reading strategies such as context clues, picture clues, and

predictions to understand complex sentences and simple, short paragraphs.

Building the basics of reading comprehension will eventually help Rita to understand the

bigger picture of her reading. Just like with Mathematics, Rita should work in groups or with a

partner to do peer tutoring. Cooperation within a group setting will help her improve her reading

comprehension, which will also improve her social skills, and in turn continue to improve her

comprehension like a cycle of improvement. One of Rita’s strengths in reading is word

recognition so Rita could read a paragraph and have her class mate explain what the paragraph

means and then switch roles so that the classmate is reading a paragraph and Rita is explaining

what it means. Heterogeneous groupings are great for peer work because it allows children with

different strengths and weaknesses come together to help each other.

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory is really important for this lesson because it

pushes Rita to take control and ownership of her own learning. Rita would not be able to say

“that’s too hard for me” and would have to push herself to learn new things. According to

Vygotsky, social interaction is an extremely important role in cognitive development which is

why working in groups is important. He states that development comes first at the social state

and later at the individual stage, which would explain why children with such little social skills

often have a harder time with academic and cognitive development. Since Rita has a hard time

building social relationships as well as reading and Mathematics, utilizing Vygotsky’s Social
Development Theory will be extremely beneficial for her in both tackling her social

developmental delays and her academic and cognitive developmental delays.

In order to help Rita to the best of their ability, her teacher should utilize Error

Remediation. In this review strategy, the teacher would look at Rita’s work and look for a

common error she makes in order to re-teach and correct that error. For example, if Rita has a

sheet of Math problems to do and she mixes up which problems are addition and which problems

are subtraction, the teacher would catch that mistake in error remediation and be able to re-teach

that concept in a way that helps Rita to better understand. After re-teaching, positive practice is

important. Rita must practice the things she learned again and again with plenty of positive

praise for things like leadership and communication, correctly solving and explaining Math

assignments, and correctly reading and explaining reading comprehension assignments.

To keep track of Rita’s progress, the teacher can start by reviewing her daily. Is she

understanding the newer strategies being taught to her? Is she working well with the other peers

in her group time? These are questions that can be asked in the early stages of meeting her goals.

Eventually, you will wean her off your review by slowing down to reviewing weekly and

eventually monthly. The teacher wants her to be able to eventually work independently and

support Vygotsky’s beliefs of independent work and taking charge of one’s own education, but

the teacher also understands the importance of guiding her into that direction. Assessments can

also include a portfolio of her work, observation, a learning journal kept by the student to get a

chance to utilize her expressive language and comprehension, and chapter tests/curriculum based

assessments. One assessment test that is easy for teachers to use and great for students is

Brigance, which offers a variety of testing and gives a full range of areas of improvement

needed. This assessment can be done about twice throughout the year.