If you teach special education, you pretty much know that adapted resources are a necessity in your classroom (task cards, file folders, adapted books…etc)!  If your class/students are anything like mine, it is a task to get all of my students to sit for a half an hour and concentrate on a group lesson. Here I will show you how to use some of the resources and materials you probably already have in your classroom to create an engaging group lesson!

What Are Adapted Materials?

Task cards, file folders, flashcards, task bins, and adapted books.  These are adapted resources that you will find in every special education classroom.  These are also resources you might typically see being used for independent work to reinforce skills learned during a group lesson, but I want to share with you how I utilize these materials in a group lesson.  

It gives you a chance to model the task in front of the whole class, provided guided instruction, and practice before you send your student to independent work with these tasks.

Supplemental Materials

Here are some additional things I use to supplement the adapted materials to make a group lesson a little more fun.  I use these items FREQUENTLY, so they were definitely worth the investment.  You will see them in use in the various pictures below.

• Portable Karaoke Microphone
• Light or sound buttons
• Portable whiteboards & dry erase markers
• Laundry clips (use with task cards)

FLASHCARDS

My students are ALL ABOUT VISUALS so we use flashcards a lot!!  They are usually pretty simple (free of distractions and not complicated to read), and if they have visuals on them, chances are the visuals are bigger in size and easy to read!  Here are some of the activities I like to do with flashcards to work on vocabulary, sight-reading, item identification, item description, and so on.

• Distribute flashcards to students.  The teacher holds up a (matching) visual and asks students to make a match or “Who has…”
• Distribute flashcards to students.  Teacher writes the word (that matches one of their flashcards) on a small whiteboard and asks students to read the word, or asks “Who has…(word)”. (eg. Who has…Soap) pictured above. 
• If you have at least two sets of flash cards, play Go-Fish to build social skills.
• Distribute flashcards to students.  Teacher describes the visual, whether it be the color & shape, or the definition.  Students have to guess if they have the flashcard you are describing.
• You can also turn your lesson into a fun competitive game.  This is a way to keep students invested and engaged in the lesson.  Students that correct answers get to collect more flash cards to win!
• Memory game- if you have two sets of flash cards, place all of the cards face down and have students try and find the matching visual.

TASK CARDS

I treat task cards very similarly to flashcards (at least the task cards that have a visual on them that ask to identify what they are).  Depending on the type of task card, you can go about this different ways. A majority of the task cards I have include visuals and an answer field of 3 options.  For task cards that focused more on discussion (such as job etiquette) before I begin, I will go over key concepts, and review a handful of the task cards. 

• Task cards that have a visual that asks to identify what it is.  Distribute task cards to each student and teacher asks “Who has… (visual)” or “I’m looking for…(visual)”. (eg. Who has…Milk) as pictured above. Extend the discussion by asking students other questions (eg. What food group?, What color is it? Do you like Milk?) 
• Distribute task cards to students.  Teacher writes the word (that matches one of their task cards) on a small whiteboard and asks students to read the word, or asks “Who has…(word)” The student that has the task card then has to clip (or dry-erase circle) the correct answer.
• If you print out enough sets of task cards for each student, you can play a competitive game to see who clips the correct answer first.
• You can also turn your group lesson into a fun competitive game.  Students that get more correct answers can collect more task cards to win!

• Some task cards are more discussion oriented such as the “What To Do In An Emergency” task cards below. These are usually the task cards that I will turn into a fun competitive game by having students push on the button if they have the answer.  Student will then clip the correct answer and whoever has the most clipped at the end wins.

Smart Board

We use the smart board A LOT!  It tends to be the most engaging teaching tool for most of my students, I don’t know what I would do without it! My students love being able to use the digital pens, or clicking on buttons and so on.  There’s just something about reading on the smart board that is more engaging than looking at a book or piece of paper for most of my students.  On the smart board, some of the things my class loves to utilize include: GCFLearnFree.org, Digital Interactive Activities I have created, News2You (Unique Learning System), Epic! Books, SMART Exchange, CNN 10, Channel 1 News, and Google Earth just to name a few.

I frequently use the microphone with smart board activities, as well as a extendable pointer.  These two gadgets come in handy when it comes to read alouds, even if I’m the one reading. The microphone keeps students engaged and they are easily able to follow along when I used the pointer.  Read more about how the microphone benefits my students!

Work Task Bins

This may not work with all task bins depending on what it is.  Here are the different types of task bins that I have in the classroom:  Vocational Skill/Assembly, Sorting, and Task Cards. 

• Vocational/life Skills- this is a great opportunity to model the hands on activity/task, guided practice, then individual test if time allows.  Students can then use the same task bins during independent work at a later time.  
• Sorting- I will distribute pieces that need to be sorted to all students.  After going over what goes in each category, depending on their level, I might go around in a circle and ask each student to identify/give me a specific item (eg. Show me a dairy product), or I might ask them to put the item into the correct sorting bin (eg. Sam, do you have an envelope addressed to California? If so, place it in the correct (CA) bin) or (eg. To all students: If you have an envelope addressed to California, raise your hand, then, place it into the correct bin).

File Folders

I will distribute the pieces/pecs from the file folder and then go over the actualy file folder as if I am reading a book.  From there I will ask students “Who has…”. Students can then practice their social skills by passing their piece to the next student “Here you go” or tapping lighting on their shoulder, until the piece makes it way to me to put on the file folder.  I might even assign a helper to be the designated person to put the velcro pieces onto the folder.

Cut & Paste Worksheets

When half of your class needs hand over hand support to write, it becomes a gruesome task trying to help all students complete a worksheet.  For this reason, many of my worksheets contain easy to read/circle answer banks or limited field of answer choices, or they are cut & paste.

Adapted Books

The great thing about a lot of adapted books is they come with interactive visual pieces to reinforce what was just read.  So think of this as any other read a loud, but now you get to have your students actively participate and recall what was just read by looking for the piece that goes!

• During a small group lesson I will distribute those visual pieces to all students. I will then either read through the book out loud myself or have students volunteer.  When we get around to adding the visual pieces to the adapted book, I will either read the sentence and ask if anyone can guess what the answer is, or I will ask all students “Who has … (visual)”. This is a great way to check for comprehension as well as require all students to stay engaged by checking to see if they have the answer.  For my non verbal students or students that have a hard time with making an answer choice, I will reinforce what was just read by repeating the sentence then asking the student to “Touch the… (visual)”.

Interactive Bulletin Boards

These are a great way to get students up and moving to participate during a group lesson.  You can either ask students to get up and get something off of the bulletin board, or you can ask them to go put something on the bulletin board.

Pictured below is a grocery store bulletin board that has various grocery items with price tags on them.  I have worksheets that go along with them for my high functioning students, but I love the interactive part of it that I am able to use with all of my students.  I can ask students to find a specific product, find a specific product that fits a description, find the price, next dollar up, find a sale item…and so on.  The items are thumb-tacked onto the bulletin and I will ask them to retrieve a specific item and bring it back to the group table.  From there, we might practice making a transaction with real money, or work on some of the other skills listed above.

Check out more interactive bulletin board ideas here:

If you’re stuck on worksheets, ditch them and start creating interactive activities for your students.  Whether they are in special education or not, many students are visual and/or hands on learners, and these are just a few great ways to facilitate engaging learning experiences in the classroom.  Comment below with some fun activities you like to do that utilize adapted materials!

Thanks for reading!