Gabriella is a fourth grade student with a language disorder and mild intellectual delays. She is nine years old and spends a large portion of her day in self-contained settings. She receives speech and language services from a speech pathologist for a minimum of 40 minutes three days a week. The rest of the time, her language needs are supported by the special education teacher. She does attend a general education fourth grade classroom daily for 90 minutes for language arts instruction. An instructional assistant accompanies Gabriella to class. Gabriella’s oral expression skills are in the low to average range. She struggles with figurative speech, sarcasm, and multiple meanings of words. Her speech is literal and she usually has poor decoding and reading comprehension skills. Her reading level is at a low first grade level, reading simple stories with a Lexile level of 300-450. Her favorite books are the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. She is writing simple sentences with a subject and a predicate, but relies on picture cues and rewriting strategies to plan her sentences.
Gabriella attends the fourth grade Language Arts class for exposure to more appropriate grade level content. She requires frequent breaks and one-on-one support from an assistant when participating in the general education setting. The special education teacher and assistant work with the general education teacher to modify the assignments in class.
Gabriella is exempt from the district course assessment at this time, and her grade is based on participation, reduced and modified assignments, and an alternative individual project instead of a final exam. When working in groups, Gabriella will participate by making choices, with visual cues prompted by the assistant. Gabriella has been integrated into language arts instruction since the second grade. Students enjoy having her in class and are helpful. She also attends art, music, PE, recess, and lunch with the same fourth grade class.