Teaching Special Students in General Education Classrooms

Teaching Special Students in General Education Classrooms, 8e, benefits all students in the Inclusion and Introduction to Special Education and Courses by providing pre-service and practicing teachers with the skills needed to deal with the complex and often perplexing diversity that lies behind the classroom door. All students, particularly those with special learning needs, deserve special care and special teaching. This reader-friendly, categorically organized text takes a case-based approach to contextualize the laws, organizational information, and teaching methods educators need to know to teach all children effectively. Paying closer attention to the important ideas of Response to Intervention and Universal Design, assessment and the needs of English learners, and dedicating an entire new chapter to assistive technology, this comprehensive eighth edition continues to break new ground in preparing general educators for the challenges and opportunities of the inclusive classroom.

The new edition strengthens its continuing exploration of the most effective ways to teach all students in the same classroom:

• New! Chapter 9, Teaching Students Using Assistive Technology
• New! added emphasis on at-risk populations in Chapter 12, Teaching Students with Behavior Disorders
• New! added emphasis on Response to Intervention
• Ne w! added emphasis on Universal Design
• New! MyEducationLab! Margin notes throughout the text lead users to online, video-based assignments and lessons that deepen content comprehension.

The Seventh Edition of Teaching Special Students in General Education Classrooms by Rena B. Lewis and Donald H. Doorlag is uncompromising in its dedication to prepare educators to effectively teach the range of students found in the typical elementary or secondary classroom. Using a case-based approach, the text provides information about four groups of students with special needs: students with disabilities, gifted and talented learners, culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, and students at risk for school failure. In addition, it demonstrates the vast resources we now have available through technology, and presents practical strategies for adapting standard instruction to meet the learning needs of all students in general education classrooms.

Case-based Approach

• Student Stories. Student Stories are presented at the beginning of each chapter to help the reader frame the content that will follow in the text. A “Looking Ahead” section at the end of each case provides questions to aid in reader comprehension and further reflection.
• Inclusive Classrooms CD-ROM packaged with the text. The video cases depicted on this CD-ROM show teachers engaged with students in various inclusive classroom settings (from pre-school to secondary classrooms) employing strategies featured in the text. Activities that connect the text content to the CD-ROM are available in a special insert, at the ends of chapters, and on the Companion Website.

Dr. Rena B. Lewis earned her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, with a major in special education and minors in psychology and systems engineering. She began in special education as a teacher of children wtih mental retardation, although the majority of her work has been with students iwth learning disabilities. She is currently Associate Dean for Faculty development and Research in the College of Education at San Diego State University.

A frequent contributor to the professional literature, Dr. Lewis is interested in instructional adaptations for students with special needs, classroom assessment techniques, and ways to use classroom technologies to improve literacy instruction. In addition to t his book, she is co-author with Dr. James A. McLoughlin of Assessing Students with Special Needs (7th edition). She was honored with an award by the International Reading Association for her report on research implications for teaching reading to students with learning disabilities. Her current research interests center around literacy interventions for highly gifted children from linguistically diverse families.