Page 207 - Special Education in Ontario, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Policy and Resource Guide

Special Education in Ontario, Kindergarten to Grade 12 Draft
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The classroom teacher and support personnel are directly responsible for implementing the program and services outlined in a student’s IEP. Their responsibilities are outlined below.
The Role of Classroom Teachers
Classroom teachers need to become familiar with the instructional, environmental, and assessment accommodations that are recorded in the student’s IEP. Some accommodations, such as providing a quiet work space or having a scribe record the student’s verbatim responses, require advance planning on the part of the teacher.
The teacher must make all the strategies and other accommodations
listed in the IEP available to the student, but is not restricted to using
only those that are listed. As the relationship between the teacher and the student develops, the teacher should explore a variety of strategies that could enhance the student’s ability to learn, and make note of successful strategies in the student’s IEP. However, adjustments to the assessment accommodations listed in the IEP should be made only after checking that they conform to the accommodations permitted by the EQAO, so that if the student finds them helpful the student will also be able to benefit from them during provincial assessments.
The classroom teacher must carefully monitor the student’s learning in order to detect ineffective instructional strategies or other accommodations and replace them with strategies better suited to the student’s learning needs.
When a classroom teacher is responsible for teaching a subject or course in which a student with an IEP is working towards achieving modified and/or alternative expectations, some additional planning is necessary. The teacher should consider incorporating a number of strategies (e.g., group instruction, peer coaching, buddy systems) that can help the student participate in many of the classroom activities.
Classroom teachers are encouraged to promote independence in students who have an IEP by structuring the location of and procedures relating to individualized tasks and assignments in such a way that students can practise skills and prepare performance tasks with a minimum of teacher assistance. At the same time, planning for direct instruction is essential and should focus on helping the student acquire the knowledge and skills recorded in the IEP before the student attempts to move on to additional learning.