As many of you may know, my class has a variety of levels and learners.  We have students with little to no functional movement, students at grade level that use wheelchairs and eye gaze devices, and students with autism working on core skills.  It sometimes is difficult to design lessons with the variety of learners in mind.  What can I do that will challenge my higher learners, what can I do that some of my most limited learners can participate??

We are blessed with Unique Learning Systems in our County.  however when we first received this subscription 3 years ago, I was SO OVERWHELMED!  And if you have received Unique for your class of limited learners (or even those closer to grade level functioning) you probably were overwhelmed too!  That “Suggested Monthly Plan”, ha! How am I supposed to get through 30 lessons in a month of 16-20 school days, on TOP OF all of the feeding, medical, positioning, and toiletting support myself and my staff do in a typical day (we average 30+ diapers a day over here!). Over the years I have found a few core lessons and tips that I use every single month to allow students access to the curriculum, vocab, and lessons with less stress.   Hopefully they can help you too!

Our Unique Board shows parents and admin standards and instructional targets!

First things first, the Printing Guide:
The Unique Printing Guide is found at the bottom of the Monthly Lessons Page.  On the 7th of each month, the following Month is able to view.  This is great for prep time especially if you have access to a Print Shop.  Some districts have a Print Shop at their District Office that prints flyers, booklets, etc for various people at the D.O.  If your admin is willing, ask for Print Shop to print your lessons for you.  My Print Shop prints Our 2 Monthly Books and Binds them for us! They use cardstock so they last longer, and my class library gets bigger! Use the Printing Guide and Highlight or circle the pages you want printed out of the Large “All Lessons” PDF File, and send both (electronically) to your Print Shop!  Helped cut down on prep time and my ink usage.  My Printing Guide looks something like this when I send it in.

Monthly Checkpoints
By now, you have (hopefully) used the GPS in Unique to create Profiles for your students.  They basically tell you what level your teaching should be (1-3).  A GREAT tool, especially for IEP’s, is the Monthly Checkpoints.  We administer them at the beginning and end of each month as a pre-test and post test.  The Goal would be that if the student is exposed to the materials, core vocab, images and lessons, that they would score higher on the post test and show learning growth!  Now I’m not 100% sure of how accurate those results are at level 1, since the concepts are very basic (WH questions and counting) with errorless trials and prompting available.  But how cool as a parent to get this graph at an IEP?!
You can print out the questions and make them into manipulatives for students who need larger visuals or the ability to choose.  I print and velcro mine and administer on a felt board.  You can also use an I-pad or computer for higher level learners and set it up on internet enabled eye gaze devices!

Lessons 1-4 Books and Comprehension Questions

We use both Monthly books and the Level 1 Comprehension Questions in our classroom.  I have the Books printed but you can have them projected on your screens or download the power-point at the bottom of the Monthly Lesson pages (the power points have a much better audio voice telling the story!). I print the Level 1 comprehension questions and print an extra copy to make Icons for manipulatives. During our Circle I read the book and ask the questions using 2-3 icon responses depending on the students’ Levels. This helps them to get familiar with the characters and concepts for the month as they are referenced in the Pre/Post tests. The level 2/3 Pre and Post tests even have a content understanding section based on the books. The books come in 2-3 levels (usually E-F/D and B/A) so you can modify.  We switch the books every day.  Sometimes it can get boring and repetitive so I try to add in activities like Matching, Who Has X, Vocab etc when reading the books.  Repetition is good for our learners! There are usually some comprehension fun worksheets at the end of the Lesson 2/4 as well for table time!

Lessons 12 Vocabulary

This one is pretty simple, I print the Picture/Word cards for the month. Each day we go through them by asking students to “Find X” from a field of 2-3.  Then I ask for them back through “Who has the word X?”  We practice these words writing them out, tracing, creating and matching through the month! We also use lesson 18, Vocab sort as a fun activity.  You can keep these if you laminate them or print them as a cut and paste activity. They are also able to be used in student view electronically!

Lessons  6/7 9/10

These lessons practice Core Vocab Words and Rhyming words.  I only print the tracing sheets and the vocab match.  Then I print the icons and make it into a matching workbook.  I try to make them re-usable so that my students can use them to practice core vocab for years to come.  The rhyming words aren’t as big of a focus but are fun reading practice!

Lesson 19

Number Sense is usually a LOT of worksheets so you really need to determine what is appropriate for your students.  I usually Print the first section of worksheets and modify or print as worksheets as necessary. This is usually just a supplement of the number skills we work on in class.

Errorless learning in math skills

News 2 You

While we don’t focus on News 2 You in my class, it has some great resources for classrooms, I can almost argue that just by itself it can be used in a classroom.   I download the Holiday adapted reading and create Holiday activities based on it. I love how all of the articles have picture based levels to aid visual learners.  The articles change each week based on current events and there are many many worksheets and activities to go with them.

Other Helpful Hints!

Symbolstix is what we use as our icons in our classroom now.  They are just as expansive as Boardmaker, my only issue is that the tools to create your own boards are a little limited. I like that they directly correlate to our curriculum.

There is an aspect called Joey’s Locker that contains fun games for students to access on an I-Pad or Chromebook!  And students can access the lessons on their own by setting up a student view on Tablets or Chromebooks. This, as well as projecting on an Apple TV or Smartboard can help save a LOT of paper in your lessons! We do not have a lot of Tech in our classroom, I use a Computer screen during circle time but it works!

Benchmarks (found in GPS) are tests that measure basic skills such as matching, letter ID, etc.  You can retake the tests as often as you wish for each student and set targets and base learning goals off of the results!

The lessons are revamped but repeated every 3 years.  This means you can save all of your materials and you will most likely be able to use them again!  I have filed mine away to hopefully make prep easier in the future. And there are lessons like Science Experiments and recipes that can be used year round!

All in all, Unique Learning System is a great resource for Special Education Classrooms, but it should be taken at face value, as a resource to help cut down on prep time.  It may NOT fit all of your student’s needs and you may still need to modify and accommodate the lessons to fit your students. If you’re just starting out, pick and choose a couple of lessons to focus on that you think will benefit your students most.  It will take time to get in the swing of things so don’t expect to be able to do EVERYTHING right away!  Even a little bit for your students is better than nothing at all!

Leave a Comment with any questions, tips or tricks you have for implementing in your classroom!