Supervising and Coaching Special Education Teachers

Grand Canyon University

Cassandra Young

Dr. Karin Johnson

September 1, 2021
 Supervising and Coaching Special Education Teachers

Before meeting and watching the special education teacher, many questions drive my

thinking before starting the process. However, many of the guiding questions are not different

from the ones we should be asking our general education teachers since they interact with other

students all day long. Focusing on the state from LeDoux, Graves, and Burt, “A collaborative

planning and teaching foundation will bridge the gap that is causing the feeling of disconnect

between general education teachers and special education” (LeDoux et al., 2012). If we want all

students to feel included in the classrooms, they are sitting in. We must act as professionals to

collaborate for their needs instead of our own. Instead of always thinking of special education

students as different identities, we must include them in our everyday thinking. That also goes

for our special education teachers. They are thinking of students’ diverse needs and optimizing

my instruction to reach the learners I have in the room. Coaching special education teachers

should be at the forefront of our brain since they have the most diverse set of students in the

building that they are trying to support every one of their needs. 

Lessons and Student Needs

Specific questions regarding the teachers’ atmosphere need to be addressed first before

learning about the student’s environment. I need to know what students will be in the room

during the specific lesson that is being taught before I look at the class itself. Therefore, I would

ask the following questions with expected answers from the special education teacher.

 What strategies will you use to engage students in the lesson you are teaching? 

 How will you address the needs of all the learners in the room with the different IEPs?

 What type of assessment will you use throughout the lesson the understand where

students are at?

  Are there specific manipulatives you will be using to teach this lesson for all students to

understand?

I am trying to make sure that I understand what will be happening in the room for the special

education teachers. These questions need to be directed. That way, the answers are there for me

to understand the lesson. Thinking of how they would answer the first question would be using

movement activities, hands-on materials, and ensuring the student’s needs are being met. Having

specific manipulatives would be the signs for the students to explain what he needed to follow,

along with having areas he can be at which time. Introducing the new pictures every few days to

support his needs as a learner, a time is a huge need for him to see everything has a time limit.

To assess the student’s progress is watching how many times they need to redirect him to

monitor his progress. When thinking of all the learners in the room, it depends on which students

will be in the room but keeping each student on the correct tasks based on their IEP needs. It

would be hard for her to answer that question since one student is driving lots of her focus. 

Differentiated Instruction

Driving the differentiation of instruction will depend on the students in the room, which

would need to be the first question asked since this teacher sees a few different students either on

modified curriculums or for special education services that would depend on what is needed

differentiation. I would want to know who is going to be in the classroom to drive her

differentiation. If she stated that all her modifications would be in the room, the follow-up

question would be, how do you differentiate for those students in particular? Thinking she would

state based on their level of the content, it could be time for me to hear it in video format another

to work with manipulatives to guide their thinking, but the third one might still be at direct

teaching. As we know more about the students in the room and how she might differentiate that
lesson, my follow-up question would be how you would know they are ready to move away from

that specific spot of differentiation? I anticipate using formative assessments to watch them do it

independently based on follow-up questions she would ask the students individually. This would

allow her to see what each of the instruction tools supported for the student and some data to see

where she needs to go next. Another thought she might say is that being in her classroom is also

a form of differentiation since they are on a modified curriculum to support their needs. She also

needs to do other interventions to help them, which means more differentiation. 

Struggling Students

During the class and students were working, she has specific guiding questions that she

asks the students to make sure they understand the material. Seeing this in her lesson plans

before the actual lesson supported the thinking; however, I would ask how she would address

students struggling to understand the material? Knowing that she will state, she asks direct

questions based on the material that is being taught. Since she teaches all subject areas, this

would depend on the content being covered. For example, in math, she would ask, what parts do

you know, tell me what you are thinking, or even I see that you understand the adding, but what

about this part is confusing you? I anticipate her asking her students to support their

understanding of the math content. Wanting to know how she identifies that her students are

struggling if they do not verbally tell her? She watches the students’ actions during the lesson to

see what they respond to or cannot address. When they are working independently, she does

check-ins and verbal check-ins to visit to answer questions about the material. This allows her to

address each student’s struggle needs differently, but if it is all of them, she can do a quick re-

teach to support them.  

Prior Knowledge
Wanting to make sure she has a deep understanding of what her students know to support each

lesson. There are lots of different questions to help my interpretation. First, I want to see if she

uses prior experiences to drive her classes to know what her students need. Thinking of the

different dynamics of students she takes, she would state that her prior experience drives her

lesson knowledge to some extent, but each student brings their own experiences to the table.

How do you know that those previous experiences go what you know about those students?

Since she has had multiple years with many of these students, she has known their level of

understanding that drives the knowledge to support each lesson. She also stated that do many

mini assessments at the beginning of the school year allows her to gauge the learning loss from

the summer. That she also, before each unit, does a pre-assessment to see what they can recall on

the topic and what they are not able to identify. Wondering how specific dynamics of the

students know help guide her planning for units or lessons each week? She would state that

having to be intentional for a few of the students must occur due to their level of engagement

during lessons, making sure that she has some time of movement or hands-on since that is how

they learn best. From the article written by Benedict, Thomas, Kimerling, and Leko, “teaching

students with disabilities is complex and requires specialized knowledge of content and

strategies” (Benedict et al., 2013). There must be prior knowledge to some degree for her to draw

in students at that many different levels during one class period. Being aware of how her students

learn must happen otherwise, it can be difficult for her modified learners to catch on again to the

presented content.  

Classroom Management

Classroom management is a complex topic for all teachers and administrators since this

can look different for each person. My first question would be how she knows that her classroom
management works for her students in her room? She would say that it works since they come in

daily and can follow the expectations with little to no reminders. Since each of her students

usually needs multiple reminders on all tasks, management knows exactly what to do as they

come in speaks highly of the teacher. Following that would be how did you teach your students

the expectations to ensure the classroom management was to the level you want in your

classroom? Next, doing teaching with practice then repeating the method that way. They must

recall the expectations independently and when they cannot do it correctly, reminding them of

the proper expectations for the task they are practicing. Students, especially students she

services, need multiple times of practice with basic directions and fixes each time. The practice’s

follow-up questions would be how do you keep them in this routine when something throws off

the schedule? She states that when something new happens in the plan, she lets her students

know the change but then makes a reminder comment as they enter the classroom that way, they

know her specific expectations have not changed. She reminded me of a great thing when her

students tend to have multiple changes to their schedules for situations. 

Allowing ourselves as administrators to reflect on what special education teachers need to

run their classrooms effectively, we need to think if the evaluation we are walking in with

supports their room. If we cannot effectively state that the evaluation tool allows this teacher to

make growth areas for themselves with our support, then we may not be using the correct device.

Lawson and Knollman state that if the “observation instruments that are not designed to reflect

instructional practices specific to special education may impact an administrator’s ability to

provide an accurate and valid score of a special educator’s teaching” (Lawson & Knollman,

2017).  We must ensure that the proper observation instruments are set into place for our special

education teachers’ growth. Special education teachers do so many different levels of

differentiation, classroom management tools, and even multiple strategies to support struggling

learning. We should be going to them more for support to help students. Their rubric should be

different since they must put in varying levels of thinking for each lesson compared to a general

education teacher. 
Reference

Benedict, A., Thomas, R., Kimerling, J., & Leko, C. (2013). Trends in Teacher Evaluation.

Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(5), 60–68. https://web-b-ebscohost-

com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=d7178db8-5ab9-41ef-a24d-

3ca70ebd0848%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1za

XRl#AN=87105705&db=ehh

Lawson, J., & Knollman, G. (2017). Evaluation Special Education Teachers: School

Administrators’ Perceptions of the Process. Journal of Special Education Leadership,

30(1), 6–18. https://web-b-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?

vid=2&sid=721f67e7-6129-4f14-a0a0-1243d040e074%40pdc-v-

sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=122350921&

db=ehh

LeDoux, C., Graves, S., & Burt, W. (2012). Meeting the Needs of Special Education Students in

Inclusion Classrooms. Journal of the American Academy of Special Education

Professionals, 20–34. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1135732