Remedial and Special Education

Many accommodations, though designed to ensure success of adolescents with learning disabilities in content area classes, water down the curriculum by reducing opportunities to learn and emphasizing memorization of facts. This article explores how watering up the curriculum to create "thought-full" classrooms can facilitate achievement of learning and development of deep knowledge structures. six basic principles associated with making knowledge construction more meaningful and robust are examined, and examples of specific instructional techniques particularly appropriate for use in inclusive classroom settings are provided. These techniques focus on teaching big ideas, promoting elaboration, relating to real-world contexts, and integrating thinking skills and strategies into the curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to gain understanding of general and special education teachers' perceptions of grouping for reading and the types of grouping patterns that are implemented in classrooms in a diverse urban school district. Forty-nine third-grade teachers (29 general education teachers who had students with learning disabilities in their class for part of the day and 20 special education teachers) participated in the study. Individual and focus group interviews were used. The results of the interviews revealed that teachers value control over their decisions on how to group for reading. General education teachers indicated that they feel constrained by the demands of the district and school administration, whereas special education teachers believe they have more autonomy in their grouping decisions. The majority of the general educators reported predominant use of a whole class grouping format, whereas special education teachers used a more varied format. For the most part, general educators endorsed mixed-ability grouping arrangements for both social and academic reasons. Special educators, on the other hand, supported same-ability groups. The discussion provides insights into why teachers do not differentiate instruction when teaching in classrooms that have culturally, linguistically, and academically diverse student populations. The need for professional development in flexible grouping strategies is also addressed.

This article offers derrida's deconstruction as a philosophy and practical strategy that challenges the assumed, factual nature of "disability" as a construct explaining human differences. The appeal of deconstruction lies in the contradictory philosophy currently articulated by the inclusion movement, a philosophy that simultaneously supports the disability construct as objective reality while calling for students "with disabilities" to be placed in educational settings designed for students considered nondisabled. This article proposes deconstruction as one coherent philosophical orientation for inclusion, an approach that critiques the political and moral hierarchy of ability and disability. A deconstructionist critique of disability is explained and demonstrated. Practical suggestions for the utilization of deconstruction by special educators are outlined.

This study examined the effectiveness of using classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) in heterogeneous middle school math classrooms to teach students in beginning algebra problem-solving skills. The literature on CWPT demonstrates its effectiveness with basic academic skills, but little research addresses whether CWPT can be effective for teaching higher order thinking skills. This study compared the effectiveness of CWPT with traditional independent student practice. Additionally, the performance of students at risk of math failure (students whose grade in math was a D or an F and/or who scored a stanine of 3 or lower in the math section on a standardized assessment) was compared with the performance of students not at risk of math failure. An analysis of the data indicates that both CWPT and independent student practice were effective strategies for helping students to learn beginning algebra problem-solving skills. Neither strategy was significantly more effective than the other. Students at risk of math failure demonstrated slightly greater performance gains than did students not at risk of math failure. Related findings indicate that CWPT was most effective with 14- and 15-year-old students. Implications for using CWPT for increasing students' higher order thinking skills is discussed as well as its use in heterogeneous classrooms and with middle school students.