Embedding Goals Into Activities

When considering the goals of special needs children with IEPs in the classroom, it is important to remember that there is no special time for working on their learning objectives.  Learning should be taking place all day, every day, for all children whether they are typically developing or have special needs.  Learning should be embedded into play activities and the tools for learning should be accessible in play centers.  The children should be given free reign of their environment, and encouraged to explore and work on their goals while playing, doing their routines, and interacting with other children.  If the day is carefully planned for and the lesson plans are written very thoughtfully, the day should flow smoothly and the teacher should be able to observe the goals being met, without actually instructing the child to meet specific goals.  Instruction via lecture is not appropriate nor as effective as embedding the goals in the natural environment.

An example of embedding goals in my classroom would be our address bingo, since one of our Kindergarten readiness goals is to know our address.  We also have little shoes for the baby dolls, since a fine motor goal of many of the five year olds in my class is to tie shoes.  We have all kinds of cognitive activities in our manipulative area, with games where we make patterns from color beads, match colored bears to their corresponding houses, and match shapes into corresponding holes.  There are social/emotional goals going on all day, simultaneous with other goals during play with friends.  Literature activities can contain all sorts of goals regarding language and cognition.  The child can be asked to retell the story in correct sequence (in their words), or hypothesize what they might think happens next, or identify how the characters might be feeling (social/emotional). 

Embedding goals into the lesson plans and daily activities is much the same for the student with an IEP.  Those goals should be considered, and some activities may have to be modified for the student with special needs.  For instance, a child with a visual impairment may need a braille text in order for a cognitive or language goal to be assessed.  The goals must always be individualized in this case.  In my classroom, I am a More at Four Teacher and we have "individualizations" for all 18 students, plus additional goals for three children with IEPs.  You can see the overwhelming nature of the task if I were to pull each child out separately each week to work on their weekly individualization.  Therefore, as a matter of practicality, I have to embed the goals in their learning activities.  I have a number of children who have a fine motor individualization goal of cutting a line.  We will place paper lantern templates in the art area for those who wish to do them, and the children can practice cutting pre-traced lines to make their lanterns.  Therefore, I can observe if the goal is met rather than testing individuals constantly.