Modifying Schoolwork in Inclusive Classrooms

This article focuses on the instructional aspects of inclusive education and describes how collaborating teams of general education and special education teachers can adapt instruction so that students with disabilities and their classmates without disabilities can learn together in shared activities. A model for creating individualized adaptations for the range of exceptional students encountered in inclusive schools is presented. The adaptations model is designed to facilitate the achievement of the goals of inclusive education by modifying schoolwork in the least intrusive way possible and ensuring social and instructional participation by students with disabilities. The steps of a process for designing curricular and instructional adaptations are summarized, and several planning tools to assist in making the process more efficient for teachers and more effective in enhancing student achievement and social belonging are described.