The role of an Instructional

Assistant

Overall Roles and Responsibilities

Noninstructional Responsibilities

Clerical duties (maintaining files, attendance, putting grades in grade book, etc.)

Assist with supervision during meals, snacks, personal care

Operate technology equipment and assist with assistive technology for students

Instructional Responsibilities

Assist with small groups, tutoring of small groups

Implement and reinforce teacher instruction

Reread with students in one-to-one

Grade work under teacher direction

Provide accommodations

Parallel teaching Stations One teach, one assist Alternative teaching Team teaching One teach, one observe

Models of Co-teaching

Parallel Teaching

Always have General Educator introduce new concepts

The same activity is occurring in 2 locations

Helps decrease student to teacher ratio

Stations

Reviewing already introduced topics

Smaller teacher/student ratio

Usually 3 to 4; 1 or 2 independent stations

Teacher can be doing direct instruction with smaller group while you are reviewing or doing recursive

One teach, one assist

During independent practice

Attention should not be taken from the lead teacher, or direct instruction

Intention is to help overcome barriers in the instruction

Alternative Teaching

Similar to small group pull-out, but in the room

Used for recursive teaching, or supplementing needed skills

Team Teaching

Both adults add to instruction; give and take with information

Offers more than one perspective

One teach, one observe

Can observe individual student/ students

Collect data during specific tasks

Assess if certain supports or presentation of instruction is successful

Used for future planning

Instructional assistants need to be aware of

accommodations and Supplementary Aids/ Services

May be a good idea to have a common place documents can be accessed within the inclusion classrooms (confidential but need to be used as a resource)

IEP Knowledge

Accommodations

An accommodation is a change that helps a student overcome or work around the disability.

Example: Allowing a student who has trouble writing to give his answers orally is an example of an accommodation.

Used for instruction and testing.

Human Reader or Audio Recording for Verbatim Reading of Entire Test: I, A

Screen Reading Software: I, N/A Notes and Outlines: I, N/A

Human Reader or Audio Recording for Verbatim Reading of Entire Test: I, AScreen Reading Software: I, N/ANotes and Outlines: I, N/A

Student is reading below grade level and struggles with making his handwriting legible. He performs best when text is read aloud to him and when he can highlight notes which are provided to him in class as opposed to generating notes on his own. Student will be provided with outlines and notes before each lesson in all classes so that he can focus attention on instruction.

Human Reader or Audio Recording for Verbatim Reading of Entire Test: I, AScreen Reading Software: I, N/ANotes and Outlines: I, N/A

Student is reading below grade level and struggles with making his handwriting legible. He performs best when text is read aloud to him and when he can highlight notes which are provided to him in class as opposed to generating notes on his own. Student will be provided with outlines and notes before each lesson in all classes so that he can focus attention on instruction.

Supplementary Aids & Services

Supplementary aids and services are intended to improve children’s access to learning and their participation across the spectrum of academic, extracurricular, and nonacademic activities and settings.

Used for instruction and testing, but not standardized assessments (state and county testing)

Instructional Support – Other: Chunking of Memory Activities

Activities that require Student to memorize lists, etc. should be chunked to allow Student to concentrate on smaller portions.

Data Collection

Types: Academic- collected throughout the quarter based on

academic goals in an IEP Behavioral- collected daily; usually connected to goals in

the IEP, an incentive program, or the BIP (behavior intervention plan)

Purposes of data collection: To track progress in areas of concern Used to assess whether more/less/different supports are

needed

Collecting Data:

How to collect behavioral data: Identify and understand the targeted behavior that is to be observed

(must be measurable) Behavior should be described in a clear, complete, concise way (ie.

Completes task in given timeline) Stay away from emotions or values Describe what you see or hear, what the student says or does; avoid

labels Understand the method you are using to collect data Be consistent with your standards, and how you are identifying the

behavior How to collect academic data:

Mark work samples: Level of instruction: indicated by Teacher, should be written on sample Level of support: independent, or # of prompts Types of prompts: gestural, verbal

What are some ways I can better support my students tomorrow?