Dominic DeNoma
English Comp
Genre Analysis
Professor Rafaei
7/9/15
When people hear Special Education they instantly think about a teacher who helps someone
who is mentally challenged but that is not always the case. Special Ed teachers who help all who
students who fall under the category of special Education. To be consider Special Ed, one must have an
IEP, which is an Individual Education Plan. IEPs are giving to many different students with certain mental
and physical disabilities, so the spectrum of Special Education is broader than people think. I am a proud
Special Ed student because I received an IEP once I was diagnosed with ADHD, students with physical
disabilities have an IEP and also fall under the category of Special Ed. So Special Education just isn’t for
the mentally challenged, it is for many more students than many people realize.
An IEP is a student evaluation/diagnosis of a disability. That diagnosis is used to construct a
guideline/plan for students’ progress as well as identifying some services or accommodations a student
might need to be in a better position to be successful. When I am describing IEPs to people who don’t
know what they are; I describe them as a scouting report on an individual who falls under the category
of Special Ed. In this report it will identify the person’s disability and give ample background information,
it will also lay out some measureable goals and progressions for that person, and then it labels the
services and accommodations the person might need, ending with an evaluation plan to properly
execute one’s IEP. When it comes to developing an IEP, many people are involved. The student’s
parents, teachers, school psychologist, and any other special aid services the school offers. What
happens when writing an IEP a school psychologist will diagnosis a student with a learning disability.
From there teachers with help of the psychologist will highlight different areas of strengths and
weaknesses. Once a student get evaluated, is when the group listed early meet and discusses the best
educational route for the student.
IEPs are very important to the discourse communities of Special Ed and Education, because they
are the back bone and foundation of Special Ed. Every Special Ed students’ education starts with an IEP
no matter what the disability, physical or mental. IEPs help us understand the different areas of struggle
Special Ed students have, as well as set up a constructive plan to accommodate that student and put
he/she in a better position to be successful. The plans are individual because everyone has different
disabilities and needs help in different areas. IEPs are also important because it lets the teachers,
administrators and parents all be on the same page of a Special Ed student’s educational path. IEPs are
so important for everyone in the educational process to understand because it plays an extremely vital
role in the educational/developmental process of Special Ed students.
Now to illustrate and explain the process of an IEP, I will walk you through a sample IEP so you
have a better understanding of what one is. On studysites the made a general IEP for a girl named
“Morgan.” The first section is a bunch of general information about her, age, parents, address, school
etc. etc. This first section will also include a medical and family background. The first section is about get
to know the student but the next section is probably the most important section of an IEP, it is the I
student’s performance profile. This is the evaluation the school psychologist normally performs to
identify her disability and helps us understand what we can do to put in Morgan in a position to
succeed. This evaluation will have behavioral/functional/vocational assessments as well as test scores to
help us better understand Morgan.
Morgan’s student profile begins talking about her age, grade and family. After that it starts to
dive in on diagnosing her. One of the first things it talks about is Morgan’s strengths, “they include
grade-level math skills and above-grade-level spelling skills.” Then it begins to explore her weakness.
“Morgan exhibited inappropriate behavior at times. For example, when Morgan becomes upset she may
become self-injurious, hits other, and/or bites others.” It also talks about how Morgan need for
communication. This need leads her to visit the schools speech-language pathologist. As well as how her
need for individual instruction and behavior impede limit her from participating in general classes. Next
the student profile talks about the different test she has taking and the scores she has received. Near
the end of the report it reads, “the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule indicate symptoms
consistent with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.” There is more to this section than I discussed
but I wanted to give you a feel of how a IEP is wrote, with that being said every IEP is different for every
student. This section is important because it gives you background information of the student, which
lets the instructor better understand how to educate the student. Another reason why it is important
because you are able to identify the student’s strengths and weaknesses. This will paint a better picture
for the teacher to put the sped. Ed student in a better position to succeed.
Section 3 of the IEP is to clarify if a student is eligible for a Special Ed program and the rationale
and why. This section is very small you check the box that says eligible, the area of disability and the
rationale. Morgan’s rationale is, “Morgan meets eligibility criteria for Autism and Speech-Language
Impairment based on state guidelines.” Section 4 of Morgan’s IEP is Special Instructional Considerations,
this section will ask a bunch of questions that the evaluator will check see or no in. Those question range
from “Does the student exhibit behaviors that impede his/her learning environment? (yes) Does the
student require Braille instructions?” (no) Section 3 and 4 let other teachers know if students are eligible
for other special ed programs and which ones. This is important to understand which students need
extra help.
Section 5 of the IEP is the “Goals and Benchmarks” section of Morgan’s IEP. This section is here
to organize instructional goals and benchmarks for Morgan to achieve to develop her to be a better
student and person. In her IEP Morgan has 3 areas of focus that she needs improvement in, those areas
are Language/Social Skills, Social skills, Reading Comprehension. Each of these areas have an annual goal
and many benchmark goals to reinforce the annual goal. Morgan’s annual goal for social skills is “by the
end of the school year, Morgan, with the assistance of her paraprofessional, will increase her
interactions with peers by 80%.” Under this area she has 2 benchmarks, one is that she will sit with
peers at lunch and engage in social conversation and the other being she will interact with peers in
structured and unstructured class environment. Yet again everyone’s IEP is different so their areas,
annual goals, and benchmarks will be different as well. The reason why section 5 is so important
because it sets up progression goals for the student. It also begins to lay out the best educational path
for the student. It also creates small goals to tackles weaknesses and help the student become more
“independent” in those areas.
The section that follows section 5 is the IEP is Supplementary Aids and Related services. In this
section IEPs will describe the supplementary aids and services students qualify for. Morgan services
consist of “Adaptive Physical Education, Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy/Sensory integration.” It
also has the location of these services and how many hours a week she needs to attend them; as we
know everybody is different. Section 7 is special placement and this section is label the environment the
students should be placed in to best succeed; this ranges from the general classroom all the way to
hospital school. This section is similar to section 3 and 4, it sees if students need any other
accommodations for the student to succeed. So if a student needs extra time or a quite study room for
test, you find that in this section. This section is important because it highlights what needs to be done
to put the student in a better position of success.
Transitions services section comes after section 7. This can also be referred to as Post-secondary
Education plan. This section is to help plan out life after school for Special Ed students. This section
covers areas like career interest, employment outcome, identify needed transitions and others. Even
though this section is in Morgan’s IEP not everyone IEP has this section, this section is only there as
needed. That section is flowed by assessment modifications and this section is exactly like it sounds. If
there is any reason to modify the way needs be assessed, the IEP will. After that is progress report, this
section gives an allotted time that the student’s progressed will be check every so often. Morgan’s
progress report takes place every 9 weeks. The reason why this section is so important because it plans
how to make students independent after high school. So for more serve special ed students this section
would devise a plan to help the student be part of the community and on their own. (Everyone’s
situation is different) But in this section it would put emphasis on what skills need to be worked on for
life outside and after school.
The second last section is very important, this is the students’ evaluation plan. A developmental
team will meet and discuss a plan the will put students in the best position for success as well as write
down notes that will help teachers keep students on track. Morgan’s plan talks about how teacher’s
showed use a timer during instructional activities and constantly reinforce her; another thing it say is
“Block attempts at injury herself or others and redirect her to the task at hand.” It also talks about how
they should find a behavioral management plan to help prevent that from happening. The last section of
the IEP is your development team, and that is a team of people including parents, teachers,
psychologist, administrators who help develop ones IEP. The evaluation plan helps others see the
progress being made or not being made. So it lets everyone know how the student is doing and if any
changes need to be made in the IEP
Now that we have digested an example of an IEP, hopefully you understand the significance
they have in Special Education and Educational process. It is key and vital that people properly write and
read these for the sake of a student’s education!! IEPs play a most crucial role in the discourse
community of Special Ed. IEPs are the reason why some Special Ed kids become dependent, or are the
reason they make it to college, or graduate high school. Not only do these IEPs help students with their
education but their lives. I believe it is now obvious why one must be able to read and write IEPs in the
discipline of Special Ed. The importance of IEPs to the discourse community of Special Ed is the same
importance of water to marine life, one will not succeed without the other.
Work Cited
Sample Individualized Education Program. N.p.:
Http://studysites.sagepub.com/gargiulo4e/study/resources/plans/88919_siep.pdf, n.d. PDF.