So I start teaching my 3rd graders on Tuesday. I just went over my 5 IEPs in a class of 28...that is 17% of my class on IEPs, ALL with moderate to severe communication disorders. All of them spending varying amounts of time being pulled out for instruction. I am anticipating a challenge pairing these kids up for Teach/Okay during the day for the following reasons:

1) They will be in and out of the room and difficult to keep track of WHEN they will actually be in the room.
2) They are SO much lower than my other kids. One IEP said, "at the end of second grade just began to write initial sounds on spelling tests".
3) I want to include these students, but pairing them with each OTHER won't help them, but pairing them with other kids isn't fair to those kids to constantly be in charge of working with a kid who doesn't respond back and it's basically like working with a K-1 student.

Any advice? Anyone encounter a similar situation?

Megan, as full inclusion is being imlimented, as it should , we all have a collection of varied IEP students. They should- due to the fun and repetitive built in success of WBT do just fine. My suggestion would be try it "normally" if there is such a thing in teaching. Then try a three some where they can have more models, use them as your helpers to demonstrate, do a big switch where they get to move to a new partner, and use a leader to be there personal assistant for just one day. Did this help any? Stay positive:-)
Annette

Megan, First of all, I totally agree with Annette. Try using them in a threesome and mix up who you pair them with. Do any of them have aids with them? Sometimes I use them as their partners. Other times, I use the aids to encourage them or model for them how to participate. I am using oral writing with my lowest (all of my students have IEPs) as social skills. They may not be "writing" genius sentences by the end of the year, but my goal is for them to make eye contact and answer or converse with others in genius sentence form. Hope this helps.