When students leave class for different services—like pull-out interventions or ELL support—it’s a great resource. But it can also mean missing key classroom moments and disruptions.. Teachers often ask: How do I help those students catch up without slowing down the class? And if service providers come  into  the room, how do we keep things smooth and focused?

So today we’re diving into practical strategies for teachers to help students stay on track, collaborate with inclusion providers, and keep classrooms inclusive and productive.

Topics Discussed

• How to keep pull-out students from falling behind
• How to make a push-in setup work for all learners
• How to deliver modifications and accommodations when you are solo

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[00:00:39] ellie: When students leave class for different services, like pull out interventions or ELL support, it's a great resource, but it can also mean missing key classroom moments, and it can mean disruptions. Teachers will often ask, how do I help those students catch up without slowing down the class? And if service providers come into the room, how do we keep things smooth and focused?

[00:01:23] ellie: this can be tough. So one strategy could be setting up a Catchup station, a folder, or a digital document where essential notes, slides, and assignments go every day so students can plug in quickly when they return.

[00:01:48] ellie: You could embed peer check-ins as another option. A buddy or a peer mentor can fill students in on any missed information and help with the initial review of the material. Like sometimes when students are peer teaching or going over some of that information with students who've missed things, it's helpful for them too because, you know, you learn when you teach.

[00:02:25] ellie: And sharing a quick daily or weekly summary sheet, just bullet points of what was covered, can save pulled out students from scrambling later on.

[00:02:58] Their pullout was their goal.

[00:03:17] brittany: Well, I usually start with a planning session with that teacher where we work together on the lesson. We do regular check-ins, such as a weekly co-planning session, and it lets you sync up on who needs support, when and how, so it feels kind of built in rather than like an add-on. I. I also try to utilize the special needs teacher as an extra teacher for the class.

[00:04:09] It also tends to lead students to respect them more and give them more weight and value throughout the building, thus also not viewing our inclusion kids as different.

[00:04:35] jive well enough you can kind of do that on the fly a little bit, as long as you don't get each

[00:04:43] brittany: You might not get that support.

[00:04:56] You could agree on signals, routines. Like even if you didn't have a whole lot of time to plan ahead of time, you might at least be able to set up some nonverbal cues for refocusing so that the providers help blends into your class flow instead of taking away from it.

[00:05:12] ellie: I have to say like side note, but there were times when there wasn't that chance for communication or if it was an assistant rather than an inclusion service provider,

[00:05:32] brittany: Yes.

[00:05:34] brittany: Another strategy is to rotate pulled in students through the station activities where the provider assists one group while the others work independently, and that makes the support feel more natural. Regardless of the method you choose though, keep the communication ongoing. Quick post class debriefs or even just moments in the hallway, shared notes, a shared Google slide or something will help you track progress and adjust support seamlessly.

[00:06:28] An accommodation is a change that helps a student overcome or work around the disability without altering the learning expectations. While a modification is a change in what is being taught or expected from a student, often changing the complexity of the content. So some examples of an accommodation could be extended time on tests, or preferential seating, or using a calculator, or a text to speech, or maybe the directions are read aloud to the student, or they receive some breaks during tasks.

[00:07:41] so

[00:07:43] you. when you taught, did you have mainly students who were pulled in or students who were taken out?

[00:08:00] Later In my career it was more push in.

[00:08:07] ellie: Yeah, and there was a lot of, there was a lot more, um, co-teacher possibility or opportunity, um, as the years went by,

[00:08:19] brittany: What about, schedules of IEPs and ILPs and that sort of thing? Were they done like beginning of the year, during the year, throughout the year, end of year.

[00:08:49] But we did not know the students at that time, and the sixth grade teacher might not necessarily have that student. And then at the beginning of the year, we reviewed all of those things as we were getting to know the students, we had all of those things in place already and we reviewed them for the start of the year.

[00:09:05] brittany: Ours were done throughout the year as the students plan came to renewal. The renewal time was always based off of when the kid was put into a

[00:09:38] and it might be January or February till that kid is actually placed into services, and so then their date would be February. And so it would be February every year that the plan was renewed and parents and educators and stuff would get together.

[00:10:16] brittany: maybe they just did an adjustment to, since you're gonna have a whole bunch of teachers,

[00:10:33] brittany: Interesting.

[00:10:40] brittany: Yes.

[00:10:44] brittany: Yeah. Strategies. Let's go over strategies.

[00:10:58] So you could try to build some support into that core instruction. Like you could plan flexible tasks that allow students to demonstrate their understanding in various ways. So same content, but maybe demonstrating written, visually, verbally. Instead of creating two or three different versions of an assessment,

[00:11:31] brittany: Yeah. And instead of grading, say all reports in English or history or science for spelling, grammar, and content. Maybe you just grade the IEP or the ILP students for spelling only, or just for

[00:11:52] learners. And those word walls we love in history and science

[00:12:10] ellie: Hmm. That's fantastic. Graphic organizers are excellent and you can give students ones that are partially filled in or fill in the blank or something like that as a great accommodation for note taking.

[00:12:34] out. And as a bonus, you're giving everybody some scaffolding

[00:12:39] ellie: Yes. Absolutely, and once you've got some systems in place, you can then track your accommodations or modifications with a quick glance spreadsheet, like initials with check boxes for extended time or breaks or small group needs, and that can help keep it a little bit more manageable day to day.

[00:13:15] ellie: Mm-hmm. So let's think about overall best practices beyond pull out and push in. So first, plan with purpose. At the start of each unit, meet with inclusion and EL specialists to embed the accommodations like visuals, simplified language, or extra time. Just embed that into the lesson.

[00:13:44] ellie: Mm-hmm. You could use peer mediated instruction like pairing students where one supports another, which boosts inclusion and keeps everyone engaged.

[00:14:05] ellie: And co-planning with your professional learning community can ensure strategies and data are shared and refined collectively. So we know inclusion services are essential. They can work seamlessly when they're built into lesson design, not added on as an afterthought.

[00:14:36] ellie: Yes. , Try to pick one strategy, this week if you're in school or one strategy that you're gonna implement when you head back to school, maybe a catch up folder, a co-teach station model, or embedding scaffolds and build from there.

[00:14:58] ellie: And DM us on Instagram or leave a review with your favorite inclusion strategy. We might feature it in a future episode.

[00:15:07] ellie: Bye.