Creating a schedule to support your students will be one of the most difficult tasks of your year. You will want to consider:
- How many students you support at each grade level
- What the goals for each student include
- What specially designed instruction is necessary
- Arts and humanities classes
- What teaching blocks are available for either pull-out or inclusion classes
- Potential travel between buildings
- Your overall availability including duties
At minimum, I plan for a 40 minute teaching block for both English Language Arts and Math, for each grade level every week. That means I will pull students that have both an ELA and Math goal out of the classroom for at least 80 minutes per week. I seek to instruct during times that are the least intrusive.
In addition to our small group instruction, I offer maker workshops and book club meetings each month. Both of these classes are optional, and I allow students to bring a friend to the maker workshops.
Local organizations and schools host events and competitions. These are usually full days spent outside of the building where students learn new skills, compete against each other, or problem solve. The students love these days and it is great time to interact and observe your students, but it can be a scheduling nightmare as you will likely miss servicing one group of students while you travel with another. I am always mindful of this and keep attendance records to be sure I am meeting the goals and SDI set forth by the GIEP.
Here are some things I consider when making an instructional schedule:
Grades K-4
- Many of our classrooms start with some sort of morning work. The work is often a review, and I encourage the teachers to exempt my students from completion when I pull them. I also provide alternative assignments from their HOTS books to complete on the days they are not pulled for gifted support.
- Pulling during the last half of an extra long math period of 60 minutes of more, is also helpful.
- I may also work with students when their teacher is running ELA centers as children are grouped by ability. This is especially helpful when more than one gifted student is placed in the same homeroom.
- I never pull students out of Arts and Humanities classes or recess.
Grades 5 and 6
- Our 5/6 classrooms integrate a student support block specifically for special services such as gifted, OT, PT, and speech. I strive to use this first.
- If that time does not work, I look for a make up work block.
- If neither of these times are compatible, I will consider social studies and science. This is not ideal though because many classrooms do not offer these subjects daily and making up missing lessons can be complicated.
- Some grade levels offer a double period of math each day, and I will sometimes use the second period of math for a small group math class as the students on my roster often finish independent practice far before the rest of the class and don’t usually require the same amount of rote practice as their peers.
- I never pull students out of Arts and Humanities classes or recess.