Michelle, a special education teacher, shows how she runs direct instruction in her autism classroom using The Autism Helper's Level Daily curriculum. She uses anchor-chart binders for implementation guides, individual student binders for quick access, and a dedicated bin of extension activities like color-by-sum and touch-math to reinforce learning after 1-2 worksheets.
Let's talk about Direct Instruction in a self-contained classroom. I'm Michelle, I'm one of the bloggers with The Autism Helper, but I'm also a self-contained primary special education teacher, and this is my classroom. I teach a self-contained autism classroom. All of my students have autism, and in my classroom I use The Autism Helper's Level Daily curriculum every day of the week. This curriculum is amazing, and today I'm going to show you how I use it with my students. Let's go! The key to using this curriculum successfully in my classroom is my organization. So this is my anchor chart binder, but I also keep the, um, implementation guide and the extension activity ideas within this binder. I can look this over every morning before I start working with my students. Now I keep the implementation guides and the anchor charts organized by unit. So you're here, you can see I have Unit 1 Implementation Guide and Unit 2 Implementation Guide. And here I have Unit 1 anchor charts and Unit 2 anchor charts. And then I move on to the Unit 3. And then I also have this organized by levels. So here are all of my Level 1 materials and my Level 1.5 materials and then my Level 2 materials. This keeps it super easy and organized for me to pull when my students are transitioning through centers. Here are also my files for my students' work, and each student has their own Autism Helper curriculum binder in their file, so I'm able to just grab and work with the students right away when they transition to my center. When my students are transitioning to my center and we're getting settled, we start by reviewing our expectations at my center. Alright, we're gonna do 1, 2, 3, work! Then, what would you like?
iPad.
iPad, okay. When we're working, we're sitting in our chair. We have looking eyes, listening ears, quiet voices, and ready hands. Next, we talk about our core concepts within our unit that we're learning, and this is where I go over our anchor chart with the students.
4.
1. 1. What's this?
4.
Good.
2.
Good.
5. 3.
Yes. Tell me the shape.
Triangle.
Triangle.
Circle. Square. What's this? Triangle.
Diamond. And this is rec— rectangle. Good job! We're looking at our anchor chart. What is this? This one? Yes, good. Perfect.
6, 17, 3, 19, 13, 12.
Nice job! Count for me.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
Now depending on the student, students will do 1 to 2 worksheets with me at my center, and then once we're done, We'll have fun and we'll do an extension activity together. Okay, you're going to find all of the stars. We're looking for stars.
Yes!
Good job! Perfect! Now you're going to trace the shapes. Trace the shapes for me. Wonderful!
Keep going.
Trace the triangle. Yes, good looking at your anchor chart on your AAC. Oh yes, let me help you. Color all of the rectangles. No, look, let's look at our anchor chart. Here's the rectangle. Find all of the rectangles. Very good. What's this?
Sisi. Thank you.
What's this?
Triangle.
Yes. Good. What's this?
Mm, star.
Yes. And match.
Thank you.
Match. Awesome. Match.
Square. Mm-hmm.
How many? Circle the correct answer. Remember to draw a line in the picture when you're counting. Circle the correct answer.
15 is the correct answer. That's good. You should get the big one. Get the big one. "Deal. Take a big book. Get the big tree.
Get the big tree." Don't forget to circle the correct answer! I also keep this bin here full of extension activities that I want to use for the week with my students. This I can easily pull and use for my students every day of the week. Now, here on my desk are some of the ideas for the extension activities that I use for my students. Here I have a color by sum, some number writing, touch math, a pop-it activity, some magnet shapes, and some counting activities. These are all really easy to prep and use for extension activities with my students. Nice job!
Good!
Wow! All right, you did such good work, you get iPad. Good job working, thank you! For more curriculum ideas, as well as tips and tricks on how to organize your self-contained classroom, like and subscribe to The Autism Helper on YouTube, and check out our blog at theautismhelper.com.
