Special Education Teacher Resources

From resources for the special education classroom to accommodations for mainstreamed students with special needs, explore Lesson Planet’s reviewed and rated teaching strategies, assessment tools, apps, lesson plans, videos, resource collections, and activities designed to make learning come alive across disciplines!

Whether new to special education or an experienced veteran, starting out the year can be difficult. Here is a model you could use when developing your own weeklong schedule. There are apps to help instructors write IEP goals and objectives for all kids in your caseload. Check out this video review of one such app.

Lesson Planet has resources, lessons, and apps designed for learners on the autism spectrum, sample lessons provided by an ADHD specialist, lessons for children with moderate disabilities and/or Down syndrome, and activities for other students with profound needs. The resources in our collection are designed to make your job just a little bit easier.

Showing 3,424 resources
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10 Items in Topic
Lesson Planet Curated

Practical Money Skills: Lessons for Special Needs Students

For Students 6th - 12th
Help special needs learners develop the money management skills they need to prepare for living on their own. The collection of 10 lessons cover budgeting, shopping, banking, saving and investing, understanding credit, and much more....
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Lesson Planet Curated

The Museum of Disability Resources: Reading Comprehension

For Teachers K - 3rd Standards
Everyone is different, and that makes everyone special. Combine empathy and reading skills with a series of reading comprehension activities from the Museum of Disability. The stories and questions encourage your class to see the world...
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Instructional Video5:38
PBS

Career Connections | Special Education Teachers

For Students 6th - 12th
Two middle school intervention specialists speak about their profession as special education teachers. Both hosts detail what they do during the day, how they differentiate assignments, work to create and follow IEPs, and list their many...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

iPad Apps for Your Special Education Class

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Swing into technology with these special education apps that are perfect for your learners.
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Lesson Planet Article
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Teaching Life Skills to Students with Special Needs

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
Ideas for instilling essential life skills in learners with special needs.
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Lesson Plan
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Special Education Plan

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Special needs students practice completing everyday tasks such as organizing a day plan, reading a clock and completing simple math problems. They define the proper learning techniques for their disorder and utilize props in learning...
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Unit Plan
University of Oklahoma

Learning About Special Education

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The lessons in the second unit in a three-unit series provide students with the historical background of disability education. After reading about events that impacted attitudes towards disabilities and how learners are identified for...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Engineering Lessons Adapted for Special Education

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Modifying engineering lessons from NASA makes them accessible to a wider variety of learners.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Special Education Fitness Challenge

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Make fitness a part of each and every day. Special Ed students are given charts with maps and record keeping information. They are given a 20-week period (late October to late March, when the weather is cool enough) to walk that...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sexual Education Assessment Tool: Special Education

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The FLASH program in Seattle has put together a set of questions for special education classes covering sexual education. Some of the topics include appropriate, inappropriate, self-esteem, puberty, hygiene, reproduction,  and sexually...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Opening a Special Ed Class

For Teachers 1st - 12th
This is not just a lesson plan, it's a life saver! Here are 10 separate documents intended to assist a new Special Ed teacher. There are 4 different games, instructional tips, ways to handle documentation, behavioral modification...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cooking Skills: Special Education

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Using the microwave, boiling water for pasta, and using a knife to make a sandwich are all independent living skills. Prepare your special needs students for life by having them prepare three easy-to-cook items. Each skill is laid out as...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mastering a Student's Personal Information in a Special Education Classroom

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Your special education learners can memorize their personal information. In order to master their personal information, they create a photo book to help them remember names, birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, then take pictures to...
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Worksheet
Special needs in Music

Music Work Sheet (Special Ed)

For Students K - 12th
Music is beneficial for all learners. Help your learners with special needs learn about different styles of music, as well as the ways that music is represented on paper, with 30 different worksheets. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Religion and Ethics: Living with Special Needs

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore human behavior by exploring mental and physical disabilities. In this learning disability lesson, students identify the different disabilities students have which prevent them from working at the same pace as the rest of...
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Instructional Video12:51
Teaching Channel

Building Analysis Skills Through Art

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Useful teaching strategies abound in this inspirational, informative video! Walk step by step through one teacher's two-part lesson in her special education/ELL class as they develop text analysis skills by first beginning with analyzing...
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Instructional Video14:23
Teaching Channel

Florida School for the Deaf and Blind

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learn from teachers at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind on ways to reach students of different learning styles and ability levels, as well as how to accommodate learners with special needs in a general education classroom setting.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

ASL Lesson 8

For Teachers 1st - Higher Ed
Another awesome ASL lesson! Teach ASL to a special ed class, hearing impaired child, or for your own enrichment. This lesson provides comprehensible ASL language development. Each highlighted blue area links to a video, printable image,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Including the Disabled Student

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners read and discuss the history of special education in public schools related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Students work in groups to design ways to modify classroom activities based on the needs of a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Communication Skills: Special Education

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Get to talking with your special needs class. In pairs, they take turns telling each other where to go on a schematic map. They work to ask questions, answer questions, and check if their partner understands their directions, or if he...
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Lesson Planet Article
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Special Education Students in the Mainstream Classroom

For Teachers 1st - 6th
How to prepare your mainstream students for a special education student in their classroom.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Environmental Awareness and Children's Literature

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Use an alternative setting for pregnant teens and young mothers, as well as special education children to examine environmental topics through literature. Included in this unit is a visit to neighborhood libraries to select children's...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Poetry in Teaching Reading to Special Education Students

For Teachers 6th - 9th
A series of well-written activities, these lessons prompt middle schoolers reading below grade level (at a second, third, or fourth grade level) to use poetry to practice basic reading skills. They rhyme, build words, make inferences,...
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Lesson Planet Article
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IEP Meetings Aren't Just for the Special Education Department

For Teachers K - 12th
All parties involved benefit when general education teachers attend and contribute to IEP meetings.