Special Education Lesson Plans

This page contains lesson plans and resources for students with disabilities, particularly those receiving special education. It also contains lesson plans about individuals with disabilities. Resources for students who are gifted, talented, and creative have been moved but can still be accessed below. Last updated on December 7, 2023.







Site Index: lesson plans for special education, lesson plans about people with disabilities, resources and lesson plans for gifted and talented, resources and lesson plans for creativity, resources for inclusion, ADD/ADHD, autism, blindness/visual impairments, chronic health impairments, deafness/hearing impairments, ASL resources, emotional/behavior disorders, learning disabilities, mental retardation/intellectual disabilities, disability history


Special Education Lesson Plans
Special Education
Lesson plans from the Awesome Library. 

Special Education Reading Comprehension Weekly Themes
From edHelper.

TeachTastic
Many resources and materials for teaching special-needs students.

Lesson Plans for Special Education
Many lesson plans in pdf format from Seattle and King County, Washington.       

Kennedy Center Teacher Resource Guide
Visual art lessons "designed to engage students with disabilities."

Art for Children and Adults with Special Needs
More than 20 lesson ideas. See also Blick Lesson Plans for Special Education.

Teachnology Special Education Lesson Plans
Links to many special education lesson plans.

Sample LCE Lesson Plans
Three lesson plans on daily living skills from CEC.   

Practical Money Skills - Special Needs
Ten lesson plans designed to help students with learning disabilities "gain important personal finance skills."

Teaching English to Children with Specific Learning Difficulties
This "Bachelor Thesis" includes background information, teaching methods, and several lesson plans. It is a pdf document, and you'll have to scroll down to find the lessons.

Dragon Fun: Learning the Five Senses
Though this K-2 lesson is not necessarily designed for special education students, it could be easily adapted to meet their needs.

Centigrade and Fahrenheit: What's the Difference?
A multi-level, cooperative learning lesson plan for fifth-grade science/math. It is designed to accommodate the needs of learners with varying abilities.

Water, Weather, and the World
A unit developed for students with severe intellectual disabilities and limited language abilities.

Sample Lesson Plans for Children with Intellectual Disabilities
An elementary and a secondary lesson plan.


5+ Valentine's Day Activities for Special Education
From Breezy Special Ed.

Finding Friends and Persuading People
This excellent site from LD Online provides information and a sample lesson plan for using children's literature to teach friendship skills to children with learning disabilities.

Language and Reading Sklls
Articles from LD Online.. See also Improving Comprehension for Students with LD and Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines.     

Sign the Alphabet
An on-line activity from Funbrain.com.  

Using Poetry in Teaching Reading to Special Education Students
A unit intended for middle school students with linited reading skills.

Kennedy Years Unit
An eighth-grade unit from Core Knowledge adapted for inclusion of special education students. For other units from this source, see
Core Connections: Connecting Core Knowledge Between Special Education and Regular Education (Grade 4), Geography in the Resource Classroom: Using Maps to Understand the Impact of the Meso-American Civilization and European Explorers (Grade 5), and  News to the Core (Grade 6).

The Constitution, Juvenile Justice, and You
A lesson plan developed for Special Education Students in grades 9-12.


Lesson Plans about People with Disabilities

Speaking and Writing About People with Disabilities
Ideas and a worksheet I used for teaching about appropriate language (including people-first language) for speaking and writing about individuals with disabilities.

Teaching about Intellectual Disabilities/Mental Retardation: Ideas for Classroom Activities
Two activities, complete with handouts, that I used in my Exceptional Learners class to teach college students (mostly first-year) about mental retardation. I believe the activities would also be appropriate for use at the high school level, perhaps in a psychology class.

Disabilty Equality Education
many lesson plans.   

Equal Treatment, Equal Access: Raising Awareness about People with Disabilities and Their Struggle for Equal Rights
A high-quality Unit.

Getting to Know People with Physical Disabilities
A lesson plan for grades K-2.

Break with Reality: Schizophrenia
A lesson plan from the DNA Learning Center. See also their lesson on Autism.

Getting to Know Your Classmates with Special Needs
Tough these three lesson plans were developed in 1992 and do not use people-first language, they include many good ideas for teaching elementary students about disabilities.

Understanding Learning Differences
A lesson plan for grades 6-9. See other similar lesson plans on the right side of this page.

Understanding Kids Who Are Different
Activities for teaching about disabilities from Education World.

Understanding Disabilities
Lesson plans for a variety of grade levels from Teaching Tolerance.

Fighting Prejudice and Discrimination Against People with Learning Disabilities
More lesson plans from Teaching Tolerance.


Museum of DisaABILITY History
This link goes to their educational resources, including lesson plans for all grade levels. Exhibits and the virtual museum can be accessed at the top of the page.


Disability Awareness Class Activity Lesson Plans
many lesson plans categorized by type of disability.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the United States
A lesson plan for grades 6-12.

Be Good to Eddie Lee
This lesson plan for 1st or 2nd grade titled "Dealing with Differences" uses Virginia Fleming's Be Good to Eddie Lee  to help teach tolerance of students with disabilities. It is part of a unit titled " Differences: Opening Doors to Social Studies with Children's Literature."

Helen Keller
There are many lesson plans and units about Helen Keller available on the Internet, including this one from Famous People. For another lesson, see Helen Keller (grades 2-4).

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
There are also many lesson plans and units about FDR, including the secondary lesson linked above titled Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Disability: Was He Successful in Concealing It? However, the only other lesson I can find that examines the issue of Roosevelt's disability is Would FDR Be Elected Today? which is one lesson included in FDR Resources and Lesson Plans from the Monroe County Historical Association. Additional units and lessons available online, but not necessarily dealing with FDR's disability, include The Foreign Policy of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U. S. Entry Into World War II, Documents Related to Churchill and FDR, FDR's Fireside Chat on the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program, A Date which Will Live in Infamy, and FDR's First Inaugural Address. See also the FDR Cartoons.

The Polio History Pages
No unit on the the history of disabilities or disease would be complete without some mention of polio, the near hysteria caused by the epidemics of the early 1950s, and the euphoria that greeted the development of the Salk vaccine. Drawing from my book, Polio's Legacy: An Oral History, this site provides excerpts from polio narratives, a polio timeline, and information about the disease, its history, and late effects.

A Polio History Quest
A set of 25 questions, complete with a printable worksheet, coinciding with the information provided within the Polio History Pages. It should be appropriate for use with grades 5 and up. See also Understanding Viruses (grades 9-12).

Resources for Inclusion:
Differentiated Instruction for an Inclusive Classroom: Language Arts
A lesson plan involving comic strips.

How to Teach Children about Disabilities and Inclusion
Excellent resopurce from Baylor University.

Special Education Inclusion
Lesson plans and resources from Pinterest. You have to join to access them, but it's free.

Keys to Successful Inclusion
From Teacher Vision. Three free views before having to sign up!

Creating Inclusion
Ideas from Kaplan Early Learning.

Inclusion.com
The index page for Inclusion Press, Inclusion Network, and Marsha Forest Centre (Canada).

Inclusion
Several articles and resources from Education World.

ADD/ADHD
ADD/ADHD Tests and Diagnosis
Signs and symptoms, parenting tips, school help, tests and diagnosis, etc.

All About Learning Disabilities and ADHD
Their "For Educators" page.

Helping Children with ADD Focus in the Classroom
An article from Lesson Tutor.  

Teaching Students with ADHD - Help Guide
From HelpGuide.org.

ADHD in School : Classroom Interventions for Elementary School
See also Interventions for Junior High and High School Students.

ADHD: Teaching Strategies

From Bright Hub. See also Teaching with ADHD: Five Methods to Use in the Social Studies Classroom.

ADHD: What Does It Really Mean
A "Teacher Workshop Curriculum" complete with the above-titled lesson plan.   

one ADD Place
Many resources relating to ADD/ADHD and SLDs.

The ADHD Owner's Manual

Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Definition and characteristics fro the NIMH.

Autism Resources for Parents -  The Ultimate New Guide
From Autism Parenting Magazine.  

Autism Spectrum Disorder
A parent's guide.

The Autism Helper
Autism resources.

Autism Lesson
A lesson plan in which students learn about autism.

Digital Wish: Autism
Many lesson plans though all don't necessarily seem appropriate for students with autism.

The Autism Teacher
A blog complete with some lesson plans.

Autism Speaks
Information and resources.

National Autism Association
See also Autism Society and US Autism and Asperger Association.

Blind/Visually Impaired
Seeing the World through the Hands of People with Visual Disability
A lesson plan for grades 4-6.

Blindness Resource Center
A great deal of information including Braille Literacy from The New York Institute for Special Education.

American Foundation for the Blind

Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Chronic Health Impairments
Band Aides & Blackboards
A site designed to help people understand what it's like to go to grow up with chronic medical problems, from the perspective of the children and teens who are doing just that.

Getting to Know People with Physical Disabilities
A lesson plan for grades K-2.

The Child with a Long-Term Illness
Information for families and teachers.

A Teacher's Guide to Cystic Fibrosis
From the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. See also Cystic Fibrosis at School.

Cerebral Palsy
Comprehensive information from Cerebral Palsy Guidance

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Please help make a difference for children with cancer like my granddaughter, Hadley.

Facts for Teachers of Children with Cancer
See also
Resources for Teachers and Parents.

Live Strong at School
Lessons, worksheets, and discussion starters about cancer, its treatment, and ways to support those with cancer. See also Teaching Children about Cancer.

Diseases and Condition Directory

Deaf/Hearing Impaired
National Association of the Deaf
Excellent source of information.

The Deaf Resource Library
An online collection of reference materials and links intended to educate and inform people about Deaf cultures in Japan and the United States as well as deaf and hard of hearing related topics.

Lesson Plans and Activities
From the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Deaf Awareness Week/Non-Verbal Communication
A lesson plan for grades 9/10.

Eight Days on Deafness and American Sign Language
An elementary unit.

Experiencing Hearing Disability through Music
A lesson plan for grades 2-4.


Resources for Learning and Teaching American Sign Language
A Basic Dictionary of ASL Terms
A dictionary with both animated and text definitions.

ASL Dictionary

ASL Lesson Plans
From ASL University.

Sign the Alphabet
An on-line activity from Funbrain.com.  

American Sign Language Teachers Association

American Sign Language Fonts
Download sign language fonts.

Emotional/Behavior Disorders
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
A very good source for information on mental illness/EBD.

School Mental Health Resource Training Center
Several lesson plans.

Making Sense of Mental Health: Past and Present
A three-day lesson plan designed to "
increase the awareness of several mental health disorders."

The Stigma of Mental Illness
A lesson plan from Mental Health Literacy.

About Schizophrenia
A good resource.

Break with Reality: Schizophrenia
A lesson plan from the DNA Learning Center.

Schizophrenia.com
Information and resources regarding schizophrenia.

ADAA Homepage
Excellent site for information on anxiety disorders and depression.   

ConductDisorders.com
A site for parents who are raising challenging children.

American Psychiatric Association



Specific Learning Disabilities
Learning Disabilities Association

LD Online
A terrific resource packed with information.

All About Learning Disabilities and ADHD
Their "For Educators" page.

Learning Disabilities and the Arts
From LD Online.

A Guide to Learning Disabilities for the ESL Classroom Practitioner

National Center for Learning Disabilities

Differentiating Instruction for Children With Learning Disabilities
An article from Education.com.

Understanding Learning Differences
A lesson plan for grades 6-9.

Sample Lesson Plans for Struggling Students
Several lesson plans from the Texas Center for Learning Disabilities.

Fighting Prejudice Against People with Learning Disabilities
Lesson plans for intermediate, middle school, and high school students.

Intellectual Disabilities (formerly Mental Retardation)
Teaching about Intellectual Disabilities: Ideas for Classroom Activities
Two activities, complete with handouts, that I use in my Exceptional Learners class to teach college students (mostly first-year) about mental retardation. I believe the activities would also be appropriate for use at the high school level, perhaps in a psychology class.

Water, Weather, and the World
A unit developed for students with severe intellectual disabilities and limited language abilities.

Mental Retardation: A Symptom and a Syndrome
An informative book chapter.

Down Syndrome Lesson Plan
A lesson plan from Texas CTE. See also Disabilities: Down Syndrome for another lesson.

Farm Animals|
A lesson plan for teaching young children with Down Syndrome about farm animals.

Down Syndrome: Health Issues
An excellent resource. If you are doing a report on DS, be sure to see Doing a High School or College Report on Down Syndrome?

Down Syndrome and Dental Care
A guide for caregivers and parents.

Teaching Children with Down Syndrome
Information from Time 4 Learning.

Sample Lesson Plans for Children with Intellectual Disabilities
An elementary and a secondary lesson plan.

American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (formerly AAMR)

ARC.org

Disability History
Disability Social History Project
An excellent page with many resources for those wishing to learn about disability history.


Museum of DisaABILITY History
This link goes to their educational resources, including lesson plans for all grade levels. Exhibits and the virtual museum can be accessed at the top of the page.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the United States
A lesson plan for grades 6-12.

History of the Disabilities Rights Movement
A lesson plan for grades 9-12.

The Polio History Pages
No unit on the the history of disabilities or disease would be complete without some mention of polio, the near hysteria caused by the epidemics of the early 1950s, and the euphoria that greeted the development of the Salk vaccine. Drawing from my book, Polio's Legacy: An Oral History, this site provides excerpts from polio narratives, a polio timeline, and information about the disease, its history, and late effects.

A Polio History Quest
A set of 25 questions, complete with a printable worksheet, coinciding with the information provided within the Polio History Pages. It should be appropriate for use with grades 5 and up. See also Understanding Viruses (grades 9-12).

Definitions of Intellectual Disability/Mental Retardation
A chronological list with dates and references.

 

E-mail me if you would like help in locating the resources you need. Also, please
let me know if you find a link on this site that no longer functions. My name is
Edmund J. Sass, Ed.D.
You can reach me at
esass@csbsju.edu

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