Before I became a Special Ed teacher, I worked at a non-profit with young adults who had cognitive disabilities. These clients were 17-22 years old and were transitioning into their first jobs. The vocational education materials I found were written with academic language. The content was inaccessible for my clients. So, I developed what would become the first draft of my Life Skills Vocational products.
Vocational Education for Special Needs Students
All of the products in my vocational series introduce students to vocabulary and concepts that they will find in the workplace. The Vocational Reading Comprehension Workbooks I & II, teach workplace vocabulary: clocking in, paychecks, job duties, work schedule, interviewing and more. The reading comprehension tasks are broken into five parts to support scaffolding based on individual student need. (You can read about my lesson plan for teaching Vocational Problem Solving here!)
Vocational Interactive Notebook
In the Vocational Interactive Notebook, students walk through each step in looking for a job. It includes searching for a job, applying for a job and interviewing. Students are prompted with meaning making questions such as, “why do people get jobs?” and “what type of job might you want to have?”. Students create their own map for the job application process. I spent four weeks to complete this with my students. You can find the bulletin board visuals here. I love that this notebook sparked so many insightful conversations.
Writing Workbooks & Adapted Books
In the spirit of accessibility and respect, I created a vocational writing workbook for a client with significantly impaired dexterity. His disability meant that he had the most success when using a speech to text program. However, his motivation to do the same work as the rest of our group meant that he wanted to develop his writing with his peers. Unfortunately, what I found were many amazing resources that had pictures and topics appropriate for elementary students.
So, I developed a vocational workbook that has large primary lines and four tasks for each for each vocational vocabulary word: highlight, trace, copy, and complete the sentence. This workbook allowed him to participate in group in a way that was similar to his peers but still met his needs. For extended independent learning, I created Adapted Books.
Want to try job skills resources for FREE?
Life Skills Reading Comprehension Vocational FREEBIE
Vocational Interactive Notebook FREEBIE
FREEBIE Vocational Problem Solving
Looking for vocational education curriculum for special needs?
My favorite thing about teaching special needs is also my biggest challenge. Each student’s needs are uniquely their own. Every student has a completely different ability. Being attentive to the individual’s needs yet respectful of their chronological age is where the magic happens! If you are teaching vocational education for special needs students my Vocational Life Skills Bundle maybe a good fit for you. If you try any of the products in this series, thank you! I would love to hear your feedback!