Special Education Resource Room Newsletter: Communicating Targeted Instruction

Resource room instruction is targeted, intensive, and often the most specifically individualized service a student with a disability receives. It is also the service that families know the least about, because it happens in a separate room, for a short period, and does not generate the kind of visible classroom activity that general education instruction does.

A newsletter from the resource room teacher closes that visibility gap and gives families the information they need to understand what their child is working on and how to support it.

What Targeted Instruction Looks Like

Resource room instruction differs from general education in pace, focus, and approach. Sessions typically involve explicit teaching of a specific skill, immediate feedback and correction, frequent practice opportunities, and systematic review of previously learned material. The instructional materials are chosen based on the student's current performance level, not grade level, which is often different.

Families who understand this are less likely to compare the resource room work to what the general education teacher sends home and conclude that the resource room is not rigorous.

Current Focus and Progress

Be specific about what you are targeting and what you are observing. "This month we are focusing on decoding multisyllabic words using syllable division rules. Marcus is correctly applying the VCCV pattern about 75% of the time in structured practice, up from 55% at the start of the month." That level of specificity tells families exactly where their child is and what the trajectory looks like.

The Most Useful Home Practice

Resource room sessions are typically thirty to sixty minutes per week. That is a limited amount of practice time to produce lasting skill change. Home practice that mirrors what you are doing in sessions significantly increases the amount of practice the student gets. Give families a specific activity they can do for five to ten minutes a day, three or four times per week. Describe what to do, what to look for, and how to respond when the student makes an error.

Daystage lets resource room teachers send these individualized newsletters efficiently, without requiring a separate communication tool for each family on their caseload.