Improvement of reading and writıng skills in an inclusive education class with in-class assistance

The aim of this study is to present the process of improving the reading and writing skills of a student with mild intellectual disability in an elementary school 1st grade inclusion class via one teach-one assist model. The participants of the study include the focus student with mild intellectual disability, the student's mother, other students in the class, the class teacher, the members of the validity committee, the members of thesis monitoring committee, and the researcher. This is an action research study carried out in three stages: "identifying the situation", "implementation", and "monitoring process". The stage of identifying the situation involved determining the focus student's reading-writing performance as well as how the support needed by the focus student could be incorporated in the current Turkish lesson flow. The implementation stage covered the preparation and implementation of action plans for in-class assistance that the focus student needed through reading and writing activities in Turkish lessons, with the improvements also made during implementation. In this process, first, actions were taken to determine the extent to which the in-class assistance would be offered. Then, in the second step, in-class assistance was offered, predominantly to the focus student through reading and writing activities, and actions were taken to address the problems encountered in the process. The third step involved the actions that were taken for the withdrawal of in-class assistance. At the end of the implementation, an improvement was observed in the reading and writing skills of the focus student. Moreover, the stakeholders of the study expressed positive views on the research.