Marilyn Friend's Special Education: Contemporary Perspectives for School Professionals provides students with a unique tool to track their growth in mastering the CEC standards. You can begin this tracking now and continue to use it as you progress through other courses and experiences. As you read the textbook, you should use a printout of the Professional Monitoring Tool (PMT) from the companion website (www.ablongman.com/friendintro2e) to track where in the text and the coursework you were first introduced to the concepts in the standards. The textbook has been designed to help you do this. In the margins of the textbook, an icon has been placed to denote content that is related to specific CEC content standards, accompanied by a keyword or phrase from the relevant common core knowledge or skill statements. When you see this icon and corresponding standard, you should search for the appropriate knowledge or skill and indicate the page number from this textbook where this was introduced to you. Later in your program, you can check off when you have had opportunities to implement and practice this knowledge or skill. Finally, before you finish your teacher preparation program, you can check off when you have mastered each knowledge or skill. Reflecting on your progress will help you target areas on which to focus your continuing professional development. You can even continue to use the PMT after you graduate.
For more information on the Professional Monitoring Tool, see "Standards, Professional Growth, and the Professional Monitoring Tool" on page xxv of the textbook.
