I have not yet started a practicum, however I am an aid in a special education classroom, so I am able to reflect on what I've seen from the teacher I work under.
The teacher most often follows the Language! program, and she did a study in idioms. Her objectives were something along the line of understand the meaning of an idiom and it's uses. She found a book that had a page of idioms, and read through them with the students. She then had them draw a picture to describe the idiom meaning of the word.
While in theory this sounds great, it was difficult even for me to figure out how to draw something that was a "piece of cake" that wasn't an actual piece of cake! Many of the idioms were fairly obscure, and I hadn't heard of them. In part because of the disability level of students in the class, the students really struggled with idioms such as "pass the hat" and they weren't broken down to the level they needed to be.
She checked for understanding by looking at their drawings, but their artwork is at a pretty low (scribbly) level that it's hard to distinguish.
As the lesson went along, I would have stopped it and adjusted it on the spot. The student with autism was going to really struggle with this, and I would have found a new approach, or perhaps a different activity. If I were to teach the lesson, I would have the students draw the literal meaning of the phrase "apple of my eye" and then DISCUSS the idiom meaning.
You have some very challenging barriers to deal with. Constructing lesson plans to deal with all those variables will be challenging and time consuming at first. But as you fill your 'tool box' with effective strategies and techniques, it will get easier. The whole process of 'differentiation' and constantly 'checking for understanding' can become somewhat overwhelming in your area (I would presume). You might want to engage in some conversations with the teacher you are working with to get some ideas.
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