This is a Summary about my personal Philosophy of Special Education. I will be giving my thoughts on the Purpose of schooling, Nature of Learners, Curriculum, Instructional Methods, Classroom management, Assessment practices and Professional relationships with family and community.
According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities should be placed in a “least restrictive environment.” One of the main ideas of this act was to improve the learning experiences of students with disabilities by giving them learning opportunities outside of a special education classroom. The number of students with disabilities being placed in their general education classrooms is increasing more and more each year. The U.S Department of Education’s 27th annual report to Congress on the implementation of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2005) indicates that the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms has risen to almost 50 percent. This is about a 17 percent increase from the 1997 U.S
One of the primary objectives of special education is to assist student on getting. A functional curriculum includes a myriad of skills that help prepare students with LD to live independently. These skills may include independent, vocational, communication and social that are necessary for future living (Flexer, Baer, Luft, & Simmons, 2012). It is important that the curriculum taught in inclusive environments that meet the needs of students with LD and if the students are participating in the general classroom they can still place in programs that modified in functional, life skills, and goals are included in the instruction.
One of the biggest errors made in schooling today is placing a student who is an English Language Learner into special education because of errors made in interpreting language acquisition as a learning or language disability. There has been no single method that has proven to be fully effective when distinguishing between English language learning students and students with a learning disability. As a result, students can end up in classrooms or programs that are not suited for their needs and can hinder their educational achievement. It is important for teachers and schools to understand the process of acquiring a second language and to be able to recognize whether the student is really receiving an adequate opportunity to learn.
After reading chapters one and two of the book “Exceptional lives”, I could more easily understand special education. As a teacher, I will mostly likely have many students with disabilities in my class throughout my career. With
This course has provided a window into the resources and strategies available to create rich instruction for diverse needs of all literacy learners. The media segments and virtual field experiences provided models of the strategies and activities being conducted in the classroom. This was very helpful in implementing my own versions of those lessons with my literacy learner and completing the literacy development study. I believe this course has prepared me to be a more efficient educator when teaching students of diverse reading abilities. I plan to continue using my newfound knowledge and skills to create an enriching learning environment for all students in my classroom.
Students with special needs should be placed into specialized schools so they are able to receive individualized learning. If they are in a classroom specific to their needs, they are able to receive much needed attention. In order to receive the optimal level of attention that is needed, schools would have to consider reducing class sizes or hiring multiple teachers for one classroom so more help would be readily available for these disabled students. Corwin argues that today’s schools offer a general curriculum and that they should convert to a specialized system. He states that students of various backgrounds, ethnicities, IQ scores, and physical, emotional, and mental disabilities should not all be placed in the same classroom because students learn in diverse ways and at different paces. Further, it is necessary for teachers to become specialized in certain areas in order to effectively teach students with special needs (Corwin).
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) identify expectations of what the students will be able to achieve by the end of the school year. The standards provide teachers and curriculum developers the opportunity to use their best findings and available tools to meet these ends (California Department of Education, 2013). The reader needs to understand that the teaching principles implemented by individuals who received extensive training in college-based teacher training programs in order to understand how the CCSS identifies and supports According to Artiles (2003) the Individual with Disability Act (IDEA) 1990 changed the classroom structure in the united states dramatically in the past thirty years. The refinement of the special education
A meeting attended by Ben’s parents, the special education teacher, the school psychologist, and myself is held to prepare an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for Ben. We discuss the specific accommodations that will help Ben be successful and set goals for his progress. Ben’s IEP calls for pull-out reading and language arts instruction in the special education classroom, preferential seating in the general education classroom, and small-group testing. Goals are set for sight word recognition and reading fluency and
Reading, writing, and speaking is difficult for many people. In honest opinion, these subjects are hard for me. So, imagine the struggles for those students that have a learning disability and those who are learning English. Luckily, I attended a session at the LDA conference that promoted tips and strategies to help students with these subjects. Moreover, how to help both ELL students and students with learning disabilities access these curriculums. Session W32 by Linda Tilton showed me how to help students get organized and become active learners. Not only that, but how to give high interest review strategies to reinforce vocabulary, reading, and writing. As Linda stated, “These are the nuts and bolts to take back and use!” For example, she
As such, the importance of further research is to determine if these students are actually being placed there due to the inexperience of teachers’ knowledge regarding ELL students. In addition, the ethical implications of this topic is, these students then become further behind from obtaining the necessary English skills in speaking and writing required to be successful academically in school and in the future workplace. Indeed, it is essential that administrators and teachers in our school system correctly identify a student with ELL difficulties versus a true learning disability and thus, decrease the number of ELL students dropping out of school. In particular, this topic is very relevant in my future role as a new special education teacher, as I will potentially be evaluating ELL students’ academic progress and their possible need for special education services. The current trend is that ELL students are being disproportionately placed in special education services and, as a result, fall further behind in acquiring English, are subjected to bias and inaccurate assessment, and have higher drop-out rates when inexperienced teachers are in charge of their
Wehmeyer (n.d.) explains that there has been what he describes as three waves of educational practices for individuals with disabilities. In short, these waves, or generations, have moved the ideas and opinions of educating children with disabilities from the use of a functional model to one that now focuses on instruction in the general education classroom. The third generation, educations current focus, first “presumes a student’s presence in the general education classroom” (Wehmeyer, n.d., para. 21). This is not to say that functional skills are no longer necessary or that providing a more restrictive setting is no longer needed. As mentioned earlier, IDEA (2004) requires that individual with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and also requires that they are provided access to the general curriculum. What this change in practice does is move the idea of educating children with disabilities with their non-disabled peers from simply providing access to, first, including them in the general education setting (Wehmeyer, n.d., p. 23). What most people do not realize are the positive effects that this has on the rate of learning for children with
Students with disabilities are at a higher at-risk for dropping out of high school at a greater rate than typically developing peers (Pyle & Wexler, 2012). Students with identified disabilities are required to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) according to law, and these students have unique needs that general education curriculum cannot meet on its own. However, there is abundant research that discusses various literacy interventions and strategies that can be effective. These interventions can be used in a school setting by any certified teacher (regular education or special education). This literature review will discuss some of the various reading and writing strategies as well as best practices for literacy in order to ensure students with disabilities are given the best chance for success. By providing timely interventions, monitoring progress, and analyzing data, it can be possible to increase achievement for those students with identified disabilities.
This idea was a collaboration of people coming together to develop an idea to focus on the literacy skills with a concentration on dually served students. This idea was designed using data collection and research based strategies that focused on increasing students’ literacy skills. When designing this program we reviewed a lot of information, but there is limited research pertaining to dually served students. There is a good deal of literature stretching back to the early 1990s supporting the need to provide students who are both English learners, and who have a learning disability with instruction in both support areas (Hudson & Fradd, 1990; Frantz & Wexler, 1994; Gersten, Baker, & Marks, 1998; Obiakor & Utley, 1996; Artiles & Ortiz, 2002).
Whilst there is no one single definition of special education there are some inherent similarities between the various definitions given by a plethora of philosophers, politicians and academics. Special Education is a form of instruction that is designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities in order that they can learn the very same skills and information as other students in school (Giordano, 2007; Osgood, 2005). Under the banner of special education there is high prominence placed upon individualised