Who are today’s students? They are young minds that usually do not prioritize education in the classroom. They prefer to talk, laugh, and even dance around their desks instead of simply sitting quietly and paying attention. Reading is “not their favorite thing” to do. They have a plethora of questions about every topic that pops into their little minds. If you give them an answer, though, it is most likely to be forgotten moments later. To understand today’s students, you must understand them and how they see themselves. Children are very diverse and as students, they become furthermore unique. It is a blessing to watch as each one adds their own spark to classroom and contributes to the learning process for themselves, their peers, and for their community. My experience shadowing Mrs. Low this past week gave me a glimpse of what this process is like from the perspective of a teacher. I focused my reading this week on the topic of disabilities in the classroom. I chose to do this as I witnessed such examples in Mrs. Low’s classroom this past week and then read the chapter from Educational Foundations. The first piece of advise from chapter six that really stuck out to me was how they noted that students do not all learn the same way, especially students with disabilities and other learning differences. The author made it clear that students with learning differences are common and it is not as difficult to help such children succeed academically, despite what was thought
Reading this book greatly affected the way I will interact with children with disabilities and their families. My current field placement is teaching art at a Middle School. Each class consists of students from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, as well as students with special needs including giftedness. My cooperating teacher has taught me a great deal about differentiating lessons. Torey Hayden has showed me that it is not enough to differentiate lessons or plan adaptations for our students with exceptionalities. We truly have to look at them as a complete human being, and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of every student in our classroom. Because of this book, I have not been afraid to speak with Mark* who has downs syndrome, or Alicia who has a cognitive impairment and hearing problems. I have tried to get to know my students with exceptionalities as well as all of my students as individuals, and understand their backgrounds. In the future I will continue to treat each student as a unique person and get to know them and their families before passing judgment.
“Disabling segregation” by Dan Habib solely focuses on inclusion within the classroom and the community. He, like most people, grew up in a society where those who have a disability were separated from those who are “normal”. Habib’s passion for inclusion did not occur until after the birth of his youngest son, Samuel. Samuel was born with cerebral palsy. After Samuel’s diagnosis, Habib wanted to do everything he could to make sure his son was included. In his speech, he talks about how inclusion in schools leads to higher marks on tests and assignments than classrooms that are separated. Habib stated that 56% of kids with disabilities spend their day in a separate classroom. He advocates for inclusion, not only for the sake of his son, but also for all children who are like Samuel and who may have never gotten the chance to succeed. Habib tells a story about a man who was very much like Samuel but was never lucky enough to be given the tools he needed for success. Due to the lack of resources, people in that man’s life held him to a much lower standard and he became resentful towards those who were not treating him like a real human being.
Evaluation: In early 1970, children with learning disabilities were treated much differently than the peers that were at appropriate grade level. In this student’s case, the school system segregated the special needs students placing them in special classroom and labeled them as “slow learners”. With the teachers and school administration lack of knowledge on helping students with disabilities, students were at a disadvantage in receiving a fair education. Children felt as
The teacher can encourage this inclusion by teaching the students, parents, and other community members about negative stereotypical attitudes about students with disabilities by avoiding negative words, such as “disabled”, or “crippled”, or “handicapped” and to promote positive ideas about disabilities into class work, the student’s play time and other activities. To further ensure that the classroom is promoting equality for the child with the disability, the teacher should incorporate an inclusive curriculum mindset, by adapting the lessons, learning materials and classroom to suit the needs of all the different types of learners including the child with the disability within the classroom.
In regards to educational impact of the impairments, students with severe disabilities have the ability to learn (Snell and Brown, 2011). On the end of the spectrum some educators believe while the purported goal of the Common Core is success for all students. But success for all requires openness towards cognitive diversity, and isn’t so easily standardized, especially for students with special needs and severe disabilities (Beals,
After watching the video about Rachel Kolb, who has trouble hearing, the insights I gained were not to put limitations on children who are deaf or have trouble hearing. Educators must give these students words of encouragement rather than bringing them down like one teacher did to Rachel. She mentions that she is more than disabled. She is just like everyone else and is capable to do everything like everyone else. Rachel is a great inspiration to all children with disabilities. She courage’s to go beyond the expectations. Rachel would love to be a writer one day and she states that people do not think she could do it but with her motivation, nothing will stop her. Some of the education considerations described in chapter 11 for learners with
I interviewed Andrea Erickson who teaches reading, writing, and pre-algebra at Central High school to students who have mild and moderate disabilities. Her students have varying abilities and she makes many accommodations in order to ensure her student’s success. The varying learning problems Andrea has encountered within the reading and writing realm include reading difficulties, reading comprehension, problems with inferencing plots, problems with predicting plots, and connecting sentences improperly. In pre-algebra Andrea expressed problems with students connecting the dots. For example, a student would understand one concept, but would be incapable of connecting that concept to the next. From my experience at the Boys and Girls Club, I
Learning how to read and write was a challenging task for me as a kid. I believe I couldn’t read until the second grade and that was embarrassing. Being a slow learner made me insecure, which hindered me from building the confidence I needed to succeed and get pass identifying with having a disability. Instead, I was enrolled into a special ed class that I had to leave my regular class to attend. During my special ed class all I could think about was how I couldn’t wait to get back to my regular class so I didn’t have to tell any of my classmate where I was. Therefore, my focus unfortunately wasn’t on learning, like it should have been!
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
Every student deserves an equal and adequate learning experience, especially if they have an IEP or undiagnosed learning or physical disability. Doing whatever we can for our students should really always be a priority even when we have an entire class to look after and worry about. One of the reoccurring themes that have shown up in all of my research focuses on the students’ capabilities and how as teachers we can work with their strengths and weaknesses to help them succeed. Since students classified with ED have a poor record of success in academic achievement their learning environments must always be considered as well as their family dynamics and general traits.
When I was asked to reflect on my experiences in EDSE 316 and the fieldwork, I had to think long and hard on how I would sum up four months of classes and fieldwork into four pages. I have learned so much about the various disabilities and how it has change the world of special education. I think a better term would be the “endless possibilities of education”. It wasn’t too long ago when children with disabilities would be stuck in a room in the back of school only to be seen in the beginning and end of the school day. They were the ones who rode the other buses and no one really talked about. This class has allowed me to speak of my own family and how special education impacted my life. I have a brother whose whole life was spent in the special education class, and my own sons with speech and learning disabilities who are now receiving special education services. It also allowed me to reflect on my own participation in the special education program in my early elementary years when I was struggling with my own speech disability. This class gave me the chance to see the timeline of special education, from its earliest beginnings to what it is now.
In the journal article, “Changing Instruction to Increase Achievement for Students with Moderate to Severe Intellectual Disabilities”, the author describes the strategies and skills that teachers can employ to make an instructional change in the classroom. As the author describes in the article, recognizing that an instructional change needs to be made, is different than having the skills to change the instruction. Educators are making great strides to cover the content demanded by the Common Core Standards, but often need support in adjusting the classroom instruction.
In today’s educational environment, all students expect to receive the same level of instruction from schools and all students must meet the same set of standards. Expectations for students with learning disabilities are the same as students without any learning difficulties. It is now unacceptable for schools or teachers to expect less from one segment of students because they have physical disabilities, learning disabilities, discipline problems, or come from poor backgrounds. Standardize testing has resulted in making every student count as much as their peers and the most positive impact has been seen with the lowest ability students. Schools have developed new approaches to reach these previously underserved students while
Since I have a special needs child, and have taught for sixteen years, I was familiar with many of the questions asked on the self-study assignment. However, I did gain a few new insights about students identified with moderate to severe/profound disabilities in our school district. Since I teach in the elementary school, I was unaware of the number of special needs students with
Growing up with a disability is not a terrible life style, but it definitely has its cons, both on a social and educational spectrum. Students with learning disabilities have a harder time picking up on certain skills such as reading, writing, math, etc. Depending on the disability, they can often have a hard time with their communication skills as well, leading to frustration and sometimes even isolation due to miscommunication. As a result, these issues take a toll on student’s skills both educationally and socially, leading towards frustration and even sometimes shutting down because of the emotional strain. However, through hard work in the education field, students with disabilities can overcome the strain that inevitably comes with social and educational interaction. While students with learning disabilities have a harder time learning how to read or write, these skills lead towards a future with better communication skills.