*Chapter Summary*
In this chapter we studied different ways of accommodating student variability. We covered the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” (IDEA) and its impact on students with mental retardation, learning disabilities, social and emotional disturbances and students who are gifted and talented.
IDEA includes that all individuals, regardless of their disabilities, have access to a free and appropriate education, the receive placement evaluation before being placed into a special education environment, every child that is considered to have a disability will have an individualized education program that describes the program in place to meet the student’s special needs, and that the student be allowed to work in an environment that is the least restrictive environment that their disability allows for. The practice of mainstreaming involves having as many disabled students in a regular classroom with other non-disabled students as possible, providing them with access to the same education while being able to meet their unique needs, regardless of the disability. Mainstreaming is the goal of IDEA.
The chapter goes into detail about teaching student with mental retardation and how to recognize characteristics and ways to encourage self esteem, offer learning tasks that can be completed in short periods of time to obtain their attention, use small steps to obtain immediate feedback, teach memory improving techniques and use simple grading and recording techniques to show the students that they are making progress by completing things regularly and on time.
The book also goes into teaching students with learning disabilities. It offers tips in identifying students with LD and the issues presented when they attempt to contemplate basic psychological processes. The text offers numerous suggestions in teaching students with LD including emphasis on differences between similar letters and numbers, working in a clear work space to avoid distractions, memory improvement techniques, forming plans based on the student’s ability and learning patterns, and giving brief assignments. It also suggests that building self esteem of students with learning disabilities by allowing them to tutor other classmates in areas in which they excel, using cooperative learning techniques, using a variety of methods to present the material to the class, which allows the students to understand in a more visually detailed way, and allowing the students to demonstrate what they have learned in giving oral presentations and hands on activities.
In the section of the chapter that tells about instructing students with emotional disturbances, we are given possible characteristics of students with ED. The book then offers suggestions for instructing these students more successfully, like designing your classroom to encourage social interaction and cooperation and to reduce the probability of disruptive behavior, prompting and reinforcing appropriate social interactions, training the other students in the class to initiate social interaction, and when necessary, punishing inappropriate behavior.
Discussing gifted and talented programs in school is when my personal experience comes into play. When I was in elementary and junior high school, I was in the gifted and talented education program (GATE). Once a week, my mom would have to drive me across town to another school and I would spend half the day there, then be bussed back to my school in the afternoon. I learned to speak some German, French and even got to dissect a shark and a starfish. I loved the things that I learned, but I hated that I was taken to a strange school, missed my class work at my school and the other kids and I that were in GATE were singled out once we got back to class by the other students for being “too smart” or “lucky.”
I think that GATE is an amazing opportunity for students, but I think that it is disruptive to the normal classroom environment for that student as well as the others. My solution to this is making GATE into a before or after school program. Because only a select few are in these programs, I think that transportation could be provided by the school system if the parents are unable to bring the children. By having this be an extra curricular activity that does not take away from normal class time, I think the GATE students will benefit more from the experience.
The book suggests having the gifted and talented students act as tutors, encourage them to do supplementary reading and writing and encourage individualized study projects or learning contracts.
In this blog posting, when I am referring to “the book” or the chapter, or even the text, I am writing about the following book. Because I have used so much of the information provided in the book for this particular post, I have decided to cite my source. It is a wonderful book, full of educational research and data.
Jack Snowman, Rick McCown, Robert Biehler. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Copmany.
*How Do I Benefit?*
By keeping this blog, I am able to have a reference point to look back on and see different suggestions for teaching in my classroom, and techniques that are beneficial for students with learning disabilities, mental retardation and social and emotional disturbances.
*Following the Blog*
As mentioned previously, I am following the blog called “Elbows Knees and Dreams” which is written by an early childhood teacher. Interestingly enough, in the past week she has written about struggling with a student that has some sort of emotional and social disorder. His name is David and she has written previously that he hits and kicks other kids. He struggles expressing himself at times, but then at other times he is an angel. She and the school psychologist along with the principal have decided that after David punched another teacher in the face, it is time for him to be taken out of her classroom. He has been moved to another classroom, but no details yet whether the decision was the right one for David. We’ll see…
*This week in the discussion boards*
I have learned that a lot of my classmates feel the same way about ability grouping. I think this could benefit all of our students knowing that they all have an equal opportunity to a quality education. It offers peace of mine to me as an aspiring teacher.
*Question of the Week*
When looking at ability-grouped classrooms, how do you feel about this issue? Is this a technique that you would use in your "classroom"? Would it be beneficial - why or why not? Are there any parts of ability grouping that could be modified to work in your "classroom"? How?
Ability grouping within the classroom is not something that
I agree with. I think that by segregating the students based on their ability as
determined by their standardized test scores is a bad practice for several
reasons.
#1 – It basically mandates that the teachers that
use this in their classroom have differentiating expectations for their students
based on their perceived abilities.
#2 – The students are
shown that segregation based on abilities is appropriate. This could potentially
discourage those that are struggling in giving them the impression that they
will never be able to succeed to the level of their classmates. For those
students that are not struggling, it gives them the impression that they are in
a sense better than the others.
#3 – It offers little or no
room for mainstreaming education. To me, mainstreaming means teaching all
students the same material at the same time. If a student struggles, it is not
an opportunity to separate them from the remainder of the class, but a cry for
help from the student to you, the teacher.
Ability grouping will not be
used in my classroom. I’m not sure if this is considered “ability grouping” or
not, but the only time I will pair students based on their “ability” is for peer
tutoring. If one student does well in math, and another is struggling, I will
give them the option of working together to understand the concepts presented.
In this case, it allows for all students to have the opportunity to benefit
another student, regardless of their perceived overall ability, disabilities or
socio-economic status.
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