Educational Psychology

Assignment 10B -- Class Wikis

2008-03-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

For this assignment, I have chosen to focus on fragile X and autism. Students with both fragile X and autism require a lot of structure and routine in the classroom. The teacher must give clear directions and use concrete terms in order for students with either of these disabilities to understand. Any kind of visual cues are helpful for students with either fragile X or autism. As with all students, those with fragile X and those with autism learn best when they are engaged and interested in the subject matter. Social skills are often an area of deficiency for students with either of these disabilities.

Students with fragile X learn better when they are taught whole concepts, rather than smaller pieces of these concepts. They are more able to retain information when it has been repeated. For math, “manipulatives” should be made available to help the student understand concepts. Students with fragile X learn language concepts best when teachers use the “whole language” approach. Because of motor impairments, writing is difficult, so students with fragile X may require a scribe or a keyboard.
Students with fragile X need to be taught more than academics. Life skills are equally important if these students are to live independent lives. Students with fragile X learn better when their teachers speak clearly. When giving praise, it is important for the teacher to praise the specific behaviour that they are encouraging, not the student in general. Students with fragile X should be seated close to the teacher, as well as being close to door so that they may leave the room if they become overwhelmed. Having a good relationship with the student’s parents is important. Students will be more comfortable if the school and home environment can possess as many similarities as possible. Students with fragile X can be easily distracted by noise.

Students with autism often have sensory sensitivities. Excess noise may bother them. When teaching students with autism, skills must be taught and practiced in different contexts, as they often have difficulty generalizing skills.
Research has shown that students with autism are more likely to follow directions from an adult when the adult is in close proximity to the student. Another study found that students with autism were more able to stay on-task when their chair was replaced with a therapy ball for part of the day.
Students with autism may require more time to process language. Teachers need to accommodate this by giving providing these students with more “wait time” after asking them a question.

As with all students, the most important thing for teachers to remember when teaching students with autism or fragile X is that each student is an individual and should be treated as such. Not all teaching strategies will work for all students. As teachers, we need to get to know our students and discover how they personally learn best.

Course Exit Card

2008-02-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed this class. I feel that I am now better prepared to teach all students, including those with special needs. It was helpful just to get exposure to material on the various exceptionalities our students may possess. Learning about the different categories of exceptionalities was beneficial. It was nice to get definitions for various exceptionalities that students may be designated under. There were many terms that I had heard reference to before, but did not fully understand before this course. It will be nice to have the wikis to refer back to if I come across any of the disorders researched while I am in my practicum.

Also, learning the process of creating IPPs, and then carrying out the plans, will definitely be beneficial. Those documents now seem much less mysterious.

As with all of our courses in PS1 and PS2, we covered a lot of material in a short amount of time. I do not really think there is any way of changing that. The material that was covered all seemed to be important knowledge that will benefit us all. I think the introduction to theory and access to resources is what we require from these courses. There really is not time to go into a greater amount of depth without sacrificing the range of topics covered.

Thank you for sharing your expertise with us. You did a wonderful job of teaching us, despite an often unruly class.

Web Activity

2008-02-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

All teachers are responsible for helping their students learn. We must monitor whether or not our students understand the material we are teaching them. We are also responsible for creating an environment where students feel safe and secure. When teachers have students with exceptional needs, our responsibilities remain the same. We need to teach in a way that allows all our students to learn. We must use differentiated instruction in order to do this. We also need to develop a classroom community, so that all students know they are accepted and welcome in our classroom.
Questions:
1.What is inclusion? What are the benefits of inclusionary settings?
Inclusion means that ALL students belong in a regular classroom. All students have varying abilities in different areas. Students with special needs can be a part of the classroom community just as much as every other child. Inclusionary settings benefit not only students with special needs, but their peers as well. Students with special needs get an opportunity for much-needed social interactions. The rest of the students in the classroom are exposed to children who may be different than them, and they learn to value diversity. For everyone involved, inclusive classrooms help to develop respect for others and for ourselves.

2.Once it has been determined that a learner requires the services of special education, what decision-making would be undertaken at the school level?
At this point the school must:
· Obtain the parents’ informed written consent for specialized assessments or referral.
· If the parents refuse consent, the reasons for the refusal must be documented and placed in the student record along with any actions undertaken by the school board to obtain consent.
· Develop and implement written procedures for early identification, referral and assessment of students with special education needs.
· Involve parents and, when appropriate, students in the screening, identification and referral process.
· Request information from parents that is relevant to the student’s education.
· Provide information to school staff and parents that describes the characteristics used to identify special education needs of students.
· Develop or utilize formal and informal checklists, screening tools and/or standardized assessments that will assist in the early identification of students.
· Use a number of assessment strategies and data to determine eligibility for special education programming and services.
· Report the results of assessments to parents, teachers and others involved with students’ programming.
· Use the results of assessments to make decisions, develop IPPs, assign support services and/or determine adapted or modified programming for students.
· Use assessment data to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of programming and services provided to students with special education needs (Standards for Special Education, 2004).
·
3.What is the meaning of each of the four terms defined within the Special Education Standards document? What does this mean for you as a teacher?
1.) Access: Students with special education needs are entitled to have access in a school year to an education program. Students with special education needs receive adapted or modified programming that enables and improves learning.
2.) Appropriateness: Educational programming and services are designed around the assessed needs of students and are provided by qualified staff who are knowledgeable and skilled. They decide what programming is appropriate for the students in question.
3.) Accountability: The obligation to answer for the execution of one’s assigned responsibilities.
4.) Appeals: Timely, fair and open processes protect the rights of students and parents and address differences of opinion about the education of students with special education needs (Standards for Special Education, 2004).
For teachers, this means that we have a responsibility to modify our instruction so that it is accessible to ALL students; we must work with other professionals to decide what programming modifications are appropriate for each student; we need to hold ourselves accountable for any program modifications that we make; and finally, we need to be open to the opinions of the parents of the student who requires specialized programming.

4.Who are the children who are considered to be students with special needs in Alberta schools? List the most frequently occurring disabilities by identifying the most frequent 4 categories (grades 1-12). Also note 2 categories that have decreased over the past few years. Briefly define each of these 6 exceptionalities. Briefly note a prediction as to why there has been an increase in some areas of exceptionality and a decrease in other areas.
The four most frequent categories in grades one to twelve, according to the statistics for 2006/2007, are: learning disability, severe emotional/behavioural disability, mild cognitive disability and severe physical or mental disability.
Two categories that have decreased in the past few years are: gifted and talented and emotional/behavioural disability.
1.) Learning Disability: This is a disorder of thinking and reasoning. It is an “invisible” disability; students with learning disabilities may not look any different than their peers.
2.) Severe Emotional/Behavioural Disability: This term describes chronic, extreme and pervasive behaviours which require close and constant supervision, high levels of structure and intensive support services.
3.) Mild Cognitive Disability: This describes students who are mildly delayed in adaptive and social behaviour. Students with this disability have IQs that range from 50 to 75.
4.) Severe Physical or Medical Disability: This refers to a condition that creates a significant impact on the affected student’s ability to function in a school environment.
5.) Gifted or Talented: This refers to students who show exceptional potential and/or performance across a wide range of abilities whether it be in general intellectual, specific academic aptitude, creative or productive thinking, social, musical, artistic or kinesthetic realms.
6.) Emotional/Behavioural Disability: This includes students who have a number of observable maladaptive behaviours in areas such as social skills, attention, mood, personal responsibility and accountability, physical violence and destructiveness.
*Note* I predict that the reason the amount of students in some categories have increased and others have decreased is a result of changing definitions of how a child in each category would behave. Some definitions may have become more broad, and therefore include more children, while the definitions for other disabilities may have narrowed or been refined.

6.List the twelve essential items required within an IPP:
1.) Specialized assessment data
2.) Current level of performance and achievement
3.) Identification of strengths and areas of need
4.) Measurable goals and objectives
5.) Procedures for evaluating progress related to IPP goals
6.) Identification of coordinated support services
7.) Medical information
8.) Classroom accommodations
9.) Planning for transition
10.) Review of progress related to IPP goals
11.) Year-end summary
12.) Informed parent consent

7.Give your own example of a strength, an area of need and a measurable goal based on the reading and examples provided.
Give one example of an accommodation strategy.
Strength: Is very talented at drawing.
Area of need: Lacks social skills.
Measurable Goal: Student X will initiate a conversation with a peer at least once a day.
Accommodation Strategy: Allow Student X to work with group members who are understanding and sympathetic. Increase the size of the groups gradually to build up Student X’s confidence in relating to peers.

9.Find a chapter that you find most relevant. Give one example of a strategy that you feel is most salient to you.
Chapter 12 is most relevant for me, as I hope to teach in Junior and Senior High Schools. A strategy that I would use is a curriculum matrix. I am a visual person, so this idea sounds like it would be very helpful. It would allow myself and the student who I am working with to see where we need to focus our attention.

Half-way Point

2008-01-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

I feel that I have learned a lot from this course. Right from the first class, when we watched the Lavoie video, I was able to understand the frustration a child might have a little bit better. Even though I knew it was an exercise, I kept feeling angry at the “teacher” for being so mean. Throughout this course, what has come up again and again is the idea of creating a classroom community. I hope to be able to do this when I am on my own as a teacher. Differentiated instruction has been stressed a lot in this course. I am interested to see evidence of it and to try to use differentiated instruction in my practicum.

When discussing the importance of a classroom community, the focus seems to be on elementary classrooms. Although I plan to teach at a secondary level, I want all my students to know that my classroom is a safe place for them to express themselves. I think the first step in building this community atmosphere will be getting to know my students as individuals, without trying to act too much like their friend. One of my concerns regarding getting to know students is the cumulative files. I can understand the importance of them, of course, but I worry about having a tainted perspective of a student before I have gotten to know them myself.

I understand the importance of having differentiated instruction in a classroom, but I imagine this is difficult to actually put into practice. I think that now I will be better able to realize when I am observing differentiated instruction and to apply it in my own teaching.

For the most part, I think this course has given me a good introduction to inclusive classrooms. By putting this knowledge into practice, I will be able to understand the theory better, though.

Differentiated Instruction in the Classroom

2008-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

Differentiated instruction involves teaching towards a range of learning styles. It attempts to cater to each individual student’s needs, and also to increase their abilities to learn in a variety of ways. Differentiated instruction is very important because everyone learns in different ways. It is unfair to limit our teaching to one or two strategies, because not every child may be able to learn from the one or two strategies used.

In my own teaching, I will try to focus on using flexible groupings, having successful classroom management techniques, and assessing students as often as possible. I believe that is important to be conscious of how one structures small and large groups of students. I think it would be beneficial for students to work with the widest range of their peers possible. My hope is that this will create more of a classroom community and that students will grow to appreciate that they all have something to contribute. Of course there will be times when students are allowed to choose their own groups, but I think that if groups are always student-selected the students will tend to just form groups with the same people. When this happens their ideas and thinking are less likely to develop and grow.

Classroom management is something that I struggle with. I think that it will be important for me to use a variety of signals with students in order to get their attention and their silence, when needed. The methods shown in the video on Differentiated Instruction were helpful.

Particularly in a classroom with a range of abilities and strengths and weaknesses, it is important to be assessing the learning of students on a regular basis. Devices such as observation checklists and exit slips will help me in this assessment.

My hope is that if I am able to combine these techniques in a cohesive manner, it will benefit all students.

Living with a Disability: Asperger's Syndrome

2008-01-18T01:35:00.000-08:00

I want to start off by saying that I appreciate getting this assignment. I found the website and the blog to be very interesting. Hopefully I will be able to find the book easily, because I definitely want to read it.

John Elder Robinson has Asperger’s Syndrome. This is a form of autism, but people with Asperger’s have a higher functioning level than those with typical autism. As a result of having Asperger’s, Robinson has a number of strengths that have, after a difficult childhood, served him quite well as an adult. He is able to think very logically and seems to naturally understand technology. Robinson is able to frame a problem in his mind - such as the ratio of females to males at an event – and to not only solve the problem, but to organize it in a novel way, i.e. each female is represented by adding 1 and each male is represented by subtracting 1, with the end result being 14. His weaknesses are common to those of many people, not just people with Asperger’s. These would be feeling awkward in social situations, particularly large gatherings, and not being sure how to act. I know that I certainly share these anxieties.

I am not sure if my teaching strategies would necessarily change if I had a student who I knew had been diagnosed as having Asperger’s. If a child is not understanding something I think my first attempt to help them would be to break the problem down into logical pieces. Something I would have to keep in mind with a student who has Asperger’s or autism would be ensuring that I was not using phrases with double meanings or ambiguous meanings. I imagine sarcasm or irony would be something that may confuse or frustrate students with Asperger’s, especially, but I do not think sarcasm is really an appropriate way to speak with any child.

Of course the social aspect of schooling would be a difficult issue in this case. I think if I was teaching a child with Asperger’s at a primary level I would want to try to very slowly get the child comfortable with being in a large group setting. This would require a lot of collaboration with perhaps an occupational therapist or another professional who would be able to focus their attention more on the individual child. I think it would be very important, particularly starting at a younger age, to take “baby steps,” working up to more and more social interactions. Creating a classroom environment where the student feels safe and secure would be vital.

If I was teaching a student with Asperger’s at a high school level, and the student had not been involved in any sort of early intervention program, I imagine it would significantly more difficult to gain the student’s trust. I think that feeling of trust would be key in accommodating a student with Asperger’s.

Disabilities in the Classroom

2008-01-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

Just as there is no such thing as a “normal” person, there is no such thing as a “normal” classroom. Each student is an individual contributing to the character of their classroom. Today individual differences within a classroom are celebrated. It has taken over three decades, at least, to get to this point. According to the text, before the 1970s students with disabilities were kept separate from their non-disabled peers. What I am unsure of is what happened when students with disabilities reached adulthood prior to the 1970s. Did they continue to be kept away from “normal” society?
In today’s classrooms there is a great range of ability amongst students. I think it is important to remember that all students have strengths and weaknesses. Despite being classified as having an intellectual or learning disability, a student may excel in certain areas. The move towards empowerment and self-determination is important for all students. The junior high I attended had a special education section within it. It was the main school for children with special needs in Grande Prairie. I feel that this was an advantage to myself and my classmates because we were exposed to a variety of students on a fairly regular basis. However, since the students in special education were rarely involved in the general education classes, there was an obvious divide between those two areas of the school. There was, unfortunately, a certain amount of teasing and ostracism that I believe was partly a result of this division.Because students of varying abilities are present in today’s classrooms, it is vital for teachers to build a strong sense of community within their classroom. Hopefully this will lead to a better understanding and compassion in all students. Probably the most effective way of doing this would be through modeling. Students need to see that their teacher cares about each one of them as an individual and really wants them to succeed. Competition should be minimized, to be replaced with cooperation. Giving students opportunities to do group work would be a key method for encouraging a cooperative atmosphere within the classroom. At times the teacher would be required to divide the students into groups to ensure that each student has an opportunity to work with many other individuals so that they can grow through one another’s experience.