Special Education, Learning Curriculum - Essay Example

Special Education Written assignment PaTTan.org website under videos and view "inclusion-a parents Perspective (Bernie-Graduate " Summarize Bernie’s perspective on inclusion and describe how his perspective either corresponds with or differs from yours with regard to inclusion.  Bernie’s perspective is an example for everyone concerned with special education. People who take an interest in the processes involved in dealing with special education practices and most importantly seeking improvement in it need to hear Bernie’s perspective. For most part of the video, I absolutely agree with Bernie. Inclusion needs to be early on, there could hardly be any argument against it. Being special doesn’t mean they need to be out into nursing care like facility and they need pampering. Special children also have fighting spirit and they can adapt themselves up to amazing levels. Administrators and authorities need to capitalize on this. Bernie got included early on and it helped him and the children around him to adapt, who didn’t think it was a big deal, they didn’t consider Bernie and alien. They just took it like a normal thing and naturally got used to him. Some habits developed in earlier stages of life are always better. Bernie also points out how important ‘early inclusion’ is not just for the adaptation maneuver but for honing and developing academic skills of the person. Bernie deems it a great thing that happened to him because he felt more comfortable with the academics. He got hold of the complex things early on. Special children also develop their brain and they need to exercise it with various challenges. Otherwise just like any other person, their brain would turn into mush. And when they will be ‘included’ later on in their life, they will probably not be able to cope with the new challenges with the dexterity and confidence that an ‘early include’ will. Many times during the interview, Bernie refers to ‘other kids’. For instance he says that what it felt like to be the ‘other kid’ what challenges they were facing and where Bernie stood in his achievements. This gave him a sense of heightened urgency that he needs to catch up with them, but under his own terms. This shouldn’t be confusing. To prove my point, here is the idea in plain words; special children cannot compete with ‘other’ children on the same level. Expecting them to be as good as others would be just a dream (I do wish it would come true). However, when Bernie was with other kids, Bernie became more realistic of his abilities and his skills. He knew what was possible and what was impossible, and this is where I can’t agree more with Bernie, this is the essence of early inclusion. When special children will be ‘realistically’ aware of their situation, the education dynamics and life in general, they can work towards their own goals in life in a better way. They can work towards them with efficiency. Towards the middle of the video, Bernie also mentions something about the level of skills (for instance multiplications and fractions). Bernie is definitely a practical person and has experience as a counselor. I also agree when he mentions that the levels should be the same. Written assignment 2  Describe the three methods of assessment and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.  As mentioned in the video, back in the eighties there used to be classes like Trainable Mentally Retarded (TMR), Educable Mentally Retarded (EMR) and Learning Disability (LD). Since that time, many improvements have been made in this area of children education. Methods of assessment depend on the subject under consideration. The methodology that works for mathematics cannot be used for English literature. However, three methods (that depend on the subjects) are; Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) The name says it all, it is an individualized plan focused on making the children learn reading. The plan is created according to an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and is under constant remediation by teachers, parents and students (www.cospl.coalliance.org). This way the assessment plan is always modifying, and it serves the purpose exactly the way it’s supposed to. ILP is developed and being successfully run at the Colorado Department of education. The benefit of this assessment learning plane is to raise the standard of the child performance to District and State standards. This plan serves as a working document for any child that is not meeting the required goal (set standard). This assessment is very proactive and useful as the performance is matched with the weaknesses and strengths of the student. This useful data is accessible to student’s family, teachers and the individual student, so they can do exactly what’s needed to bridge the gap of deficit in the performance. Another great thing about the ILP is the fact that it updates the new teacher about the progresses and strengths and weaknesses of the individual so he picks up right from where the previous teacher left. Bernie also mentions this problem as they have subs (assistants) who help them, so every time he changed his grade or school he got a new sub and then he was supposed to brief them about everything from the start. Individualized Literacy Plan (ILP) Quite similar to previous ILP but this literacy plan keeps a more concrete check on the assessments of child’s performance. This plan is also woven around honing reading skills and is modified based on several assessments such as classroom assessments, district assessments, state assessments, report cards, text level measures, running records, or other indicators of “reading achievement” (Lynn, 2000). This assessment plan can be considered a broader form of Individual Learning Plan as this new ILP takes the input of principals and reading specialists along with parents and teachers about the performance of the child. Strands in Mathematics assessment It is always better to identify the problem before creating a detailed plan for an individual. For instance, some students might have specific disabilities in regards with certain areas or subjects like math. According to Kemp, Smith & Segal (2012), LD regarding math heavily depends upon a child’s inner strengths and weaknesses. Language learning disability and visual disorder will have a different impact on a child’s ability to do math. Same is the case with other disabilities; some will affect memory while some will affect organization. So the solution lies in the effective use of both ILPs discussed above however this ILP program needs to incorporate “systematic instructions across Strands in Math” (Knight, 2009), this assessment system is based on predictable format and has worked exceptionally well regarding math. Written assignment 3  Is teaching only the skill of requesting to provide the student with the necessary communication skills required to effectively participate in his/her environment? why or why not?  That is definitely not true; encaging teaching (especially teaching special children) only within the realm of making children to effectively participate in her/his environment is unjust. Teaching goes beyond the whiteboard and books and communication skills. If that was true, who would be developing the character of students? Teaching requires a lot more than teaching students to count, multiply and name things. Teachers need to sharpen all five senses of students. Not only sharpen them but hone them channelize them so that the child learns to conserve his or her skills and doesn’t waste time experimenting with five skills, instead move forward and excel with a focused mindset. Not everyone is Leonardo Da Vinci. For argument’s sake if a teacher becomes successfully equipping his/her students to effectively communicate with the environment. One can only imagine mayhem and chaos that would become a reality if an autistic child is allowed to ‘effectively’ communicate with the environment. There is a good chance that he or she will harm someone. Only teaching communication skills would be giving them the fish, teachers are supposed to teach them to catch the fish. Just like the fact that only the tip of the iceberg is visible and a mountain of ice is hidden, teaching communication with the environment is just the tip of the iceberg, teaching goes way beyond that. If the statement would have been regarding regular students, I would have disagreed even then but the context is special education and they need much more than what regular students get from their teachers. Special children need love and not mere supervision. They can be great athletes and poets and musicians. And in fact they are more competitive than average individuals because they know they need to work harder. Teachers need to build character, create a sense of morality and keep the fighting spirit alive in the students. Teachers need to teach them the way of life. They need to create a razor sharp vision in them and a sense of awareness. They need to learn curiosity and pursue curiosity in a safe manner. As Bernie pointed out, special children need to learn advocacy. And in his usage, advocacy doesn’t have a negative connotation to it. It’s the awareness of knowing what they want and how to communicate it. They need to learn to verbalize their needs and wants so that others would be better able to help them. They need to teach them to kill the inferiority complex if they have one, they are not deficient, and they are different and special. The world needs to take more care of them because special children are far less in numbers than the regular children. Rare characteristics are always precious. Written assignment 4  What are the two important criteria that the most effective adaptations meet and what are two ways the core general curriculum can be adapted? Two of the most important criterion for effective adaptations meet are; a) Socially effective As Bernie explained, he considered himself lucky that got included early on with regular students, which served him good as he got along with other students quite well. This aspect is in fact a criterion for effective adaptations. It needs to deliver the purpose socially. The special student can better adjust with the new environment and new student community. Even the regular students do not feel awkward around special education children when they are used to it from earlier years. This way they can accept each other socially in a more affectionate way, strong acquaintances develop this way. b) Academically effective The adaptation (early inclusion) needs to deliver in regards with the academics. Bernie says that when the adaptation is done early on like second grade, it is better for the child as he/she early on realizes that there is a race going on and he/she needs to learn at an accelerated level. This puts the child on the right track early on as compared to the unsuccessful tactic of combining special students with the regular ones in, 10-12 grade or at college level. General Curriculum Same Skill Set Advocacy or the ability of students to effectively communicate their needs and wants needs to become a part of the general curriculum. If curriculums start incorporating advocacy or the ability to tell others exactly what they need and want, then it can help all other academic areas. Bernie points out that if a special student remains absent from school for 30-40 days in a year, and misses out on basic concepts like multiplication, division and fractions, it would be simply unjust to put him/her in a class of regular students that are equipped with that skill set, necessary to learn further mathematics of algebra. If would be a better idea to first assess the student if he has the necessary skill set to learn what will be taught in the class. There is no point in sending a special education child in a regular education class and then expect miracles out of him/her. As explained in the previous section of this paper, IPL is a wonderful way to both teach and assess special education students. This should never be considered a discriminatory thing, because this assessment program is there only to make sure that whatever deficiencies (assuming there are) are present, they need to be rectified so that special students don’t waste their precious time. Assistance No matter how much students learn about themselves and the way they need to communicate (or in Bernie’s words) advocate, they will still need assistance. For instance, when they will go into a class or seminar, they will need assistance; they will need a not taker and there needs to be assistance available for them because they will probably take double the time to finish a task, take notes, complete assignments or any problem solving practiced in the class room. Sources Kemp, G., Smith, M., & Segal, J. (2012, November).Helpguide.org. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/learning_disabilities.htm Knight, V. F. (2009). Research-based practices for creating access to the general curriculum in mathematics for students with significant intellectual disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2009/Research_Based_Practices_Math_2009.pdf Lynn, K. (2000). Assessing special education students. Retrieved from http://cospl.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/co:2108/ed22r222000internet.pdf Read More