As a first year teacher, you will be faced with a diverse learning community in your classroom. Most likely you will have students from different ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds which impacts the way they learn. Chances are you will also have students with special needs that are mainstreamed into the classroom. In addition, the classrooms in some school districts are overcrowded with up to 40 students grouped together in a single classroom.
So, how does a first year teacher reach tackle the sea of diversity that awaits them in their new classroom?
The first step is to learn everything you can about the students that will be present in your classroom. Learn about their backgrounds, academic achievement, and conduct in the school environment. For the special needs students, learn exactly what their special needs are, as well as their academic progress up to the point where they will enter your classroom. You can achieve this by talking to school officials as well as staff members in the district who have worked closely with these students.
When it comes to reaching all of your students, you can begin by focusing on two strategies:
Learning in the Traditional Classroom Environment
Taking everything you have learned about your students, you will need to design lessons that will adapt to every learning style that exists in your classroom. The lessons should be designed to indicate an outcome which will enable you to assess the progress of the students. It will tell you who is grasping the knowledge and who will need your help and assistance. It will also serve as an indicator of learning styles and provide you with the information your need to adapt the lesson to the student’s learning styles.
Integrate activities into the lessons that encourage all students to interact. You can do this by creating different scenarios and asking students to apply what they have learned to various real-life situations. Students like to know why they are learning a particular skill and applying it to everyday life sends the message that the skill is important and useful.
Vary the lesson by adapting the materials to your student’s individual experiences with learning. You can do this by asking the student to apply the lesson to another learning experience they have had in the past and ask them to compare the experiences. This will tell you a lot about the manner in which the student identifies with learning. In addition, the more you integrate the learning with the student’s individual experiences, the more likely they are to absorb the material being taught.
Learning in the Technology-Infused Classroom
Technology has changed the face of education and provides teachers with innovative tools for reaching students of all learning styles and abilities. Some students learn visually and technology is a really great way to engage these students by teaching through graphics and imaging with programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint among many others.
In addition, technology provides the teachers with the tools they need for a classroom of diverse learning and allows the students to learn at different speeds in a single classroom environment. This is a blessing to the educational system, especially in school districts with classrooms that are crowded with a diversity of learning, not to mention being able to reach special needs students through the invention of assistive technology.
If your student teaching experience did not prepare you to teach with technology, there are a host of instructional technology workshops and classes available to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom. Not only does technology improve learning, it also prepares the students with the necessary skills to survive in the world beyond public school education.
By: J.C. Sprenger
Posts Tagged ‘School Districts’
5 IDEA Requirements for Independent Evaluations at Public Expense
January 16th, 2010
Are you the parent of a child with autism or a learning disability that needs an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE), to determine their educational needs or services? Have you heard that parents can ask special education personnel in their school district to pay for an IEE at public expense? This article will discuss the 5 IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) requirements for an IEE at public expense.
1. IDEA 300.502 under (b) (1) states that parents “Have the right under this part to obtain an independent educational evaluation at public expense if the parent disagrees with the evaluation obtained by the public agency.”
2. Special education personnel may ask why you disagree with their evaluation, but they cannot require you to give an explanation of what you disagree with. In fact I recommend not telling them what you disagree with, because they may try and limit the IEE.
3. IDEA 300.502 (b) (2) states “that if a parent requests an independent educational evaluation at public expense, the public agency must without unnecessary delay either; 1. File for a due process hearing to show that its evaluation is appropriate, or 2. Ensure that an independent educational evaluation is provided at public expense. . .”
4. IDEA 300.502 (5) (e) states “If an IEE is at public expense, the criteria under which the evaluation is obtained, including the location of the evaluation and the qualifications of the examiner, must be the same as the criteria that the public agency uses when it initiates an evaluation, to the extent those criteria are consistent with the parent’s right to an IEE.” Many school districts try and put a lot of criteria on parents for IEE’s at public expense. For Example: geographic, cost, name of evaluator must be on a list etc.
5. Except for the criteria in 4 above, school districts may not impose other conditions or timelines on the IEE at public expense.
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has stated, that school districts may develop criteria for IEE’s at public expense; with these two exceptions.
a. The school district cannot make criteria, that prevent the parent from getting an IEE at public expense. For Example: If you live in a small town, with no available evaluators, and your district states that the evaluation must be done within 30 miles; it would be impossible for you to find an evaluator. Or the special education personnel make the cost so low that you cannot find anyone to evaluate your child. This may prevent you from getting the IEE at public expense, so stand up to special education personnel.
b. School districts must allow parents, to prove that their child’s circumstances are unique, and require a waiver of the criteria. For Example: If you feel that your child needs to be seen by a Clinical Psychologist, the cost is probably going to be more than a psychologist would charge. If you can prove unique circumstances, why your child needs to be evaluated by a Clinical Psychologist, then the school district is supposed to pay for the Clinical Psychologist. Whether a school district is willing to do that, without a due process hearing, depends on your school district.
Remember any criteria that a school district makes for an IEE at public expense must not prevent the parent from getting the IEE; and they must allow for waiver of criteria if the child’s circumstances require it. A good independent evaluation can benefit your child by determining their disabilities or educational and related service needs.
By: JoAnn Collins
Could the Boder Test of Reading Spelling Patterns Help Determine If My Child Has Dyslexia?
January 3rd, 2010
Do you have a child who is in first grade who receives special education services but is already struggling with reading? Have you been told by special education personnel that you are worrying too soon, and that your child does not have dyslexia? Many school districts have a very narrow view of dyslexia which is harming many children all over the USA! This article will discuss definition of Dyslexia as well as a tool called the Boder Test of Reading Spelling Patterns; that may be used as part of an evaluation, to determine if your child has dyslexia.
The International Dyslezia Association defines dyslexia as: A specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent work recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities, and the provision of effective classroom instruction.
Many school districts do not define dyslexia this way, and many children go undiagnosed, which harms children. Why is this harmful? Because children are not able to get the special education services they need for their dyslexia, if they are not diagnosed properly.
A tool developed in the 1980’s called the Boder Test of Reading Spelling Patterns was designed to specifically aid in the diagnosis of dyslexia. The test is recommended to be included as part of a comprehensive (psychological) educational evaluation.
The test was developed to differentiate between the four subtypes of reading problems; one unspecific reading disability and to classify the three types of dyslexia. The three types of dyslexia are called: dysphonetic dyslexia, dyseidetic dyslexia and mixed dypsonetic/dyseidetic. Dysphonetic dyslexia means auditory dyslexia and Dyseidetic means visual dyslexia, and mixed dypsonetic/dyseidetic means both. Another article stated that this test is also used to provide guidelines for the remediation of all subtypes of dyslexia. This would be extremely helpful to parents and special education personnel.
As part of a comprehensive psychological evaluation the Boder test is helpful in determining if a child has dyslexia. A standardized achievement test like the Weschler Individual Achievement Test including the reading comprehension subtest, requires that the child engage in higher level comprehension, which could also show difficulties in reading. Also testing in the areas of: Speech/Language (receptive and expressive), visual and auditory perception, sensory integration, visual spatial, visual motor integration, occupational therapy, phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid naming, work finding ability, nonsense word ability, reading comprehension, spelling and written expression will be needed.
All of this information can be used by the IEP team to help determine if your child has dyslexia, and determine type of remediation given. Research has shown that children with dyslexia need a multisensory reading and spelling program that uses a synthetic code emphasis approach. A few names of these types of programs are: Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, and Lindamood Bell, though you may find more by using a search engine such as Google.
Recommend this test to your school district as well as testing in the areas recommended above. You will well be on your way to helping your child learn to read and enriching the rest of their life. Good Luck!
By: JoAnn Collins
