Rohanna

Rohanna, This is your wiki page for our course. For 2/8/12 I am asking that you write a commentary on Culturally Responsive Instruction - How you might you apply these ideas in your classroom. Include considerations for students with disabilities. (300 words).

Gay (2000) defines culturally responsive teaching as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them; it teaches to and through the strengths of these students. Firstly just by looking at the words Culturally Responsive Instruction sparked my interest. By practicing this alone a teacher will be a better educator. A teacher will not be very effective if every day child just steps in to their classroom, and at the end of the day just leave without any interaction or getting to know the student a little better. This doesn’t necessarily mean getting too personal because sometimes that can be uncomfortable for the student and the teacher. A teacher should be aware of the different ethnic groups, and heritages that will be in her classroom. Different ethnic groups practice different ideas. In one culture it may be a sign of respect to look an adult in the eye, and the another someone that’s elder they should never look in the eye. If a teacher doesn’t understand this they could punish a child for something that at home they were told was right. Also if a teacher shows interest in their culture or background they will warm up and be more susceptible to learning. A child can read adults very well especially ones that they are with for about 6 hours of the day, and once you lose their trust it could be gone forever. So showing sincerity and really caring about their interests can only be a positive. The other way to look at this culturally responsive learning is to incorporate different learning styles in to the curriculum. According to Howard Gardner people have 8 different styles of learning, and I strongly believe that and will incorporate that in to my classroom. A student with a disability may not be able to sit through a long lecture, perform activities where they have to use their hands, or do certain mathematical problems just by looking at them. For that instance is why I will have an understanding of my students strength and weaknesses so that I will be able to assist them and accommodate them if need be. Switching up the way I teach my instructions also just keep things interesting, and for young children creativity sticks in their head. I will also do a lot of real life instructions that they are able to relate to. Learning also shouldn’t just stop at the classroom as a teacher I would like to bridge the gap between home and school experiences, even if that means reshaping my curriculum numerous times to cater to my student’s needs. Since I will be a Math teacher using different objects models, figures, will be a great help. Growing up a lot of the things for math with me came from applying them to real situations or actually seeing a model of what I was dealing with. I am very willing to do that for my students so that they won't get so frustrated by math, and maybe they still won't like it but they will have a better understand of it.

I agree so much with you about different ethnics groups practice different ideas. From reading that passage I began to think about how many children are looked as being bad or not “normal” because a teacher didn’t take the opportunity to get to know the student, or find out some of the reasons the child may do the things they do. Having an open mind is key when it comes to teachers there will be many things as teachers that we don’t agree with but that’s just something as teacher we have to learn to embrace. I feel that everything you stated in your commentary was very accurate and straight the point. Raven

Rohanna, I had a chuckle as I read the last line of your commentary. If you do what you describe in your commentary, I am confident that they will like math. From your comments in class as well as your written commentary, I can see you are a very creative person who is attuned to individual students and their various styles. From this commentary, I also see you recognize how differences in culture may be misunderstood by teachers and result in impairing relationships with students and families - an important insight. Well done. Dr. OReilly


 * Date** – February 13, 2012


 * Chapter**- 5


 * Topic** – Using Effective Instructional Strategies


 * Pages**- 142-145

This section of the chapter discussed different strategies for teaching children with disabilities across the ages. It discussed strategies from early childhood all the way to high school. When you think about children with disabilities usually you don’t think about strategies for students when they are in the early childhood stages such as birth to age 3. I chose this chapter because it was a perfect follow up in my opinion to my commentary on Culturally Responsive Instruction. I struggle a lot to think of ways to differentiate when it comes to students with special needs but this chapter taught me a lot of differentiating skills. I loved what they said about embedded learning strategies “to identify the opportunities that are most salient to the individualized learning objectives for child (142)”. It’s very effective because of the fact that it gets everyone involved and it’s in the best interest of everyone. Parents love being involved with what goes on in their children’s schooling especially at a young age. These kinds of lessons will keep the child motivated which is a big part of effective learning. It shows all things that general students can do, and everyone can learn and have fun.

In the Middle school grades it’s better to focus more on what you will be actually teaching. Differentiated instruction is something that I know all about and strongly believe in. Not only is it good to switch the different styles for your students but it also makes you a better teacher. Using visuals, models, role play, scaffolding, and manipulatives is great for students with disabilities. Scaffolding is great because I'm going to love helping my students with whatever they need support in. Reading about this just seems like these strategies would be so interesting to teach.

` For high school students research shows “learning strategies” help students with learning disabilities to learn independently and to generalize, or transfer their skills and behaviors to new situations. This is perfect because as they get older they may not want all the help they did when they were young. Working by themselves helps them to feel more mature. This is great that this helps them with the subjects with the most difficulties such as reading and math.

This chapter was an eye opener. Just from reading the heading I thought everything that I had to do was going to be difficult. Every strategy is doable if you have time and patience. This is my first class where I’m learning about children with disabilities so this is all very new and interesting to me. I was one of the teachers that thought I would only be dealing with general education students, but with Inclusion and the growing number of students with disabilities you never know who is going to end up in your classroom. I’m prepared to do whatever I can to help a student understand my lesson. Acquiring the information I feel is going to be the most difficult part because just like general education students you can teach and they still may not get it and lastly remembering what they learned will truly let me know that my instructional strategies are effective. It’s important to learn different strategies for all ages because although you are set on teaching a certain age you never know what grade you will be put in to, or an older student may have the mindset of a younger child and those strategies work better for them. Also you may have a child with a disability and want to know different ways how you can help them with their lessons. This was in my opinion the most interesting section of the chapter.

Rohanna, I believe that you truly grasped the concepts of effective learning strategies. I remember when we were in 310 together and we thought that writing a three week differentiated instructional unit was the hardest thing in the world to do. But just like we thought it was hard, our future students may view the information that we are trying to teach them as hard whether they are general Ed or have a disability. Just like you, I had no idea that even though we aren't majoring in special education that it is still possible for us to have students in our classroom with learning disabilities, both documented and undocumented. With the help of these strategies, we can help the students learn what they need to learn even if how they learn it is slightly augmented, like in the book when they gave the example of the different tasks that the child with cerebral palsy was given in order to help with the development of the gross motor skills and at the same time learning the tasks that the other students were learning. I agree that differential instruction will help all students across the board as well as help us to become more diverse teachers that can ensure that all of our students learn. Tashena

Rohanna and Tashena, First, I am pleased that you are both interested in teaching and using strategies that will help students with learning disabilities, as well as others in the class, be successful in learning. With your foundation in differentiated instruction, these strategies can complement and extend what you already know. As I read your commentaries, I would like you to think about one strategy that you read about and how you might apply that to the design of a lesson you might conduct. I also want to commend Tashena for connecting this topic to a shared learning experience you had in EDC 320. The more you "connect the new to the known", the stronger your schema and practice will be. Good work. Regards, Dr. OReilly


 * Date ** – February 17, 2012
 * Chapter **- 8
 * Topic ** – Describing the Characteristics
 * Pages **- 213-216

 The section of the chapter discussed the Characteristics for ADD/ADHD. It described the characteristics that qualify you to be classified for the disorder. First off I grew up not knowing much about ADD/ADHD. I spent 7 years in Jamaica and everything around me represented that culture especially my views and thoughts. In Jamaica AD/HD was recognized, I grew up thinking it was just students misbehaving, was too hyper, or just didn’t have the desire to learn. I started finding out more about it in high school. I felt when it became more common students started throwing it around and using it as an excuse there could be some people that really had it and then there were others that were taking it as a joke. I still didn’t know much about it except from what I heard in my Education classes, also from my classmates and friends that said they had it. I really wasn’t interested in learning much about it, until that it seemed to be a growing disability and I would have students in my class with it. I need to figure out exactly what it is to be able to plan accordingly. I didn’t know there were 3 different types of the disorder. The characteristics seem a bit common, but looking at the descriptions there are students I know growing up that seems like an explanation for their behavior. As a teacher if I see these characteristics I definitely want to refer the child, if not they can fall in to the cracks and be overlooked. This isn’t fair to the students that really want to learn but may not know how to handle the information that they’re given. I love the strategies that this book gives they’re simple and things that good quality teachers should be doing. Hyperactivity definitely seems a lot harder to deal with for the student and the teacher. I feel that I definitely need to develop more patience before deal with hyperactive students. I’m worried that my other students could feed off this student energy and that could cause me to have a classroom management problem. This is also the same problem I will have with impulsivity. I’ve never heard of this before and will be looking in to strategies to handle both these type of students. I have sympathy for these students because this could be so frustrating not to be able to control certain actions, and not being able to pay attention. For hyperactivity/impulsivity that can be embarrassing for the student. The strategies are something that I hope I will be able to use on a student before I actually teach, but I know it may be difficult to find a place where they will openly let me know about a student with the disability

Hello Rohanna you said "  I’m worried that my other students could feed off this student energy and that could cause me to have a classroom management problem." I am a witness to this. For my first graders do it all the time. Most of my students have AD/HD and when one acts out they all act out. This is infact how children learn because they follow other children. They copy their behavior. It is like as if one is saying "well if he can do it then I can do it too.". It does affect class room management because it is already challenging to have one or two students with behavioral problems acting out and then 7 other students acting out because of what they see. Betty B Johnson

Rohanna, Thank you for sharing your prior conceptions about ADD/ADHD. This is a very misunderstood disorder and difficult to diagnose. As a general education teacher, you will have students that have attentional and impulsivity problems, some of whom will be classified as needing special education services or 504 services and some of which will not. Putting in place routines that allow for movement (to another area in the room; standing to work vs sitting), some sensory stimulation (manipulating a small rubber ball or other hand held object) are some easy ways to allow for sensory input to activate attention and/or expend excess energy. If these things are open to anyone's use, they become just part of the way your class does business and typically, those who need them, will use them and those who don't won't. See Samantha's commentary for ideas of how to make lessons engaging and active. Regards, Dr. OReilly

Rohanna, I am exactly the same as you. I feel that our generation is very uneducated when it comes to ADD/ADHD. All we know is what our friends went through, what the news said, or how it was exaggerated. I remember news casts saying how everybody suddenly had ADD/ADHD and there was a massive amount of students who were suddenly on medication. It got to the point where I believe within of 4 years of high school, at least 10 of my fellow classmates were classified as having ADD/ADHD. I also didn't quite understand what the characteristics were of it or what the student went through. It is so tough for me personally to concentrate as a student, I cant even guess what they must go through. As you and the book have mentioned patience and understanding is needed as a teacher of students with the disability, and well as using a large variety of strategies. I hope to utilize these to the best of my ability when I enter the classroom. Shawna Reynolds


 * Date ** – March 12, 2012
 * Chapter **- 9
 * Topic ** –Identifying Students with Intellectual Disability
 * Pages **- 240-245

In Chapter 9 they spoke all about Intellectual disabilities. I’ve never heard of this type of disability but from the words I had a few ideas just from the name of it. After reading the section a lot of things stuck out to me. I have a better understanding now that they compared it to mental retardation. They said the students with intellectual disabilities are more advanced than the ones with mental retardation. I feel that it is great that with a little support that these students can really excel in the classrooms, that should be the case for all students. The way they broke down Stephan’s Application I thought was a good breakdown but certain parts of the assumptions I didn’t understand what exactly they were trying to do. With the intensities of support I feel when they set the standards for each it makes it easier for them to classify. I feel it would be good idea for the students to be able to see where they also think they are in the intensities of support. I noticed that a lot of the disabilities there are more males than have it than females, I wonder why that’s the case. I am interested in seeing how a child of each IQ domain acts. I also think its unfair judging students’ abilities off an IQ test when there are 5 years old. So many things can change from that time and I believe that the IQ can change. Short term memory is affected which is a big part of excelling in school. Especially in math, I’m always wondering how students with certain disabilities will do in my class. When students have problems with short term memory they will have problem in math. Remembering the concepts is very important in problem solving for all future problems. This chapter was the first time I heard about generalization, I can’t imagine not being able to transfer knowledge this must be so frustrating. Motivation I felt came more from the person I didn’t know a disability can have such a big impact on your interest in school. This reminds me a little of some of the characteristics of ADD when it comes to the motivation aspect of it. This chapter caused me to want to do more research on the disability and actually observe a child that has an intellectual disability. Rohanna, While there is a lot of diversity among students with intellectual disabilities, the key characteristics cited in the chapter are a good beginning to understand some of the challenges these students face. Motivational difficulties that you raised are not unique to students with intellectual challenges. One of the reasons that this characteristic is mentioned in association with students who have intellectual disabilities has to do with "learned helplessness". Sometimes, students are not expected to be independent and at times, parents and teachers provide too many supports. This is something to be aware of as a teacher - finding "achievable challenges" for students with disabilities and helping them to use supports as independently as possible. Dr, OReilly


 * Date ** – March 19, 2012


 * Chapter **- 7


 * Topic ** – Describing the Characteristics


 * Pages **- 185-189

This book is really becoming an eye-opener for me with all the different disorders that I have been reading about. Every time I read a chapter I learn something new. For instance with emotional disorders I got a lot of insight about the disability. I didn’t know that students with emotional disorders fall under the services of IDEA. I knew there was such as scared of failure but I couldn’t even imagine people being scared of school in general. I could understand why anxiety disorder is the most common childhood disorder. There is so many situations that little children go through that they shouldn’t have to. As a young child they may not know how to handle these situations then it starts affecting them in the classroom. I believe offering the cognitive behavioral therapy is a great idea. Having a student is able to recognize their feelings, and coping with whatever may be going on will benefit them greatly in the long run. This can save their lives, and cause them to more successful in the future. Mood disorders are another one that seems like a lot to handle. How exactly does a child get depressed at such a young age? How do they know about depression? Those were my questions but then I thought about all the factors that can cause it. If a child loses a family member, or have to move away from a home that may cause a lot of sadness that they can’t handle. I feel emotional disorders is also growing so it would help teachers greatly to really access how to handle having a child with the disorder in their classroom. Bipolar disorder has always scared me a bit because I never know what to expect. Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder are the ones I think I will have the most trouble with. This is because this seems it will affect other students in the classroom, and that falls under classroom management. Schizophrenia to me was a grown up disorder that I never understood and still don’t. I want to know fully how all these disorders come about, and what I can do to help them cope with it. As a teacher I think this may be one of the hardest disabilities I’ve come across that I would have to handle. A lot of the factors come from outside a factor that are out of my control and that frustrates me a little.

Rohanna, I agree with you. Reading this text book has been an eye opener as well especially since i though i knew about a lot of the different disorders. This book has taught me that i don't know the half of it. I thought that Schizophrenia was cognitive since it dealt with hearing voices in your mind, and i was shocked to find out that children have this disorder. I remember watching a TV show based on children with severe cases of schizophrenia, so severe that the family of one little girl has to live in separate apartments (but they come together for meals) because the voices in the girl's head wants her to kill her little brother. I also wonder how i would deal with oppositional defiant disorder in my classroom, especially since i've encountered it while doing hours at Mckinley. But what's important to remember with that is to not get angry or at least not show your anger, even though its easier said than done when the child is angry, has an attitude, and totally ignores you. Also how you deal with it makes the difference between if the child's disorder improves or if they're headed down the road to conduct disorder. But for us as teachers to get angry clouds our thinking and may lead us to respond in a way that will make matters worst before it gets better. It's crazy how it effects the child and how the child will react to you and others in the classroom. Hopefully we won't have any children in our classroom with defiance disorder (in a perfect world), but if we do, hopefully we'll be well prepared to deal with it.--Tashena

Date - March 26, 2012 Positive Behavior Support

The key aspects of Positive Behavior support are a system to maintain an individual is challenging behavior. The teachers are academically involved. The teachers are teaching and the students are learning. They are respectful to the students and their cultures. There is a lot of discipline that goes about and getting the students to change their attitudes. The behaviors are supported by reinforcement in environment. The teachers are supposed to teach a child before they are expected to do it. This causes more success, and everyone is on the same page. This response will prevent behavior problems. Overall, this is being successful, but they are still working on the individual placement. The students follows mottos such as caring for themselves, other, doing their best, and building a better community. The students are respectful of each other, being responsible, caring, and having good citizenship. Staffs prepare before school starts and develop plans. They get instructional packets, different expectations not rules. They have ambassadors which are students teaching other students. Students get pass, which are prizes that they get for following rules. Each student grows from year to year. There are strategies that teachers and students use. All students give respect, and get respect. Students are well aware of all that they need to do. I love this strategy, I have never heard of it before. I feel this is something all schools should have. I like that even from a young age the students are learning to be respectful of themselves and the people around them. The school seems more like a community and everyone is doing their part. Everything thing is consistent and students with a disability need that they know what to expect. I will have a family day where the principal will come mingle with parents and the students. In the beginning of the year, I will have students sign a contract of expectations so it is clear. In addition, I like giving positive rewards so I will also implement that in to my classroom. This is something that will work great with general education students also. As a teacher I will always have times where the students will get to know each other and go over saying positive things about themselves and the people in the classroom.