Danielle

Danielle,

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).

Danielle Cofield 2/13/12 Chapter 5

Elementary and Middle School Students: Differentiated Instruction/Learning Strategies (Pg. 142-144) "Differentiated instruction is perhaps the most prevalent strategy to promote participation in and progress through the general curriculum."

Chapter 5, Understanding Students with Learning Disabilities, provided an abundance of information on understanding specific learning disabilities and how to indentify a student with a particular disability using various procedures and standards. To accomodate students with learning disabilities, differentiated instruction is key. Differentiated instruction includes teaching strategies, altering some students' tasks, and modifying how they perform those tasks. Differentiated instruction stands for the purpose of modifying traditional instruction. Through this course as well as previous courses, as a future educator i'm learning that I have to find ways to be new, innovative and effective. Differentiated Instruction is a tool that will allow me to be effective to all my students ranging in abilities. Teachers can differentiate instruction by providing visual or graphic organizers to accompany an oral presentation, for example. There is also another form of accomodations for students who are secondary or transitioning known as learning strategies. Learning strategies were developed to help students with learning disabilities to learn independently and to generalize, or transfer, their skills and behaviors to new situations. Learning strategies are most effective for the students who have learning disabilities in basic skill areas such as reading, language arts, writing, etc. Just as general education students, students with learning disabilities have the abilities to learn and can. It would be my job, as a teacher, to seek and assess through differentiated instruction and learning strategies.

Danielle, You are correct that differentiation is the foundation for addressing the needs of all students, although there will be times when individual adaptations are necessary. You mention graphic organizers, one of my favorite strategies, that address a number of difficulties students have such as focusing on key concepts and relationships using a visual display that reduces reading and language demands. You also mention learning strategies that can make the process of learning more explicit and systematic for students who need these supports. I would be interested in knowing which learning strategy you were most interested in and how you might apply that to a lesson you might design. Regards, Dr. OReilly

I agree with what you said about differentiating instruction. I have researched Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intellegences and have found a vast array of information on how to differentiate in the classroom. I believe that it is imperative for teachers to do this so that we may reach as many students as possible.

Dani Henderson

Danielle Cofield March 12, 2012 Chapter 9: Understanding Students with Intellectual Disability

"To address students' limitations in intellectual functioning and challenges associated with memory, generalization, and motivation; to develop their behavior in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive-skill areas; and to teach them to function successfully in their community, teachers need to support students to master skills that are sometimes more functional than the content of the general education curriculum." (Pg. 255)

I chose to make commentary on planning for other educational needs because as a future educator I will be responsible for not only supplying a student with an intellectual disability with academic skills but, life skills as well. The two major characteistics of intellectual disabilities are limitations in intellectual functioning including memory and limitations in adaptive behavior including social and practical skills. In order to be effective in helping the student(s) become more functional than the content of the gen. ed. curriculum, I understand it would be beneficial to build partnerships with parents and the supports offered to me as an educator. To achieve mastery, its best when the teacher provides their students with the functional content and by applying the concept of generalization and memory development by teaching in the corresponding settings in which the students will have to use the skills they are learning. (Ex: If teaching how to properly count money, etc., I would have the student(s) working with money and a cash register. If teaching how to properly brush their teeth, I would have the student(s) in the sink area with tangible materials.) This will allow them to have real-life experience that they can later recollect. Students learning improve intellectually and adaptively when they learn in communitative settings.

Danielle, Practical applications in real life settings are the best learning experiences particularly for students who as you note do not generalize automatically and need repeated practice. Good insight. Dr. OReilly

Danielle Cofield March 19, 2012 Chapter 7: Understanding Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Designing an Appropriate IEP: Partnering for Special Education and Related Services

At the start of Chapter 7, they introduced a student, Matthew Ackinclose, who suffered from behavioral challenges as early as 7 months. Throughout his early years he was on as many as 22 medications to manage his behavior. It wasn't until he was about eight years old that he received the help that was much needed for his success. Special Educator, Charlotte Hott welcomed Matthew into her classroom where she built on foundations of trust and strength based interventions. She encouraged Matthew and his mom, Laura to maintain consistent, positive communication. I chose to make commentary on this particular section of the chapter after reading the scenario surrounding Matthew to understand exactly how they became of help to him and his mother. Becasue students have educational and mental health needs, the best practice is to provide services that address all of those needs. the name of that practice is called "wraparound". Wraparound is family-driven, collaborative, individualized, culturally compotent, and community and strengths-based. This practice gets its name because all of those components become wrapped around the student. Referring back to the scenario with Matthew, I feel this process is what has helped him with his change and high achievements. Matthew's mother(family) has played a major role in his success. The special educator, Charlotte Hott, placed major emphasis on his mother being apart of the process just as with the wraparound practice. The wraparound practice involves the individual with a mental health disorder, family members, representatives of agencies providing services, and other key people who are part of the support team coming together to engage in collaborative planning. The scenario provides a simple example of the support team collobarting such as when Charlotte spoke with the gym teacher to allow Matthew to take gym in plain clothes oppose to the gym uniform; they were gradually incorporating him into the general education experience. That simple accomodation made Matthew comfortable enough to participate fully. The wraparound planning model is a process linking school, community, and mental health services to provide a family-driven, collaborative, individualized, culturally competent, and strengths-based planning approach. As a future educator, I foresee the wraparound practice being effective because it takes a team and dedication from all its members to want to see success in our students, starting with the family and then to the creating of an appropriate IEP that will benefit all of the students' needs.

Danielle Cofield March 28, 2012 PBIS Video: Creating The Culture of Positive Behavior

The PBIS video was very good! I'm not always a fan of videos but, this video is very informative. What immediately caught my attention was the school-wide effort to implement positive behaviors. I learned that key aspects of the postivie behavior supports is having a common language. Having a common language includes all faculty and staff exercising the same practices. There were school-wide traits that everyone in the school building were expected to follow. (Traits- Be respectful. Be Responsible. Be caring. Build community.) When all the school personnel are working to support the same expectations that attitude is reflected upon the students. "You have to teach a child something before you expect them to do it." A participant in the video made that statement and I feel that it is befitting of the entire video. The teachers and other staff in the video dedicated time to creating ways of turning the negative into positive behaviors. I also liked how they began right at the beginning of the school year with a schedule of things that need to be taught and enforced. (i.e. practicing cafeteria behaviors, practicing hallway behavior). Positive reinforcement is another key aspect of positive behavior support. There were a number of systems that were used by the staff. One in particular was students being rewarded with a pencil or something for exhibiting appropriate hallway behavior. There are many elements of the video that I would love to apply in my own classroom. I liked the system of the class as a whole receiving the "dragon paw" to let everyone know that my class had positive behaviors for week. I also like how the ticket system promotes positive competitions amongst the students; I would also like to implement. I would be so fortunate to be able to work with a team of people who share a common language. I would also apply the schedule of expectations as early in the school year as possible such as the greeting system or just create various systems to promote respect, responsibility, caring, and citizenship.