Hello Again,
So quite awhile ago, before my observation week for my upcoming IPT, and even before our midterm we discussed the implementation of accommodations. Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to blog about it yet, hence why it's a little late. My apologies.
Firstly, it is important to note that an accommodation is defined as a change or alteration in the regular way a student is expected to learn, complete assignments or participate in the classroom. It is NOT a modification, because the curriculum is not being changed at all and the student is still learning the same curriculum as the rest of the class, but in a different, more suitable way. There are three types of accommodations, they are: environmental, instructional, and assessment. Environmental accommodations are the things we do to the physical space of the classroom or the implementation of adaptive devices. This could include changes such as giving the student a different chair to sit in at their desk, or if they have poor vision, you let them have a laptop on their desk to view everything you write on the board up close. Instructional accommodations are the kinds of activities you do, so this means you might have someone take notes for the student because it may take them longer to process the information if they were to write it themselves. As a teacher, you may also adjust the readings for the student, meaning you could assign them simpler/less readings but ensuring that they are still meeting the curriculum requirements. Lastly, assessment accommodations occur when you let a student write an exam in a quiet place away from other students, and possibly implement an oral examination for the student or simply increase the time available for the student to write the exam. All three of these accommodations are crucial to consider when working with a students who have disabilities because it may be the most simple adjustment that makes their day at school that much more possible for them. I think it's important that teachers understand the importance of giving the student an opportunity to succeed at the same level of his or her peers and learning the same information. As soon as you "think less" of a child, they will essentially behave in the manner. If you create high expectations for a child, they will work harder to impress you! As I have stated in a previous blog entry before, Rick Lavoie taught me that fairness is providing students with what they NEED, not what everyone else in the class receives. This makes complete sense, because how is it fair to treat a student the same as the rest of your class, who IS NOT the same, and requires extra assistance to succeed. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to ensure that all your students have an opportunity to be successful, and implementing classroom accommodations is a great starting point. However, there are five barriers that are frequently encountered when incorporating these accommodations in you classroom. Firstly, the misunderstanding of purpose which means that accommodations should not provide that student with an advantage over his or her peers, they are only reasonable changes to help the student succeed... not to give the student an "easy A". Secondly, teachers sometimes tend to select accommodations that are not appropriate for the student. It is important to make sure that the accommodations selected for the student are authentically aligned with their areas of strengths and needs. Thirdly, teachers sometimes do not include the student in the accommodation decision making. It is crucial that students are involved with these decisions so that they become more aware of what helps them to learn and what does not. Fourthly, teachers tend to use accommodations inconsistently, since the student and all other teachers should essentially be able to access the accommodation at all times. And finally, the overuse of accommodations which means that teachers sometimes use them so much that they begin to water down the curriculum, which leads to a modification instead. Keeping all of these barriers in mind, it is easy to understand how easily an accommodation can turn into a modification, and how this can actually harm the students learning rather than benefit it. So, there are three strategies that can be use to support the effective use of accommodations. These include; basing the decisions of the accommodations on the individual's strengths and needs, using a collaborative process with both the students and parents, and using the accommodations consistently and not just in your classroom. If a teacher keeps all three of these strategies in mind, then the accommodation will definitely continue to benefit the student. The funny thing is... the implementation of accommodations seems so easy, but I think that is the major problem with teachers today, they implement these accommodations incorrectly, and once something is done in the the wrong way, it is almost impossible to fix it.
Next we discussed strategy instruction in the classroom. It is the most common kind of intervention used, because it essentially teaches the students strategies to help them learn, and will eventually lead them to coming up with their own strategies that support their learning in the best way. Simply stated, strategies are things that students do to be successful. There are two basic goals of strategies in your classroom. These are, getting the student active in the learning process, and getting the student to working towards meta cognition (self awareness of ones own thinking). It is important that students make the strategy their own, because once they experience success with a strategy, they will continue to use it. This idea reminds me of the success cycles that we discussed in my introduction to education classes last year. When a student starts to be successful with something, they will obviously enjoy that feeling, and continually do whatever they did to become successful in the first place. One strategy that we discussed was the SQ4R which is a reading comprehension strategy that is commonly used by students. It stands for survey, question, read, recite, relate, and review. The reason this strategy works so well with students is because they are implementing pre-reading, reading and post-reading techniques to ensure they properly understand the reading and what is being asked.
To end this class, we finished watching the Rick Lavoie movie. This part of the movie talked about kids with learning disabilities and how they don't understand social obligations or contacts, or simple social cues. We take this skill for granted because it is second nature to us (us, referring to those who live without learning disabilities). For example, we know that it is rude to talk during a presentation, or to budge in front of other people in a line up, but kids with learning disabilities do not understand this... and become angry and upset when you become angry towards them for not following the "rules". I think this is something that everyone in our society needs to know because many people judge those people who do not follow the basic social contracts of our society. These people are looked at as being bad, selfish, or uncooperative... but they really just don't know or understand why society is ran in the way it is. Lavoie also states that kids with disabilities face two limits, these are connectic melodies, and para-linguistics. Connetic melodies refers to the fact that we have done things so many times that they have become second nature to us, but this is not the case for kids with disabilities, each time they do something that have to actually take the time to think about what they are doing in a chronological order. Para-linguistcs refers to the idea of not being able to understand how body language can change the message. This means that kids with disabilities cannot tell when you are being sarcastic, because they are unable to connect your actions with your words. This is why you should never be sarcastic with these kids, because it will do more harm than good.
Anyways, I think it is about time to conclude my blog entry. I hope you enjoyed and understand more about the usage of accommodations and learning strategies in your classroom. Thanks Again!
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