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Presenter(s)
Ruth S. Aldrich
(Author & Presenter)
Program Specialist
Desert/Mountain SELPA
17800 Highway 18
Apple Valley, CA 92307
Email: ruth_aldrich@sbcss.k12.ca.us
Secondary educators are undergoing a huge shift in identity. The era of the segregation of students with different learning needs is drawing to a close and a new era of the melting pot classroom has begun.
The requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have, in effect, taken the continuum of services previously provided across different settings and brought the entire continuum into each general education classroom. The role of general education teachers is now operationally defined as one of being highly qualified in a content area. However, with the inclusion of all students who are striving to attain a diploma in general education secondary classrooms, general educators will no longer be able to just teach Shakespeare. They will need to teach students, all students, and each student. Special education teachers will no longer fulfill both the roles of content and instructional specialist, unless they demonstrate the required qualifications. This limitation in the role of special educator necessitates effective collaboration with general educators. The days of isolated classrooms are over.
For all students to successfully access the core curriculum, creative problem solving within the context of a team of educators, parents, and students is crucial (Villa, R., & Thousand, J., 1995). Determining the assistive and instructional technologies needed to support students' learning requires everyone's input. General educators will need the input of team members with expertise in instruction and in the provision of strategies and technologies that will enable students to make independent progress in inclusive classrooms. All teachers will continue to need the input of instructional assistants who know their students, parents who know their children, and students who know themselves. All members of the team must build and maintain trust and a personal connection to become a team that learns as well as teaches. Creative problem solving is one way to make connections, define identities, and share critical information.
There are five basic steps to creative problem-solving (Villa, R., & Thousand, J., 1995). First, the team identifies the class or activity in which the student is struggling. Second, the team determines what is known about that student and the requirements of the problematic activity. The team then brainstorms many ideas, without evaluation, that might lead to a solution to the mismatch between the student and the activity. The team examines how the task might be changed, the outcomes might be changed, or support might be provided to assist the student in being successful. Once a number of ideas have been brainstormed, the team looks at the idea-finding list and invents a solution that combines or expands on the ideas of the team. Finally, a short plan is developed stating very specifically who will do what and when.
To successfully brainstorm ideas for use in creative problem-solving, knowledge of a variety of resources and strategies is needed. This knowledge may rest in any member of the team (including the student), but this may very well represent the unique and valued role that special educators will now play. The proposed Support and Access Model (S.A.M.) provides a useful overview of a full continuum of strategies and tools that might be provided in the general education classroom. Each level of the model's pyramid is linked to specific strategies and tools that might be used to resolve the mismatch between a student and an activity and to enable students to independently access the curriculum.
Both "low-tech" and "no-tech" strategies or tools are included for each level of S.A.M. Acknowledging that being a student is a challenge regardless of ability level, multiple ways of providing students access to the curriculum are outlined on the first level of the pyramid. These strategies and tools include research-based mnemonics' strategies, reading, writing, & math strategies, organizational strategies, and a variety of ways of assessing progress.
The second level of S.A.M. includes suggestions for ways to support those students who face challenges requiring minor changes in assignments, the amount of work to be completed, or the ways in which the work is completed in order to be successful. These students are capable of completing the work and are motivated, but the activity may take them longer to finish than other students in the class. They may be distractible, or have difficulty with fine motor skills, reading fluency, short-term memory, or auditory or visual processing. They may have attendance problems. They may fail tests, even if they know the material. Strategies linked to this level include changes in the classroom environment, alternative ways to present materials, pacing, and the use of partner support. Uses for assistive technology tools are highlighted (e.g., highlighter tape, post-its, memo recorders, carbonless notebook paper, pencil grips, and special pens).
Some students require slight changes in the outcomes, expectations, or content in order to be successful. Several strategies and tools have been tried and the use of these tools has been assessed; however, these students continue to have difficulty meeting the outcomes or expectations of the class. They are willing to try, but additional supports are needed. Prioritizing the outcomes to be attained using "Big Ideas" and the "Unit Planner" enables students to focus their efforts on accessing the most important content being presented (Hall, T., 2004). Assessment strategies, e.g., chunking the test material, and putting easier work focusing on the "Big Ideas" at the beginning of each test, are examples of ways to successfully determine each student's progress (Kunkel, 2003). These students benefit from the structuring of activities to create opportunities for interaction. They also benefit from the provision of tutoring or additional assistance by peers or members of the teaching team. Internet reference tools, study guides, magnetic writing, math manipulatives, and electronic reminder tools are especially helpful.
A few students face significant challenges in accessing the curriculum. They have not comprehended the material, even though many supports have been tried. The reading level of the textbook may be too difficult, and even if someone reads the material to the student, the vocabulary or the student's lack of background knowledge continues to be an obstacle. For these students, paying close attention to their strengths and interests, using learning groups, and assigning students to an area of strength enables them to use their strengths to compensate for areas of difficulty. The use of hands-on projects with presentations of learning is a particularly beneficial strategy for students facing these significant challenges. In addition, materials with the same content, but lower reading levels, may be helpful. Providing materials in an electronic format that can be read aloud using text-to-speech software is another effective strategy promoting independent access (Castellani, J., & Jeffs, T., 2004).
Finally, a very few students are included in general education classes with the goal of attaining the social and life skills that will be essential for success in the community. These "very few" students aren't held responsible for learning the curriculum as presented to the rest of the class, but participate in a parallel curriculum with similar concepts, but closely tied to social and life skills (Kunkel, 2003). Suggestions of functional skills that might be tied to outcomes and concepts in reading, writing, math, science, social science and communication are provided for students at the peak of the pyramid (SEACO, 2000).
Inclusion is a process and not an event; it takes time and hard work for it to succeed. Inclusion fails when issues of identity and relationships are not addressed, and when we fail to work together as a team and honor and "mine" all the expertise in the room. As Judy Zorfass (1998) states, "One person cannot do this alone. Involving specialists in the curriculum planning allows them to bring their expertise to the teacher in a deeply contextualized and coordinated manner" (p. 5). The Support and Access Model proposes that general education teachers as content specialists, special education teachers as specialists in instruction, instructional assistants who know their students, parents who know their children, and students who know themselves, together, hold the keys to empowering this teaching team to become engaged life-long learners.
References
Castellani, J., & Jeffs, T., (2004). Using technology to provide access to the general education curriculum- Techniques to try., Arlington, VA: Technology and Media Division, Council for Exceptional Children.
Hall, T. (2004). Explicit Instruction. Boston, MA: CAST.
Kunkel, S.H. (2003-2004). Practical classroom strategies for making inclusion work: Resource handbook. Bellvue, WA: Bureau of Education & Research.
Special Educators Administrators of County Offices, (2000). Special education alternate curriculum guide. Orange County, CA: Orange County Department of Education.
Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (1995). Sharing expertise through teaching teams. In W. Stainback & S. Stainback (Eds.), Support networks for inclusive schooling (p. 155). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Zorfass, J. (1998). Integrating technology into the standard curriculum: Promising practices. (p. 5). Reston, VA: The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, The Council for Exceptional Children.
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