Diversity Special Education

The inclusion of learners with special needs can be challenging, but when done correctly, it is extremely rewarding for the students and the teacher. Often teachers ascribe to the ideals of inclusion, but their actual practice falls short of complete academic inclusion. Within Mrs. Z's 6th grade math and science classroom, this situation is replicated. She describes her class the "hardest she has ever taught" and this seems to refer to the wide diversity of learners. The class is made up of about 30 students, including multiple kids with behavioral disturbances, multiple kids struggling with home issues, such as homelessness and nutrition, and there are a few kids with specific learning disabilities, and two with hearing impairments. There

The ideal of equality, by simply giving everyone the same instruction, assignments, and reaction, creates unfair situations for students who do not fit the "standard" that this equality was designed for. For instance, a few of the students in the class often struggle with understanding concepts and finishing homework. Since they are held up to the same standard as someone who does understand the concepts, their homework is simply marked as not completed and they only receive a verbal warning and nothing else from the teacher. Occasionally, a special education helper will come into the classroom and will sit down with these students in order for them to get more individual and directed help completing their assignment. However, these situations of directed help occur less frequently than they need to succeed. In this system, then, students who do not understand the lesson and not do the homework can simply slip by doing and learning nothing. Additionally, the students with EBD's in the classroom, often disrupt class time and instruction. Mrs. Z gives these students equal time in their scolding and punishments as the other students. And since there are so many students with EBD's in this classroom, the lesson is barely ever gotten through. Finally, with the standardized instruction and constant pauses for disruption, students who are advanced in this subject are often left

Firstly, communication is strongly needed between students, special education providers, and the teacher. As Wormelli (2007) states, teaching is a "collaborative" process; students often know what works for them and what doesn't (p.79). Establishing this link may help generate ideas on how best to get them to learn and participate in the lesson. Furthermore, both the "Guide to the Individualized Education Program" (2000), the "No More 'Waiting'" (2007), and "Wisconsin Response to Intervention" (2010) articles, state the need for "collaboration" between a wide variety of persons, including students, parents, teachers, administration, and others (Evers, 2010, p. 11). The second strategy I would recommend to this classroom is breaking up the type of lesson to accommodate more types of learners, or tiering. Mrs. Z does the exact same structured lesson every day. While the students do get more interactive learning during discussion of homework, it is already too late as they have had to already understand the concepts in order to complete the homework for today. I would suggest breaking the structure to include group activities, such as the "football" structure Wormelli (2007) outlines (p.91). Students would get a brief lesson together, split off into groups to work on problems, worksheets, or even the homework with the teacher