Chapter One: Exceptional Students, Universal Design for Learning, and Differentiated Instruction: The Canadian Experience
This chapter introduces the concepts of exceptional students, the concepts of inclusion, and how these ideas have developed in the Canadian education systems. I have taken classes that cover these concepts before, but it is interesting for me to review them in the light of both my pre-internship and internship experiences. After these experiences I think I am better able to understand these concepts because I have dealt with them as a classroom teacher.
In my pre-internship, I had a student in my grade ten English class who was hard of hearing so I had to make accommodations to my teaching in order to meet his needs. However, when I first started in the classroom I was confusing the two ideas of accommodation and modification. My coop teacher taught me to think of these two terms in the context of how students get to school. With accommodation we are not changing the destination just how we get to the destination. Students going to the U of R do not arrive in the same manner, some may be traveling by bus or others may walk because it works best for them. With modification we are changing the destination, the students may all go on the bus together but some will get off at siast well others will get off at U of R. It was important for me to see these terms as two separate ideas because they provide two different ways of meeting students needs at different levels.
As a student who has a learning disability, the idea of inclusion in the classroom is very important to me. My learning disability may not be noticeable to everyone but there were still times in school that I needed my teachers to make accommodations ...
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... able to to the refer the students to the team myself. Rather, I was told to find a team member, tell them of my concern and then they would make the referral. I would be told later what I should do for supports or accommodations in my classroom based on what they discussed in their meeting. The feeling this gave me was that it was not my job to come up with the adaptations but just to be the one to implement them. I found the adaptations brought to me difficult to adapt because they did not fit my classroom or what I felt the student needed. I do not know if this was how things were done in school or if I was not included because I was an intern. This showed me that collaboration only works if students have someone to speak for them in situations like this. We can not make a plan without the student in mind because it more than likely will not meet their needs.
Inclusion classes are very important to the school system. Inclusion classes allow children with disabilities to get their education to the fullest extent. While children with disabilities are in inclusion classes they can also be placed in standard classes to get them introduced to other kids. While no one really knows the true definition of inclusion, the definition is very clear. Inclusion classes help the school system by integrating regular students with disabled students. Both regular students and disabled students benefit from being integrated into standard classes. Inclusion classes are for disabled children that provide the best education possible in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and they help the school system by allowing some of the disabled children to be in standard classes to be integrated with other students and teachers.
A self-contained classroom is generally made up of a small number of students, who work with a special education teacher and are taught self-help skills as well as academics. Often, students in the classroom work on different academic levels and some may receive a higher level of specialization of care or attention. Furthermore, placement in the general classroom versus a self-containment classroom may come down to accommodations. If accommodations for a student are dramatically altered or modified beyond the general classroom curriculum, then student would benefit from self-containment classroom instead of full inclusion. If this student was in a full inclusion setting with such accommodations, the student could easily fall behind in the general classroom. Additionally, since a general classroom is larger than a self-contained classroom, students with disabilities may not receive the best academics assistance or help from a paraprofessional as needed to adjust to the curriculum. Moreover, some students disabilities are so profound that the student is non-verbal, unable to read or write, making communication harder in a general classroom setting. For example, a student with disabilities that is non-verbal may have other ways, such as cues to communicate with. If a teacher in a general classroom setting is concentrating on
Classrooms of today are full of students with varying learning abilities and styles, therefore teachers are put in a position to involve each of their students equally so that everyone has the greatest chance of success in their learning. There are many different ways teachers are able to set up the learning environment in order to maximise teaching and learning and cater for the diverse needs of their students. I will attempt to discuss in detail some of these strategies and unpack the potential advantages and difficulties that follow.
Differentiated instruction is a teaching theory based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students in classrooms (Tomlinson, 2001). All though, “every teacher who has entered into a classroom has differentiated their instruction in one way or another.” (Levy, 2008) Teacher can use differentiated instruction in four elements, including content, process, products and the learning environment.
Inclusion in classrooms is defined as combining students with disabilities and students without disabilities together in an educational environment. It provides all students with a better sense of belonging. They will enable friendships and evolve feelings of being a member of a diverse community (Bronson, 1999). Inclusion benefits students without disabilities by developing a sense of helping others and respecting other diverse people. By this, the students will build up an appreciation that everyone has unique yet wonderful abilities and personalities (Bronson, 1999). This will enhance their communication skills later in life. Inclusive classrooms provide students with disabilities a better education on the same level as their peers. Since all students would be in the same educational environment, they would follow the same curriculum and not separate ones based on their disability. The main element to a successful inclusive classroom, is the teachers effort to plan the curriculum to fit all students needs. Teachers must make sure that they are making the material challenging enough for students without special needs and understandable to students with special needs. Inclusive classrooms are beneficial to students with and without special needs.
Richards, H. V., Brown, A. F., & Forde, T. B. (2007). Addressing diversity in schools: Culturally responsive pedagogy. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 39(3), 64-68.
Those who support an inclusion model for all students take the stand that students with disabilities should be placed in and inclusion setting with the idea that all special education students will benefit from an inclusion setting with their general education peers. An inclusion setting will provide academic growth and social growth. The placement of special education students in a general education classroom would also benefit students to respect and accept those students who are different. Students should be placed in an inclusion setting whenever possible (Noll, 2013).
I really enjoyed this Ted talk by Ilene Schwart, she provided a well-defined definition of what an inclusion classroom should be, which is belonging to a community, a group of friend, a school and a neighborhood. I have worked in many school and they tried to include children with disabilities, but in some of the classes you can see that the teacher is just waiting for the school year to be over so the child can no longer be in the class.
From the book “Collective Perspectives on Issues Affecting Learning Disabilities,” it shows that in inclusion the disabled child has many responsibilities. How well the students d...
Inclusion in the classroom often sparks much controversy among people. It raises the question of whether or not students with disabilities should be fully included, partially included, or not included at all in mainstream schooling. Currently there is no clear consensus on a definition of inclusion (Heward, 2006). The different definitions tend to reflect the person's own opinions towards inclusion. Those who feel as if students should not be included in the classroom tend to focus on the negative aspects of inclusion, such as the challenges and hard work it requires. However, studies show that full inclusion has many benefits to the students, both those who are disabled and those who are not. Inclusion has shown to improve the student's social skills, encourage communication, spark laws and regulations, and improve the overall schooling experience. With a lot of time, effort, and patience, full inclusion can be done in the classroom, with its benefits outweighing the hard work that it requires.
Since these students with learning disabilities have difficulty learning the same way that average students do, the teacher must find a way to teach both effectively, but not to lead ahead of the disabled or fall behind with the average student. Due to these challenges, the question of inclusion has been made noted in the public’s eye and the school systems attention. According to the article “Education, Inclusion and Individual Differences: Recognizing and Resolving Dilemmas”, Low (1997) makes a point in saying there are three different titles of inclusion. Hard inclusion is everything is being taking care of as part of the “social arrangements”, and this is typically includ...
Inclusion does not only benefit the student, but the parents, teachers, school and the community. It is about understanding additional needs rather than ignoring them and allowing the student every chance that students without difficulties/disabilities have available to them
Advocates of inclusion believe that in most cases, if not all, the LRE for students with disabilities should be the general education classroom, not only for students with mild disabilities but for all students, regardless of the severity of the disability. Inclusion supporters contend that education in the general education classroom will result not only in superior educational outcomes for students with disabilities but also other positive developmental outcomes such as increased socialization (Hunt and Goetz, 1997). Additionally, many advocates of inclusion believe that inclusion not only benefits students with disabilities, but also students without disabilities (Staub, 1995).
Accommodations will help students achieve these academic goals, which can be instructional or environmental changes that help students to successfully understand and respond to the regular curriculum. These kinds of accommodations may be a change of seating in the classroom, sitting up front during story time or allowing more time on an exam. For example, a child who may have dyslexia needs to have an additional 20 minutes on exams, or have test questions and answers read to them aloud. These are accommodations made in order for the student to have the best chance of success. A student, who does not have a learning disability, doesn’t need those accommodations and would not necessarily benefit if they were given to
Since many students with disabilities are not identified, it follows that they are casually integrated in regular classes (Miles, 1985). Integration refers to educating students with disabilities in propinquity to students in regular classrooms (Arbeiter & Hartley, 2002), while inclusion refers to students with disabilities becoming part of the general education classroom, receiving a necessary support, and being taught with effective strategies (Smith, Polloway, Patton, & Dowdy, 2004). Hence, inclusion and integration will be used interchangeably in this