Strategies for Independent Learning

This reflection post for this week might be a little shorter than my usually ones. It is Thanksgiving this week and so our assignments were a little shorter, thank goodness! This week our reading was entitled, "Strategies for Independent Learning." The entire chapter was different ideas that you can use to help your students better learn on their. I love this idea of the chapter because I feel like that is really the basis of what teaching special needs students is, to help them eventually start to learn things on their own without as much assistance as the beginning.
One of the things that most stood out to me this week as I learned was the process of teaching independent learning strategies.
1. Assess current strategy use.
2. Clarify expectations.
3. Demonstrate strategy use.
4. Encourage students to memorize strategy steps.
5. Provide guided and independent practice.
6. Administer post tests.
I love that by breaking it down into steps this doesn't have to be a big scary process.
There are so many different acronyms and steps for student to be able to remember and learn different school subjects on their own. This week showed me there are a lot more then I ever imagined there was.

Differentiating Instruction

This week in our helping students with special needs learn class we talked about exactly what the title said, differentiating instruction. This is very important to study as a teacher because there are so many ways that you can make this possible but it is important to remember to still be fair. There are a variety of ways to make instruction best fit a specific need that a child may have. There are many different types of assignments that you can give and I feel that as we studied all this there are many good ones. I think you really have to pick the one that will best fit your teaching style, subject and the individual student. In this case, what works for one student more than likely will not work for another so you have to be very adaptable. I also think you have to be willing to try new things and experiment with what will work the best.
Differentiating instruction is important so that the student can get the knowledge and skills that they need, however, they may need it in a different way than you are giving to the majority of your students. One big theme that stuck out to me during this reading is the idea of communication. The parents should have an open line of communication with the teacher and vice versa. The student and teacher should also be communicating a lot about progress or problems that are arising.
This week as we met for a group to do our case study work it was very interesting to see that there are a variety of accommodations or adaptations that can be made for students but as teachers it is up to us to decide which of these are seen as fair and which of these are seen as unfair. In our assignment we were told specific class work that the child would be doing and then asked to identify which adaptations would be fair and why. We were also asked to identify which adaptations weren't fair and why. This was tricky because we realized that differentiating instruction affects more than just the child you are making the adaptations for, it also affects the other children as they see that some children may not be doing the same work as them. This is where conflicts can arise and so it is very important to make sure your adaptations are fair. I can see how teachers are put in very tricky situations while they are makings things fair for their students but still helping them succeed.

I also completed a simulation project this week. I choose to do the language impairment section. I order dinner at food and stuttered while I did so. I also asked the waitress if my meal that I just order would be very spicy and what type of beans it came with. The waitress was really nice but I felt so silly doing this simulation. I can see how people with this impairment would be really embarrassed to talk to others in public settings. The other project I did was stutter as I checked out at Walmart. I bought some Christmas lights and I asked the cashier if he thought my lights would be really bright. He gave me the weirdest look but pretended to be nice and answer my question. The person behind me was totally listening into my conversation so that made things a little awkward. So that was my simulation activity report for this week!

Interventions for children

This week we talked about the variety of needs that many children face in the education system that we may see in our classrooms that are not disabilities. Some specifically that we talked about were: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), students that are gifted and talented, culturally diverse background students, students at risk and more.
Something new I learned this week was about ADHD. I didn't know that there was a variety of types and so many methods of intervention for these students. There is first the predominately inattentive type, where children have a hard time listening or following rules. Next there is the predominately hyperactive-impulsive type where they have a hard time sitting still or concentrating. The third type is a combination of both of the types.
I also learned about the interventions that are available such as: environmental supports, academic interventions, behavior interventions, parent education and medication.
For student who are gifted and talented there is interventions available such as: curriculum compacting, acceleration, enrichment, differentiation, and specialized intervention.
The section of students I was most interested in was the students that were classified as at risk. Their interventions, I thought, were something that was really good and actually something I could actually see myself using. The interventions for these students are setting a high but realistic expectations, establishing peers as teaching partners, collaborate with other professionals when needed for extra help,and make sure to get support from family and community involvement.
Overall I thought this week was a very good week for learning more about what we can do as future professionals in our future classrooms. For our case study this week one thing that really stuck out to me is to give children the success for social skills. For many children that struggle in school this could be the most beneficial gift that you can give them as a teacher. The teacher in our case study really emphasized this in her class and I believe that this was for her students to start to develop those relationships. I also believe that when a child feel safe at school and develops a sense of belonging, that is when we will see the best learning and development occur. I hope that all teachers can keep this in mind as they set the tone for their classrooms. A sense of belonging and safeness might just be a universal intervention for all students.

Instruction in the classroom

This week we learned about different ways of instruction you can use in the classroom to help students achieve success to the best of your ability as a teacher. There are a variety of different types of instruction that can be used. In most classes you see the regular things like large or whole class instruction where the entire class participates in a lecture or activity together. Then there is also small group instruction which is where children are placed in groups, sometimes depending on skill or ability level, and given an activity or assignment. Then there is a one-on-one instruction. I feel like this doesn't happen very often in a lot of classes because it is hard for the teachers to find the time to give that special attention to just one child, but when this is used it can be very beneficial to students.
The most important concept I learned this week is when getting ready to teach your class and figure out the type of instruction to use it is best to look at a variety of different things. You want to make sure the type of instruction used is going to best suit the needs of the students.
Here are a few tips that we read about:

• Check out the text book. Make sure it is high quality writing if you are going to use it. 
• Use manipulative and models in your classroom to give the children a hands on experience. This may be especially useful for children who need to be more active learners. 
• Use a variety of teaching materials for lessons
• Use technology in a way that will help the children when it is appropriate.

We also learned about a very important part of planning instruction for children who are needing help having accommodations in the classroom. This process has a few steps to take into consideration.

1. Identify Classroom Demands.
2. Note Student Learning Strengths and Needs
3. Check for potential areas of student success 
4. Look for potential problem areas
5. Use information to brainstorm ways to differentiate instruction
6. Differentiate Instruction
7. Evaluate student progress

This is a basic outline of the plan that can make a big difference in a students life. We got to practice using this outline in our case study this week. One thing that really stuck out to me as we were planning some instructional accommodations for this student was that sometimes teachers need to be more willing to switch things up in the way that they teach. One of this boys teachers wasn't willing to change class instruction just for him and that made it really difficult. I think that being a teacher we should more than willing to go above and beyond to help a student succeed in our class.