Courtney Hansen's Special Education Showcase
One of the areas I chose to concentrate on while completing my master's degree was special education. While I am not a special education teacher, I have had many special education students as well as students who need a little extra support in my classroom over the years. I think it is my job as a teacher to not only meet students where they are academically, but to find a way to support and strengthen them that makes sense to them. I have taken many classes in this program that are based in special education; everything from policies and practices of special education, to students with challenging behaviors, to working with different disabilities in the inclusive classroom. I have learned much and have grown in my abilities and practices to help best teach all students but especially those who have the greatest need.
Students with Challenging Behaviors
I have worked with many students who have challenging behaviors. I have had a few students that were defiant students or were oppositional defiant students. I was curious about these students and their behaviors and I wanted to learn more about their side of the story as opposed to just looking at the situation as a slightly tired teacher who needed new ideas as to how to work with these students. In two different classes I was able to research and use different technology to find information about defiant behaviors and how to work with these students in the classroom and get the best possible results. As a result of this research, I created presentations to share not only what I learned about how students with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) think, work, and act but also included information that teachers can use in their classrooms when they are working with an ODD student.
I have worked with many students who have challenging behaviors. I have had a few students that were defiant students or were oppositional defiant students. I was curious about these students and their behaviors and I wanted to learn more about their side of the story as opposed to just looking at the situation as a slightly tired teacher who needed new ideas as to how to work with these students. In two different classes I was able to research and use different technology to find information about defiant behaviors and how to work with these students in the classroom and get the best possible results. As a result of this research, I created presentations to share not only what I learned about how students with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) think, work, and act but also included information that teachers can use in their classrooms when they are working with an ODD student.
What can teachers do?
While keeping in mind that there is no easy, quick fix for any student who is struggling there are some things teachers can do and look at to help them better understand their student and the struggles of that student. In one of my classes, we made a progress monitoring form for a book. We had to select the book, one that was appropriate for the grade we were working in, and then discuss why specifically we chose that text to test the students with. I chose the story The Lamb Who Came to Dinner and used a website to create the progress monitoring form which was extremely useful as I can now use any text that I want to progress monitor my students.
While keeping in mind that there is no easy, quick fix for any student who is struggling there are some things teachers can do and look at to help them better understand their student and the struggles of that student. In one of my classes, we made a progress monitoring form for a book. We had to select the book, one that was appropriate for the grade we were working in, and then discuss why specifically we chose that text to test the students with. I chose the story The Lamb Who Came to Dinner and used a website to create the progress monitoring form which was extremely useful as I can now use any text that I want to progress monitor my students.
When working with emerging readers, you quickly realize that everyone is on a slightly different level and needs different types of instruction to help them succeed in becoming a confident reader. I have looked at different types of one-on-one literacy interventions to identify those which were the most successful in the general education classroom, focusing on students who were below grade level but had not yet been identified as requiring special education services. I looked at many different types of literacy activities to help support student growth but all of the interventions in the paper are best used as one-on-one interventions. I found that you first have to have a very specific area in which you are going to focus and then have multiple and varied resources so you will have something that will work for that student.
When working with struggling readers, you have to know what the student is and is not capable of doing at the moment to better guide their instruction. I have examined some of the causes of below grade level literacy scores and what we can teachers can do to support those learners. I was able to learn some interesting information about what can cause learners to not grow as their classmates and find some interesting strategies to help them become stronger readers and close the gap between them and the higher readers in the class. These strategies can be used by teachers, assistants, and paraprofessionals to help focus on a specific skill and strengthen that among lower readers. These programs gave me many interesting ideas and tips as to how to better work with some of my students.
Gather your Information!
A teacher's best ally (or at least one of them) is information. The more we know about a specific disability, the more we are able to offer support and opportunities to all of our students. In one of my classes, we had to research a specific type of disability that is relatively common and then create a fact sheet for that disability. I created a handout that includes symptoms of the disability (hearing loss), how that can impact student learning, and what can be done in the general education classroom as well as in the special education classroom. During my research of this disability, I realized that while I thought I had an understanding of this disability and how it could impact a learner, I found that there is a lot more to this disability, and all others, than we may first recognize and it is our job to fully understand the disability and how it impacts the child and their learning so we can help that child and give them the same opportunities other students receive.
A teacher's best ally (or at least one of them) is information. The more we know about a specific disability, the more we are able to offer support and opportunities to all of our students. In one of my classes, we had to research a specific type of disability that is relatively common and then create a fact sheet for that disability. I created a handout that includes symptoms of the disability (hearing loss), how that can impact student learning, and what can be done in the general education classroom as well as in the special education classroom. During my research of this disability, I realized that while I thought I had an understanding of this disability and how it could impact a learner, I found that there is a lot more to this disability, and all others, than we may first recognize and it is our job to fully understand the disability and how it impacts the child and their learning so we can help that child and give them the same opportunities other students receive.
I also worked as part of a team that was researching a slightly less common disability that teachers may encounter, we focused on students with writing disabilities. While we researched different types of writing disabilities, we focused mainly on dysgraphia and the different assistive technologies teachers can use (either high, medium, or low tech) to help support that student in the classroom. We found that there are many ways to help support learners who are struggling to write, and many of the technologies or supports could be extremely useful for younger students who are just learning to write. For more information on writing disabilities, dysgraphia, and ways to help support students, please visit our website.
And when you can't think of anything else, remember to know your students. Students, especially those with special needs, may require a little more time and a little more effort before you can break through and really start to make a connection with them. To help get that process started, you have to know more about your student than what score they got on their last test or what a specific IEP goal of theirs is One way to get to know a student on a deeper level is to have a class or student websites. In one of my classes, we made websites and interacted with our teacher's website as well as other sites that had communication features. By using sites such as piazza and gravatar we were able to interact with one another and share feedback on our own sites as we built them. Click here to see the website I created for ED 870.