5 assignment

Designing Lesson Plans: Self-Determination Skills

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Designing Lesson Plans: Self-Determination Skills

Inclusion of self-determination skills to be taught to students with disabilities means a lot for the student and the teaching fraternity. These skills would help resolve most of the challenges encountered by the students with disabilities in their pursuit of education. These challenges are a major obstacle to their academic achievements and the development of peer relationships. Self-determination skills include self-awareness, self-advocacy, creativity, goal-setting, and problem-solving. Strnadová and Cumming (2015) acknowledged that most teachers do not focus on developing self-determination skills. According to the authors, these teachers lack training on how to teach these skills and are uncertain about avenues for accessing necessary instructional methods.

The inclusion of these skills in the lesson plan ensures that students with disabilities can control their lives early. This ability emanates from the early inclusion of skills that help them take risks, set goals, and develop confidence due to self-awareness. These skills would improve learning and post-learning outcomes. A student that has been equipped with self-determination skills have a different view of themselves and a different perspective towards life and can broadly tackle life challenges.

A lot of value is garnered from the inclusion of regular education teachers in developing lesson plans. Students without disabilities require self-determination skills like their counterparts without disabilities. The inclusion of these teachers eliminates the segregation encountered by students with disabilities. Most individuals, including teachers, often think that handling students with disabilities is a complex task they cannot undertake. Through participation in developing lesson plans to teach self-determination skills, the teachers would change the held perception and see that the needs of students with disabilities are, at times, similar to their peers without disabilities. Their involvement is instrumental in decision making. These teachers can offer adequate insights and key points to develop lesson plans. Inclusion of these teachers also gears towards improved outcomes in-class sessions involving the combination of students with disabilities and those without. The wrong perception about students with disabilities could result in students’ differentiated treatment in combined classroom sessions. As such, the presence of these teachers would ensure considerable treatment and teaching during these teaching sessions. The regular education teachers are part of the learning community with students with disabilities, and their involvement in participation is instrumental to the achievement of the institutional goals.

Creating lesson plans is so encouraging as part of a larger plan to improve the student’s future. This process focused on the student’s weak areas as denoted by the need assessment. The lesson plan also focused on maximizing the student’s strengths. As a visual learner, the use of photographs and video clips helps improve her learning outcomes more than if there were the use of materials that disinterested the student. The lesson also incorporated modifications depending on the student’s unique students. The other section was the student conducting self-assessment. This activity measures the student’s understanding of the taught concept and the utilization of the skills. Characteristically, the student feels in control of the learning process. The most difficult thing was the consideration of the student’s self-injurious behaviors. It was difficult to determine whether the student would keep calm during the group assignments. Also, the uncertainty of these behaviors meant that no particular strategy would be relied upon. However, the rewarding thing was the thoughts that the lesson plan would affect the current learning and the future outcomes.

Reference

Strnadová, I. & Cumming, T. (2015). Lifespan Transitions and Disability: A holistic perspective. Routledge