respond to discussion 6 dim

Respond to discussion 6

At least 100 words per responds

Kelly

I struggled with this post all week. I am the mother of a special needs child (Autism, ADHD, SPD, Gifted, Anxiety), and I feel like I often fall short when differentiating/accommodating students in my classes. I struggle mainly because I can't find the time to fit everything into my day. This is honestly a transparent statement. I know I am deficient in this area and have begun trying to find ways to fix this deficit. My ultimate goal is to become an inclusion teacher to help struggling students like my son. I teach approximately sixty-five students in three classes. Each class receives approximately ninety-five minutes of instructional time. I currently have twelve students who receive special education inclusion services on my roll. These students receive services for different types of disabilities and various accommodations/modifications. Our school also has a large ELL student population who receive accommodations/modifications. The first student I'd like to discuss has an emotional disability. She struggles with self-control issues and reads on a low level, scoring near kindergarten level on our first diagnostic test of the year. She receives all standard inclusion accommodations like read-aloud, extended time, and on-task reminders. She can do well and has been successful in my class thus far with individualized help and remediation. I have worked with her one-on-one, and she responds well to individualized instruction. Next, I'd like to discuss a student with an intellectual disability. He has a low IQ score but functions reasonably well in the general education classroom. He was retained in first grade and is quite a bit bigger than the other students. He puts forth little effort in class and uses his size to bully his classmates while claiming to be the victim. He also receives standard read-aloud accommodations, extended time, and on-task reminders. When he works in a one-on-one situation, he scores well but tends to zone out during group/class activities. The last student I would like to discuss has an OHI- ADHD ruling. He also receives standard reading-aloud accommodations, extended time, and on-task reminders. This student struggles with completing any task in class and often struggles even to write the answers down as we go over and correct their work. He can be successful but needs one-on-one instruction to grasp the presented concepts fully. This student also struggles with organization, often losing his work from one day to the next. We have begun working on becoming more organized, and I am exploring ways of holding him accountable. I work closely with my inclusion teacher, asking for her advice on how I might better serve all my students receiving special services. She is an excellent resource and helps me tremendously. 

Shaniqua

Last year I taught a student that we will refer to as "22." The student along with his parents and siblings were involved in a horrible accident. Everyone except 22 was ok. As a result of the accident the student 22 was given a "Traumatic Brain Injury" ruling. He had issues speaking, reading, attention, reasoning etc. It was very sad to watch. He had the funniest sense of humor though. He would go out his way to get my attention because it made him laugh when I fussed at him. The accommodations he had was that his work was extremely modified, he was given extra time, work read to him, and time to calm down outside of class when he got too flustered. He would get very overwhelmed and if you did not push him he wouldn't do anything. I saw some of these things really help him. He was able to grow from kindergarten reading level to third grade by the end of the year. Where I saw it fail was some of the modifications he was receiving were taken advantage of a bit. The student knew that if he threw a fit in class that he would not have to do anything. We could have been having the greatest day and if I asked him to copy a sentence he would completely flip out. I wish there were more ways to help him and understand what he was going through. There were times that I felt so helpless. 

A couple years ago when I worked as an inclusion assistant I met a student we'll name "12". He was given an autism ruling. This particular student was super smart. He was in the first grade reading on a 5th grade level. His accommodations/modifications were more so behavioral. He would have a hard time focusing because he was so hyper active. This student was given the opportunity to have a second chance if he rushed through work, take test in smaller settings, and towards the end of the day when he got super hyper to the point where the teacher couldn't complete her lesson, I would get him and take him for a walk to calm him down. Student was also given a lot of grace on things he would do/say that he wasn't aware that hurt others feelings. We literally taught him kindness. In this case I think his modifications were a success. By the end of the year he had learned that their were consequences for his actions and that he was capable of following some of the same rules as the other students. My proudest moment was seeing him walking in line with his finger up in a straight line like everyone else (that was a hard on). The consistency that he had with staff really helped him. As long as his routine did not change he was able to thrive. 

The last student that I will discuss is a student for this year. We will call her "88." She has a ruling for emotional disturbance. She has a hard time getting along with teachers/classmates, when she gets angry she won't complete assignments, she will lash out at whoever when she is triggered, doesn't like when she is redirected or told no. Her accommodations are more so calming techniques. She is given permission to step out once she is upset, time to do assignments a second time that she completed when she was upset, and counseling with teacher and school staff when needed. I have made modifications with my interactions with her. When I have to correct her I do so in a loving way, do mid day check ins with her, and when she comes in from another class where I can tell she's upset I play 2 songs that she likes during the do now. I say, "88" after your songs go off I'm going to look up to see a smile," and when they go off she smiles at me. I think that her being able to make mistakes and learn from them is really helping her. She has coping skills that I see her using. Instead of getting up throwing things and using profanity she will now ask to step out and get herself together.

Tisa

Identify at least three special education students in your classroom (or a classroom in the past) and identify the eligibility ruling category (example: specific learning disability in reading comprehension).  Discuss the accommodations and modifications made for each individual student, denoting why those instructional decisions were made.  Detail what is working as well as what is not working, offering a reason for the success or failure of a particular accommodation and modification made with the special education students chosen for this discussion.  

Student A had the eligibility ruling of Autism. Check-In/Check-Out was one of the behavior modifications that Student A had documented in his IEP. CICO was a successful modification for this student as evidenced by the student’s daily behavior tracker data for a period of 6 weeks. Before CICO was implemented, the student was earning an average of 6 out of class referrals each day. With CICO implemented each day (checking in at the beginning of the day, mid-day, and checking out at the end of the day), the student and his CICO person built a stronger relationship which positively impacted the student to become more invested in his daily behavior goal resulting in earning 2 to 3 out of class referrals each day by the end of the 6 weeks period, according to the progress monitoring data. 

Student A also struggled with scheduled changes. When the schedule would change without the student’s knowing, Student A would have a meltdown - screaming, throwing, and running to hide. Student A was given a “heads up” when teachers knew the schedule would change the next day or week. As an accommodation on his IEP, teachers gave the student a daily schedule checklist (sometimes with pictures) when the schedule would change and review the schedule with the student prior to the day of the new schedule implementation. Over the course of the 9 week’s term, according to progress monitoring data, when given the schedule checklist and reviewed the schedule with a teacher prior to the schedule change, the student did not have a meltdown due to schedule changes. 

    Student B also had the eligibility ruling of Autism. Check-In/Check-Out was also a behavior modification documented on the student’s IEP. Before CICO was implemented, the data showed that the student earned at least 4 out of class referrals each day. Over a 4 week period, the progress monitoring data demonstrated that CICO alone  was not successful for this student. The student continued to earn 4 or more out of class referrals each day. When CICO was combined with a Brain Break, or cool down period, the data showed the student earned 3 or less out of class referrals within a day, according to the student’s daily behavior tracker. The student was more responsive to CICO with his person when he was allowed at least a 5-7 minute cool down period (Break Break) before talking about his behavior goal with his CICO person. By the end of the quarter, when receiving CICO and a Brain Break, according to the student’s daily behavior tracker, the student was earning no more than 2 out of class referrals each day. 

   

    Student C had an eligibility ruling of SLD - WE (written expression). According to the student’s IEP, the student received sentence stems and a graphic organizer as an accommodation for open ended questions and assignments in all classes. Without these accommodations, the student scored a 1 out of 5 on four open ended questions in reading and science classes over a 2 week period. The student also would not attempt to begin answering the open ended questions and would lay head down, meaning the student was overwhelmed with knowing where to begin. When given the sentence stems and a graphic organizer with teacher support, the student earned a 2 out of 5 on the next four open ended questions in reading class. In science class, the student scored the following: 2, 3, 1, 2. Data supports that the student did make progress with open ended questions when given these accommodations in reading and science classes; however, sometimes the student would choose the sentence stems only and not want to use the graphic organizer in science class. Data supported the student only needed both accommodations mainly in reading class, but needed only sentence stems in science class.