Personal Philosophy Paper Special Education

My Personal Philosophy Paper

Students I Desire to Serve

The students I desire to serve are elementary school age students with learning disabilities. In most cases, students who have difficulty with reading and math skills feel isolated, miss instruction, and often fall behind in their academics. From personal experience, I know how important it is for students with disabilities to have the same educational opportunities as anyone else. My great-aunt was withdrawn from school when she first started. After consulting a doctor, it was determined she had a disability. The school felt it would be better if she were home-schooled since the personnel could not provide the services she needed. Her parents tried their best to instruct her, but she never held a job and was not able to stay by herself. After her parents died, her sisters took care of her until she died. The family does not talk about any aspect of her life to this day. Therefore, I have often wondered what her life would have been like if she would have received an appropriate public education (Murdick, Gartin, & Crabtree, 2007).

Instructional Strategies

Students with learning disabilities often have difficulties with vocabulary. McGear, McFloyd, Dichalek, and Bobzien (2012) presented an instructional strategy called Olympic Hurdles to address problems reading sight words in third grade students with learning disabilities in a resource room. Each of the participants in the study had a card with a hurdle track. The track contained twenty-eight cells complete with hurdlers and a flag to show the beginning and ending line. Sight words came from a high frequency word list, written on flashcards, and positioned on the track randomly. A timer began for one minute when each student started. When told to stop, the total number of words correct determined the total number of words each student could correctly read per minute. The total number of words stated correctly or self-corrected was on the data sheets as recorded by the data collectors. After each trial, the students graphed their own performance. Each student averaged 20 words per minute on the first trial. During the second trial, each student’s average words per minute decreased since new words were on the track. During the third trial, there were more words known than unknown, creating an increase in each student’s words per minute averages. It was found that the more times the track with the same words repeated, the higher the success rate in this case on average 40 words per minute for each student. The reading racetracks helped the students increase their fluency and phonics skills. By breaking down unknown words into simpler parts, students were able to sound out unknown words more effectively by looking for phonics patterns (McGear et al., 2012).

Students with learning disabilities may also respond well to computer-based interventions. Nordstrom, Haverty, and Volkswagen (2011) outlined an instructional strategy in a resource room to address problems with subtraction in second grade students with learning disabilities. Three students used the Abracadabra Arithmetic program on an iPod Touch. For three days per week, each student used the flashcard format program for ten minutes, working on subtraction problems with two digits up to the number twenty. The program kept track of the number of problems correctly worked out of the total number of problems. The researchers recorded this information. During this three-week study, the students took a curriculum-based math test each Friday to determine if this program increased their subtraction knowledge. It was found that the students’ scores increased by 17% on average. This instructional strategy addresses the fluency of subtraction facts as well as mathematical logic and reasoning. Students reported that they looked forward to using the program (Nordstrom et al., 2011).

Extended Professional Skills Desired and Plan for Acquisition

The extended professional skills that I desire to acquire include learning new instructional technologies for teach writing in the classroom. I will be using the Training and Technical Assistance Consortium (TTAC) website to take several training classes. The first is AT for Writing: An Introduction. This video workshop is available at any time and will assist in learning about high and low tech devices for students who struggle with writing. By taking Writing for Students with Learning Disabilities, I will learn about written expression and new technologies to help students with learning disabilities who find writing a challenge, In order to do this, I will create an account through the Training and Technical Assistance Consortium online and take both of these free workshops. I will utilize my free time during breaks at work and free moments at home to complete these workshops. After finishing the workshops, I will put these skills into action in the classroom to assist my students with learning disabilities.

Personal Philosophy of Education

I feel that everyone in this world is capable of learning and has the same right to receive an effective education (Heward, 2009). A person’s ability or disability must not determine the quality of instruction. If an instructional technique does not work for every student, then meeting each individual student’s needs must take place. There are many scholarly journals with countless research based instructional strategies just waiting for someone to read and implement with students. If a student has a disability, these strategies allow the student to participate and have the same opportunities as everyone else in the general educational classroom. It is crucial that every student can reach their full potential to be independent individuals that strive to seize every opportunity to be successful and happy for the rest of their lives.

References

Heward, W. (2012). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

McGear, G.L., McFloyd, T.F., Dichalek, K.M., & Bobzien, W. (2012). The effects of using Olympic Hurdles for teaching sight words to three third-grade students with learning disabilities. Educational Reading Research Quarterly, 95(3), 50-66. Retrieved from http://errquarterly.org/

Murdick, N.L., Gartin, B.C., & Crabtree, T. (2007). Special education law (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Nordstrom, P.D., Haverty, A., & Volkswagen, A. (2011). An trial of i-Pod instructional programs on subtraction skills for second grade students with learning disabilities. Compendium of Special Education Technology, 101(4), 15-24. Retrieved from http://www.tamcec.org/cset/