teaching an Inclusive Classroom

This message was meant for Sara :)

I know I have said this before and I just have to say it again. Most handicapped students are already included for most or all of the school day in general education. They have been for years. If you want REMEDIATION to occur, you often want a resource room. Most of what goes on in general ed. classrooms is modification and accomodation.

The current trend toward including severely and prfoundly handicapped students (at their parents’ demand) in general education classroom is largely the result of parental denial about the extent of their child’s handicaps and needs. This may sound harsh, but I speak from first hand experience.

We have a profoundly retarded 12 year old fully included in our 6th grade. This is his 2nd year in full-inclusion. The only person on the whole IEP team who has ever wanted this is the parent. For those of you who do not know, profound retardation is an IQ less than 20 (not measurable). This poor child is functioning in infancy. His needs are no different from a normally developing 9 month old, except that he is large and very strong. His mother continues to suffer from denial that is so extreme she cannot comprehend what he needs, she hopes full-inclusion will work a miracle for her child. Instead, he has become increasingly unhappy (would you expect a 9 month old to sit at a table and keep quiet?).

After 1.5 years we finally (with assistance from 3 more specialists) got him out of the classroom for most of the day. Since our school has no unused space at all, we wheel him around (even sit in the cafeteria) and try to engage in developmentally appropriate activities with him that will meet his needs. We are still highly restricted because we do not have a child proofed room he can freely move about in.

I would even go so far as to question to appropriateness of placing moderately MR students in general education classrooms for most of their school day. When the gap is that large between a child and his/her peers,they are not truly included in the curriculum. They get to do parallel activities, but these are not what the class is doing in any real sense. The must have a fulltime aide who gives them their curriculum which (depending upon their age and grade level) may be years and years developmentally below the grade level curriculum.

If you have even been in our math classes these days, you will find our 6th graders doing prealgebra. The lower functioning students (not handicapped, not MR) are struggling mightily as it is. Our schools are all business, all teaching to the rigorous SAT 9 test these days. There are few activities that are good choices for cognitively low functioning students.

Now, for physical handicaps, vision handicaps, hearing impaired students, even high functioning autism (though there are many challenges for them), I think inclusion is viable. My final issue is with the school districts, rarely do we have enough resources to properly support these students in classrooms, so inclusion may not work as well as it might.

I don’t think profoundly retarded students should be in a regular classroom, I thought the idea of having regular students in with some learning disabled students wouldn’t be a bad idea if you had the right amount of help.

As I posted above, the greater majority of LD students are spending anywhere from 85-100% of their day in general education….in my area. Most handicapped people are LD and most LD students are not in special day class (excepting the few who have a combination of low IQ, severe LDs and the like and they are years and years and years below grade level). We are recommending a special class for a boy tomorrow who has IQ of 80, SEVERE, MAJOR, MULTIPLE LDs and is in 5th grade at low first grade level! He has had daily 1:1, is accomodated out the wazoo and is starting to have significant behavior issues because he cannot do the things his classmates can do. That is an example of a child we like to place in special class. Most of the time these students make progress and feel better about themselves when they are placed in a small class all day long with greater support.

Liz wrote:
>
> You should get "teacher of the year award" what a
> wonderful way to teach school. You really get it!!!!! I
> wish you were my sons teacher. Your kids are very lucky to
> have you on their side.

This message was meant for Sara :)

I know I have said this before and I just have to say it again. Most handicapped students are already included for most or all of the school day in general education. They have been for years. If you want REMEDIATION to occur, you often want a resource room. Most of what goes on in general ed. classrooms is modification and accomodation.

The current trend toward including severely and prfoundly handicapped students (at their parents’ demand) in general education classroom is largely the result of parental denial about the extent of their child’s handicaps and needs. This may sound harsh, but I speak from first hand experience.

We have a profoundly retarded 12 year old fully included in our 6th grade. This is his 2nd year in full-inclusion. The only person on the whole IEP team who has ever wanted this is the parent. For those of you who do not know, profound retardation is an IQ less than 20 (not measurable). This poor child is functioning in infancy. His needs are no different from a normally developing 9 month old, except that he is large and very strong. His mother continues to suffer from denial that is so extreme she cannot comprehend what he needs, she hopes full-inclusion will work a miracle for her child. Instead, he has become increasingly unhappy (would you expect a 9 month old to sit at a table and keep quiet?).

After 1.5 years we finally (with assistance from 3 more specialists) got him out of the classroom for most of the day. Since our school has no unused space at all, we wheel him around (even sit in the cafeteria) and try to engage in developmentally appropriate activities with him that will meet his needs. We are still highly restricted because we do not have a child proofed room he can freely move about in.

I would even go so far as to question to appropriateness of placing moderately MR students in general education classrooms for most of their school day. When the gap is that large between a child and his/her peers,they are not truly included in the curriculum. They get to do parallel activities, but these are not what the class is doing in any real sense. The must have a fulltime aide who gives them their curriculum which (depending upon their age and grade level) may be years and years developmentally below the grade level curriculum.

If you have even been in our math classes these days, you will find our 6th graders doing prealgebra. The lower functioning students (not handicapped, not MR) are struggling mightily as it is. Our schools are all business, all teaching to the rigorous SAT 9 test these days. There are few activities that are good choices for cognitively low functioning students.

Now, for physical handicaps, vision handicaps, hearing impaired students, even high functioning autism (though there are many challenges for them), I think inclusion is viable. My final issue is with the school districts, rarely do we have enough resources to properly support these students in classrooms, so inclusion may not work as well as it might.

I don’t think profoundly retarded students should be in a regular classroom, I thought the idea of having regular students in with some learning disabled students wouldn’t be a bad idea if you had the right amount of help.

As I posted above, the greater majority of LD students are spending anywhere from 85-100% of their day in general education….in my area. Most handicapped people are LD and most LD students are not in special day class (excepting the few who have a combination of low IQ, severe LDs and the like and they are years and years and years below grade level). We are recommending a special class for a boy tomorrow who has IQ of 80, SEVERE, MAJOR, MULTIPLE LDs and is in 5th grade at low first grade level! He has had daily 1:1, is accomodated out the wazoo and is starting to have significant behavior issues because he cannot do the things his classmates can do. That is an example of a child we like to place in special class. Most of the time these students make progress and feel better about themselves when they are placed in a small class all day long with greater support.

Liz wrote:
>
> You should get "teacher of the year award" what a
> wonderful way to teach school. You really get it!!!!! I
> wish you were my sons teacher. Your kids are very lucky to
> have you on their side.