Inclusion-Sci. Class

You are *not* crazy. Most of what passes for science instruction in special ed classes is horrible.

YOu *will* have to be very assertive (unless you’re really lucky) and proactive to make sure that your son doens’t get overwhelmed — but of course, assertive and proactive in a diplomatic way that doesn’t make the teacher think you’re either trying to tell him/her how to teach or “let your kid be lazy” (because then what would the others think?).

See if you can find the best organized teacher you can (if you’ve got a choice). Sometimes the teacher will give the kiddo a copy of class notes, or an “advance organizer” with most of the notes, wiht parts of it to be filled in by the student. This is ideal because it means the student has to pay attention… depending on the kid’s thinking style either he fills in the details or the main points.

You may also have to cut back on the quantity. Lots of content area classes dump an incredible amount of terms on kids so that in an attempt to cram them into short term memory they lose all chance of actually building any understanding of the critical concepts… so of course they don’t remember those main ideas so they don’t have a basis on which to understand the terms the next year’s teacher throws at them. The same kid can look very smart or very challenged — depending on how this is handled.

There is no reason to keep your son from entering a regular class of any kind if his only disablility is an inablility to take notes. I work with several hearing impaired students and they are all entitled to notetaking services. Because of the hearing impairment, they are not able to look down and take notes while listening to the teacher. So a notetaker (educational assistant, in H.S. maybe another reliable student, etc.) is provided. Considering he has done so well in Math, I would push for notetaking services.

Sue,

I am with you 100% on the quality of both science and history in sped class. It is sad I take every opportunity to teach my son both subjects.

I asked the regular ed teacher, his homeroom teacher, to send home work papers and topics reg. ed is doing. No luck.

I get very angry that an assumption is made these kids can’t learn those subjects. There are lots of history movies, cool science hands on stuff they could use.

Just a vent!!!!

The special ed kids in our district are mainstreamed for both science and social studies with modifications made by the LD teacher. Her approach is to make the two subjects as visual as possible. The kids are expected to complete all work in these classes to the best of their ability. The LD teachers reads the tests to the students so they even take the same test. They are provided study guides proir to test that specifically goes over what is on the test. My son has learned a lot in these two classes and the teacher says he contributes to the class. She says she usually has him demonstrate the hands on type stuff for the class. I can’t see why these kids should not be taught science and social studies. My sons loves to watch the discovery channel and the history channel.

You’re not crazy but you might want to invest some time checking out what you’ll be getting him into. Does the science class use a textbook? Will he be expected to read that (are you willing to read it outloud to him if he is?) How willing is his school and its teacher to abide by the IEPs?

Science certainly can be taught in a visual and hands on way but sadly it isn’t always that way. Consider going and visiting the science classrooms of the next year’s grade. You have that right. See if they seem visual and hands on and see what the teachers are like. See if it feels like a class where your son can learn and succeed with an IEP and/or some outside support.

Good luck.

It generally isn’t the subject matter that is the problem it is the reading level in content specific areas. The special education teachers are not certified in these subjects but do try and incorporate language arts skill development into areas so that this skill increases in development. I don’t think you’ll find any special education teacher receiving awards from content areas for being the best “Science/History” teacher, that just isn’t the training they have received. However, if a student’s reading/writing skills are so weak as to not provide successfull participation in general education classes, why would we think this is a great idea? Do you think the child enjoys this level of challenge academically so that he/she can say he/she is in a general education class? Does the student want to be in these classes or does it make the parent more comfortable with the particular disability?

If is the only problem, then notes can be provided but I would not exempt the student from taking notes. It may be difficult but it won’t improve unless he/she attempts the skill development. Also, when “good” notes are then provided, he/she can compare each and gain increased understanding of what they “should look like”. Too often we determine that sped kids just can’t do something and expect less from them. We call the end result “learned helplessness”.

Does the sped teacher provide instruction in visual mode in an alternative setting or is the modification occuring in the general education classroom? Wouldn’t all students benefit from visual modality?

The exception to that would be if taking the notes means the kiddo can’t use his brain to listen to what’s happening. One thing that can help is giving a partially completed outline of the notes, so the student has to follow along and fill in the missing pieces, but doesn’t spend five minutes getting one definition down while the teacher’s gone off and given the explaining and examples that would actually help the kid *learn* what it means.

Thank you all for your great insight!! Steve-in answer to one of your questions, my son currently gets science thru his resource room. She presents the general curriculum, but modifies it to her students (there are about 10) general level. For example for a recent project, instead of collecting 50 tree leave samples and make an outline report, he only had to collect 30. Their (the “team”) reasoning to keep him in resource for science was due to notetaking, that is why i bring this up. I just want to be sure he is being challenged, and not getting use to taking the easy road. IEP meeting on Monday at 12N—I’ll post back and let you know what transpired.

Thanks again for all your help!

Sue

This is done in the general education classroom and all the students benefit because the LD teacher co-teaches with the teacher during science and social studies. The study guides provided are also provided to the entire class. The LD teachers aide also helps during this time by being available for any student who might need help not just the ones with an IEP.

You are *not* crazy. Most of what passes for science instruction in special ed classes is horrible.

YOu *will* have to be very assertive (unless you’re really lucky) and proactive to make sure that your son doens’t get overwhelmed — but of course, assertive and proactive in a diplomatic way that doesn’t make the teacher think you’re either trying to tell him/her how to teach or “let your kid be lazy” (because then what would the others think?).

See if you can find the best organized teacher you can (if you’ve got a choice). Sometimes the teacher will give the kiddo a copy of class notes, or an “advance organizer” with most of the notes, wiht parts of it to be filled in by the student. This is ideal because it means the student has to pay attention… depending on the kid’s thinking style either he fills in the details or the main points.

You may also have to cut back on the quantity. Lots of content area classes dump an incredible amount of terms on kids so that in an attempt to cram them into short term memory they lose all chance of actually building any understanding of the critical concepts… so of course they don’t remember those main ideas so they don’t have a basis on which to understand the terms the next year’s teacher throws at them. The same kid can look very smart or very challenged — depending on how this is handled.

There is no reason to keep your son from entering a regular class of any kind if his only disablility is an inablility to take notes. I work with several hearing impaired students and they are all entitled to notetaking services. Because of the hearing impairment, they are not able to look down and take notes while listening to the teacher. So a notetaker (educational assistant, in H.S. maybe another reliable student, etc.) is provided. Considering he has done so well in Math, I would push for notetaking services.

Sue,

I am with you 100% on the quality of both science and history in sped class. It is sad I take every opportunity to teach my son both subjects.

I asked the regular ed teacher, his homeroom teacher, to send home work papers and topics reg. ed is doing. No luck.

I get very angry that an assumption is made these kids can’t learn those subjects. There are lots of history movies, cool science hands on stuff they could use.

Just a vent!!!!

The special ed kids in our district are mainstreamed for both science and social studies with modifications made by the LD teacher. Her approach is to make the two subjects as visual as possible. The kids are expected to complete all work in these classes to the best of their ability. The LD teachers reads the tests to the students so they even take the same test. They are provided study guides proir to test that specifically goes over what is on the test. My son has learned a lot in these two classes and the teacher says he contributes to the class. She says she usually has him demonstrate the hands on type stuff for the class. I can’t see why these kids should not be taught science and social studies. My sons loves to watch the discovery channel and the history channel.

You’re not crazy but you might want to invest some time checking out what you’ll be getting him into. Does the science class use a textbook? Will he be expected to read that (are you willing to read it outloud to him if he is?) How willing is his school and its teacher to abide by the IEPs?

Science certainly can be taught in a visual and hands on way but sadly it isn’t always that way. Consider going and visiting the science classrooms of the next year’s grade. You have that right. See if they seem visual and hands on and see what the teachers are like. See if it feels like a class where your son can learn and succeed with an IEP and/or some outside support.

Good luck.

It generally isn’t the subject matter that is the problem it is the reading level in content specific areas. The special education teachers are not certified in these subjects but do try and incorporate language arts skill development into areas so that this skill increases in development. I don’t think you’ll find any special education teacher receiving awards from content areas for being the best “Science/History” teacher, that just isn’t the training they have received. However, if a student’s reading/writing skills are so weak as to not provide successfull participation in general education classes, why would we think this is a great idea? Do you think the child enjoys this level of challenge academically so that he/she can say he/she is in a general education class? Does the student want to be in these classes or does it make the parent more comfortable with the particular disability?

If is the only problem, then notes can be provided but I would not exempt the student from taking notes. It may be difficult but it won’t improve unless he/she attempts the skill development. Also, when “good” notes are then provided, he/she can compare each and gain increased understanding of what they “should look like”. Too often we determine that sped kids just can’t do something and expect less from them. We call the end result “learned helplessness”.

Does the sped teacher provide instruction in visual mode in an alternative setting or is the modification occuring in the general education classroom? Wouldn’t all students benefit from visual modality?

The exception to that would be if taking the notes means the kiddo can’t use his brain to listen to what’s happening. One thing that can help is giving a partially completed outline of the notes, so the student has to follow along and fill in the missing pieces, but doesn’t spend five minutes getting one definition down while the teacher’s gone off and given the explaining and examples that would actually help the kid *learn* what it means.

Thank you all for your great insight!! Steve-in answer to one of your questions, my son currently gets science thru his resource room. She presents the general curriculum, but modifies it to her students (there are about 10) general level. For example for a recent project, instead of collecting 50 tree leave samples and make an outline report, he only had to collect 30. Their (the “team”) reasoning to keep him in resource for science was due to notetaking, that is why i bring this up. I just want to be sure he is being challenged, and not getting use to taking the easy road. IEP meeting on Monday at 12N—I’ll post back and let you know what transpired.

Thanks again for all your help!

Sue

This is done in the general education classroom and all the students benefit because the LD teacher co-teaches with the teacher during science and social studies. The study guides provided are also provided to the entire class. The LD teachers aide also helps during this time by being available for any student who might need help not just the ones with an IEP.