inclusion survey

Are you an administrator, Speical Ed Teacher, Reguler Ed Teacher, Person w/ disabilities, or Parent? SPECIAL ED. TEACHER

Have you ever had any experiences with inclusion? Have you ever taught an inclusive classroom? Describe your experience. YES. 5 YRS HS RESOURCE/CONSULTANT TEACHER. 1 YR GR 7 CONSULTANT TEACHER.

Do you believe that all children with disabilies can benfit from an inclusive classroom? Explain. I HAVE NOT WORKED WITH THE MOST SEVERE STUDENTS AND CAN NOT SAY FOR SURE THAT INCLUSION DEFINITLY IS BEST FOR THEM. HOWEVER, THERE ARE GAINS FOR THE “REGULAR” STUDENTS IN THAT SETTING. FOR THE LESS SEVERE DISABLED, INCLUSION CAN BE BENEFICIAL. FOR MANY, THEY RECEIVE THE BEST INSTRUCTION IN THE REGULAR CLASS AS THE TEACHERS HAVE MORE CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AT THE UPPER LEVELS THAN MANY SPEC ED TEACHERS TRYING TO PRESENT THE SAME INFO.

Do you believe that children with any kind of a disability should be included in a regulare classroom? Explain. SHOULD BE AS IN 100% NO. PERHAPS AT THE ELEM. LEVEL THAT IS EASIER TO DO. THERE COMES A POINT WHERE THE STUDENT NEEDS TO WORK ON SKILLS TO MAKE THEM SUCCESSFUL, AND THEY WON’T FIND THOSE IN A CLASS THAT FOCUSES ON ACADEMICS ALL DAY LONG.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of inclusion.
Advantages: social for both the disabled and non-disabled. co-teaching opportunities.students may work at higher levels than expected. exposed to more experiences.
Disadvantages: What they are working on, may not be what is best for them long term. ie….. doing long division when they need help understanding money. I think the life skills are not worked on enough.

What are the critical dimensions of an inclusive classroom? What do you think a classroom needs to be successful?
Need willingness by alllllllll people involved…..teachers, aides, parents, administration. Spacially, the room needs to be designed to accomodate additional people and areas to work. Everyone involved needs to understand their roles. The students in the room need to be accepting/respectful to all.

What is your opinion as a parent, teacher, or administrator about inclusion? For the less severly disabled, inclusion is appropriate.

What do you think is the future of inclusion? I think inclusion will remain, but there will be a pull back to more self contained classes with the continued push on state assessments.

Would you like to see inclusion implemented differently? Explain. I think at the secondary level, inclusion needs to be supported with some time of help/resource period as well. It is difficult to work within the structure of these classes at times.

What is your philosophy of inlcusion? That I am a 2nd teacher in the classroom to work with allllll students. I expect the gen ed teacher to work with my students and not assume I’ll take care or them myself. I will not be in the classroom and treated like an aide that just sits there and takes notes. Communication is key to success of any program.

1. Sped teacher
2. yes on a daily basis - “old days” team teaching, common plan, great academic services for all students - “new days” lousy system, no remediation, stagnet learning, improper educational services.
3. No, if speaking of academics exclusively. If a child is reading extremely below grade level they will not make academic gains and will become frustrated. If concerning “electives”, it is extremely appropriate. We should emphasize the skills the students have and instruct directly in the areas they are disabled. Direct instruction can not occur in inclusion
4. No, if a childs disability interfers with the teachers right to teach and the other students right to learn, the sped students rights do not take precedence.
5. For thos students who are near grade level and their skills have been remediated - they do great and build wonderful self esteem with their daily success. I have explained the other part of this question previously
6. Sound instruction which have been researched as being effective methods of instruction for all students
7. answered
8. I would like to see it disappear except for those student who can be successful with the minimum of accomodations and we begin to focus on remediation of academic skills and teach strong skills in organization and instill a work ethic rather than a “I won’t” attitude
9. With caution and a criteria of success in academic performance. Also, students should exhibit a strong work ethic and have a communication network between home and school with support from home. This has been the criteria where inclusion/trial mainstream was successful and these students continued to be successful post-secondary.
10. I think you can figure it out from the above!

My gifted/LD daughter (who has had success withLMB and SI OT) was in 3rd grade inclusion. It was a disaster. The teacher wanted her to dictate all her spelling words (my thoughts are IF she can write them, I WANT HER TO WRITE THEM). They were also doing “rainbow words” (something she did in 1st grade). The teacher was also writing all her homework in her planner (instead of reminding her to do it and then enforcing consequences if she didn’t). They NEVER wrote a story using spelling words, never wrote sentences with spelling words, and had basically no homework.

I told the teacher “I don’t want your handwriting in her planner, I want HER handwriting in her planner”

BTW, she was NOT there for inclusion, never having been under anything but 15 min consult, but as a “general ed” student, according to the administration.

THe year was a “disaster”, the teacher was out most of the year, and the only GOOD thing that came out of that year was that she was taught how to maintain a neater desk (by the ESE teacher who came in afternoons). I pulled her out and put her in general ed the 3rd nine weeks, where she did “fine” with minor accommodations. A well organized “buddy” next to her (so she can stay up with what’s going on in class), extended time for long writtten assignments, and use of a DANA for organizational purposes.

Having said all that, the school is now approaching me to put her back in inclusion for 5th grade, to prepare her for MS. She has global LDs, but makes good grades. She has to work harder than everyone else to achieve them. I KNOW the teacher that has the 5th grade inclusion classroom is great - but I am afraid of the “inclusion” setting.

Is Inclusion watered down?
Would it be appropriate for my child?

I am supposed to have a meeting on Tuesday a.m. to discuss this and her placement for next year. I am somewhat apprenhensive b/c of our “bad experience” in 3rd. The school assures me that it was a “teacher” problem, and not an “inclusion” problem. Supposedly there are only 3 graduated from resource/special ed in the classroom for support.

Your thoughts, please.

Are you an administrator, Speical Ed Teacher, Reguler Ed , Teacher, Person w/ disabilities, or Parent? I’m a tutor also known as Teaching Assistant

Have you ever had any experiences with inclusion? I have worked for four years with so called inclusion students. I worked as a seventh-grade teacher in 1942. Some of my students were really stupid. I had no clue about how to help them. In the 1950’s my son attended a school that included deaf and blind students. I have a granddaughter who attended a special day class for most of her school career. Now I work with a wide range of LD students

Have you ever taught an inclusive classroom? I’m not a teacher, so I guess this would be no.

Describe your experience. Like I said, I have worked for four years with a wide range of LD students, some in special day classes, many in normal classes.

Do you believe that all children with disabilies can benfit from an inclusive classroom? No. Downs, CP, and autisitic children often do will in special day classes, but I have worked with autistic and CP kids in so called normal classes. I don’t think one can make any generalizations.

Do you believe that children with any kind of a disability should be included in a regular classroom? I don’t think the thing called a regular classroom exists. I think the parent ought to check out the classroom and take it or not take it, just like they would pick a doctor or a dentist.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of inclusion. If an autistic or CP student in a classroom gets an A, it shames the lazy normal students.

What are the critical dimensions of an inclusive classroom? What’s a critical deminsion. Do you mean volume?

What do you think a classroom needs to be successful? A good teacher.

What is your opinion as a parent, teacher, or administrator about inclusion? It’s the oldest form of education. Before public schools, inclusion was the only way.

What do you think is the future of inclusion? Open enrollment, charter schools, and vouchers may make inclusion a nonissue.

Would you like to see inclusion implemented differently? I would take the money that the government gives to schools and give that money to the parents. Then the parents who want inclusion could buy it. Thems that didn’t want inclusion could avoid it.

What is your philosophy of inlcusion? I would eliminate public schools. That way the power elite could not use zoning laws and gentlemens’ agreements to exclude anybody.

Sar McName

***Sara said” Have you ever had any experiences with inclusion? I have worked for four years with so called inclusion students. I worked as a seventh-grade teacher in 1942. Some of my students were really stupid. I had no clue about how to help them. In the 1950’s my son attended a school that included deaf and blind students. I have a granddaughter who attended a special day class for most of her school career. Now I work with a wide range of LD students”***

Maybe the some called “stupid students” were LD or learned differently. Same problems exist today. Teacher think this child CAN’T learn, so he must be stupid. My daughter was called everything K-5 and 1st. I had to have her privately tested. Found out she WASN’T stupid, or obstinate after all, she was gifted/LD. Boy were all those experts shocked.

I have a friend currently who has a son with CP. Normal intelligence. They told her he had to go to a “special school” for children “like him”. There’s NO NEED for him to go to a “special class”.

I don’t mean to be “ugly”, but stupid has a bad ring to it. CP kids can be brilliant, as can all handicapped children. And if they’re not, it doesn’t mean they have any less right to an education.

And maybe the normal, lazy kids have an undiagnosed LD and don’t really need shame but help. You really see this as a strategy to success.

Alot of LD kids get called both lazy and stupid.
It is sad to see both words used on this board.

Folks seem to be interested in stupid and lazy students. So far I count three notes on the subject. My brother was a teacher, principal, and superintendent in the 1930’s through the 1950’s. As far as I know he never used words like learning disabled and special education, but slow and lazy were categories in his quiver. His theory was that slower students have an advantage that wittier students lack. Having to work harder builds character. One of his students sued the Bureau of Internal Revenue. By the time the feds finally gave in and awarded the student a $10 million settlement, they had change their name to the Internal Revenue Service.

Sara McName

You really don’t understand what it means to have an LD.

My son is extremely intellegent. He has areas of deficit that at times prevent him from showing that to the world.

Children by their nature are not lazy. This is however a trait you see in adults who are not interested in learning knew things and gaining understanding.

It takes a little work to understand what it means to have an LD.

Get to work!

I’ve worked with learning disable students (and wondered how to help them) for sixty years. During the Second World War, we didn’t have learning disabled as a vocabulary item, but we did have students who needed extra help, SWNEH. My first SWNEH student who was a young lady who came late to school everyday. Each day she sat in her seat and combed her hair for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then she looked at the wall for an hour or so. Then she would raise her hand and without being recognized, she would ask, “Miss Sara, can I go to the bathroom?” This young lady and I spent many a recess and lunch hour learning fractions, but she couldn’t remember how a numerator is different than a demominator. She would add the numerators and find common denominators of factors. If she were in school today, the psycologist would give the young lady a multisylable category. The category might itself be in another category known as learning disability. Knowing the category doesn’t help the teachers to know what to do about it. Treating the symptoms is better than finding a category. For example, if a student is easily distracted, find a classroom with fewer distractions. If a student can’t read the questions on a test, get someone to help the student read the questions. If the slacker wants to play football, tell remind him that his football career is related to his grades. Each student is an excercise in objective and stategem.

Sara McName

I teach high school CWC (Class Within a Class). It is not unusual for me to have a “regular” section and a CWC section of the same course. I do all the same stuff, but the CWC class I may review for a test a little differently or change a strategy here and there. Sometimes I out-fox myself with that, though and I’ll find I should have kept the “regular” strategy :). So, other than a few minor things and having my SPED partner in the room (who is available to all students), nah, I’d say there isn’t much difference in my room. The thing with inclusion, etc. is that so much depends on the teacher. Why don’t you go in and observe her? See what your gut feeling is and go from there. That’s how I’ve picked schools for my kid (I can enroll my child in any school in the district I work for, so I really do have a wide choice).

My numbers of “included” kids is far, far higher than 3 (more like 2/3’s of a class)… I can’t imagine a class being watered down with those kind of numbers.

While I agree each child is different. It can help to know what the disability is. Although the current practice of labeling and placing is pretty useless. It is at least one notch above labels like stupid or lazy.

My son had sensory integration issues. He got in trouble for standing up, couldn’t focus seemed completely out to lunch. I got him the help he needed and he really does not have these issues any more. I have the OT report and report card to prove it.

He is a very bright little boy who needed some very specific help. He isn’t stupid or lazy. He is brilliant and motivated.

With proper remediation that fact is finally becoming clear to those who couldn’t see what was lurking underneath initially.

You can remediate deficits. I know most schools don’t do this, but it can be done.

My bright, motivated boy is living proof. I feel sorry for the ones that get labeled lazy, or stupid. I really do. It could have been him.

Thanks for your reply. Gosh, I hadn’t even thought of that - especially since I DID just that for 4th grade (observed ALL the teachers). Duh!

I’ll call to see about observing next week. Thanks for the suggestion.

I agree LindaF. My child WAS labeled “stubborn and obstinate” in K-5. She also has SI problems, along with global LDs. Gifted IQ. We fought the school and she was the first truly dyslexic child to go to the gifted classroom.
She uses AT and is able to show her knowledge b/c of it.

Boo to the teachers, administrators, etc., who made comments like, “You’re pushing your child too hard”, or “how can she afford to go to gifted and miss a whole day of academics?”

She’s worked hard to be where she’s at, so have I.

Good for you, Linda, for finding what works for your son and giving him the tools to succeed.

Quick question.. you said your daughter used AT and could show her knowledge because of it.. What is AT?

Thanks

Assistive Technology. Use of computer with co-writer, draft builder, inspiration. She has a great vocabulary in her mind and can dictate a great story, but cannot spell anything and her writing is full of omissions and is often slow and laborious.

She began using an Alpha Smart in 2nd grade, Cowriter and draftbuiilder in 3rd and currently uses a DANA in general ed and a laptop in gifted (1 day pullout). She actually did a research paper in 3rd grade with the use of Cowriter.

She wrote a research paper in 3rd grade??? She must be gifted! =) Most students don’t write research papers till they’re in high school.

Kathy G.

Leah-FL wrote:
>
> Assistive Technology. Use of computer with co-writer, draft
> builder, inspiration. She has a great vocabulary in her mind
> and can dictate a great story, but cannot spell anything and
> her writing is full of omissions and is often slow and
> laborious.
>
> She began using an Alpha Smart in 2nd grade, Cowriter and
> draftbuiilder in 3rd and currently uses a DANA in general ed
> and a laptop in gifted (1 day pullout). She actually did a
> research paper in 3rd grade with the use of Cowriter.

Isnt’ that just it! Many of these LD kids like Leah’s daughter are quite brilliant. Without Leah’s strong advocacy her daughter would probably be in a sped class clapping out syllables. She would probably be dying of boredom and might even refuse to clap thereby having the lazy/stupid label applied.

We need to address the deficits and accomodate them when neccessary so that brilliant kids can BE brilliant.

Well, let me say, that it wasn’t of the same caliber as the other gifted kids - not by any means. BUT you have to realize, this is a kid who, at 8 years of age the OT was questioning if she’d ever Drive a car - and it was “miraculous” given all the motor problems, that she could ride a bike.

She has to write another research paper in 4th grade gifted this year. The teacher and I talked just last week and she told me she had “modified” the research paper for her (I don’t know how much). Apparently it was a bit too hard, but just the pure fact that she CAN GO to gifted is a “new frontier” at our school.

I was SCARED TO DEATH when they put her in gifted b/c she had NOT had any remediation at that point. There was a big difference between her and the other kiddos. Now, except for the fact that she uses a laptop, and doesn’t write as neatly or as fast, there’s no noticeable difference. The same teacher who told me in 2nd grade “You’re pushing her too hard” now says, “This is NOT the same child”. As Linda said, ALL these kids have strengths that can shine when given the opportunity.

When the teacher told me re: the modifocation I said “NOW, you will see the weakness”. SHe smiled, agreed and said, “Right, everything’s been oral presentation until now.” It will be interesting to see the results.

Also helps present the case that accoms are still “educationally necessary”.

Linda, Thanks for your kind words. I’m not doing anything that any other Momma Lion wouldn’t do! :0).

…

Hi. I am a reg ed teacher and a parent of a child with disabilities. I had my child included for kdg - fourth grade and I have my first included student this year. I believe that a great many children can benefit but not all. I feel strongly that sweeping generalities about the types of disabilities that can be included is unhealthy. Rather, I believe the decision is best made on a child to child basis. Two students with Cerebral Palsy are not necessarily going to gain the same success within the classroom - nor, two children with Down Syndrome, for example. The advqantages of inclusion when it is appropraite are many. Socialization skills with appropriate peers and academic growth through challenge are two such examples. Disadvantages can be many as well when inclusion is not appropriate. My son for example gained some benefits in the regular classroom but due to many elements of his program he actually lost learning time. I failed to remove him before the poison of the system resulted in a loss of self-esteem and academic strength. After 8 months in a slef-contained LD room we are now seeing the return of excitement about learning, acceptance, and improved academics. A desire to hold on to the dream of an “included child” resulted in a poor result. I have however witnessed other very successful inclusive attempts with far better results! An inclusive clasroom requires an inclusive teacher with strong support from a planning team. Information on the very disability and a strong learning profile of the student are also essential. Honesty is also essential!!!! I used to be the strongest advocate of inclusion. At this point I am not convinced it brings about positive results for learning. I hope that in the future, the natural limits of the classroom structure will be acknowledged and proper support will be established for students and teachers. Also, I hope that honesty about the true opinions of the teaching professionals wioll be promoted int he process. My personal philosophy is that all children can learn and that it is the purpose of educators to locate where learning is best maximized!

Yes, Shari makes some very good points. We should look at tailoring programs to individual student needs, not a one size fits all approach. Just as a special ed setting may not fit every child, inclusion is not best for all either.

I am a teacher in a self contained special education classroom. I have also taught resource. I have had students who could have done well in inclusion also, but there have also been many who needed that kind of setting. Instruction in a special ed setting can be lively, vibrant and challenging. Sometimes the literature about inclusion seems to assume that a special ed classroom, by definition, will not challenge, encourage creativity, or build any skills.

We in the education community should offer a range of choices, making sure that all of them are well staffed and well equipped.

I’m a former teacher, adult with learning disabilities, and social worker. As a teacher in the 1960s I mainstreamed several children who were then called “brain injured”, for gym.

Unless a child can be accepted in his environment and get an education that is responsive to his needs, I am opposed to inclusion, except on a part time basis, if the part time basis will meet the child’s needs. I have heard too many horror stories of children placed in environments in which they couldn’t gain acceptance, were miserable, couldn’t keep up, etc.

For a child who can benefit from inclusion, I think every effort should be made for this to happen. Also, I think that for many children, there is benefit in some peer experience (e.g., a recreation program or camp or support group) in which children with similar special needs can be together.

I am going to raise another issue that I feel strongly about and that has to do with insensitivity in school staff. I feel that no teacher, aide, etc. who is insensitive to children with special needs should be included in any program in which they participate. Thinking of children as “stupid” is, in my opinion, an indication of insensitivity as well as lack of knowledge. There is a new book that I strongly recommend. It is by Mel Levine. The title is “The Myth of Laziness.” I suggest that it be studied carefully by anyone who has been unwilling to get beyond the label “lazy.”