inclusion question

In an elementary school setting, it is rarely expected that children will work or be able to work that independently. Textbooks are less used at the elementary level as well. The kind of assignment you’re describing occurs less in elementary school teaching and when assigned would be assigned as homework. (where parents end up having to help with it)

I think this kind of assignment can be very hard on kids with learning differences. Do any of these kids have reading issues? Likely they do and kids with reading issues tend to struggle with what seems like a simple read the chapter, answer the questions assignment. Remember that kids who read slowly or poorly cannot skim the chapter. The ability to skim is a sophisticated reading skill. Asking a student to skim assumes their ability to rather flawlessly decode and so well know the words that they can skim over them. Indeed, weak readers can be right on top of the answer to a question and not even recognize what they’re reading as the answer to the question. The inability to recognize the answer is often a sign that they really don’t understand the question being asked.

Why not either treat them as a group or have them work in pairs - pairing them up on the basis of reading ability? Put a weaker reader with a stronger reader. Have one read and the other write down the answers.

Or if you treat them as a group and they have 12 questions to answer, have each one work on two of the questions and then bring them together to share their answers.

It may also be that you need to drop the “answer the questions” assignment entirely - if you’re empowered to do that - and simply teach them the material. Clearly they’re not getting it in the way it’s being taught now.

I’m not sure what subject this is but other than math I’ve rarely seen a textbook that offers effective teaching. The language of textbooks tends to be stilted - incomprehensible to kids with language-based learning differences. If you’re really empowered to modify, drop the textbook for these kids altogether.

Good luck.

Sara gave you good suggestions. You and the teacher need to think about the goal for this assignment I think. Is it that kids will learn to find information from a textbook- using the structural clues? And/or learn the information?

It is unlikely that your LD students are going to attain either of these goals by repeating an activity for which they do not have the underlying skills. Integrated study skills are the hardest ones for LD kids- and this requires a fairly high level of integration, as well a a substantial amount of skills.

By the way- is it only your kids that are having trouble? I somehow find it hard to envision a clas of seventh graders gliding effortlessly through this sort of assignment- simply because it is a relatively new one for most of them.

Maybe you could take part of the class- with your kids of course and explicitly teach a strategy like SQ3R. Model it for them with a couple of passages- it can be their “real work” and then have them work on it in pairs- using the strategy. When they are competent- turn them lose in the class. Be sure to teach them how to turn the words of the question into their answer along the way.

Robin

Sara,

My students are included in the following classes; science, geography, and reading. The reading class they don’t have too much trouble because everyone works at his or her own level. But for geog. and science, all the students work on the same thing. I work with two other teachers in their room. I do not plan the lessons, I merely help my spec. ed students, and reg ed. students with the work and modify things for them. For geo. and history (next year) my students have to answer up to six questions at the end of the lesson. The spec. ed. teacher before me would give the students the answers to the questions and they would copy them. (This was also done for the test) I don’t really agree with just giving them the answers, so I would modify their work, by having them only do half of the work, have them answer with short word answers(instead of sentences, reg. ed. teacher requires this) and their test would be modified completely, mult. choice, narrow choices, etc. Some of the teachers, refuse to allow group work. I really don’t have much of a say in how the class is run. I could take them out and help them, but that defeats the purpose of including them. I am just curious of how I should be doing all of this. I understand the reading level is too high for them, and I have made accommodations, but how can I help them to find the answers? Or should I do things differently. Thanks.

Robin,

For example, I am with another teacher in her room for geography. She reads the lesson aloud them the students are to answer the four questions at the end of the lesson. My students have a much more difficult time with this assignment. Yes, some of the seventh graders have trouble finding the answers, but when I show them where the answer is in the book, they can write down the answer. Whereas, my kids are still stuck on, what to write down. This particular teacher will not let the students work in pairs. They are to do their work without talking, while I walk around helping my 8-9 kids with each answer.

As I told Sara, the spec. ed. teacher before me would just give them the answers and have them copy them (even for tests), but I don’t agree with that method. That’s just my honest opinion. Maybe I am incorrect, do I just give them the answers? I really want to refrain from pulling my students to another room, or aside. It defeats the purpose of inclusion. This is my first year teaching, and I want to make sure that I am doing the right thing for these kids. So with all this information, what do I do? AAAAAUUUGGGHHH!!!
Thanks Becky

If, as you say, the reading level is too high for them, then you’ve identified the same problem. How can they find the answers in written material if the reading is too high for them?

Your modifications of allowing them shorter answers and half the questions is helpful but that can’t help them read material they can’t read. Unless you can find a textbook that is at their level, you’re going to have to go on doing what you’ve been doing. There’s no magic wand to wave over their heads and have them read better than they do.

You can’t be in two places at once. No one can. You can’t help all of them find the answers at the same time unless you work with all of the them at the same time in a group.

I try to get “big picture” for my kids. What do they really need in life and how does the curriculum of this class relate to their future lives? Do you really think they’re learning much by this question and answer assignment?

What do you want for them? How do they feel about this? Why not include them in the loop of the questions you’re asking? They might have some thoughts about it. Are they happy with inclusion?

I don’t think inclusion works well very often. I also don’t have a big problem with teachers giving answers if learning is the point. If learning the material is the point and they can’t the answers on their own due to their poor reading skills, giving them the answers can assist their learning of those answers.

What do you want them to get better at? Reading? That’s not going to happen in a science or geography class where they’re given reading material not at their level. Do you want them to get better at looking up answers? That’s not going to happen if they can’t read the material.

What about xeroxing the chapter of the textbook they’re working from and taking a yellow highlighter and highlighting the answers? If they can’t skim, how can they find the answers otherwise?

Figure out what you (or they) really think would be helpful to them and then do that.

What is the purpose of inclusion? Do you know the history of the inclusion movement?

For many years in our society, there was no special education. There were no services. There was no recognition of the concept of a learning difference. When we finally figured it out and were put under pressure by special interest groups, we created special education and its services. But the history of the early special education movement proved it to be a “dumping ground”. So back came the special interest groups and they insisted that children assigned to special education not be completely segregated and so inclusion was invented.

The invention of inclusion had no purpose other than to shut up the special interest groups who were asking for improvements to the special education model.

Do what’s best for your kids as best you can. The purpose of school and any part of it should be to help the children in the best possible way. Don’t worry about other agendas.

Sara,

I know that you also are in the middle school. How is your program run?
What classes do you teach? How do you teach them? I am curious. The other teachers I work with have only been teaching 2-3 years, and they are in the same boat. What do we do? I always struggle with what is right for my kids. I sometimes feel that a)my kids belong with everyone else b)they shouldn’t feel ashamed about being there. Of course they can’t be in every class, I guess I am just struggling. Enough rambling

I teach Social Studies and Language Arts in an independent school. We have many children with learning differences although we are not, persay, a school for children with learning differences. We also have some impressively bright children with pristine learning styles. And everything in between.

Smaller class sizes and a reputation for doing things differently brings many different families with many different children to our door. Once there, we do not “track” by ability except in math. All other classes are a mixture of our children with learning differences and our children without.

Sometimes parents make special requests. That’s as close to an IEP as we get. Sometimes teachers recognize that a child needs something different and sometimes they do it.

It is my belief that every child in every school deserves to be successful. I believe it’s my responsiblity to help that child achieve success. If the child does not achieve success, I see that as on me. The child’s failure is my failure. After all, who’s the professional?

So we don’t have a formal program as do you. Too many kids in my school struggle - too many teachers have a sink or swim approach to the children with learning differences. I try to make my classroom a place where all can be successful. I have a wonderful carte blanche from my principal to do pretty much anything I please in my classroom. So I can change books or even curriculum and grades pretty much as I think best.

What you and your other young colleagues are seeing is that inclusion really doesn’t work. It’s a smoke and mirrors game. Inclusion asks the impossible of teachers and students.

If children leave my Social Studies classroom and haven’t learned the details of Social Studies, I’m not concerned about that. Did the child have a positive experience? I have a very user-friendly classroom and have left all the inane practices of teaching behind. I rarely if ever use a textbook. Too many kids can’t read them or make sense of them. I give some “tests” to make everybody comfortable but I design user-friendly tests.

I think with young children we need to work on improving their basic skills by which I mean reading and writing. We should intrigue them in science but not bore them with lab reports but involve them with hands-on experiments. Social Studies can be taught the same way. Math is sadly math.

Too many classes make learning a chore. Learning, real learning, is the best feeling in the world. If your kids look bored or sad, they’re not learning. They’re just in school.

That you’re questioning these things so early in your career is more than the sign of a good teacher. It’s the sign of someone who really cares about kids. Put the learner above the learning and you’ll find you’ll be serving learning best. As long as schools and teachers talk about learning and don’t talk about kids, they’ll be talking about the wrong thing.

I’ve very honest with you. Forgive me that. Don’t worry about the purpose of inclusion. Do exactly what your inner voice is already telling you to do. Worry about the kids. If the present model doesn’t work for them, throw it out and find one that does.

How many of your children go home at night and tell their parents they had a great day in school? How many of any of our children are able to say that we’ve given them a great day in school?

We’re doing something wrong but that doesn’t mean we always will be. We need to change the focus of our schools and our classrooms in them from the learning to the learners.

Thanks for listening.

I get real upset when I hear someone say that we only do inclusion at this school or at a certain grade level. This goes against the spirit of IDEA and the concept of the Individualized Education Plan. When you go into an IEP meeting you first determine the child’s present levels of functioning and his exceptional areas. You write goals and objectives that address these deficit areas. It is only after doing this first that you then consider placement options. You do not determine placement first. Not all children’s needs can be met in an inclusive model only. A child’s placement should be based on the individualized needs of the child. I think that school systems that insist exclusively on using full inclusion only or pull-out only are violately FAPE.

Harriet

So… It sounds kind of like you are in the room functioning as a classroom assistant? When I taught intensive resource room in the middle level, this was one of the assignments for the paraeducators. Now granted- I wasn’t a first year teacher so that whole credibility thing wasn’t a problem.

I think you are quite right about giving kids the answers. hat doesn’t really teach them anything except that they are incapable of doing it without help. This is not the goal. However, unless you can change your role in the class, I am not sure that you are going to be able to do a lot about it in this setting. So let’s let this year go and talk about next year. I think you are fine and doing the best you can. Really…

Is there one teacher on this team that you have a good enough relationship with so that they might consider altering the structure of their routine to include some collaboration? What you are doing right now is a waste of your training and expertise. If you have a teacher that would be amenable- just one- you need to demonstrate that this works- talk with them about your concerns. I would be willing to bet that they understand. Talk about study skills, notetaking, ways to support content learning- Then ask them to help you brainstorm and plan some ways that you could be more effective in their class next year. Maybe, you could teach half the class - including your kids- some content using things like SQ3R- while they teach the other half. Maybe you can offer notetaking instruction and support. Perhaps you could teach a lesson or two…(this is a big stretch for most classroom teachers) You want to gradually edge yoursef in to the planning piece so that your role is more of a teacher and less of a classroom aide. This geography teacher may not be the place to start by the way:)

Once you are doing this in one class, and getting results, you will be surprised I think at how receptive teachers will be to having you join them in collaborative partnerships. But first you need one…Keep me posted- the years that Iraught with secondary and middle level tevel teachers were great fun and one of the parts of that job that I miss!

Robin

In response to your inclusion question, I recommend that you attempt to resolve your problems in couple of manners. First, I suggest that you review the performance levels of students who are being included in the general education class. If updated information is not available, I recommend that you conduct your own informal assessments. Once this information is reviewed, it can help you establish which students are in need of more help. Second, you may attempt to collaborate with your general educator(s) and department chairs in determining minimum performance levels for students who are to be included in the general education environment. As a result, those students who are most in need may need and should get intensive support.

In response to your inclusion question, I recommend that you attempt to resolve your problems in a couple of manners. First, I suggest that you review the performance levels of students who are being included in the general education class. If updated information is not available, I recommend that you conduct your own informal assessments. Once this information is reviewed, it can help you establish which students are in need of more help. Second, you may attempt to collaborate with your general educator(s) and department chairs in determining minimum performance levels for students who are to be included in the general education environment. As a result, those students who are most in need may need and should get intensive support.

Harriet,

What I am struggling with is not necessarily the inclusion question, but are my students getting the best education they can. I have some students that only have disabilities for reading and writing. They don’t see me for math. I am frustrated because I am in other teacher’s rooms accommodating the science, history, reading, writing, and geography work in the room so my students can participate. I follow the same group of kids all day pretty much. I don’t always feel this meets their needs. I almost feel it is a waste of my time to accommodate in these classes, when I could pull some kids at various parts of the day instead of having twelve, and following them all day, class to class, I could see 3-4 at different parts of the day to meet their needs. I guess I am frustrated that I do all of the accommodating. I want my kids to participate as much as they can. I don’t really know how to explain it.
Thanks for your input, Rebecca

Sara and Robin

Robin-You hit the nail on the head. I really do feel that I am an aide in the classroom. The teacher stands up front teaches the lesson, then I help my students with the questions. It has gotten to the point that if I am not in the room, my kids won’t even attempt to do the questions. It really is frustrating. By the way this is in Geography. I would really like to work collaboratively with another teacher, but I work in five different classes (different subjects) with 4 different teachers. In my response to Harriet, I described how our inclusion is set up. I follow about 8-10 kids all day from class to class, accommodating on the spot. This is very hard to do. I am hoping next year I can teach more than one class. In my math class, I do more than math, I help with study skills, reading, etc. But with 9 students, it can be challenging. Some classes I work in with another teacher is a waste of time. She reads and then I help with the questions. Boring.

This is new to this school. The spec. ed. students were basically in the spec. ed. room all day, this didn’t seem to work, so now they are included in all classes but math. The teachers were reluctant to have the kids in their room unless a spec. ed. teacher is there to help them. come on. Next year, I am speaking up. I think with my kids being split up more 2-4 per class instead of 8-10, the teachers won’t need me as much. Then I can hopefully have two of my own classes where I can work on the students who need more intensive help. I can not give that when I am in everyone else’s class modifying and being an “aide”. Of course I would still like to work in some classes with teachers, but I want to become more of a part of it.

Thanks
Rebecca

Sara,

I am looking for very basic level 2nd 3rd science and history books. My son is 9 in sped and they don’t get any of these subjects.

He loves maps, science stuff and I hate having him miss out on things he enjoys.

“The invention of inclusion had no purpose other than to shut up the special interest groups who were asking for improvements to the special education model. “

Of course the special interest group which was served by this happened to be those individuals who were being dumped into segregated classes with little regard to their needs, where the best prospect they could hope for was that no one got injured today…

I find your reply to be arrogant, ignorant and far from the truth. It is your skewed opinion and worth absolutely zero.

Inclusion follows on the footsteps of desegregation by race, and has much of the same rational to support it. Many children with LD’s were wrongfully removed from regular classes when all they needed were minor accomodations. The success or failure of inclusion resides less within these children than it does in the willingness of the adults that run the program. Many inclusion settings in this country succeed because the people involved WANT it to succeed, and are willing to do what it takes to make it work. Many more fail for just the same reason, because the teachers refuse to implement the needed accomodations, because the district refuses to train and support the teachers involved, because administrators jump at the first sign of failure or disciplinary problems to yank struggling children out of the included setting and dump them back into the isolated sped class.

It is morally wrong in addition to illegal to refuse to allow kids the opportunity to fully participate in society. Those with disabilities or conditions are still citizens, and shall enjoy all the same rights and privileges that all of the “regular” people, which does not cease to exist at the door to the school.

Too many people with moderate LD’s have succeeded to just sweep them under the rug. To suggest that inclusion is simply quieting down some special interest groups shows that you really do not have a grasp on the bigger picture. I feel sorry for those students who have to sit in a classroom with a teacher who has this type of attitude.

The quality of science and social studies textbooks offered at the primary level is very questionable, IMHO. They tend to cover a lot of material very quickly, and with very little depth or opportunities for true learning. Rather than looking for a book, have you thought of trying to incorporate experiences in these areas into your everyday life?

For example, if you are taking a road trip, cut and glue a road map that contains your route onto a piece of cardboard. Allow your child to find the best route and highlight it. Then, as you travel, he can go over the route with a different color highlighter, and know where you are and how far you have to go.

For science, collect some of those nasty green worms that eat the parsley in your garden, feed the worms more parsley until they enter their chrysalis stage, and watch what happens. Here in the southeast, swallowtail butterflies emerge in a week or so….and this illustrates complete metamorphosis much more memorably than any science book.

Cooking is a terrific way to teach chemistry. Museums are fabulous places to learn about history. I believe that these types of experience will be far more meaningful and enriching than textbooks, and when your child gets really excited about something, go to the library and help him do some research and write about what he has learned.

Karyn

I absolutely agree with you that many kids were finding themselves dumped into classes with little regard for their needs and I used just that phrase in regard to the early special ed. movement - a dumping ground.

Past that I wish I could share your belief that our society truly cares about any of these kids. I see only my government doing what it is forced to do. I do not see it doing anything more or thinking the issue through at any caring level. It created inclusion but didn’t create smaller class sizes to support inclusion. It created inclusion but didn’t retrain teachers to support included students. It writes a law at the federal level but leaves it to local schools to circumvent it whenever possible.

But if I’m wrong about any or all of that, I would celebrate being wrong. I saw my two included sons receive little benefit from inclusion and no support for them or their teachers. If inclusion and the children in those programs are really a priority for our society and what I’ve seen is the exception rather than the rule, that’s great news.

to make some valuable changes in the way services are delivered. You cannot change everything at once- that would be asking too much and you would be nuts at the end… Start assigning whatever paraeducators you supervise to some of these classes next year. Meet with the teachers and ask for feedback and suggestions so that you can make this work more effectively for them. I would be willing to bet that while some teachers will say “Oh it’s fine” there will be others with some good ideas who will welcome your respect for their opinions. (the “oh it’s fine” people can get the paras next year:)

Include your suggestions as part of the possibilities too. Then pick a teacher who seems receptive, and see if you can’t work some changes within that one class and the way you are used. I did some aide work when I had a job like yours- because I don’t know as much about Science as the person teaching the class and I had to recognize that as much as the teacher had to acknowledge that maybe everyone wasn’t learning this stuff as well as they thought. (I have worked with several Science teachers) So… I wrote notes and copied them, put stuff on the board while the teacher was talking,designed tests and drew diagrams. But- I also taught study skills and vocabulary within the the context of the content (alliteration:) because I knew more about that. It takes time. It is their classroom after all, and their comfortable way of doing business that you are looking to change a bit. (and this is only your first year…)

Good luck- I think you will be fine!

Robin

Just wanted to put my 2 cents in, my son is included with support in 6th grade. His best class is social studies, the teacher is warm and friendly, she also treats her class as if all are gifted, lots of activities as well as teaching study skills such as using the sq3r.Looking back on my school days, this would have been a great strategy to use, I learned about it only in the past couple of years.Sure would have helped in college :o).

You raise a good point when you note that you’re the only one doing the accomodating. Are there any modifications being made?

Your kids clearly need something they’re not getting. That they won’t even attempt the questions when you’re not there means the lesson and the questions aren’t working for them. The curriculum doesn’t seem to be modified for your kids in any way. The regular teacher is planning the lesson, teaching it, and you’re supposed to close the gap between a lesson not intended for kids with learning differences and the expectations that the regular ed. teacher has for them. You’re the gap closer.

But that’s a hard gap to close with so many kids and no modifications to the curriculum. It sounds to me like the politics of your school have something to do with what’s going on. When they went from a self-contained special ed. room to inclusion, how did the faculty feel about that? Were they on board with it?

If not, they’re not going to welcome the presence of this children and/or be willing to modify the curriculum or classroom practice for them.

If they are on board with it, if they really believe philosophically in inclusion, then it’s just a matter of working it out. Brainstorming and coming to a better way to do it.

If each class or any class is basically a teacher standing in front of the room talking and then having kids answer questions out of book, sounds like something might be missing for all of the kids. Depending on your class size, though, teachers often resort to this kind of teaching just to contend with the numbers of kids.

Good luck.