I am planning and implementing an inclusion program for a grade 6 student who is at a grade one level. My biggest problem is what to have the student do when classmates are completing written work. For instance if students are writing the answers to Social Studies questions from the text, what can she do? So far I have come up with: Work with a peer, look at a related picture in the text and draw a picture, write one sentence with a modified question…Does anyone have any other suggestions. Although I am in the room part of the day…the concerns I have a related to those parts of the day that I am not in the room. I am willing to consult and create/provide the modifications for the teacher, but there are only so many pictures that can be drawn!!! Also, everything has to be modified for the student…Anybody have any short cuts? It takes me hours to modify!!!!! Anybody have a list of modification ideas that the classroom teacher can implement without too much planning. Any good web site? I want this program to be a success! Thank you in advance.
Thanks
Victoria, Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I should have given more information about my school system. We have full inclusion and instead of saying a child “can’t” we focus on all they “can” do in the general ed setting. Being a student in class is so much more than developing academic skills. Participation means developing work habits and cooperation and social skills that will assist the student when they are adults. Being segregated in a separate room does not do that. Yes, this student gets individual instruction at her instructional level to develop skills. But I needed help with ideas for independent work during content level areas. She happens to be mentally retarded, so her progress will always be at a different rate…At first I questioned positive could come with putting children so far below level in the general ed setting. But I have seen positive results with the proper programming and support. Since this is my first year modifying grade six, I thought maybe someone could come to my assistance with ideas. Try it, you’ll like it. After a while all of those differences somehow seem not so different after all. Thanks again. AnnieP
Re: Seatwork modifications
Annie,
Have you ever used IntelliTools software? ( www.intellitools.com )IntelliTalk and Intellipics Studio are excellent multimedia programs that offer word banks, text-to-speech and importable graphics and allow you to customize information and accommodate for students who have cognitive disabilities. It has built in record keeping so that you have a record of what the student was able to accomplish and how much time she spent on task.
You can download a 45 day trial version. It can be complicated if you have never worked with this program. Request an assistive technology assessment so that you can get appropriate tools to help you modify the curriculum and receive the necessary training to go along with this.
Re: Seatwork modifications
After working in a full inclusion school for a little bit, I really agree about the inanity of some kids being included so they like won’t feel bad or something. There was a Down’s syndrome kid in the 4th grade, she was not performing anywhere near fourth grade level (more like preschool) but the school insisted on a pretense of “normality” when what was really going on was not at all normal. I thought that in the very early grades it might have been workable (the gains for the other kids maybe outweighing disadvantages), but as a kid gets older and older their needs will change.
The teachers had no idea what to do with her, couldn’t even understand her. Earth sciences, editing written work, fractions, etc. are meaningless
to her. So they make a pretense of teaching these things by having an aide sit next to her and sorta help her do some sort of work. What she won’t learn in all this is greater independence, work on language, money skills, etc.
I’ve said not such nice things about special ed (ie what’s so special about it?) but I see it has it’s place. I saw that a lot of inclusion is a show or farce designed to improve the feelings of the school folks and perhaps parents about how we are so open minded and all. But actual learning that that kid (and some others had) was quite questionable. Interestingly I thought that the teachers had a clearer idea of what she was capable of than the special ed staff who had deluded themselves that such an arrangement was working, and that the child’s meltdowns were plays for sympathy rather than stress.
I don’t think intellligence is destiny, and I do believe some mentally retarded kids are not given their fair chance to prove what they might be capable of. It might be the case with the kid she describes, I don’t know.
But you can pretty well bet as the kid gets older that the concepts will be harder and harder, and the reality of the inclusion will get more and more questionable, unless this is some really special case.
—des
>The first question is: what is the student’s level of ability and why is this student at a Grade 1 level? If the kid is mentally delayed and functioning overall at a six-year-old level, then this “inclusion” is really questionable — what good is it supposed to do for anyone and what goals are supposed to be met?
The first question is: what is the student’s level of ability and why is this student at a Grade 1 level? If the kid is mentally delayed and functioning overall at a six-year-old level, then this “inclusion” is really questionable — what good is it supposed to do for anyone and what goals are supposed to be met?
If on the other hand the kid is at or near average intelligence but for one reason or another has not learned to read, then the question is what is delaying the reading and how can it best be taught?
In the first case I would fight strongly for the child to be taught academics in a different setting because Grade 6 academic work can do nothing but teach failure.
In the second case, I’d get the best reading workbooks and phonics workbooks and writing workbooks I can find and have the student work on upgrading skills, not wasting three hours a day copying pictures.
As far as learning the content, *if* the student is able to comprehend the concepts, I’d arrange for someone to read the text and questions aloud and write the answers from dictation. By Grade 6 the other kids in the class should be quite good readers; it would be unfair to load this whole task on one of them, but perhaps several could take turns.