Ashford Courses

Week 1

Perspectives on Inclusion. As you may have noted from your readings this week, there are various perspectives on inclusion and if this is the right approach for all students. Based on what you know about inclusion at this point in the course, do you agree or disagree with inclusion? Explain your rationale and support your assertions with evidence from the readings and your own experiences

LD Processing. Watch the video F.A.T. City LD Processing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?) by Rick Lavoie. Based on the readings, your experiences, and this video, what are some of your new insights on students with learning disabilities? What are some of the social, emotional, and academic, and processing needs of students with LD? What are five strategies you can use to support their needs?

Inclusion. Reflect on this week’s learning on inclusion. Why do you think inclusion is an important element in meeting the needs of students with disabilities? What factors do you think would impact inclusion being successful in a school? How would you define “success” for an inclusive classroom?

Raising Disability Awareness. For this assignment, you will explore disability areas to increase awareness regarding the characteristics and educational needs of each area. The disability areas that will be explored are learning disabilities, emotional/behavioral disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and autism.

For each disability area, find one source specific to the disability (i.e. children’s book, journal article, multimedia resources, advocacy organization websites, professional organization websites/articles, scholarly websites, etc.) and explain what you learned about the disability and how that information will impact your teaching practices. Also, how will you specifically leverage your new awareness to influence the awareness of other colleagues or students in your school? Your paper should be two- to three- pages in length and must be APA formatted. You must also include at least three references, in addition to the course text

Week 2

Disability Awareness and Collaboration. In the Week One assignment, you explored information to raise your awareness of various disability areas and you explored how you might leverage your new knowledge to impact others. For this discussion, imagine that you have been asked to co-teach with a general education teacher who has a limited perspective on the abilities of students with disabilities. Discuss how you might use a collaborative approach to influence having high expectations of all students in an inclusive classroom.

Need for Problem Solving Teams. After reading the article The Need for Problem- Solving Teams, please respond to the following scenario:

Scenario: Johnny is a third grader who is struggling with reading and behavior. You are his teacher and are frustrated by how he acts in class and disrupts other students. You have asked other third grade teachers and they have offered you several suggestions that have had little impact on Johnny’s behavior.

What would be your next steps to facilitate more effective collaboration between team members? Analyze the need for multi-disciplinary teams to address the needs of students who are struggling either academically or behaviorally. What results would you expect for Johnny from the suggestions offered by the multi-disciplinary team?

Problem Solving. Reflect on a time where you had a problem in which you sought out advice from other individuals. Explain the problem and how you approached seeking support from others. Did you feel that their input helped you in solving your problem? What made you seek out the advice of other individuals? What might you do differently based on new understandings of problem-solving teams?

Best Practices for Professional Collaboration. As we learned this week, it is critical for educational teams to collaborate and communicate effectively in order to effectively plan and implement a student’s IEP. Based on this week’s readings and your own research on this topic, develop a guide for best practices in facilitating meaningful participation and team functioning for multi-disciplinary teams. The guide should address the following inclusion players: local education agencies, families, related staff and services, administrators, general education teachers, and special education teachers.

Your guide can be created as a three- to four-page written paper, a 10- to 13-slide PowerPoint presentation, or a visual diagram. There is no required page or slide length, but be sure to address all of the topics listed.

Week 3

Universal Design for Learning. As we have read about, UDL provides access to the content and environment through multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. Explore the CAST website (http://cast.org/udl/index.html) and discuss at least five big ideas that you found to be integral for the implementation of UDL principles in a classroom. Additionally, create three examples of UDL assignments that allow for flexibility to accommodate and engage all learners.

Teaching Up. Read the Tomlinson& Javius (2012) article Teach Up for Excellence. In this article, the authors assert, “Virtually all students would benefit from the kind of curriculum and instruction we have often reserved for advanced learners—that is, curriculum and instruction designed to engage students, with a focus on meaning making, problem solving, logical thinking, and transfer of learning” (Tomlinson & Javius, 2012, p. 29).

Based on the readings, your experience, and your personal insights, what does it mean to teach “up”? What are your personal insights on the quote above—do you agree or disagree? Why? Discuss specific ways you could use two of the principles discussed in the article to differentiate instruction and teach in a way that stimulates and stretches ALL students.

Personal Reflection on Teaching. Based on the Teaching Up for Excellence (Tomlinson & Javius, 2012) article, what are your personal beliefs on teaching up for ALL students? Have you ever had an experience where a teacher (or any other person in your life) believed in you and it made a difference in your learning, education, or life? How did that experience change you and what you believe about others? In what ways can you plan for believing in all students and teaching in a way that respects and stimulates all learners?

Response to Intervention Presentation. Create a professional presentation of at least 15-20 slides that aims to inform elementary teachers about Response to Intervention and to persuade teacher leaders and administration to adopt RTI in the school. Your presentation should include:

a) Definition and description of RTI

b) A description of the four essential components of RTI (based on the National Center on Response to

Intervention)

c) An overview of the four implementation phases of RTI

d) Discussion of the benefits of RTI to students and teachers

e) Discussion of any state initiatives towards RTI

Week 4

Accommodations and Modifications. Based on the NICHCY article Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students (http://nichcy.org/schoolage/accommodations), what is the difference between accommodations and modifications? In the student scenario below, write a detailed plan for individualized accommodations and modifications you would provide based on Robert’s needs. Also, discuss the role of the collaborative, multi-disciplinary team in supporting Robert’s needs.

Student Scenario: You are a co-teacher in a 9th grade science classroom and just received a new student, Robert, who is a student with ADHD and has learning disabilities in reading and writing. He currently reads at a 5th grade reading level and has difficulty with reading comprehension. Robert also experiences challenges in writing, particularly putting his ideas down on paper. He also has challenges with spelling and grammar. He is a bright student and seems interested in the class, but you are concerned that the fast pace of instruction in general education might be a challenge for him without some strong accommodations and modifications in place to ensure he has access to learning

FBA. After reading the assigned chapters in the text and the presentation Functional Behavior Assessment(http://www.behavioradvisor.com/FBA.html), respond to the following case and questions:

Scenario: Johnny is a third grade student with ADHD and has an IEP. He continues to hit other students on the playground. He has been given consequences for his behavior on multiple occasions. There does not appear to be change in his behavior. You are a special education teacher and have been asked to help Johnny’s general education teacher.

a. What are your first steps?
b. What is the purpose of conducting an FBA?
c. What do you think is the function of Johnny’s behavior? (You can make a hypothesis)
d. What would Johnny’s behavior intervention plan look like?
e. Discuss any experiences you have had with behavior management and how you plan on using best

practices in behavior and classroom management to create an effective learning environment.

Student Assessment. Based on the readings, as well as your personal and professional experiences, what does this mean for developing engaging, safe, and productive classroom communities? What actions will you take as a teacher to communicate and demonstrate this important message to your students?

A Co-Teaching Lesson Plan. Using the My Lesson Plan template, develop a lesson plan that is intended to be co-taught.

Your lesson plan should include the curriculum objective, the procedure and student connections (including a detailed description of the co-teaching model that is being used and the role of each teacher), accommodations /modifications for students with special needs (you may make up a student with a disability for this section or use one of the examples in this week’s discussion), assessments (includes at least two forms of assessment aligned with the curriculum objective), and reflections. The lesson plan should be one- to two- pages and should be written in APA format. Include at least two references, in addition to the course text, in the lesson plan.

Week 5

Writing Supports. This week we learned about some of the possible curricular strategies and differentiation techniques. One of the strategies, Story Frame (http://files.solution- tree.com/pdfs/Reproducibles_ISI/storyframe.pdf), is a very effective way to support students who experience For this discussion, create your own story frame based on any children’s book. Post your story frame in your discussion and then discuss how you think this strategy could support students who have challenges with reading comprehension. Are there other learners that could benefit from this strategy? In what ways could this strategy be adapted to work with various grade levels or other content areas?

Self-Determination and Transition Planning. Read Wehmeyer’s (2002) article Self- Determination and the Education of Students with Disabilities (http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTE &). What is your understanding of self-determination and the role it can play in the life of a student with a disability? What can you do, as a teacher, to promote self-determination in school? Based on the readings, your experience, and your opinion, how can increased self-determination skills impact transition planning? How does collaboration fit into transition planning for a student?

Week 6

Inclusion Debate. Inclusion is a controversial concept in education because it relates to our values in education, as well as socially. Some of the questions that surround this topic are: do we value all children equally? What does “inclusion” mean? Does it mean the same thing to everyone? Are there some children for whom inclusion is inappropriate? Are there some teachers and/or schools that cannot or will not provide adequate and effective inclusive settings to meet the needs of all students?

What do YOU think? What is your stance in the inclusion debate? Respond to the questions above and support your assertions with evidence from the literature, research, and your personal and professional experiences?

Special Education Advocates. Special education advocates are a common part of the multi-disciplinary process. They represent parents and children during the IEP process. There are many opinions regarding the participation of advocates within this process. After reading the Phillips (2008) and Wright (n.d.) article, When Parents Aren’t Enough: External Advocacy in Special Education, address the following:

Why do you think parents seek out support from advocates to help with the special education process?

Do you believe that advocates are helpful or impede the collaborative relationship between parents and their child’s school? Why?

How could you, as a teacher, help parents to develop stronger advocacy skills? Why is this important?

Collaboration and Consultation. Throughout the course, in what ways have you grown in your knowledge and/or skills in using collaborative practices to support students with disabilities? What personal challenges do you think you might experience in collaborating with others or in a co-teaching role? How will you plan to prevent, mitigate, or overcome any perceived challenges to ensure you are an effective teacher?

During this class, we have learned about the collaborative relationship between special education professionals and general education professionals. In the context of this class, we have focused our attention on inclusive settings. The collaborative process takes place in many facets in meeting the needs of students with special needs. For this assignment, we will incorporate all aspects of our learning together. We will frame the paper through a case study.

Ms. Smith is a fifth grade teacher who has a class of 30 students, 5 of whom have mild disabilities. She has two students with autism, one student with an emotional disability, and two with learning disabilities. There are also several ELL students in the class as well. She currently works once a week with a special education teacher who comes into her classroom to provide services and support to the students with disabilities in the classroom. Ms. Smith has recently started feeling concerned about one of her students, Jimmy. Jimmy is a student who is experiencing difficulty at school, particularly with reading comprehension and reading fluency. Jimmy is approximately two years below grade level in reading. Also, Jimmy struggles behaviorally. He has had multiple discipline referrals over the last year. Most of these referrals are for being off-task and disrespectful behavior toward his general education teacher. Jimmy does not currently have an IEP, so he does not receive any direct support from a special education teacher within the general education classroom.

It is your job to develop a plan to provide greater support for all students in the classroom using a collaborative model. Consider what changes to situation could result in increased student support for ALL students in her classroom, including those with disabilities or those who are struggling (Jimmy). Your paper should address the following models:

§ Collaboration and consultation between the general education teacher and special education teacher. § Multi-disciplinary team that examines the student’s areas of need.
§ Response-to-Intervention
§ Co-teaching model of support

§ Specific interventions, accommodations, and modifications for the student § Functional behavior assessment
§ The role of an advocate in the multi-disciplinary/special education process.