Special and Inclusive Education - Essay Example

SРЕСIАL АND INСLUSIVЕ ЕDUСАTIОN An Essay Submitted By: NAME: INSTITUTION: COURSE: INSTRUCTOR: DATE: © 2013 INTRODUCTION The onus of a professional teacher in a diverse classroom is to ensure that all members of the classroom are accommodated in the most inclusive manner. This diversity may come in the form of race, gender, religion and academic ability as illustrated by Foreman (2011). Achieving this responsibility is thus considered to be the most challenging task of the classroom teacher. This scenario is presented by Janet who is three years below her classmates in the current essay. It is therefore my responsibility to adjust classroom activities in order to accommodate Janet’s literacy and communication levels without necessarily compromising the comfort of the other students. THE LEARNING ACTIVITIES i) Reading activity The learners in their intermediate level will each read a passage from the text provided by the teacher. They will be working in groups of five. Each learner will need to get fully involved in the reading activity and the teacher will be walking around helping those in need of assistance. After the reading session, the learners will stop group work and take their regular sitting positions. They will continue reading out the paragraphs to rest of the class as many times as possible. The idea will be to improve fluency and coherency. Other members of the class will attempt to correct the one reading the passage by giving suggestions on how to improve. This will be under the guidance of the teacher. ii) Writing activity The learners will similarly be asked to engage in a writing activity in their Business English lesson. Each learner will be required to write an application letter using Business English appropriate to their literacy level. According to Jack and Pickering (2003), Business English is appropriate for Intermediate Level learners who are deemed mature enough to brainstorm on certain topical issues affecting the business world. The learners will have thirty minutes to do this after which the teacher will request them to exchange their letters. Using the correct format of writing an application letter in Business English presented by the teacher, each learner will mark and correct the friend’s letter. iii) Talking/Listening activity This activity is also suited for the Intermediate Level of learners still working in groups. The learners are requested to listen to a recorded radio talk as attentively as possible while maintaining silence throughout. The learners are allowed to listen to the talk as many times as is permissible by the allotted time so as to record all what they can hear in their notebooks. For better effect, the learners can increase or reduce the volume and/or the phase of the talk, pause or stop it as long as it is convenient to them, while not causing distraction to members of the other groups. At the end, all the learners discuss amongst themselves within their groups so as to harmonise their texts. THE NECESSARY ADJUSTMENTS In the first activity, it was found necessary to make certain adjustments in order accommodate the learning needs of Janet who is three years below her classmates. Since reading disability is manifested by a number of inadequacies, it is obvious that Janet is a victim. This is because she has difficulties in reading out single words as well as decoding out words. This makes her unable to comprehend long sentences. To assist Janet cope up with her reading inadequacies, the teacher has to do some adjustments as proposed by Oldrieve (1997). Firstly, the teacher can display excerpts from the text in large print on a whiteboard in front of the class for all to see. In addition to this, the teacher can also use coloured transparencies (Richards, 2008) over Janet’s reading worksheet for improved clarity. Application of this strategy is recommended by Sturomski (1997) who argues that words that would otherwise appear ‘blurred and jumbled’ on white paper become clearer and easier to read once the transparency is placed over the white text. To succeed in this strategy, it is important to first determine which colour works best for Janet. After this determination, recommendations to Janet’s parents are made for them to purchase reading glasses in the selected colour for her (Williamson, 2004). Most importantly is also for the teacher to ask Janet’s group members to read aloud to her in order to boost her confidence (Oldrieve, 1997). In the views of Foreman (2011), this strategy will assist Janet to stay alert and interested. Writing is a literacy aspect that is very important in communicating ideas and information to the audience. It is a skill that is ought to be perfected through long periods of practice and dedication (Sturomski, 1997). Yet learners find themselves against a wall and a hard place when tasked to use this skill. To assist Janet carry out the writing activity in this lesson effectively, the teacher has to do some adjustments. For starters, the class teacher first introduces the format of a formal Business letter on the whiteboard and explains that it is a tool used to communicate business ideas and information (Richards, 2008). With the sample business letter clearly showing all the relevant parts on the whiteboard, Janet is therefore capable of drafting an acceptable business letter with ease. She is required to repeat this several times to master the skill. Where difficulties present themselves like in misspellings and omissions of complete words and sentences, the teacher assigns a good note-taker to assist Janet in writing in line with recommendations by Williamson (2004). The ‘assistant’ is supplied with a “carbonless paper” to automatically make two pages whenever she writes. Janet is then given the sheet of paper that was beneath to re-write in ink. This copy is considered the first draft and is then revised severally as need arises until the final draft is produced. The exercise can also start off as a concept map with information gaps where the learner with writing difficulties is tasked to complete the map correctly (see Appendix). In this way, Janet is able to complete the business letter as ‘numerous, smaller bits pieced together into one’ effortlessly. This achievement calls for patience and humility as ‘identifying the connections between sounds and letters’ is fundamental in developing undisputed writing skills (Jack and Pickering, 2003). Finally, talking/listening activity did not bring out a lot of challenges because research has variously illustrated that challenged learners are very good listeners. This implies that they learn best by hearing. This activity requires the importation of writing skills where learners are required to write down what they hear from the radio talk/speech. Since the activity is affective, it emerges that Janet is capable of writing whatever she can decipher from the recording, whether correct or not. The learners while still in their groups are asked to brainstorm their respective responses amongst themselves. During the brainstorming exercise, the learners in the group are capable of sieving through their lists of varied responses until they settle on the best ones. Anything in the list that is not needed is discarded, only maintaining what is important (Oldrieve, 1997). Adopting this adjustment was the best option for assisting Janet in overcoming her learning difficulties. This was particularly so when all the responses recorded by the learners were brainstormed in order to identify the best options. Janet was also able to know where she had gone wrong, and at the same time got motivated after noticing that some of her responses were also correct (Richards, 2008). RATIONALE FOR THE ADJUSTMENTS The rationale of choosing the various adjustments in the three learning activities is only to create an inclusive learning environment for all categories of learners. The adjustments were particularly to make Janet feel part and parcel of the rest of her classmates who were three years above her academically. An inclusive education is being rallied all along in the education sector the world over. It takes care of all categories of learners in terms of race, sexual orientation, religious affiliations as well as academic ability levels (Foreman, 2011). Since the activities were intended for Intermediate Level of learners, the selected adjustments were best-fit because they never occasioned an alteration of class activities for the other learners in order to accommodate learning needs for Janet. Similarly, Williamson (2004) argues that the best adjustments to achieve inclusivity are those that allow transfer of knowledge in literacy acquisition with a lot of ease. This phenomenon is clearly demonstrated throughout this essay by the manner in which Janet is capable of grasping the key concepts of the lesson without necessarily compromising the comfort of the other learners. I’m thus convinced that these were the best adjustments under the circumstances. CONCLUSIONS Inclusive education embraces the idea of accommodating the learning needs of all learners regardless of differences in ability, age, gender, race and religious affiliations (Foreman, 2011). When it specifically touches on the accommodation of learners with special needs, then it becomes ‘special education’. In developing appropriate adjustments to accommodate learning needs for Janet, the learner’s performance was found to embrace the spirit of collaboration by working in cohorts of about five learners. The learner was similarly found to draw personal enjoyment from the hands-on-activities as opposed to rote teaching (Atwell, 2002). The selected adjustments were also found to efficiently improve communication skills in Janet. REFERENCES Atwell, N (2002) Lessons that Change Writers. Heinemann: Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Fear, T & Katie, J (2004) “Why Do I Have to Learn This? Providing Purpose for Reluctant Readers and Writers”. IATE Conference. Marriott Hotel, Oakbrook, Illinois Foreman, P. (2011) Inclusion in action (3rd Edition). CENGAGE Learning, Australia. Jack, N & Pickering, E (2003) Helping Children Learn: Intervention Handouts for Use in School and at Home. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc.: Baltimore, Maryland Oldrieve, R. M. (1997). Success with reading and spelling: Students internalize words through structured lessons. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 29(4), 57-64. Richards, R. G (2008) Helping Children with Learning Disabilities Understand What They Read. NASP’s Article. Sturomski, N. (1997) Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities. NICHCY News Digest, Volume 25: 1 – 15. Williamson, J (2004) “The Great Candy Bar Debate.” English 297: The Teaching of Writing. Stevenson Hall, Normal, Illinois APPENDIX 1: A Concept Map Read More