GRADUATE SCHOOL

Master of Arts in Special Education (MAS)

SPECIAL EDUCATION

JOURNAL REVIEW 1

Name: VICENTE, VINCE IRVIN R.

Subject Code: MAS-207

Subject Title: Methods & Techniques in Teaching Special Education (w/ Emphasis on
Classroom Mgt. Func'l Assess. & Applied Behavioral Analysis

Date Submitted: August 31, 2020

Title: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Communication and Application in a K-1
Special Education System

Reference: https://www.scirp.org

Part I: SUMMARY

Having parents interested in educating their children can be a very important feature
of overall student achievement. Understanding what parents want to communicate is crucial
and can help improve cooperation between teachers, schools, and parents. Communication
strategies that bind parents to teachers, schools, and encourage them to contribute to decision-
making is an essential factor in creating an atmosphere that encourages engagement,
according to Colley et al. ( 2014). However, this is double in the sense that parents have more
obligations than making sure their child gets to school every day. This can be somewhat
contentious depending on the state, the culture around the school, and socio-economic status,
and a parent's willingness to participate or be willing. This study took place in the Gambia,
where community participation is a practice and requirement to help every child excel in
school. Other research seems to conclude that including parents in communication will help
enhance student performance in a special educational environment. These activities include
methods of indirect and direct contact. One research used weekly teacher-written messages to
analyze the impact of such correspondence. Over the summer, the research was performed in
an urban school environment. Their research investigated the impact of parent-to-teacher
contact and whether message form increased or decreased the probability of communication,
i.e. constructive or need-improvement-based notes. The study allocated parents to classes
with encouraging words, needs-improvement, or control group. The teachers collected
messages each week and worked on a structured script that the researchers would
communicate to the parents by phone, e-mail, or text depending on how the parent wished to
be contacted. Hired to translate non-English speaking parents. Study findings showed that
contact was crucial and helped halve the dropout rate of high school students in the summer
program. It also pointed out that message quality was very relevant. Messages providing
information about changes made a difference in dropout rates. The community students based
on needs improvement messages saw an increase in the number of students earning credit for
their summer course and that individualized messaging may be a low-cost way to enhance
teacher-parent contact and boost student academic achievement.

Part II: REFLECTION

Student success not only takes place in the classroom but at home as well. With
changes in testing, rigorous curriculums, and more demands placed on students. It is
becoming more apparent, one shortfall of education is the lack of parent involvement in
schools. The community is diverse, with military families and low-income families making
up most of the school’s population. The goal of this study is to use three strategies to see if
parent involvement will increase, their attitudes toward the school and teachers improve, and
if they feel a part of their child’s education. The strategies will try to serve diverse needs by
using indirect and direct forms of communication along with in-person activities that will be
chosen by the parents. Normally, activities are chosen and parents get to choose if they want
to participate. One of the strategies used was to ask the parents what type of activity they
would like, to hopefully encourage participation by through the use of choice as motivation to
attend and participate.

Part III: APPLICATION OF TOPICS TO THEIR PROFESSION

 Teachers have students who are smart in their classrooms but can't reach their
academic potential. They have learning disabilities that might require them to be free and not
overly stimulated by distractions. Students might require a different method of learning, such
as hands-on. Many children are struggling to learn to read, write, and do maths. These
students will be getting further and further behind without the intervention of meeting their
special needs.

The school puts in place a program for teaching their abilities and keeping up with the
curriculum of the school as caught. A special educator sometimes works with the student part
of the day while the teacher in the classroom may modify the lessons and assignments.

There are other methods or models to meet the special needs of the students, such as a
special education teacher who enters the regular classroom and co-teaches the whole class.
This is a full inclusion approach where all students receive the same lesson but it is taught to
reach those students with special needs in the regular classroom.

The important point is not to make these students fall by the gaps. We want
everybody to graduate, to know how to write and read. We want these students to surmount
their real-world difficulties and function, able to take care of themselves.

Effective Teaching

Being an effective teacher requires a lot of strategies, most of which you probably choose by
trial and error. Effective instructional strategies include the following strategies that usually
present in every classroom.

1. Develop lesson plans using a multiple-scenario approach.

2. Monitor and check the responses of students to the lessons.
3. Evaluate and tailor lessons as appropriate.
4. Use peers to review lesson plans and develop possibly applicable ideas.
5. Keep a list of resources for teaching, lesson plans, and professional development.
6. Set a professional development plan for yourself and track your goals.
7. Develop or implement a system that makes it possible to easily and comprehensively
collect data to help monitor and adapt lessons.

Submitted to: Prof. Minguela S. Ting

SPED Teacher III