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Introduction to Special Education Signature Assignment

Lindsey Ryan Mathews

College of Western Idaho

EDUC – 230 – 001H: Introduction to Special Education

Professor Natalie Raass

December 17, 2020

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Introduction to Special Education - Signature Assignment

Tim’s Learning Plan

Tim is a nine-year-old boy in the fourth grade. Tim is like any other nine-year-old boy, he

doesn’t have any physical limitations, but he does have some social and behavioral issues. Tim

lives with his mother and father and he has a fifteen-year-old brother. His family life is stable,

but his parents work long days and work most Saturdays. Tim has had some conflicts with his

father when he is told to do something that he doesn’t want to do. Tim’s parents would like him

to be involved in sports, but he has always preferred to stay by himself instead of socializing

with other kids. Tim likes to spend time on his computer, reading and watching movies.

Tim’s academics are fantastic. He is a competent student and attentive in class. Tim’s

work is neat and his writing is wonderful. Tim’s schoolwork is so important to him that if he

makes a mistake, he becomes very agitated. Tim strives to do the best that he can. He spends

much time in the library and is reading books at the high school level. Tim’s problems are not his

schoolwork but his socialization and behavior. He has had some outburst in class that include

yelling and throwing objects. Tim has difficulties with group work and this is when the behaviors

occur. If he doesn’t get his way in the group he becomes quite upset. During recess Tim prefers

to sit in the library instead of engaging with his peers. Though Tim struggles with

communicating to his peers he is always respectful with adults and talks with them easily.

Tim’s social and behavioral issues might stem from stage four in Erik Erikson’s Eight

Stages of Development, (Lightfoot et al., 2018). In stage four, Industry versus Inferiority,

according to Erikson a child will develop positive recognition from teachers and peers leading

them to become industrious or motivated to work hard. If a child receives negativity from other

students or adults that can lead to inferiority instead of industry. With the child feeling inferior
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there comes loss of motivation and can lead to low self-esteem. Tim’s low self-esteem and

opinion of himself causes some of his socialization issues. Tim has expressed that his peers do

not understand him; he feels as if he is invisible which leads to some of his outbursts in class.

It would be helpful for Tim to join a socialization group with the school counselor and

other peers during lunch twice a week. The counselor can go over socialization skills and do

some role playing with the other students to help with unwanted behaviors. The counselor can

make up a behavioral contract for Tim to follow with appropriate behaviors and redirection

strategies for when Tim becomes agitated or upset. The contract will have reinforcements in

place to promote appropriate behaviors. Tim can earn tickets for acceptable behaviors and proper

communication with peers. The teacher will review the contract and come up with a specific cue

word to use when Tim begins to display inappropriate behaviors. The key here will be prevention

of behaviors. The teacher will set up a quiet cool off area for Tim to go to when he becomes

upset.

The teacher will also work on in class socialization with Tim. During group work Tim

will be paired with only one student so he is not overwhelmed in a larger group. This will help

Tim develop better dialogue with peers and will him not feel ignored or invisible. The

playground supervisor and physical education teacher will also encourage communication with

Tim and peers. When they see Tim playing with other children, they will use reinforcement

tickets. The school staff will be in contact with Tim’s parents to ensure that the behavior contract

is followed at home. Parents will be encouraged to set up play dates with Tim and other children

once a week to instill socialization outside of school.

If Tim continues to have problems with behaviors testing will be done with a

psychologist and an IEP (Individualized Learning Plan) might need to be put into place. This
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plan will have modifications for Tim instead of just accommodations. Tim is a bright and

capable student, the behavior contract should be adequate to improve his behavior, but if further

action is needed the IEP will be the next plan.

Philosophy of Inclusion in the Classroom

As a future educator I want to offer all children an equal education. While studying

students with exceptionalities and disabilities I have come across some strong opinions regarding

inclusion. I myself believe that inclusion is a wonderful idea. Children with exceptionalities

already face adversities and should not be excluded just because they are different. All children

should have a place in the classroom and should be offered an equal education. Teaching

children with exceptionalities may require different learning plans or accommodations and

modifications, but there are many resources that can help enable any student to learn.

To encourage tolerance and acceptance for children with exceptionalities in the

classroom I want there to be open communication. If the student with the exceptionality is okay

with talking about their condition, I would like them to. If they do not want to talk to the class or

can’t, I would ask if it is alright for me to talk to the class. Many people fear what they do not

understand. Having a class discussion to ask questions and understand what is going on will be

helpful to all the students. I also think showing the movie Wonder, might help the other students

understand acceptance for people that are different. Instead of treating ‘different’ as something

weird or not normal I would like the class to celebrate their differences. We could have a class

discussion on our differences and celebrate how everyone is unique. Explain how boring life

would be if we were all the same.

To help struggling students achieve success in the classroom a teacher has many helpful

tools at their disposal. There are some great teaching strategies that I learned about in this class
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that I can use to help different types of learners at all different levels. Some common teaching

strategies to use are ‘Think-Pair-Share,’ which allows students to independently think about a

topic and then discuss it with a partner or group. Then, the group presents the topic. There are

many other methods for teaching students at different levels, there is project-based learning that

is helpful for hands on students as well as active learning. Reciprocal teaching, blended learning,

and problem-based learning are just a few teaching strategies. Another great teaching approach is

from the Universal Design for Learning or UDL. The UDL focuses on delivering material in

multiple ways such as video, text or audio, this is very helpful for teaching children at different

academic levels. It also supplies the students with different ways to interact with the new

material and several ways to communicate what they have learned. Technology can help with all

of these teaching strategies.

There are also many accommodations and modifications that I can use in my future

classroom to help students learn. Some accommodations to use would be presenting the material

in different forms, such as an audio book for struggling readers. There are also different

responses that teachers can use like giving students extra time to complete assignments. Another

accommodation for students is, setting changes, for example putting the student in a quiet room

for testing. With different accommodations a student can learn to the best of their ability and still

know all the course material. Then there are modifications that can be used to help struggling

students. This would be modifying lesson plans that can be used for struggling students or

students that are gifted. With changing lesson plans, I can tailor lesson plans for the individual

students’ abilities. Modifications can help the students understand the curriculum at their own

level by learning different material such as continuing to work on adding and subtraction while
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the rest of the class moves on to multiplication. For gifted students the material would cover new

advanced information so the student doesn’t get bored and lose motivation with school.

Another essential tool I learned about and can use in the future is an IEP. The IEP targets

individual needs for students. With each student being unique, the IEP is crucial to help some

students succeed in school. A student’s IEP lists accommodations such as preferential seating

and their modifications. Technology is another great tool that can help me teach exceptional

children. Some students need technology to communicate or get around the school. Technology

can sometimes intimidate but it is important to understand. I took Educational Technology 1 this

semester and I feel more comfortable using technology to help students learn.

There are so many ways to help students learn. I had no idea of all the great tools and

ideas that exist. This class has taught me so much. This is the first class I have taken that actually

taught me how to teach students. Not only has it taught me teaching strategies it also taught me

how to teach exceptional children. I am excited to finish my education and become a teacher so I

can use these strategies to teach all children. Before this class I thought it would be difficult to

include children with exceptionalities in the classroom. I never thought that they should be

excluded, but I wasn’t sure how to include them. I didn’t know how teachers taught struggling

students or children with behavioral problems or severe physical disabilities and health

impairments. Now I have a better idea how to teach all students and I am excited to continue my

education and teach in an inclusive classroom. With the teaching strategies learned in this class I

feel comfortable that I can give all children an equal education. I also feel very privileged to have

my professor be such an expert in her field. It is wonderful to learn from someone who has done

this for a long time and has real life experiences to teach us with. This class has really opened my

eyes to the teaching field.

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References

Lightfoot, C., Cole, M., & Cole, S. (2018). The development of children (8th ed.). Worth

Publishers/ Macmillan Education.