It’s a great day if you are working on a campus that has inclusion. You’re seeing it move in actual time. Teachers and administrators are on board and make consistent plans for the success of all students, classmates genuinely care for one another, and all students and producing and contributing to work that is meaningful to their progress. For some schools, I know this is still a utopic goal, but they’re working their way toward this practice. For others, this is a nightmare, and I’m referring to the students.
Why? The issue lies in the speed at which the material is now presented. While initiatives of Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards are increasing the depth, reducing the number of topics covered and actively recognizing common IEP goals held by many students, and encouraging access and alternative production in ways that had not previously been recognized as a universal way of connecting students to the materials. However, as the depth has increased, the time for students to connect with the material has lessened. While the majority of the class may get the material or understand at a basic level, students with disabilities may not connect to the depth because they need more processing time.
So what can you do?
- Really cut back on production
- Move on with the class
- Realize: it’s okay it’s just school
All right, we get it number three is a little hard and requires some introspection and reflection. So when faced with this, what do most people really need to learn? Do they need to memorize all one hundred eighteen elements and symbols, or do they need a strategy for finding a few key elements on the periodic table? Do they need to see the rationality for Newton’s Laws of Motion, or do they need resiliency when they think their classmate is “annoying” (okay that classmate may be annoying and that’s an entirely different blog). Do they need to run that mile, or need to remember they are a part of a class and they need to at least try to participate?
The students who are included from preschool through grade 12 programs: they are just kids. They get to make mistakes. They can lose an hour, a few days without honestly hurting anything important in their lives. The world won’t stop, the world doesn’t end. They get to have that choice, that’s part of Lease Restrictive Environment. They do learn. They do achieve. Maybe not this week. But we’re going to ask them to try every single time. And we’re going to keep trying too.
Do you have any comments about this week’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Would you like to be a guest blogger? Would you like to have an opportunity to pilot some materials at your campus? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, here, and on our website. Paraeducate is a company interested in providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published weekly during the academic school year on Thursdays, unless a holiday. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
