Sailor, Gee, and Karasoff (1993) list planning, assessment, instructional strategies, scheduling, peer networks, community involvement, team coordination, and evaluation of student programs as major components of inclusion. Nickisch (1992) identifies involvement of parents, involvement of parental organizations, rapport of staff, frequent meetings, peer mentoring, classroom integration, use of a "buddy" system, and communication with the community. York, Doyle, and Kronberg (1992) recommend a brainstorming approach to planning: planning transition, determining needs in context, envisioning a desirable future, and implementation.
Common threads for instructional planning emphasize support for the student, mutual responsibility of regular and special education teachers, social integration in addition to academic and other goals, and careful planning among parents, school personnel, and related service personnel. According to the National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion (1994), it is critical that special and general education teachers have systematic staff development and flexible planning time to work together. In making plans, it could be useful to follow Conn's (1992) and Williams, Fox, Thousand, & Fox, (1990) recommendations as general principles that can guide planning:
Scheduling ample time for targeted instruction in important. It is confusing for students when they are expected to complete an activity or perform independently one day and not the next. Adequate time for instructional activities should be scheduled to facilitate independence and completion of a task that fits a routine.
Consistency of staff to student assignments over time for specific activities is important. Students need to interact with a variety of students and adults; however, consistency is important when teaching certain skills (e.g., there are many ways to tie shoes, it is confusing to the student if she is shown several different techniques in the initial learning stage). This does not mean she should spend most of her time with one particular adult, but means that specific adults may be responsible for specific skill instruction.
Daily social routines are of value to the development of peer relationships and modeling of appropriate social skills. Opportunities for this type of interaction occur at arrival, such as recess, homeroom, transitions, and lunch.
How students interact with one another, or their social relationships, has been neglected in instructional models where the emphasis is on controlling behavior and teacher domination of the classroom. Teachers may arrange appropriate interactions between students and materials but be much less confident about arranging student-to-student interactions. How teachers structure student-student interaction patterns has a lot to do with how well students learn, how they feel about school and teachers, how they feel about each other, and self-esteem. The basic ways students can interact with each other as they learn or compete to see who is best, work individually toward goals without paying attention to other students, or they can work cooperatively with vested interest in each other's learning.
Cooperative learning makes sense in inclusive classrooms because it builds upon heterogeneity and encourages peer support and connection. Cooperative learning is more effective when it is multilevel, multimodal, and integrated across subject areas. Multilevel involves students working on similar objectives or with same materials but at different levels (all students using telephone book but some might be learning to dial 911; while others are learning to compare optimal calling times, time zones, and area codes).
Natural supports usually refer to people who are typically available in a given environment, those who can provide assistance to an individual with disabilities (York & Vandercook, 1989). Peers in the general classroom and general education teachers can be natural supports. In addition, it prevents interactions, builds dependence, and prevents skill acquisition by the classmates and general education teacher (York & Vandercook, 1989).
Like other innovations in education, block scheduling is controversial and has many proponents and detractors. The idea is simple, creating longer blocks of time in the school day to teach one or more areas of the curriculum, as opposed to six or seven periods in the day. There can be advantages to special education students and their teacher with block scheduling, because the teachers can concentrate on the IEP for extended periods of time, fewer teachers need to be involved with the same student. It seems clear that block schedules can be more flexible for support services, and it can provide the kind of time necessary for collaborative or team teaching to occur.
Professionals must not lose sight of the multiple roles of families. Parenting a child with a disability is not the only role parents have; it is one of many. The day-to-day functioning of the family may ultimately have a greater impact on the child than working on a set of isolated skills every night prior to dinner. Parent involvement means more than attending an IEP meeting. Often professionals "preplan" without the parents and present a "draft" IEP to parents for their approval. Parents are expected to either agree with the plans of the professionals or take the adversarial role and question the plan. The best way to avoid such situations is to include parents as active participants in decision making (Ford, et al., 1994). To be effective team members, parents must have continuous and longitudinal experiences as team members (Ford, et al., 1994, p. 19). Parents have pertinent knowledge about their child's preferences, skills, learning styles, relationships, likes and dislikes. This information is essential to the development of an effective IEP.
As the planning process begins to focus on specifics, rather than philosophical approaches and attitudes, practical questions arise. Is the child toilet trained? Toileting independence enhances independent functioning in a variety of settings. What about cognitive and fine motor skills? Long range goals are important, but there may be a tendency to concentrate only on assembling a three-piece puzzle. What can other children his/her age do? Four-year olds do not typically do laundry and most ten- year olds do not ride tricycles. McDonnell and York (1988) describe them this way:
Team members need to feel confident responding to the following questions. Besides socializing, why are the students with severe disabilities in regular classes?...What are they learning?...What are we able to teach them?...How can we assess student's abilities to participate in regular class activities?...What types of objectives should be selected for regular classes?...How can we write effective instructional programs for students with severe disabilities in regular classes? (p. 84).
It is important to develop networks of support. This includes more than having a specialist or paraprofessional in the regular class. For the students, it means buddies, friends, a circle of friends . For teachers, it means peer collaboration, team teachers, collaborative consultation, and time for planning and working with others. Personnel and resources must also be integrated.
Lutfiyya (1988) identified several characteristics as essential to the development of friendships: opportunity, support, diversity, continuity, relationships that are freely given and chosen, and intimacy opportunities. Stainback and Stainback (1987) outlined several skills that can be practiced and enhanced to increase social skills and friendships:
Perske (1989) outlined the steps involved in conducting a Circle of Friends. Usually, an adult facilitator is necessary to provide the level of support to get the circle organized, focused, and maintained. The adult's task is to facilitate, not to direct, the efforts of the circle. The instructions are to: (1) draw four concentric circles; (2) put yourself in the middle, and (3) fill in the people in each of your circles.
Second Circle: The circle of friendship, those people who are good friends that almost made the first circle.
Third Circle: The circle of groups you participate in (work, sports, church, and so forth).
Fourth Circle: The circle of exchange, those you pay to provide services.
| Utah's Project for Inclusion: Promoting Quality
Inclusive Education for All
The Inclusion Network of Utah Provides training and support to eleven regional and district level teams as they work to promote, develop, and support quality inclusive education for students in their neighborhood schools across the state of Utah. Training on Inclusionary Educational Practices Conferences: Sponsors two annual, state-wide conferences on inclusion. The Inclusion Conference is provided for administrators, educators, and parents while the Peer Power Conference is designed for high school students involved in peer tutoring. Resource Library The library contains a variety of resources related to inclusive education. You'll find great quotes, printed materials, videos, and reviews of inclusion related materials. Utah Education Network for Utah schools
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According to Vandercook, York, and Forest, (1989) MAPS
"..is a planning process that places primary emphasis on the integral involvement of learners with disabilities in the school community... The seven key questions that comprise the MAPS process provide a structure which assists teams of adults and children to creatively dream, scheme, plan, and produce results which will further the inclusion of individual children with labels into the activities, routines, and environments of their same age peers ( p. 46).Two innovations in education planning have evolved due to the growing number of interpersonal relationships between people with disabilities and non-disabled peers, and the increasing normalization of life in the community. First, planning focuses on creating visions of an integrated life and ways to realize the visions which is a direct contrast to the old deficit orientation of planning (O'Brien & Lyle, 1987). Second, friends, neighbors, and family members assume key roles (Vandercook, York, & Forest, 1989).
The assumptions underlying and guiding the MAPS process include: integration, individualization, teamwork and collaboration, and flexibility (Vandercook, York, & Forest, 1989). The first assumption asserts that all students should be educated in general education classes with supports as needed. Second, the assumption of individualization recognizes that a plan must be developed to meet the individual student's needs in general education settings. Third, teamwork is essential to facilitate the group problem solving process. The final assumption, flexibility, is necessary as even the most thoughtfully designed plans sometimes need revision (Vandercook, York, & Forest, 1989).
The MAPS process complements the IEP by presenting a clearer sense of mission and greater sense of teamwork while identifying priority environments and activities for the student (Vandercook, York, & Forest, 1989). MAPS should be part of the required three-year re-evaluation or at least at the crucial transition during the student's school career.
MAPS focuses on the strengths of the individual. The student and/or family should be involved in deciding who will participate in MAPS. Someone should be the facilitator to ask the questions, and keep the process on track, while another person should list/draw the comments on paper or board to make a visual record. Selection of the facilitator is crucial to the success of MAPS. Following are the kinds of questions:
What is the student's history? By knowing the complete history, the team has a frame of reference, like a biography, to understand student's life and experiences.
What is your dream for your child? Obviously addressed to the parents, this question is an attempt to elicit the most desirable outcome for the child.
What is your nightmare? In the case of students with severe disabilities, the most worrisome concern is how to deal with the long- term possibility of institutionalization, after the parents are gone. At the same time, some parents might actually prefer some form of institutionalization for a sense of security. When MAPS is used with less severely involved students, the nightmare could be almost anything.
Who is (name of the student)? Each team member is asked to respond. This can cause a comprehensive understanding of different facets of the student's personality and life.
What are (student's name) strengths and talents? Each team member responds, and the list of strengths focuses on positive aspects that may be often overlooked.
What are the (student's) needs? Following on the question about strengths and talents, the team is in a position to identify the services and support needed to address limitations, and those to enhance strengths.
What will the ideal day look like for this student? This is a process of carefully "walking through" a daily routine to name goals, objectives, activities, and environments for the student.
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Alice is a nine year old with multiple disabilities. She is nonambulatory, has mental retardation and language impairments. After winning a circuit court case, Alice remains included in a general education classroom. She is currently in the third grade after two years of kindergarten, one year each of first and second grade. At the beginning of kindergarten she was basically non-verbal, in that she had an oral vocabulary of approximately five words (mama, bye, eat, ride, and dada). Little formal, individualized instruction occurred during the two years of kindergarten and first grade due to conflict between the family and the school system during the due process hearing and appeal to the circuit court. Alice was merely sitting in the classroom with her basic needs (eating and toileting) being cared for. Her vocabulary at the end of the second year of kindergarten consisted of about 100 words. She made continual progress across all domains (cognitive, language, social, and emotional) except in the motor domain, her motor skills being limited because she was unable to walk. She has friends, peers in her class who talk, read and play games with her. She has had phone calls from friends, plays with dolls, and tells her mother she loves her. Family and professionals attribute most of her progress to the many peer models that daily surround her at school. Instructional techniques used with Alice include a picture schedule to indicate such things as what activity is next, what must be completed before lunch and what must be completed prior to free time. This allows her a visual representation of expectations of the day's events that aid in alleviating some frustration about understanding what is required. Journal writing is an important feature that was adapted for Alice by having her talk about events from her personal experiences, that are written down by the teacher or the aide. Sometimes she may draw pictures or tear or cut pictures from magazines to illustrate activities or concepts. The journals become her reading books that can incorporate use of key words, sentence strips, matching, sorting, and spelling. Alice's MAPS is shown below: Alice's History--Alice is the youngest of 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys. She has a nice family. Alice has a lot of friends at school and in her neighborhood. She has a nice smile and likes to smile. Alice has made a lot of progress. She attended Head Start. She went to kindergarten at Hubbard. She screams a lot sometimes. Our Dreams for Alice--Alice could: walk, talk real good, stop yelling, learn when to be quiet, be a good girl, learn like we do, and do more things. Write. Not eat crayons. Eat real good. Not be messy. Live as independently and functionally as possible. Be accepted. Have lots of friends. Have functional skills. Be happy. Be a real member of the class. Express herself more. Communicate effectively. Attach meaning to expression. Be more effective in the classroom. Improve overall quality of life. Interact most of the day. Our Nightmare--Might get hurt. Alice might die. Won't learn what she needs to learn. Can't help herself. Might flunk. Might have to go to a foster home. Safety. Health. Won't continue to be integrated into a regular class. Won't have a place when she is older (as an adult). Be lonely. Won't be happy. Won't have a life. Boring, uneventful life. Give up. Frustrated--can't express thoughts the way we do. Getting through teen years and high school. Wheelchair will tip over. Alice is--Our friend. Our playmate. Nice, noisy. Can hardly hear Ms. Wilson teach (have to play with her to keep her quiet). Nicely dressed. Someone who has nice hair and hairbows. Our classmate. Someone who has a pretty wheelchair. Someone we LOVE. Someone we like to help. Someone who says what we say, and someone who responds to us. Happy. Kind. Smile that lights up face. Frisky. Curious. Touching and loving toward others. Positive genuine greeting. Same age and name as Barbara's daughter. Friendly and funny. Good sense of humor, persistent, thrill seeker, and enjoys her food. Alice's Gifts--Listening. Playing with toys. Looking at things. Throwing the ball. Counting her numbers. Playing with Terry. Coloring. Choosing colors. Pushing her wheelchair. Playing ball. Sharing. Nice to us. Talking. Tries not to get in trouble. Saying her A,B,C's. Warm personality. Comfortable, easy feeling. Cooperativeness. Acceptance of others. Pioneer. Diversity-what's normal to humanity. Gentle with animals. Desire to be included. Loving person. Friendly. Alice Needs--Help, physical and with lessons. Respect, peers and adults. Learn to spell. Community involvement. Friends. To read. To talk. Real relationships. People to talk to her. Better behavior. To walk. More independence. Acceptance. To learn to be quiet and listen. Obtain her desires. To know how to learn. Friends at school and at home. To learn how to eat right. Alphabet song. To know the presidents. Inner strength, maturity. How to do a lot of things like us. Way to facilitate more communication. Peers and adults who are patient and understanding. Opportunities/challenges for growth. Continued opportunity for integration. Alice's Ideal Day--Go on a field trip. Go to the doctor and he says she can walk. Spend all of her day being good. To talk when she needs to. To talk and walk around. Go to a special class to learn how to walk. Participate in all school activities. Hubbard school nature day. Enjoys upcoming year. Communication. Learn to spell color words. Eat out with family and peers. Go places with family. Function within classroom environment where she is a part of all that is going on. Picnic and baseball game. Inclusion. Most days are healthy and feeling good. Tell what she is thinking or wants. Involved in the classroom and working well. What would it take?--We could help Alice move. We could show Alice how to do things. She needs someone with her all the time. She needs LOVE. hard work. Quiet room. Right attitude. Commitment on the part of adults--particularly the administration. Develop a plan for support. Everybody-- Cooperation--Peers, adults, and community. Help her do and say things. Quiet so we can learn. Set good examples. Time out. Attention for being good. Understanding for what she's doing there. Willingness to learn more about how to do this (include Alice). |
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Although this boy is older and not necessarily considered within the elementary level, his vignette is included because it is represents a real case, he was enrolled in the upper elementary grades at the time, and the general PATH shows how planning is done with this method. Ricardo has traumatic brain injury as a result of child abuse from his natural mother during infancy. He exhibits characteristics of mental retardation, speech/language delay, visual impairment, and orthopedic impairments. Ricardo is 16 years old and currently lives at home with his adoptive mother. He is mobile but has limited stamina, therefore he cannot walk long distances or stand for long periods of time. He is verbal with limited communication skills. He can ask and answer questions, but he cannot initiate conversations in a true sense. He has extremely poor handwriting due to the lack of refined fine motor control and vision problems. He requires larger, bold black print for easier reading. He is included in homeroom, art, computer, science, and consumer and home management. He completes adapted assignments in cooperative groups in science and consumer and home management. His objectives are predetermined by his teacher, paraprofessionals, and his mother. Ricardo enters paragraph stories on the computer with prompting from an adult or peer. He is learning basic keyboard skills. He is assembling packets of sugar, cream, and coffee stir sticks for a local restaurant. Upon complete of 100 packets, he goes on a trip to the restaurant with an adult and one or two peers to deliver the packets. The PATH for Ricardo Step 1: Ricardo's North Star is to live in a private home with a personal assistant to provide minimal support, eat when he wants to, have a bath when he wants too, leave the house when he wants to. Step 2: Ricardo's Goal in one year is to have more friends and more freedom. Friends will be driving and take him to parties, fast food restaurants, and "cruising." Step 3: Ricardo's Now is lonely, tiring, fun at school, and can't communicate everything he wants. Step 4: Ricardo's Who Do We Enroll includes his teachers, paraprofessionals, and three friends. Step 5: Ricardo's Getting Stronger includes the professionals getting the support/training they need to facilitate his development; getting more freedom through independence in certain self-help skills, and meeting adults with disabilities similar to his to provide emotional support. Step 6: Ricardo's 3 Month plan includes arranging transportation to attend social events without his mother. Step 7: Ricardo's 1 Month plan is for the special education teacher to identify upcoming social events that Ricardo can attend. Step 8: Ricardo's First Step plan is to identify which of Ricardo's friends has driver's licenses, a car, and parental permission to transport friends. |
...(1) pursuing valued life outcomes is an important aspect of education; (2) the family is the cornerstone of relevant longitudinal educational planning; (3) collaborative teamwork is essential to quality education; (4) coordinated planning is dependent upon shared, discipline free goals; (5) using problem-solving methods improves the effectiveness of educational planning; and (6) special education is a service, not a place (p. 4).COACH is designed for students with significant disabilities aged 3-21 years. It does not duplicate curricular areas in general education that are appropriate for students with mild disabilities. A facilitator, the parents, and/or the student are required, but other team members---peers and family members--- may participate.
COACH is not designed to replace general education curriculum but to supplement it. COACH has learning outcome lists that include activities that commonly occur in daily life that allow a person to participate in typical settings. COACH also includes cross-environmental lists that refer to activities across many environments: communication, social, personal management, leisure/recreational, and applied academics. Environment-specific lists of outcomes incorporate those activities typically associated with specific environments (Giangreco, Cloninger, & Iverson, 1993). Examples of environment-specific lists are home, school, community, and vocational.
A small set of individual goals that represent the highest priorities are determined by the parents and/or student using the Family Prioritization Interview provided in the COACH manual. Additional learning outcomes referred to as breadth of curriculum that may include a combination of activities or skills from cross-environmental, environmental-specific, or general education curriculum. These outcomes "...are documented in less extensive ways than goals and objectives, through methods used in general education classes (e.g., report cards, skill checklists, tests, narrative reports, portfolios of student work)" (p. 19). The general education curriculum is too often automatically excluded from a student's program if he or she is significantly disabled.
COACH also includes a method for identifying general supports. General supports require behavior changes of those who interact with the student, which allow access to education and/or are required for the student to meet learning outcomes. Giangreco, Cloninger, and Iverson (1993) delineated five major categories of need requiring general supports:
The third option, called curriculum overlapping, is used with a diverse group of students involved in the same lesson; however, they are in pursuit of goals and objectives from different curriculum areas. An example is living skills, where students are learning to bake a cake and the student with disabilities is involved for socialization, listening to directions, and accepting assistance from a peer.
Considerations for instruction in academic skills include age of student, present levels of functioning, communication ability, learning style, functionality, partial participation, and accommodations (Grenot-Scheyer, Eshilian, & Falvey, 1989). Age appropriate activities and materials are critical. Meaningfulness and functionality and interactions with peers are more likely to occur if age appropriate activities and materials are used.
Building on the students' strengths will facilitate the students' success. Therefore, identification of present levels of functioning is essential. Communication abilities are important when designing instruction. The manner in which the student communicates his needs, wants, desires, is essential in evaluating the learning.
Baumgart, Brown, Pumpian, Nisbet, Ford, Sweet, Messina, and Schroeder (1982) suggested that adaptations be implemented to allow the student to engage in as many activities as possible to the extent possible, rather than requiring 100% accuracy and independence for all skills in a sequence. This is known as the principle of partial participation. Many commercially available curricula require independent performance of skills prior to moving to the next skill (Grenot-Scheyer, et al., 1989). This practice assumes all students must master all skills in the developmental sequence.
The following skills may be included in functional literacy:
The IMPACT curriculum (Neel & Billingsly, 1989) is an approach focusing on the development of functional skills to improve independence and to increase the overall influence of children with moderate to severe disabilities over the events of their lives. The goal of IMPACT is to enable students to participate in their environment to the maximum degree through communication and independence which is so different from traditional curriculum that is evaluated in terms of milestones achieved and/or elimination of the undesired behavior. As they increase their influence over events, their independence increases.
IMPACT promotes teaching skills in context with natural cues and consequences. Instruction is based on determining functional intents of each child in a variety of natural environments. Priorities are taken from the child's environment through the implementation of ecological/environmental inventories. The assessment process also occurs within natural contexts by measuring the students' ability to perform the required steps as well as the degree and types of assistance required to be successful. Instructional programs are then created to increase the students' independence in these settings. For many students with significant disabilities, teaching consists of a series of programs in the developmental domains across the day.
An inventory of learning opportunities at school (places and activities) must be completed. For the elementary classroom location, activities, and places outside classrooms (library, playground, and lunchroom) must be identified. With the inventory of possible learning environments, the team decides where students should spend time (Browder, 1991; Brown et al., 1988; Orelove & Sobsey, 1991; Rainforth, York, & McDonald, 1992).
The Life Centered Career Education (LCCE) is probably the most widely used, comprehensive functional curriculum model for secondary skills (Brolin, 1992). The LCCE model is organized around 22 competencies for adult living clustered across three basic domains: 1) daily living, 2) personal-social, and 3) occupational guidance and preparation. Although functional curricula are primarily developed for secondary students, functional curricula for children with disabilities should begin formally when they begin their educational career. Many concepts and skills must be introduced at the awareness and exploratory stages for elementary school children in order to make the most of instructional efforts during the secondary school years (Clark, 1993; Clark, Carlson, Fisher, Cook, & D'Alonzeo, 1991).
The Adult Performance Level (APL) curriculum was developed at the University of Texas at Austin in 1975. The major skills domains identified are: reading, writing, listening/speaking, computation, problem solving, and interpersonal relations. These are structured upon the following content areas: consumer economics, occupational knowledge, health, community resources, government and law. Forty-two basic life skills were identified that form the core elements of the curriculum (Cronin, Lord, & Wendling, 1991). This curriculum focuses on the various competencies and skills necessary for survival in everyday situations.
If the decision is made not to teach functional academics, then a plan must be developed on how the student will bypass these skills. The general education curriculum typically has a scope (range of content areas) and sequence (order) of the curriculum adopted by the school district. There is usually allowance for a wide range of student skills, so some students move ahead while others work at or below grade level.
Change computation is one of the most difficult money skills and should probably be taught last in a money sequence. Students with more significant problems may be taught to use and later to select money envelopes that are coded for specific purchases (e.g., vending machines, bus fare, and so forth).
Teaching time as it relates to schedules is the most functional method to teach time. Picture schedules or written schedules are paired with the time. The student is taught to tell time to match the time for the events in the schedule. Therefore, there is a reason for telling time. Calendar skills are more important for students in high school in order to self-manage their activities. The most appropriate way to teach this would be to use an appointment book. Measurement, money concepts, and other concepts are best learned in a natural context of activities or authentic tasks. Using digital clocks is much easier than using analog clocks.
Walker et al. (1988) developed the "label then do system" for using calculators and computers. First, the student learns to label each number on the keyboard, then to label and do or say the number aloud, and then to type it into the computer or calculator. This method can also apply to use of the telephone.
Shopping, preparing food, doing laundry, and other daily living skills may require discrimination between containers. Coupons or product labels/boxes are preferable to handwritten or typed words. Coupons are good to use for reading, sorting/discriminating, and for math skills. Sale advertisements in the newspaper may also be used for these same skills. The student can also compare prices from various stores. Reading and math skills are also needed to allow the student to make a choice. Menus, snack machine labels, television guides, and phone directories are excellent materials to enhance reading skills for independent choices.
Telling time by interpreting the relative position of the hour and minute hands on a watch or clock face is the generally accepted method. In order to do this the individual must be able to discriminate between the hands on the clock, recognize the numerals 1 to 12, and understand the movement of the minute hand in relation to the hour hand.
Numberline strategy involves determination of enough or not enough based on an understanding of the relative position of two numbers on the line. The first number represents the price of the item and the second number represents the amount of money to spend. Instruction begins with a 1-1- numberline that progressed to 10-100 after mastery. An example would be Bob's has $.05 in his pocket which he marks on the numberline and the pencil costs $.08 which he also marks. The relative position leads him to conclude he doesn't have enough money. The numberline would be faded in time (Ford, et al., 1989).
Wheeler, Ford, Nietupski, Loomis, and Brown (1980) describe a calculator strategy where the money to be spent is entered into the calculator and then the amount of each item is subtracted until a minus sign is displayed. This indicates that there is not enough money for the last item.
Money card strategy involves
the use of pocket size money cards designed for frequently purchased items.
Each card would contain a picture/symbol of the object and the price (usually
rounded off and inclusive of taxes. A configuration of coins would also
be presented next to the price so the student can match correct coins to
make the purchase. A money envelope strategy has cost of the item inside
and a picture/symbol on the outside (Ford, et al., 1989).
| Sandy May's 1st Grade Class*
American International School in Cyprus: An Example of an Integrated Theme Project "I am currently exploring a theme of "Artists" with particular focus on the Impressionists - Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh but including others as well (Picasso, Michelangelo da Vinci), etc. Within this theme, I have promoted their (the artists) likeness and differences, which led me to the idea of having my students become aware of people with disabilities in general and artists with disabilities in particular. To do this, I started by showing them two things I have acquired over the years; the first was a small ocean painting, painted by foot, which I purchased in Brazil. I explained to my students that the artist had no arms and, using his barefoot, managed to paint beautiful pictures by picking up his brush between the toes of his right foot and using a small board on the ground, which propped up his painting for him to easily reach with his foot. The children were amazed at the pictures and this stimulated their imaginations; you could see mouths drop open and "Wows" filling the reading corner in a slow, descending awe. Next I showed them a calendar I once purchased, that had been created by artists with disabilities, who either painted with their mouths or their feet. We read each title and I explained the technique used by each artist. The students "oooo ed" and "ahhh ed" with each one, picking out their favorites and collectively coming to the conclusion that it must be more difficult to paint with your foot because there were fewer paintings made with only a foot than the mouth. I wanted the class to express their feelings and, of course, they wanted to try to paint using only their mouths for one painting and another using only their feet. Before starting the painting activities, I had them write their predictions about what it would feel like to be an artist with a disability and to consider whether or not they thought it would be easy or difficult. Then, after they had written their essays, they painted one day with their toes using a big brush and another day with their mouths using smaller brushes. After completion of their paintings, they did a follow-up of "result" remarks, reviewing their predictions they had written earlier in the week. They discussed if their predictions were right or wrong, what was the easiest and hardest about it and what they painted. I did not stress comments regarding their views of the artists with disabilities, but this activity touched them so much that they seemed to internalize what the artists' disabilities must be like. Many of them commented on these feelings and thoughts as they reviewed their essays and paintings. They seem to, in the words of one student, "take a step into another person's world." After the mouth painting exercise, we regrouped in our reading corner and showed each others' work, reading the accompanying predictions and results with standing "O's" (ovations made by holding your arms above your head, clasping your hands to make a large and QUIET form of ovation!) for each magnificent effort. Also evidenced was a warm affection and clearer understanding of people with disabilities, differences and likenesses, as well as lots of discussion about "never giving up." Students were touched by the determination and, as Angela put it, "being brave." Other activities included using the internet for field trips to major museums around the world and searches for communications with youngsters with disabilities "doing interesting things"! Authors' Note: Ms. May integrated art appreciation & history, technology, language arts, and social awareness into an exciting and interesting project. This is particularly noteworthy because the class consisted of at least twelve nationalities and cultures, making such a project even more remarkable. A standing "O" for Sandy May! *Now at the American School in Amman, Jordan. |
Parent collaboration is essential, involving training for teachers to deal effectively with parents and support and communication systems in the school to enable collaboration. A variety of techniques may be used to plan for modification of the curriculum and also meet the needs of teachers and enlist the support and collaboration of parents. These include:
Circle of Friends
COACH
Collaborative Teaming
Computer Assisted Instruction
Cooperative Group Learning
Curriculum Based Assessment
Curriculum Adaption
MAPS
Mastery Learning Models
PATH
Peer Tutoring
Whole Language