Accommodations for Diverse Learners
Jayne Reinhiller The school community is full of diversity. Some of it is easily seen like race and gender, but much more hides under the surface. During my student teaching experience, I had the blessing of working with students with many learning, emotional, and behavioral needs. At the beginning of the year, I read my students’ IEP’s and cognitively understood their struggles, but until one works with a student, one cannot truly appreciate their struggles and successes. As I reflect on my teaching of students with IEP’s, three categories of accommodation come to light: adjusted lessons and assignments, behavioral plans, and personal assistance. Adjusted lessons and assignments are the most dramatic …show more content…
Often, I will keep the same theme or ideas as the standard assignment, but I modify the questions. Sometimes, these modifications are slight such as few sentences written or fewer choices in multiple-choice questions. Other times it is a completely different assignment. For instance, on one assignment I had the majority of my classes write several examples for questions regarding Lexington and Concord and the early American Revolution. For this modified class, I instead gave one written response and several multiple-choice questions covering the same information as the other assignment. The students explored the same content and developed the same content knowledge; they just approached it in a different …show more content…
Many of these learners require special accommodations because of learning disabilities, cognitive issues, and emotional or behavioral abnormalities. As a teacher, it is my job to provide accommodations for these students and help them learn to the best of their abilities. By modifying lessons and assignments, working with behavioral plans, and providing individual assistance, I reach my students where they need it most. Each student has his or her own challenges and needs, and I still have much to learn. However, I am making progress as I practice assisting students and helping them reach their
Jayne Reinhiller The school community is full of diversity. Some of it is easily seen like race and gender, but much more hides under the surface. During my student teaching experience, I had the blessing of working with students with many learning, emotional, and behavioral needs. At the beginning of the year, I read my students’ IEP’s and cognitively understood their struggles, but until one works with a student, one cannot truly appreciate their struggles and successes. As I reflect on my teaching of students with IEP’s, three categories of accommodation come to light: adjusted lessons and assignments, behavioral plans, and personal assistance. Adjusted lessons and assignments are the most dramatic …show more content…
Often, I will keep the same theme or ideas as the standard assignment, but I modify the questions. Sometimes, these modifications are slight such as few sentences written or fewer choices in multiple-choice questions. Other times it is a completely different assignment. For instance, on one assignment I had the majority of my classes write several examples for questions regarding Lexington and Concord and the early American Revolution. For this modified class, I instead gave one written response and several multiple-choice questions covering the same information as the other assignment. The students explored the same content and developed the same content knowledge; they just approached it in a different …show more content…
Many of these learners require special accommodations because of learning disabilities, cognitive issues, and emotional or behavioral abnormalities. As a teacher, it is my job to provide accommodations for these students and help them learn to the best of their abilities. By modifying lessons and assignments, working with behavioral plans, and providing individual assistance, I reach my students where they need it most. Each student has his or her own challenges and needs, and I still have much to learn. However, I am making progress as I practice assisting students and helping them reach their