Teaching Children with Disabilities Presentations

Learning Disabilities Slideshow Project

For my Teaching Children with Disabilities class we had to create a special needs presentation and have a differentiation matrix. I was partnered up with Beth and we choose the topic of learning disabilities and decided to create a Google Drive slideshow to present to the class.

Here are the directions & rubric for the project:

This will be a presentation on a special needs area of your choice. Your task is to “teach” this area to the class using any resources. (Please cite your sources) You must include the key points about the especial needs area, the DPI criteria for the disability (if appropriate) as well as the differentiation strategies that may be helpful when teaching students with this special needs area. You will complete a sample building block matrix on the special needs area for each member of the class. The matrix will include indicators of the special needs area as well as suggested adaptions. Present a lesson to demonstrate how you would use differentiation strategies specific to the special needs area. Select a discussion question (end of chapter) to discuss with the class. You will have a maximum of 30 minutes for the presentation.

This project is worth 100 points. Due dates will be March 27 through April 8

RUBRIC:

 A WELL DONE presentation will include the following:

1.     Cover sheet to be handed in to the instructor with your name and the topic

2.     Key points and characteristics are clearly explained to the audience

3.     DPI criteria for the disability area discussed

4.     Identifies differentiation strategies/adaptations on a matrix format

5.     Case study examined with the class

6.     Presentation appears to be well planned and cohesive

7.     Consistent use of People First Language

Here is my Google Drive Slideshow: Enjoy!

High School Development Book Project

           High School Development Book Project

        For The Comprehensive High School class, we had to do a project where we read a young adult book or a book about a high school student and their development throughout the novel. We could choose any way we wanted to present it to the class. The directions for the project were really open-ended and vague because our professor wanted us to have fun and get creative with it.

        Here are the directions for the project:

         While reading your book, mark pages and passages that reveal things about the character you are “following” that relate to the character’s development. In particular:

·      Introspective

·      Somatic

·      Intellectual

·      Familial

·      Communal

          Be prepared to describe your character’s growth (or changes) from the beginning to the ending of the book. You may do this through easy, captioned illustrations, or a digital presentation. Or any other form that appeals to you as long as you check with me first.

        I chose to create my project using PowerPoint to present my information in a slideshow form. But I can't figure out how to get it on this blog without using a program that asks for money or a credit card, so instead I'm going to put the outline of my slideshow on here instead, which is the next best thing I could think of. If you really want to see me slideshow (which is really cool may I add), leave a comment with your email address & I will send it to you by email as an attachment.

Young Adult Book Assignment:

Out of My Mind

By: Sharon M. Draper

Slideshow created by: Marissa Kleckner

Introduction to the Main Character: Melody

•       Has Cerebral Palsy

•       Has a photographic memory

•       Smartest kid in her whole school

•       But no one knows it

•       Teachers & doctors don’t think she’s capable of learning

•       Can’t talk, walk, or write

Basic Plot

•       Melody is was an only child

•        Hates her special education classes & that she isn’t able to talk or communicate

•       Eventually she is given a communicative device to help her talk

•       She gets the opportunity to participate in a trivia competition

•       Her Mom becomes pregnant & Melody has a baby sister

Basic Plot Continued

•       Inclusion classes = included in the normal classrooms

•       Gets a special aid to help her communicate & do better in school

•       Melody makes the competitive Whiz Kids Trivia Team

•       Everything goes downhill

•       But the day of the competition the team ditches Melody & she never gets to participate

•       Her younger sister gets hit by a car

Introspective Domain

•       Personal Identity – wants to be able to talk & to express herself

•       Who am I? – She is trying to answer this question herself constantly throughout the book

•       Self talk where they weigh, reevaluate, & critically analyze everything

•       Melody does a lot of self talking throughout the book, especially in the beginning when she couldn’t talk or communicate to anyone else

Introspective Domain Continued

•       Has obvious positive & negative thoughts depending on her mood & the situation

•       Melody learns a lot about herself and her potential when she is included into the normal classes & studies & prepares for the Whiz Kids Trivia Competition

•       She develops her personal identity and understanding of herself throughout the book

Somatic Domain

•       Physical changes – Melody has mainly physical problems, where she doesn’t have much control of her body, but her brain isn’t really affected

•       Has no balance

•       Uses a wheelchair to get around

•       Has to rely on other people for eating, drinking, clothing, and going to the bathroom

•       Tornado Explosions = lose control of her body

Somatic Domain Continued

•       Worried about their looks – She’s constantly worried about how she looks & wants to look as normal as possible & wants to fit in

•       Wants her mom to dress her up in nice clothes & tries her best to have good personal hygiene

•       Concerns regarding their sexuality, personal hygiene, & overall well being

•       Prone to mood swings & violent behavior = tornado explosion when gets mad, excited, or frustrated

•       Melody explains at the end that 5^th grade is pretty rough, rocky, & awkward

Intellectual Domain

•       Cognitive development

•       Students all at different levels

•       Read a lot growing up

•       Loves watching the Discovery channel, listening to the radio, & likes facts

•       Melody is smart & has a photographic memory

Intellectual Domain Continued

•       Gets an assistant to take her to classes, sit with her, and help her participate

•       Knows the answer to almost every question

•       Is very smart for her age

•       Strong in every subject area (especially language arts) but weak in math

Familial Domain

•       Relationship/how interact with siblings, parents, and other family members – very close with her family & her neighbor Mrs. Valencia

•       Has major support from her family & neighbor Mrs. Valencia who all believe in Melody & encourage her

•       Changing roles & tensions in the family may affect self-concept & self esteem (birth of Penny)

Familial Domain Continued

•       In the beginning of the book, her relationship with her parents wasn’t as good because she wasn’t able to talk & communicate

•       Mom becomes pregnant & Melody has a baby sister, which changes the dynamic of the family

•       Jealous that Penny is born normal & can walk, talk, and function normally

Communal Domain

•       Social aspect of school

•       She’s constantly comparing herself & her development to the normal kids

•       Wants to be like all the other kids – she wants to be normal

•       Likes watching the normal kids

•       She’s jealous of all the things they can do & she can’t

Communal Domain Continued

•       Kids ignore her, pretend she’s invisible, or mock & make fun of her

•       Want to belong & feel accepted

•       All Melody wants is a friend

•       Even some of the teacher’s don’t give Melody a chance & discriminate against her

•       Group participation in their school, neighborhood, & local community

Last Communal Domain Slide

•       Because Melody has an assistant other children get jealous & accuse her of cheating

•       Doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. She feels like she doesn’t fit in with the special education kids, but she doesn’t feel like she fits in with the normal kids

•       Does not like eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom in public because she gets embarrassed

Conclusion

•       Author Sharon M. Draper Short Interview (3 minute YouTube Video)

http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=35

•       Are there any questions, comments, or concerns?

•       Thank you for watching & listening to my presentation, I appreciate it. 

My Experience at Phantom Knight Charter School

Heading Over to Phantom Knight Charter School

            St. Norbert College is partnered up and good friends with the City of De Pere’s Phantom Knight Charter School. So for my Instructional Methodologies for Adolescents class, each college student in my class goes over to the school to tutor and help out a student with their homework or the project that they are working on.

I go to the school to help out every Thursday and Friday for an hour. So far it has been an interesting experience and I have learned a lot. I would say the biggest eye opening experience for me would be the difference between the public school that I went to (Sheboygan Falls High School) compared to the structure of a charter school. It is a completely different set up and is organized in a completely different way, in a good way. Phantom Knight Charter School seems to be less formal and has a more informal structure, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s just different from what I’m used to and what I grew up around.

            Usually when I go over to Phantom Knight Charter School I help two students with their online work. Oh yeah, that’s another difference. Most of the student’s schoolwork is online and the structure is very project based.

What do I mean by projected based learning? According to Phantom Knight, project based learning is a dynamic approach to learning where students explore real problems and challenges that they are interested in. With this type of active and engaged learning, students are inspired to gain a deeper knowledge of the subjects that they are studying. Research indicates that students are more likely to retain the knowledge gained through this approach. In addition, students develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work. In the process of completing their projects, students also improve their organizational and research skills, develop better communication with their peers and adults, and often work within their community while seeing the positive effect of their work. All projects are aligned to the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards and Common Core State Standards. These are the beliefs that Phantom Knight Charter School is based on and it seems to be working pretty well for them.

When I go over there, I usually help my two students that I work with either in the subjects of science or history. The most exciting and interesting experience that I’ve had so far with this whole experience was going to one of Phantom Knight’s Presentation Nights. I got to walk around, look at student’s projects, talk to the students, and ask the student’s questions about their projects. Each student’s project was unique and interesting and was presented differently from the last. I can truly say that each one of those students worked hard on their projects and each student that goes to this school holds great potential. I really enjoyed the presentation night and it really inspired me with how passionate some of these students were with their projects.

To learn more about the Phantom Knight Charter school check out their website: https://sites.google.com/a/wdpsd.com/phantomknight/

My First Lesson Plan Reflection

My First Lesson Plan Reflection

After teaching my first lesson plan, I was required to write a reflection about my first teaching experience.

Here are the directions for the reflection by my professor:

One day after you complete your teaching, you must write a reflection on the experience. This reflection must include assessment of your preparation for teaching the strategy, analysis of your teaching, and suggestions for ways to improve. Post this to Moodle by the second day after you teach.

Here is my reflection of teaching my first lesson plan:

My Teaching Strategy Experience Reflection

I was really surprised by the feeling of using a lesson plan and how teaching the class felt. I was delighted to find out that it was actually kind of fun. And surprisingly I wasn’t even that nervous. But I do have to admit that preparing for the lesson plan was sort of a disaster for me. Since it was midterms week and since I had a lot of homework, projects, and midterms due in the beginning of the week, I kind of procrastinated and left preparing for the lesson plan last minute.

 So there I was, the day before, scrambling to put my lesson plan together. I spent all day figuring out the order, organizing, making copies, and preparing for my lesson plan. I had so much due on Wednesday and I wanted to get as much as my other homework done as possible too, so I was up until 2 am in the morning finishing up the rest of my homework. Let’s just say Tuesday night and Wednesday was pretty rough. It’s actually pretty ironic that this happened because part of my lesson was about procrastinating and stressing out. And there I was, a perfect example of what not to do during midterm week. I wonder if anyone even noticed. I’m pretty sure no one else noticed, but I sure did. I was so tired. 

            Anyway, overall, I would say that me teaching the lesson went pretty well. Better than I expected and thought it was going to go anyway. I was very proud of myself and how I did, especially for teaching a lesson for the first time, not to mention I was up until two in the morning. I felt pretty prepared and organized. At the time I also felt like I knew what I was doing because I was so prepared and organized. One thing that I knew going in that I was worried about, was time because I had so much I wanted to teach and do, but only half an hour to teach it. The previous night I did time my activities and kept on trying to shorten my lesson plan and did cut out a few things, but wasn’t sure what else to cut out. Not to mention I never ran all the way through or practiced going through my whole lesson plan either. I practiced parts of it, but not all of it in order, all the way through.

I went in on Wednesday with actually 60 minutes worth of things to talk about and do in my lesson plan. So, when I had downtime, when the students were working and I wasn’t walking around listening to what they were saying, I was trying to figure out what else I could cut out or skip. Knowing that I had more than enough planned, I tried to talk at a faster pace and kept careful watch of the time, on my watch, since there wasn’t a clock up on the wall (because it had been taken down). At one point I noticed I skipped an important part (which was also my favorite part may I add) where I was going to ask the class more specific questions about procrastination to get them thinking about possible questions to ask for the Author Says/I Say Chart, though I did bring it up later on in the lesson plan. In the end, I somehow ended my lesson after about 40 minutes. I’m not exactly sure where the extra twenty minutes went, but it worked out pretty well.

There are a couple of things I could have done better and improve on. First of all not waiting last minute and staying up really late the previous night was not a smart idea. Along with that, I probably could have picked a better article for the Say Something Read-Aloud Partner Activity, so the students would have more meaningful things to talk about and branch out from.

During my lesson plan I had a weird PowerPoint malfunction where one of my most important slides, explaining how to do the Say Something Read-Aloud Activity disappeared, but I felt like I recovered and explained it pretty well on my own, without it anyway. Even though explaining it without the slide worked, if I would have gone through my slideshow and practiced before hand, I probably would have caught it before hand and it probably would have ran more smoothly. Teaching-wise I could have probably been louder, more confident, and planned it out better so I could take my time. I also could have had better eye contact to connect to my students better, especially during the PowerPoint slideshow. I should have cut more things out and had the lesson planned out and timed closer to 30 minutes ahead of time. Another thing that would have helped to smooth out the bumps was going through it and practicing by myself and possibly with someone else, so they could give me some tips or suggestions. When it’s all said and done, I felt like I did pretty well and it was a great learning experience.