H2 – Honor student access to content material
To me H2 is really coming into focus this year as never before. My previous teaching experiences have been with students who are behind academically and also require accommodations and/or modifications to help them learn. We often used similar textbooks as the general education classrooms, but at two or three grade levels lower than peers their age.
This year is a new experience for me because I am working with a new population of students. These students are for the most part, at grade level yet they need various accommodations and/or modifications to help them learn. Staying focused and on-task is very difficult for some of them.
Recently I was involved in a conversation with my mentor teacher and we were discussing the use of math journal in the 5th grade mainstream class. Each student is required to create a journal and the students write in it every day. The concern was that for our special education students this task was difficult (or even overwhelming) and often just wouldn’t be completed. An alternative journal was created for those students and they are now able to turn to the appropriate page and have the material in front of them, without having to copy notes from the board to their journal. This is just one small example of the numerous ways we work to ensure that our students are given access to content material.
The picture below shows a sample page from the math journal. It offers our students the opportunity to stay on track and keep up with their mainstream class. Often, the task of writing down the information is hard for them to do. It may be because they can’t keep up with the writing requirement, or perhaps they aren’t able to track the information from the board down to their paper.
The use of the math journals really showed me how important and effective it is getting the right tools into the student’s hands. I’ve worked on curriculum selection before with a previous teacher. This time however, it was another type of material that ended up providing the most support for our students. I like that it was a slightly ‘out of the box’ type of solution that my mentor teacher created.
I was reminded about the importance of focusing on my students, their needs, and then figure out a way to get them the help that they need. My mentor teacher noticed a trend of our 5th grade students returning to our room when it was math time in their mainstream class (where they should have been). By paying close attention and talking with the mainstream teacher, my mentor teacher was able to identify the problem and come up with an easy solution.
The result of getting materials into our students hands that will help them keep up with their peers is tremendous. It allows our students to feel successful, accomplished and hopefully motivated to stay in their mainstream class and continue working. Many of our students a very aware of their deficits and the teasing that happens when they aren’t able to keep up with the class. That embarrassment often results in either an acting out or ‘shutting down’ behavior (sitting at their desk, doing nothing, and not responding to peers or adults talking to them). I imagine that having such a simple tool as a math journal available could prevent those hurt feelings and potential behavior issues from ever happening.
This is definitely a practice I will incorporate into my future teaching practice. I really appreciate the assertiveness that my mentor teacher has to advocate for ‘her kids’. In this particular instance, she saw a need, helped find and create a solution and worked with other staff members to ensure its’ formation and success.
Lewis is learning 