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Portfolio Artifact
"There is a brilliant child locked inside every student." Marva Collins I strongly believe that all students are capable of learning. Within that belief, I feel that there is a responsibility for the teacher to motivate students to learn as well as accommodate any difficulties that students may have. While there will be students from every background in my future classroom there will also be students with learning disabilities and as the teacher I will be responsible for finding effective manners to teacher all of these diverse students. Before this semester I was somewhat naïve about the presence of learning disabled students in classrooms. I had never heard of inclusive education or an IEP. And I was equally naïve about the difficulties that learning disabled student face on a daily basis. I would have never guessed that so many students struggle with so many learning disabilities and that the ways that teachers react to their struggles only increase the students anxiety. While I have been around learning disabilities for the majority of my life, as my brother has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, I never truly understood what that meant for his ability to learn. In EDSEC 150 we thoroughly discussed learning disabilities and watched a video, F.A.T. City, in which the speaker went through a variety of exercises to demonstrate the pressures and anxiety that learning disabled students feel during a lesson. Some of the exercises highlighted on the everyday reactions of teachers to struggling students. For instance one of the demonstrations revealed the difficulty of processing language. He said that while it may feel like the class is moving slow to the teacher it is moving at a rapid pace for the learning disabled student. And that feeling of not being able to keep up creates a feeling of anxiety for the student. I was truly stunned by this movie. For the majority of people, getting an education is simple, but for learning disabled students it can be a much bigger obstacle. This helped me to gain a new perspective of learning disabilities as well as compassion toward the students who struggle with them. As a student preparing to become a teacher I feel that it is important for me to consider the implications that an inclusive education will have on the classes I teach. There will be accommodations that will have to be made in the lesson plans. However, this section in the class has made me more sensitive to that and I feel more equipped to begin learning how to accommodate learning disabilities in a classroom. Rationale
For INTASC principle two and three I have chosen to demonstrate what I have learned about learning disabled students through my secondary education class. These two standards deal with the understanding of how students learn and develop as well as how to accommodate those methods of growth and development in the classroom. When I begin teaching someday meanings of these standards will play a large role in the accommodation of students of the needs of learning disabled and non-learning disabled students. However, in order to accommodate the needs of these students I feel that I must first understand their needs and struggles. After I understand that I will be able to “create instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.” As stated in my artifact, I feel that prior to this semester my understanding of learning disabilities was very limited. They were something that I was aware of but never fully understood the struggles that learning disabled students faced in the classroom and with their teachers. As I spoke with friends and read articles about learning disabilities, I feel like I have become more compassionate towards these students. I still do not feel that I full understand all of the learning disabilities and how to accommodate them in a classroom setting. However, I do feel that due to the compassion that I have to accommodate the needs of these students I will do anything and everything to ensure that they get every opportunity to learn. While I have every desire to accommodate the needs of these students, as of now I feel very unprepared to do so. I feel untrained on how to create a learning environment that caters to the special needs of each student. But as stated earlier I am very passionate about creating opportunities for all students to learn so I feel that I will be capable of doing this when the time comes. |