example of co-op learning for students with disabilities-holocaust-World War II

There are many teachers that feel students can learn in a variety of ways.  One of those ways would be cooperative learning and group work in teams.  Cooperative learning is when a group learns a subject or certain topic together and almost everything they learn in the activity is “new” to the students or mostly “new” to them.  When doing group work in teams, it is usually a topic that had been discussed in class and the students are asked to create some sort of presentation in small groups to expand on what they have learned. The two situations are very similar, but usually have different outcomes within the classroom.

            There are many ways a teacher could incorporate cooperative learning in the classroom. Say an English class is learning about the Holocaust. Some examples of activities could be, the teacher will provide students in a 9^th Grade English class a check sheet that has certain facts on concentration camps e.g. were there scientific tests on Jews? Were Jews worked to death in the camps? Did the Jews have to shave their heads?  The students will be assigned to groups of three in a computer lab and will be assigned to find out the answers on the concentration camp questions they are assigned.  The students will have 30 minutes to complete their list and five minutes to present their data.  Students will tally and keep track of how many concentration camps practiced the same practices.  This assignment will be at the end of reading the book Night by Elie Wiesel. 

            With the activity the students will be able to build their knowledge on what they know about the Holocaust.  The students will have learned from the experiences which the book Night had showed them.  With the research the students will be able to build on their knowledge of other concentration camps and what the Nazi’s purposes were in the concentration camps.  The assignment will break down as follows:  3 minutes will be introduction on what the assignment requires; 25 minutes will be allotted for the research in a computer lab; 15 minutes will be given for the students will be aloud to share what each group has found and what camp had each kind of activities, also what made the specific Nazi camp unique; 10 minutes will be allotted for the teacher will show the students the tally sheet of if camps had similar cultures or if the Nazis made the Jews do certain scenarios; 5 minutes for a cool down for the students to share one new fact the student learned about concentration camps that day.

            With the research of the assignment it should incorporate the student’s ability to research and build upon their current knowledge of the Holocaust.  The students will be able to compare and contrast other concentration camps during that time. The students will be able to build their skills with recalling knowledge that they have learned during the semester about World War II and more specially the Holocaust.  With research incorporated, this is the perfect activity for 9^th graders to work together in order to discover certain facts they do not know about the Holocaust. 

            The overall objective of this cooperative learning assignment is to practice the students researching abilities, using a variety of databases.  Students in English class, as they get older, need to be to effective at doing research on certain topics for papers. With that the students will need to be able to compare and contrasts different facts while also choosing the most appropriate facts to use when making specific points.  With cooperative learning students will be able to learn news things, while learning with each other. 

Emotional Behavior Disorder, BIP, IEP.

Emotional Behavior Disorders are.

            Before I began working in special education, my experience with special education and emotional/behavior disorder students was very limited.  I coached football before I began working in special education and had many athletes that had Individual Education Plans (IEP’s), along with Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), which deal with students that have emotional and behavior disorders. Some characteristics that I have seen in students with emotional and behavior disorders are lashing out, shutting down and aviodence of difficult tasks. These experiences are the ones that got me interested in teaching special education and students with BIP’s. 

            I always tried to encourage the athletes that I coached to participate and try to positively reinforce their actions when they do participate.  These students, I could tell, had a little more difficulty with interacting with the other students.  These experiences are the ones that really got me interested in teaching and helping students with BIP’s.  I could see that students who had more problems then the other kids just wanted to be involved in a team and a sport.  I know that sometimes these students needed some time to step out when things in the football would get too intense for them, but as soon as they had time to cool off, they were ready to jump back in and participate.  On the football field students do not get extra time, get an aid, or have a BIP.  They are asked to do everything the students without IEP’s or BIP’s do and it is a great feeling when they accomplish great things.

            I just recently got involved in special education in August and I have loved every minute of it.  I work half of the day with just one student and the other half with several students.  Some of these students do have BIP’s, but I feel that they can become very successful.  Each student that I work with that has a BIP comes from a single parent home and they do live with their mother.  I do not know if this is a common trend with students that have BIP’s.  They become easily frustrated when it comes to difficult tasks. The students I’ve worked with like to throw things and shout out when they become frustrated.  The best solution for when these students become frustrated is to make them aware of their options and give them a chance to cool down.  I know that working with students that have BIP’s usually get several options, when they are acting out.  Usually the students are asked to correct their behavior, if the behavior continues they are told their options if they continue to behave inappropriately.  If these students continue to act then the student receives a Saturday school.  This is the extent of the experiences that I have had with students and BIP’s.  I have not seen students get to the third stage of correction which is good.

            I feel that all of these students have behavior that can be corrected, if they are given the right opportunity to do so.  I feel that these students need to be aware of the options that they have when they display inappropriate behavior.  I do think that all students that have a BIP’s can display appropriate behavior in school and become a successful student.  

Autism and routines

Routines are huge with students that have Autism.  It helps them have a balance to their day and know where to go to next.  Now there are always going to be hiccups in the schedule and it is important to practice coping techniques, so that the student does not overreact to the situation.  If the students can practice these techniques it will help prepare them for the real world.

Learned helplessness/Kids with Autism smarter then we think

Through my years of educating students with Autism, many of them have personal school aides, who help them get to class, take notes and keep track of their assignments.  Sometimes these students can develop learn helplessness or take advantage of their aides.  These students are sometimes more then capable of taking their own notes, but would rather their aide do it for them.  Sometimes the aide has taken the notes for so long that the child just thinks that they cannot take their own notes.

It is important as educators and parents to make sure we are always challenging our students so they do not develop these bad habits and so that they can achieve more then anyone ever thought they could.

Asperger’s and pain, Newtown, CT

I read an article the other day about how the shooter from Newtown has Asperger Syndrome and he could not feel pain.  This could not be further from the truth, students with Asperger’s can feel pain, just like you and I.  I often compare Asperger’s to a very mild case of Autism, were the students are usually very functional able, but sometimes lack discipline in the classroom, but this does not mean they cannot feel pain.  It makes you wonder about the people that are writing these stories and if I had Asperger’s I would be highly insulted by this article.   

http://montville-ct.patch.com/groups/editors-picks/p/report-newtown-gunman-had-aspergers-syndrome-shot-sle8dc1516b19

Autism is it new?

This is a very interesting topic, I am a fairly young guy and growing up in the 80s you never heard of anyone having Autism.  Now there were not that many opportunities for people with disabilities back then, but how did it get discovered?  Has it always been around?  Will we as a society discover a new disability in the future?  It makes you wonder.

Autism Students Looking for Structure

It has come from my experience that students with Autism love to have structure in their day.  Whether it be having the same breakfast, going to their locker everyday before 3rd period or not.  This structure adds stability to their day and helps make their day go smooth.

I have also seen the opposite effect of a unstructured schedule that severely hurt the student.  If there is a substitute teacher in math class the student will lose focus instantly and I have found that if you avoid that situation entirely, the students day is not as disturbed.