How do I include him?

The important parts of a revised lesson plan should include activities that will enhance learning for the specific child with a disability in your classroom. Each child with a disability is different. They are all individuals and what works for one student may not work for another. For this writing exercise, I will pretend that I have a student who has slight mental retardation (MR).

My lesson focused on the food pyramid. For a student with MR, I would first need to analyze his abilities and then create activities that would help him to learn. My modified lesson would include time for this student to process the information that I was presenting in class. My revised activities would still include group work, would still include hands on opportunities for the students to sort foods, and would still include computer time. The difference in this lesson plan would be subtle individual accommodations for my student with MR. I would require him to still participate in the group activities, but his answers may be shorter. I would have to assess this student differently, depending on how his progress is to be measured. I would still require this student to sort foods with the rest of the class, but he may need assistance, or may only be able to sort one or two. I believe that these differences would be slight, as to not have the student feel that he is being singled out in the classroom.

In my lesson plan involving the food pyramid, I require the students to create a spreadsheet. This activity may be difficult for the student with MR. In order to assist this student with the use of the computer spreadsheet in the classroom, I would add a pre-made spreadsheet for this student that includes pictures. This student may still require some assistance, but hopefully he will be able to record his number data into the proper areas, with the assistance of pictures.

It is crucial to revise lesson plans regularly. Each year students are different. Even regular education students may require extra hands on activities in order to succeed in the classroom. I believe that each time that a lesson is taught, the teacher can learn from the lesson different ways of changing it to make it better. Even if a teacher revises a lesson to meet the needs of a student with a disability, she may try out the lesson and find that it did not work as planned. This would then require another revision to try try again.

One way to assess the appropriateness of the modified lesson, for example the modified spreadsheet, is to try it out. First, know your student’s abilities. Second, create the spreadsheet. Third, try it out. If it is too difficult for the student, or the student is unable to physically do what you ask, modify it again. Our goal it to get the student learning to the best of HIS ability and we want him to succeed, so it is up to us to modify until we find something that works, and works well.

I believe that all students should be included into the lesson. It breaks my heart to see students with disabilities sitting in the back of the classroom, or sitting by watching other students play on the playground. I believe that as teachers, we need to figure out ways to include these students to the best of their abilities. In order to do it, we need to invest time into learning about the individual student and what technology is available to them. The next step is to implement it. Sometimes learning a new technology is difficult for teachers and they do not want to spend the time learning the technology, this is lazy. We are teachers, so let’s get off of our butts and teach!