Shannon Pearce

December 6, 2013

The Bill Porter Plan


Bill Porter, a miraculous individual, with the will to be successful at anything he puts his
mind to, is the newest addition to the Ashland Middle School 6
th
grade class. He currently
suffers from a condition known as cerebral palsy. It affects his speech and limits his movement
in his right hand and makes walking difficult. Academic wise, his ability to be successful in the
classroom does not seem to be affected by his condition; he is rather smart and very
determined and motivated to be similar to his peers and successful. He does not have the I
give up attitude despite his limiting condition. His limited mobility will prevent him from
participating completely in some activities that require use of his right hand/arm or excessive
movement like running, jogging, walking etc. Bill is currently placed in special education for
speech and language and orthopedic disabilities.
Bills mother reports that Bill is an average kid that tries really hard and does not give up
easily. He works around his disability and even though things can be painful he is still very
driven and he will complete tasks even if it takes him longer than usual. He is able to do many
things around the house, but it takes him longer when he has to do it one handed so he needs
assistance with daily tasks such as writing, cooking, cleaning, and dressing himself. Other than
that Bill is very active for a young boy and very social. He does have slurred speech, but that
does not keep him from conversations or talking to people.
In order to fully understand Bill, I would start by learning about Bills disability. Research
how cerebral palsy affects individuals, and then I would apply it to Bills individual case. I would
speak to Bills parents and teachers from past years. I would review his file to understand more
about him as a younger child and how he was as a student. I would then spend time with Bill in
the settings in which he is most comfortable; observing how he interacts with people, things, or
situations around him. Observe where his capabilities or limitations are. I would spend time
talking to Bill to figure out what he is interested in and work with this motivation to help him be
successful in the classroom.
Once I determined where Bills strengths and weaknesses are an individual education
plan (IEP) will be written or adjusted to reflect such information. I will share what I have
learned with the staff about Bill, I will help them adjust and change what they need to have an
individual like Bill in their classrooms. Socially, Bill is very willing to talk with others, so I think it
would be important to have some small group sessions with Bill and his classmates. The
schedule that our school has would make this very possible. There is plenty of opportunities
during our morning meeting time to do some get to know each other activities to give Bill the
opportunity to help other students understand who Bill is as a person and look past his exterior
disabilities.
Bills schedule will include some time in an inclusion classroom. He will have a special
education support staff available to him in the classroom; this individual will be responsible for
helping the regular education teacher make adjustments so that Bill has the ability to be
successful in the classroom. I would encourage the regular education teacher to differentiate
lessons and encourage more group work activities so that Bill is included with his peers. This
will help the kids accept Bill for who his is and what wonderful abilities he does have to
contribute to their classroom. Overall, I think that promoting positive relationships in the
classroom and overall school will help students to look past the physical disability and speech
impairment that Bill has and see the wonderful person underneath it all.
Bill will be limited in the regular classrooms due to his speech and physical disability.
The slurred speech makes it hard to understand him at times. The overall classroom setting will
need to be arranged to accommodate his physical disability. Movement around the classroom
may be difficult for him due to walking being difficult for him. Bill has difficulty writing due to
his physical disability. Written work will be a challenge for him in the classroom. Also the
amount of time it will take Bill to complete tasks will be different than his peers. This will
inhibit Bill from keeping up with notes or other tasks in the classroom. Physical education class
and art will also be difficult for Bill.
Due to the barriers in the classroom, Bill will need some accommodations to assist him
be successful. He will need preferential seating so that movement around the classroom is
easiest for him. Bill will need one-on-one assistance in the classroom to help with his writing.
He will need a scribe or some type of assistive technology that will allow him to complete
writing on his own. He will also need extra time for work completion. Assignments will need to
be shortened so that he can keep up with his work load. He will need to be provided with
copies of teacher or student notes so that he can focus on what is being presented and not on
the process of taking copies of the notes. He will need to be in an adaptive Phy Ed class with a
modified curriculum. The best thing, if available, would be a one-on-one assistant to
accompany Bill to each of his classes and help him things such as movement of materials to and
from classes, writing, etc.
The amount and frequency of inclusion class will be dependent on Bills current
academic achievement scores; either on the WKCE test (with necessary accommodations) or
our district wide MAPs (measure of academic progress) test. If his scores are higher, and they
warrant him to be fully inclusive, then he will have a schedule built in which he has a regular
education schedule with the assistance of an LD teacher in the classroom or a one-on-one aide.
He will still be in a small group special education reading/writing class during our 6
th
grade RTI
time to work on the skills that he is struggling with.
If he scores low on these measures of academics, then his schedule will include more
special education classes for Math, Reading and English. He will be in inclusion for science and
social studies. He will still have access to an LD teacher in this setting or one-on-one aide. In
either situation he will have a resource time with his special education case manager who will
make sure that he is keeping up with his academics in the regular education setting, re-teaching
when necessary, or making necessary modifications to the work when needed.
With the number of different technologies available these days, I would like to get Bill
working on an IPad. There are so many different apps that would help him with typing and
production of writing. He would be able to take video or pictures of classroom lectures and go
back later to re-watch, see, or hear parts again. The IPad would also allow him to type on it and
with work prediction he would be able to produce written work faster than on a normal
computer. It would also allow him to be more independent and this is just what Bill would
prefer. The IPads also have the ability to take speech and produce written text. This option
would be very helpful to show Bill when he is talking too quickly for others to understand. It
will help him to understand which words or combinations he is having difficulty with. It would
be a good way for him to practice talking, but it is not the only option on the IPads for
producing text.
Computers would be helpful for producing written work by typing, but they are not
mobile like and IPad would be. Also Bill would be limited to typing with one hand so the
process would be slowed down. I do not think that programs such as dragon speak would be
beneficial to Bill due to his slurred speech. It would be very difficult for the computer program
to understand what text he is trying to produce.
With Bills motivation and determination if there was an afterschool activity that he
could physically participate in, I think that he would do very well. He may struggle with sports
and his disability might interfere with his ability to participate, but I think that if he really
wanted to he could do anything. If Bill was interested in participating in activities, I would not
discourage him from trying. I would help the coaches understand his disability and what factors
would limit him. Other after school activities such as student council, yearbook, chess club, or
afterschool program would be great ways for him to participate with his classmates. I would
encourage Bill to try these social activities, they would really help with social acceptance and
help Bill feel like he belongs.
Lastly, Bill is currently too young for planning of transition services. Once he reaches the
age 14, he will have a plan started that would start looking at goals for him after high school
and what classes he needs to take during high school to reach those goals. There are some
programs though that I would refer his parents to through our health and human services office
in our count. These programs would set him up with a mentor and work with his family to help
Bill with some of the struggles he has in the home. The program is very helpful in supporting
families in the community that have children with disabilities. Once Bill gets a little older there
will be more programs available to him as we start to look at transitioning to life after school.