Aisha Ahmed Yahya

EDU 2803

Assessment 2
Report on the Integration of Special Needs in Mainstreams
Classroom

Course: EDU 2803

To Ms.: Antoinette Wiseman
Done by: Aisha Ahmed Yahya
March 17, 2016

Student profile:

Student's name: Ahmed Saeed.

First language: Arabic.
Nationality: Egyptian.
Age: 6 years.
Grade: one.
Type of special need: signs of dyslexia.
Other information: Ahmed studied in English school since his
kindergarten. So, he is learning English as his first language (Arabic
language).

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The difficulties and the way of teaching Ahmed:

In my first day in teaching practice I noticed one child class was conceder as
a low ability in reading skills. The teacher was taking him regularly to the
separate room and read with him the task.
Ahmed seemed me to has dyslexia because he struggle in reading the words
or the sentences. (Lapkin, 2014) He decode the words more than other
children. Sometime, he read the d as B. He also has difficulty in
understanding the instruction which make the teacher repeat the steps
again.
After 2 days, I noticed Ahmed learn reading and writing in separated class.
Because of my assessment, I took permission from my MST to attend the
isolated class and take some notes to help me writing his way of learning.
While I am observing the process of learning in separation, I noticed that
Ahmed read picture books which means in each page contains pictures in
each page with few big sentences.

Accommodations and modifications:

After observation, I put two accommodation activities and two modifications.
Accommodation:
Accommodation is when a changing the way of teaching and providing
assistive strategies.
Giving the instruction:
In giving the instruction, I will print the obvious and simplified steps. Beside
the steps I will provide pictures or signs that help him to understand the
instruction clearly. Not forgetting Modeling strategy in facilitating the
understanding.
Planning the activities:
The activities will designed by providing symbols, shapes and pictures that
match the pictures with the sentences or words. so, Ahmed can easily see
the pictures and relate the print to the pictures. Hence, he will understand
faster.
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Modification:
Modification is to remove part of the curriculum which means the hard part
of the curriculum.
Removing the hard vocabulary from the exam:
Dyslexic child is different than the mainstream children in processing the
new information. (Lapkin, 2014) So, the teacher need to keep in mind that
he/she will not learn the same information as other students will learn.
Therefore, the content of the questions in the exam should be different that
other students by not including the hard questions.
For example, the students in grade one learn hippopotamus the teacher will
modify the exam for dyslexia child by remove this word in the exam.
Teaching easy vowels:
Since Ahmed struggle in phonological awareness and phonics, I will require
him to write words that has the basic vowels which means (a,e,i,o and y)
instead of (oi) sound. As Krashen said in ZPD (Zone of proximal
development) children need to learn information that is beyond their
abilities. Therefore, learning a,e,i and y is slightly higher than his ability so
he can learn it and learn (oi) sound later. (Barton, 2001)

Ahmed's statistics on 28 February:

During my observation, I took some of Ahmed abilities and difficulties on
28/February/2016. Then I put measurable goals (by one month) hoping
Ahmed achieve them. Also, I rely on IEP plan to design my objectives.
Before doing the process of IEP plan I refer my teaching materials to Piaget
classification which is in pre-operation stage. In this stage, the children learn
through objects so my activities need to have some objects or pictures.

Here is a record of what Ahmed is doing in 28/February:

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Domains

Current status

Cognitive domains

Able to read 15 words in one minute.

Confuse between similar words such
as b and d.
Confuse between the vowels.
Has a difficulty with identifying the
speech.

Social and emotional domains

Seems to me to has low-self esteem

because he find his self different than
his classmates.
His relationship with his classmates is
good. I didn't see any bullying to him.
He has difficulty to form some litters
correctly.
He has good ideas when you listen to
him.
His imagination is wide which made
him good novelist in the future.

Fine motor
Strength

(Hurley)
IEP plan:
IEP is Individual Educational Plan which focuses on the special need child
ability by finding his/her strength and weakness in way to fit his/her potential
and assistive and supportive way of learning to learn as mainstream
students.
It considered by the specialist education, teacher, parents, school district
respresentive, psychologist and the students who are above 16 years.
They work as team to develop the lesson plan it go through process:
Pre referential:
Look at the students difficulties and strength to start due to the test. Some
time the plan fail so the specialist educational involve to the plan.
Identification:
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By identifying if the student is special need or not. So, I didn't has any
information about Ahmed but I found that he has a sign of dyslexia and I
noticed that the teacher teach him separately some time.
Implementing teaching:
I emphasize implementing my teaching on three domains which are
cognitive, physical and emotional domains (Stanberry, 2014)

Firstly, Cognitive domain:

Goals

Cognitive domain
Goal 1: I want Ahmed to read 20
words with accepting mistakes and
decoding.
Goal 2: I want Ahmed to distinguish
between d, b and g and q.

Objectives

Goal 3: I want Ahmed to use a, i, e, o

vowels in the text and able to read
with appropriate sounds.
Objective 1: Encourage Ahmed to
read daily.
Objective 2: Creating story with d
and b or q and g.
Objective 3: Teaching phonics
instruction.

Secondly, physical Domain:

Writing skills is related to physical skills. Thus, it important to target a goal
that improve fine motor to help Ahmed to get better in his writing.
Physical domain

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Goals
Objectives

Goal: Able to write b and d and g

correctly.
Objective: Train Ahmed to write b
and d and g several time.

Thirdly, emotional domain:

Goals

Objectives

Emotional domain
Goal 1: Able to accept his ability and use
his strength to develop his learning.
Goal 2: Feel comfortable learning
environment.
Objective 1: Search about his strength.
Objective 2: Doing activities that based
on his strength. ( Encourage him to
express about his ideas).
Objective 3: providing less restrictive
environment.

(Hurley).

These strategies to apply the objectives:

Find Ahmed strength:
Firstly, Ahmed need more time than other children to read or write. That not
means that he is stupid. He might has good ability or given talent that can
apply it in his learning. Hence, I asked him what your hobbies he said I enjoy
making stories.
Implementing activities based on his strength:
Since Ahmed like to make a stories and he have difficulties in write it I
choose for him 1 class weekly to tell me a story brain storm it and write it.
Least Restrictive environment:
While I am doing these strategies I need to be careful to not put pressure not
Ahmed. As krashen said in his theory of affective filter, when the students
have positive image to the subject they will learn it very well.

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I should keep in mind to never let Ahmed read aloud or write in front of the
students which might decrease his self esteem. As a result, the disability will
increase.
Due to the slow processing the information, The child need extra time to
comprehend the new information. So, Ahmed need extra time in reading and
writing (Stanberry, 2014).
Assistive technologies:
Assistive technology is an important element to support special needs
learning. However, the teacher need to keep in mind that the teacher should
not rely completely on the technology. He/she need to use different
strategies beside the technology that make dyslexia student learn as
mainstream students.
IPad:
IPad is very useful device for dyslexia students because it packs with sort of
apps and facilities that improve reading and writing.
Teacher can download digital books that has clear letter formation with the
voice-speech to help the students match the speech with the formation. I
think the teacher can involve teaching phonics with these books. In this case,
the teacher can target the sounds that the students will learned , put the line
under them, say to the child focus on the sound of this word. So, the child
will see the word and listen to the speech. The teacher can repeat the
sounds and encourage him/her to repeat it.

Voice over:
Voice over is great program that encourage the child to express his/her idea
verbally. The teacher might give him/her a topics to talk. The child will talk
about this topic then it will written what he/she said. So, it is good practice
for writing skills (Huppertz).
My opinion:
I think the teacher can create book tailor dyslexia child by writing story that
has pictures that describe the events and audio which help the student to
match the sound with the print.

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Bibliography
Barton, S. (2001). Classroom Accomodation for Dyslexic Students. California,
US.: Camden Ave.
Huppertz, K. (n.d.). Assisstive Tchnology for Dyslexic Students and Adults.
Georgia: The international Dyslxia Association.

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Hurley, S. K. (n.d.). Dyslexia: How to write Goals. Dyslexia Training Institute ,

p. 4.
Lapkin, E. (2014, April 2). Understanding Dyslexia. Retrieved 3 8, 2016, from
Understood for learning & attention issues:
http://https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learningdisabilities/dyslexia/understanding-dyslexia.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/dyslexia/basics/definition/con-20021904
Stanberry, K. (2014, October 23). Understanding Individualized Eduction
Programs. Retrieved 3 7, 2016, from Understood for learning & attention
issues: https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/specialservices/ieps/understanding-individualized-education-programs

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