Jessica Marovich SPED Assignment A November 14, 2012 In the local high school that I observed at this semester,

my cooperating teacher faced problems when it came to inclusive education with her students. There are two girls that are blind in her fifth hour class. They are not fully blind, but they have extreme difficulty reading text; therefore, they have an aide with them at all times. While the rest of the class can read regular size font that is presented on the board, on worksheets, or in books, they cannot. This has led my cooperating teacher to be faced with the problem of inclusive education. She wanted to give the same assignments to the girls, but she was unsure on how to make it happen. Also, although the girls had an aide, she did not want the girls to have to rely on the aide at all times. She told me that it seemed as if they were embarrassed that they had an aide, and could not participate in the activity like the rest of the class. She wanted to figure out a way in order for them to be more independent, and not have to rely on the aide. The key players in this challenge related to inclusive education are the teacher, the aide, and the two girls. The teacher is a key player because she is the one who has to figure out a solution in order to include them in her lesson plan. The aide is a key player because she is the one who has to take the text, enlarge it, and transfer it to the IPADS that the girls will use in class. She is the one who the girls go to if they have questions on the assignment or if their IPADS malfunction. The girls are the final key player to this problem for obvious reasons. They are the ones who have the disability and have to deal with difficult situations, such as not being able to read their assignments.

Although it may be hard to figure out ideal solutions in order to have inclusive education with certain students, there are always ways to ensure their inclusion. When it comes to the two blind girls in my cooperating teachers fifth hour class, my teacher came up with the solution to enlarge the text. She wanted these girls to read and do the same exact work that the other students are working on; therefore, she took every worksheet, textbook, and power point, and enlarged the font to a 48 font. She realized though, that when she enlarged the font and printed it out, a one page worksheet could become a ten page worksheet. In order to fix this problem, she requested IPADS from the school library, so that they did not have to waste paper and could just read the material on the IPAD. Another idea that I told my cooperating teacher that she could use would be to have all of the material on her computer in some sort of audio form. This would allow for the girls to be able to hear the questions that are being asked on the worksheet, or hear the story that is being read instead of forcing them to read it on their own. I believe that these solutions would be successful because it will allow the girls to be involved in the lesson instead of asking for help at all times from their aide. With the enlarged font, they would be able to read their assignments on their own, which would not only make the assignment easier for them to accomplish, but would also make them feel more independent. I believe that turning the text into a form of audio would be successful because like I stated previously, it would make the assignment easier for the girls. They would be able to rewind the audio if they did not understand a question, and they would not have to worry about not being able to read the text. Plus, just like

enlarging the text, it would give the girls a sense of independence because they would not have to rely on their aide to repeat the information to them. Another challenge that my cooperating teacher faced while teaching, was collaborating with the schools special education aide. Like I previously stated, there were two blind girls in my cooperating teachers fifth hour class. The girls had an aide with them at all times because their teachers could not devote all of their time to them while they had other students in the class. The aide proved to be incompetent when it came to meeting the needs of the girls, and when it came to responding to my teachers solutions. For instance, my cooperating teacher would tell the aide what she needed to be completed in order for the girls to be able to participate in the class the next day, and the aide would not do what needed to be done. The aide would act like she did not understand the instructions, and then she just would not complete the task that was assigned to her. The aide was also incompetent with technology. My cooperating teacher would tell the aide to enlarge the font of the text that would be discussed the next day, and the aide would have no idea how to make the font larger. My cooperating teacher would end up having to do the work on her own, which was unfair because it was the aides job. The key players in this challenge are the teacher, the aide, and the girls. The girls were not as much of key players as the aide and the teacher, but they can be considered a key player since the work is being done for them. The teacher is a key player because she is the one that has to collaborate with the aide and tell the aide what has to be done in order to make her lesson a success. The aide is a key player

because she is the one that proves to be a challenge for my cooperating teacher. If it was not for her, there would not be a collaboration problem. The only solution that my cooperating teacher could find to the collaboration problem was to do the work herself. Therefore, I have come up with two solutions. The first solution would be to inform the school board that the special education aide is incompetent, and the second solution would be to sit down with the aide and discuss the problem. For the first solution, I think that my cooperating teacher should discuss the problem with the school board or the Principal. The school hired this aide for a specific reason, and if she is not doing her job, then the school should be informed. I believe this to be an ideal solution because my cooperating teacher could approach the problem without getting in a direct confrontation with the aide. Plus, if the aide is confronted by the Principal or the school board, she will probably take the problem more seriously since it is coming from people who are higher in charge than my cooperating teacher. For the second solution, I think that my cooperating teacher could sit down the aide, and discuss the problem herself. My cooperating teacher could express her concerns to the aide. She could also give the aide a one-on-one tutorial of how to complete the work that needs to be done for the girls. I believe that this is an ideal solution because it will allow the aide and my cooperating teacher to form a closer bond by working together on a specific problem. By giving the aide a tutorial on how to complete the work, my cooperating teacher will no longer have to complete the work on her own. The aide will now understand how to enlarge the font, and how to transport the work onto the girls IPADS. Also, by discussing the problem with the aide, it

will save the aide a form of embarrassment from her boss. She will realize that she needs to step up her work or else her boss may find out and she may lose her job. A final challenge that my cooperating teacher faced while teaching, was related to instructional planning and delivery. She told me that while she was planning certain lessons, she envisioned them going a different way than what actually happened. I was present for a class where I got to see this challenge occur. My cooperating teacher was teaching a lesson on the omniscient narrator in the story, The Devil and Tom Walker. It was a hard lesson to teach, and she did not know if the students would grasp the concept; therefore, she tried to incorporate into the lesson some concepts that the students already knew. She decided to incorporate vocabulary into the lesson that the students had been working on the whole semester. I was confused as to how this would help the students understand the omniscient narrator, and my confusion was confirmed when the students had no idea what my cooperating teacher was talking about. My cooperating teacher began talking about prefixes and suffixes, and then asked the students to tell her what the prefixes and suffixes meant in the story. They had no idea what they meant; therefore, they sat quietly and did not respond to the teacher. It was obvious that they were confused. My cooperating teacher did not know what to do because she had no idea how to make the concept click with the students. The key players in this challenge are the students and the teacher. The teacher is a key player because she is the one who was challenged with a way to deliver the material to the students in a way that they would understand. The students are key

players because they are the ones who the material is being delivered to. They are the ones who determine whether or not a lesson is a success or a waste. At the end of the lesson, my cooperating teacher came up to me and told me that she was drowning while teaching the lesson. She knew that the lesson was hard, but she did not think that the students would respond in the way that they did. A solution that I believe would work would be to try to relate the lesson to the students. Instead of presenting the vocabulary words to the students, which proved to be boring and insufficient, I think that the teacher should present a movie that has an omniscient narrator. I believe that this solution would be successful because a movie will engage the students because all kids love to watch movies, plus by seeing an example within a movie will allow them to understand exactly what an omniscient narrator is. Another solution to this problem would be to alter and take notes on reasons why the lesson did not work. I believe that this solution would be successful because it will ensure that the lesson will improve each and every time that it is taught. The teacher will not make the same mistakes that caused the students to not understand the material. The lesson will just get all the much better and sooner or later, my cooperating teacher will be able to perfect the lesson in order for all of her students to understand what an omniscient narrator is. One last solution would be to have the students tell the teacher why they were not grasping the material. By asking the students what they do not understand about the lesson will allow the teacher to explain the material in a better way. I believe that this will be successful because my cooperating teacher will know exactly where she went wrong and what she needs to do in order to improve her lesson.