TE894 Improvement Project Title: How to teach the students with Special needs in an inclusive Mandarin classroom? 1.

Motivation An inclusive classroom allows children with special needs to learn with typically developing peers with their own age in the same classroom. It has become a mainstream nowadays. It requires teachers to make adaptations to accommodate the needs of all students to make sure that children of all abilities can learn together. 2. Description of the situation This school year, I have two boys with Autism in my 4th grade classes, Ben and Chris (not the real names). And I have one boy with ADHD in the 6th grade class. Ben, a very smart boy with Autism, is in a group of 13 students. I started having difficulties in communicating with him from the beginning of the school year. Once, I had the students play the telephone game to review the vocabularies of the family members. I divided the students into two groups and choose two different words for them to pass. The last student in each group need to choose the correct pictures of the two words they heard. They got to rotate during the game so that every student would get the chance to choose the pictures. When it was Bens turn, he chose meimei correctly and then he stopped. I asked him which word he heard just now. He answered waipo. Do you know what does Waipo mean? He yelled out: I dont know what Waipo means. But I am going to lie down. So he lied down on the ground immediately and banged his head on the ground. I pulled him to stand up and whispered to him that if he had a question next time, he could ask Chen Laoshi or other students. Thats Ok that you dont know the answer. Its when we start to learn.

Actually I was shocked by his behavior. He refused to have the eye contact with others when talking. Sometimes he showed the self-injured behavior such us head banging. He seemed to live in his world, drawing or playing his calculator. 3. Interpretation of the situation This is my first year teaching the students with Autism in class. The kids misbehavior has been a big problem interrupting the class from time to time. It will cause a waste of time for other students and bring no benefits to their learning. There are three hypotheses causing the above problem. First, I didnt have enough background knowledge of the kids with special education needs in my class. What I only knew is that he is a kid with Autism or ADHD. But I didnt get to know more about them, including their family, their learning styles. Second, I didnt provide an adaptive environment to fit their special needs. The students with special needs require the necessary equipment as well as adaptive forms of communication so that everyone can participate in classroom activities. For example: a squashing ball will help the student with ADHD make a little movements with out making noises in class. And visual aids might help the kids with Autism better understand the content. Third, more differentiation should be involved in my teaching. The students with special need are easily to get lost or lose interest during the whole group activity. Small group activities and different learning materials are needed for them. According to analysis above, I am considering to make the following improvement. First, identify the abilities and needs of each special-needs student. This will include talking with all individuals who are familiar with the student, such as the therapist,

homeroom teacher, and parents. Besides, I will ask for the information and suggestions from my colleagues. Through it, I will be able to get a clearer picture of the child and implement the teaching approaches that fit the kids learning style. Second, implement an adaptive environment and involve more differentiation into teaching. I will apply the adaptive forms of communication with the students with special needs. Besides, I will use various techniques, such as a more detailed explanation, repeating the information and creating more small group works so that the kids with special needs would interact with their peers and get help from them. 4. The stakes: Who did/could gain or lose what? In both the short term and long run, making adjustment for my students with special needs and implementing differentiation will help them feel more comfortable in my class and promote their participation and learning. Besides, it will bring a lot of benefits to other students in class. Without the distraction, they could be more focused in learning. And through the interaction and communication with their peers, they will build a respectful, helpful and supportive learning environment. 5. Deliberation on Alternatives Based on the hypotheses discussed above, I come up with two alternatives to improve the situation. One is grouping students according to their levels and learning abilities. For example, I can pull the special-needs students out, group them up and give them different instructions and materials. When I give the instructions to other students, I could have the students with learning disabilities to do some activities or assignments. And while I

teach the new content or helping with them, other students could work on projects or practice. In this way, they will take turns to get the instructions and directions from me as well as get an opportunity to work in groups or self-practice. Another alternative is grouping the students according to the different learning styles. In this situation, the students with special needs will work with others together. I will give different groups different materials and activities which fit their learning styles. For example, if the students in group A are visual learners, I will provide them with more visual aids such as videos or pictures. While group B kids prefer to learn through auditory way, I will give them more chances to watch video or listen to the recording. And I will have the kids choose their own way to create a project. For instance, we are learning daily routines now, they could either create a skit with partners, or make a poster, or conduct a video with Animodo. In this way, students would like to show more interest and put more effort in the projects. Besides, the presentation will not be boring anymore since everyone project is different. Comparing the relative merits of the two alternatives, I find the second option is more realistic and helpful. In the short term, through working with other peers, the students with the special needs could have more opportunities to interact and get help from others. Besides, if the students are grouped according to their learning levels, the children with learning disabilities are probably to ask for help frequently, which would become a distraction when I give the instruction to others. So the second option will be more realistic and practical. In the long term, since the students could get to study with their favored learning

styles and get to choose their own ways to present a project or finish an assignment, they would be more engaged in learning and participation. Gradually, the class will build a positive learning atmosphere. In this sense, I will apply the second alternative in my class. 6. Develop a Plan (1). I will talk with the parents of special needs students, the homeroom teachers, the special education teachers to fins out the students learning abilities, needs and preferred learning styles. (2). For other students, I will do a survey and take notes of their interest and participation of different activities and try to find out their learning styles. (3). Divide the students into different groups according to their learning styles and try to make sure there is no more than one student with special needs in one group. (4). Create and collect the various teaching materials, including videos, recording, stories, pictures and so on. And provide different groups with different learning materials and have them do different activities with that. (5). Model and teach how to help each other during the group work and have students to practice. (6). When the students work on a project, give the choices and show their the examples of different choice so that they can make a better decision of how they conduct and present their projects. 7. Description of the implementation During the past two weeks, I carried out the plan of grouping students according to their learning styles. Some of the approaches worked out very well.

When we reviewed the vocabulary, I provided the students with the opportunities to play fly swatter game, playing online quizlet game, and play with flash cards. The students with the visual learning style preferred to choose the flash cards game. While the physical learners picked the fly swatter game so that they could have some movement during the game. And the aural learners showed more interest in online games so that they can hear the sound. Before the activity, I taught and modeled how to help each other during the group activities and had the students to do the modeling practice. I also told them that try to find the answers independently first by checking notebook, looking up the dictionary and looking for information through Edmodo. If it didnt work, they could ask peers for help. And Chen Laoshi will be the last one to ask for help. I encouraged them to search and investigate the information instead of simply telling them the answers. During the self-learning process, the students showed noticeable improvement in engagement as well as motivation. I kept hearing the students telling me excited: Chen Laoshi, I won! Chen Laoshi, this Quizlet game is so fun, we should do that every week! For the students with the special education, they seemed to be more interested in the activities they chose which match their learning preference. Besides, they are more confident in asking for help as well as involving games. 8. Assessment of the effort I think that the plan I enacted addressed the hypotheses in section 3. Through communicating with the parents and special education teachers and observation during class, I got to learn more about my students, including their family

backgrounds, special needs and learning styles. Overall, I consider my improvement plan as a successful one. I gained better understanding of my students with Autism and build a better relationship with them. Moreover, almost all my students enjoy the way of working within a group and get to choose their own method to learn and perform, which enhance their participation in class and boost their enthusiasm in learning mandarin. I will continue carrying out this plan and making some adjustments to it. First, give the students with special education more time to practice before having them joining in the group games. If they chose a competition game but did not quite prepare for it, they will be easily lose the interest or feel frustrated. So more chances and time to practice and prepare is necessary for them. Second, nurture a team spirit of being caring and helpful to each student. Sometimes, the student with Special needs require more time to make up their answers, but others might be impatient and anxious to speak out the answer. On one hand, I should offer the more extra help or hints to encourage them. On another hand, I need to remind other students the right way of being helpful and respectful.