Chapter 7 Leader: Alyssia Harper Support Staff: Nikolette Edge, Beth Franks, Stephanie Garcia, and Jason Henderson

Website: http://educ524cn.weebly.com/chapters-7--8.html Nikolette Edge P.129 The idea that everyone has the ability to think seems simple, but we sometimes have to make a conscientious effort to remember this with students that are not good communicators. This struck home when my grandmother was in the hospital at 98 after a stroke, and the nurses made sure to speak to her and have her make the decisions as much as possible. P. 130 The book speaks of people believing that special needs students will distract or take away from the classroom, but in my experience it is often the other students that cause the real problems in my room, and fortunately I have never had any negative reactions from parents in regard to a special needs student. P. 131 The labels of the alien and the squatter were pretty accurate. I immediately thought of one of my students that is autistic and functions on a much lower level in everything except for spelling. The only time I really feel like he is a part of the class is when we play a spelling game. The kids are great and get really excited when he does well, but I wish I knew how to create that atmosphere more often. I will be thinking about that. Beth Franks P. 130 Of the four elements of citizenship, I identified the most with A Belief in the Reciprocity of the Relationship. Its true that most of the time, we think of the special ed. kids as the recipients and those who work with them as the givers. But this isnt true. I have met many of the high school peer tutors that worked with my daughter when she was in high school. The objective was to provide academic and social support to the special ed. students. But the reality is that the peer tutors received so much in return. They learned patience and the value of uniqueness and they felt a tremendous amount of pride in their work. Some of those peer tutors have gone on to college to study special education. P. 136 The chart for differentiation instruction is very useful and practical. We talk about differentiation, but sometimes seeing it through is a different story. The chart provides an easy way to work differentiation into each lesson plan with the use of three items in three boxes. P. 139-140 I thought about the three situations with dichotomous student needs. I tried to brainstorm how I would solve each situation. For the student who needs to read aloud, perhaps a whisper-phone would work. The student only has to whisper very quietly to hear him/herself very clearly. For the wandering student, maybe put tape on the floor around the desk of the student with the large bubble then make a rule that the wandering student cannot cross the tape line. To be honest, the bright lights/dim lights situation has me stumped. I thought about a tent of some kind, but Im not sure if that would work. This has really got me thinking.

Stephanie Garcia P. 133 I love the CPR example. If there is someone in need (cardiac arrest, not breathing), then it only makes sense to do CPR on them. Yes, there would be other people around, but they are not the ones needing immediate medical attention. It is the same with students. If there is a student in need of special attention (in some way or another), we are going to give it to them. Just because there are other people in the room doesn't mean they all need that attention. P. 134 We have had many discussions on differentiation in school professional development. Not every student learns the same way. Differentiation is just a way to appeal to students and the way they learn. Education is not "one-size-fits-all" and needs to be suited for different learning styles. P. 141 Differentiation is a way to set up learners to succeed. The point of it is to give students options and let them choose based on what appeals to them. Most likely if the assignment appeals to them, and then they will be successful in learning the content along with it. It is intentional on getting students to be more independent and learn their strengths. Alyssia Harper P. 131 As I have stated before I have experienced when students are not "full citizens" in a classroom. They miss out on the opportunity to meet kids their own age and learn about the social aspect of life. P. 133 The concept of fair not equal was a great concept to read about. I had not heard of the analogy of CPR, but when I read it everything just clicked. P. 141 The statement "...no student needs to earn the right to be included" really stood out to me. I think sometimes teachers become frustrated and throw their hands up, but this is the time we can address the problem. Jason Henderson P.130 "A belief in individuality..." I think this idea should be geared more to the fact that each individual person has the potential and ability to succeed. Too much focus on "individualism" takes away from the concept of being team players and putting others before yourself. Everyone has certain aspects that they struggle with, which is understandable, but this should not be made out to be that the world falls at somebody's feet just because they might struggle with something. P.133 Fair is not equal. I read an excerpt about Coach John Wooden and how he would not necessarily treat each person the same, but he did treat each person on an individual level that proved more meaningful and more conducive to their style of play.

P.140 Helpful tips about using money wisely or on a restricted budget shows that the author "gets it" about limited resources. Ben Franklin always stressed thriftiness, which can be a valuable asset regardless of career.