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More Resources Child and Adolescent Development: Developmental Milestone and Nature vs Nurture Cognitive Development in Children and Adolescent Holistic Education Realizing the Promise of Diversity Caring and Safe Schools in Ontario The Technology Integration Matrix STEM Classes and Kids with Special Needs Project-Based Learning Environmental Education Scope and Sequence of Expectations (Grades K–8) Environmental Education, 2017 Edition (Grades 9–12) A Companion Guide for Natural Curiosity: Making Environmental Inquiry Work Through Teacher Collaboration https://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix/ https://www.middleweb.com/28082/stem-classes-and-kids-with-special-needs/ https://www.webquest.org http://www.callmegabe.com/grovo-what-is-holistic-learning/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holistic_educatio |
Holistic Teaching: I think holistic teaching is a great way to help students with special needs because it focusses on helping one another, and growing together rather than ranking students based on intellectual or academic ability (Wikipedia). In the high schools there are currently streams; academic, applied, and workplace. The workplace classes focus on skills that will help students succeed in daily life, and I think holistic teaching would be a great way to go about this. The video mentions that holistic teaching "replaces content with context" and provides realistic practice, which is exactly what these students should be gaining from these courses (Saldarriaga). By teaching with real life meaning, the goal is that our students will go on to be self-directed learners and understand the concept in the realm of their individual context. The reading also suggests the four stages of holistic learning which innately is a promising scaffolding technique to teach: students about themselves, then about their relationships with others, then they learn resilience, and finally self-actualization and the beauty that surrounds them in life (Wikipedia). These are all key skills that students with special needs can develop. Mostly, I like the idea of mixing ages and grades together and grouping based on goals rather than grades. I think this is important for students with high special needs as they may be very different developmentally from their peers of the same age, but can connect based on interests and strengths with other students. Technology When I was teaching a grade 8 class, there were a range of different abilities and levels within it. As a summative learning task to a summary unit in literacy, I had the class divide into collaborative student groups to complete a webquest assignment. In creating these groups, my goal was to "help students understand that respect and inclusiveness are non-negotiable behaviors for all teams" (Middleweb). The groups were taken through the web quest from the hook, to the procedure, to the research, and the tools they needed to complete the task together. Each group had access to chromebooks and delegated roles throughout. The task was to summarize a news article then to create a video using TouchCast and the green screen room (luckily available at the school) to create a highlight reel (summary) of the article.For my students with special needs, I worked with their groups to assign appropriate roles based on their strengths. For instance, one student struggled with reading, but excelled with visual learning and use of technology, so his main role was to help produce the filming of the task after understanding the article's summary. It went over better than I could have imagined because it was goal directed, authentic as they were able to choose the article from a list I provided with different hot topic interests constructive though the use of filming and TouchCast, collaborative as they all had roles to complete one final task, and active by being creative in the way they present their summaries. Thus, covering the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments (TIM). Also, really any online game that ends with .io is a fun and easy way to teach students coding. These can be used when all work is complete as it feels like a game, but really they are still learning. I have used these in camp settings where one of the activities that campers could choose was multimedia. They would finish the product they were working on and then go on to play these games which scaffolds simple coding throughout. I found it worked best with students aged 8-14. Examples of this can be found at https://checkio.org or https://kizi.com/io. Authentic Learning Task Drama: Grade 8 B1.2 demonstrate an understanding of the elements of drama by selecting and manipulating multiple elements and conventions to create and enhance a variety of drama works and shared drama experiences (e.g., use “a day in the life” to compare farming, fishing, or hunting practices at the beginning of the twentieth century to those of today; ...) http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/environmental_ed_kto8_eng.pdf I think this activity could be a great collaborative activity to have in an inclusive classroom. In a grade 8 classroom in general, the class is blended with students of varying abilities and academic levels, so it is inviting to create flexible groups. Though flexible groups can sometimes be a challenge, they can provide a great opportunity for students to learn from each other, and learn 'soft skills' like collaboration. This particular activity of acting out shared experiences can really bring light to how the students are all connected. By acting out a "day in the life" of modernity compared to those at the beginning of the century, students can work together to discuss what their days look like, and see how much they really do relate. Thus, it encourages discussion, making connections with peers, the environment and society today. The way they present their creation can be up to interpretation as well; perhaps they can use assistive technology and filming to create their product, or they can discuss elements of improv, or rehearsed scripts where there are clear roles assigned. Finally, in sharing their creation students are welcome to cheer on their classmates and all engage in the activity. |