In this assignment, we were tasked with the goal of creating an inclusive lesson plan created an equitable learning environment for student with either dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia. Personally, I had chosen to create a lesson plan for Chemistry 11 (which I had taught in my previous practicum) and implemented adaptations for a student with dyslexia. This lesson plan is attached above, in a PDF format.
The main way that I worked towards creating an inclusive lesson was through the classroom dynamics, technology, and pacing of the class.
Classroom dynamics
I made sure that the classroom would be a safe learning place for all students.
Equity: Ensuring the understanding of equity where all students are going to get what they need to be successful, and this may no look the same for every student.
Respect: In this classroom rules are enforced about being respectful, patient, and quiet when anyone else is talking. This means not interrupting.Ā It also means being supportive of others for trying their bests. I have created this classroom as a safe space for students with any learning disabilities to participate and not be afraid of being judged or made fun of.
Adaptations
I think that including adaptations can be done seamlessly in a classroom, and benefit more than just the students with a IEP.
In this case, the adaptations that I use was the implementation of graphic organizers and short summary of specific topics or learning goals.
There was also adapted amount of work because students with dyslexia require more time. So, assigned work was presented in a list of must be completed, should be completed and extension questions. This way, there was no obvious exception and gave students the choice in what they wanted to accomplish.
However, this student was also given a filled in version of the note packages, and extra time on assignments and tests, which was not available to all students.
Technology
There were a variety of technological resources that would have been used in an ideal world. But these really depend on what is available in the school.
Audio recorded lectures, speech to text / scribe for assignments, spell check, and reading uploaded into Kurzweil.
Overall, I think that being an inclusive teacher requires more attention, dedication, and just more effort into our teaching practice to create learning experiences and supports that allows all students to enter the same learning. In addition, I think that this work is essential to giving each student the opportunity to feel important enough to deserve that effort.
Knitting requires a lot of time, patience, attention to detail, and dedication. A few things that I love about knitting, is no matter what you do, each stitch is unique; and is essential to the whole; and there are endless opportunities of what you can make given a yarn and some knitting needles.
This metaphor represents my views on teaching careers and the diversity that we see in the classroom, in which the students can be seen as the stitches or the knitters later in the posts.
If we start looking at knitting to represent the core values of teaching career theoryā¦ we can think about if we think about knitting a project, has anyone ever dropped a stitch? What do you do?
Do you take advantage of this the hole and it now becomes a design feature of the shawl?
Do you toss the project in the garbage?
Do you pull out the whole project apart?
Or do you find a way to fix it?
This can be a great representation of the values that I think we need to teach our students in career.
We want them to learn how to plan, but also how to be adaptable (aka fixing the dropped stitch or taking advantage of that dropped stitch). If there is one thing for certain, is that life isnāt going to work out perfectly along a path that was planned in high school. I mean personally, I thought I was going to be a dentist since I was in elementary school, but it wasnāt until I had gotten an interview that I realized that it wasnāt going to be able to make me happy.
So, I want students to apply the idea of happenstance, where we take advantage of the random occurrences and opportunities that occur in each student life and find a way to apply that to their goals, plans or future trajectories to get them to where they want to go (Krumboltz, 2008).
I also want them to build the gumption, and resilience to learn from mistakes, work hard to overcome challenges, and all the while build the skills that are going to help them deal with problem easier in the future (Truyens, 2019).
Lastly, the idea of using the skills we are building now to better ourselves in the future. For example, learning fix the whole in our knitting or using our skills we already have in a new way. In terms or careers, we do not know what kind of jobs are going to available in the future so planning for it is nearly impossible, but what we can do is build up skills or transformative competencies that are transferable. Then use these skills to allow you to grow and fill that roll in the future (OECD, n.d.).
Overall, giving students the skills so that they can plan, adapt, and take responsibility for their future.
I think that my metaphor can also help us look at diversity in the classroom
Visioning each student in the class as a stitch in a project, like in the shawl below.
Each stitch is unique, just like in the picture, some have different colors, some are lace stitches, some are textured, but each one contributes an essential component to the scarf.
Just like in our classroom each student is going to have a different background, cultures, personality, socio economic status, academic ability, strengths, weaknesses, and exceptionalities.
But each one of those makes our students unique and different, meaning that they are going to have something different, to bring to the classroom, need support within the classroom, and desire to take way from the classroom than myself in high school, and what I originally planned. Which is why we need to be flexible in our practice.
A quote from the textbook that really outlined the importance of including diversity into the planning practices is āWe begin our planning with all students in mind and with the conviction that our planning for a full range of learner strengths and styles means that more students will have opportunities to be successful more of the time, and that fewer adaptations and modifications will be required for students with special needsā (Brownlie, Fullerton, and Schnellert 2011, p3.).
I think that this highlights why we need to use universal design for learning, allowing a low floor and high ceiling, so that no matter the ability, there is an entry point into the learning, and all students can feel included in the classroom. Rather that having to create several different projects and assignments to create a fair learning experience.
I feel like my learning and growth from this block aligns with the First Peopleās Principles of Learning.
āLearning is holisticā
In order to prepare a lesson that is going to be useful for our students, we need to think and plan holistically. Taking into account and providing space for all students to be able to be their whole selves including the physical, mental social, emotional, and spiritual selves (Chrona, 2016).
If we donāt make room and accept the whole of who our students are, then I think we are going to get only a part of their efforts reflected in their work. You need that reciprocal respect and value.
āLearning quires exploration of oneās identityā
Students need to learn who they are, their strengths weaknesses and skills in order to help understand their own needs and supports, but also to figure out where they fit in the present and in their future careers (Chrona, 2016).
Impact of Blocks 4 and 5 on my pedagogy
Before these two summer blocks, I feel like my pedagogy was centered around a few philosophical beliefs including constructivism, humanism, and progressivism.
So, I as a teacher I valued the idea that we need to build our knowledge and understanding through active processing and social interactions; that we need our basic needs met in order to actually focus on learning and school; and learning happens at a different rate and in a specific way for each child, so we need to focus on them.
However, my pedagogy also felt hollow in a way because I felt like I had the shell values, but not quite the skills or methods yet to really implement them.
Where am I at now after the summer blocks?
I feel like I am figuring out how to fill in those missing implementations.
From My diversity and inclusion and curriculum and instruction have laid out how I can plan to create learning experiences that are accessible through UDL, clear expectation, co-created criteria, and implementation of adaptations and supports to create an equitable child centered learning environment.
From Curriculum and instruction, and Innovative community-based approaches I found the importance of inquiry, story, and hand on learning to engage students and allow them the space to personalize their learning. While at the same time utilizing the skills to that are going to translate to the workplace later in life and making this that translation transparent.
From careers ā I have learned the importance of the class as an underlying theme through any course. Rather than only being taught in its own class. The cross-curricular links to careers allows for students to see the real-world relevance in terms of the skills that they are building and help them students see the broad world outside of high school, and the connections of courses to jobs around the word.
References
Brownline, F., Fullerton, C., & Schnellert, L. (2011). It’s All About Thinking: Collaborating to Support All Learners in Mathmatics and Science. Winnipeg: Portage & Main Press.
Chrona, J. (2016, April). First Peoples Principles of Learning. Retrieved from First Peoples Principles of Learning: https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/
Krumboltz, J. (2008). The Happenstance Learning Theory. SAGE Journals, 135-154.
OECD. (n.d.). OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030. Retrieved from OECD Better Policies for Better Lives: https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/
Truyens, M. (2019). Coherent Career Practice. Retrieved from MARCR: Career Professionals: https://marcr.net/marcr-for-career-professionals/career-theory/career-theories-and-theorists/coherent-career-practice-kris-magnusson-dave-redekopp/
At the start of this class, I wasnāt sure what my question was.
I was thinking who am I as a science teacher?
How can I make students interested in science?
How can I make science accessible?
But it was all really content based, rather than about me as a teacher. So, with some guidance, and feedback, I started looking for something that would be more applicable to me, because there is a good chance you are going to be teaching a lot of things.
At this point thought back to my previous favorite teachers: which ones did I like, which ones made me work harder, which ones made me care about the learning. This lead to my inquiry question, which I think I was kind of dancing round with my original questioning.
My inquiry question was:
āWhat was it about the people, the āstuffā and/or, the context that made it impactful?ā.
Basically, what was it about the teachers that we have had in the past that gave them the āitā factor?
Methods…
So, the way I went about looking into this question, was through empirical research in journal articles, looking at stories through blog posts, and reflecting back to my own stories and experiences
Findings from research..
In terms of what I was able to determine through research and reading articles (which was somewhat unsuccessful), I found 2 general trends.
The first being the way that education programs that set up to ensure teachers are successful.
In order to have well rounded teachers coming out of school (and I assume meaning that they will create meaningful / impactful classrooms) is through having āstrong core curriculumā¦ extended clinical experiencesā¦ well defined standards of professional practiceā¦ extensive use of case methods, teacher research, performance assessment and portfolio evaluation that apply learning to real problems of practiceā¦ explicit strategies to help students to confront their own deep seated beliefs and assumptions about learning and studentsā (Darling-Hammond, 2006, p. 306)
However, this finding, I didnāt really feel connected to the depth of my original inquiry question, but does describe how you would begin choosing a university to attend. Ā
The second trend included instructional ways of creating meaningful educational experiences, focusing on the content and the act of learning.
Overall, what I found was to create experiential learning experiences (like a practicum, or internship, or co-op), creating realistic learning situations (modeling a real world) and utilize project based learningĀ (Speier-Pero & Schoenherr, 2020).
This was helpful to my question in terms of planning, and what kinds of activities to do in the classroom.
Findings from story ā¦
I read stories of students reflecting on teachers that had an impact on them and found a few themes that all related to more the emotional and relational side of teaching (4 Inspiring Stories of How Great Teachers Changed Somone’s Life, n.d.; Galazka, 2014)
Having teachers that āseeā their students
Having teachers that believe in them
Having teachers that show interest in their students. Teachers that ask about students and that is going on in their lives and students interests.
Teachers that show a passion for learning that they pass on to the students.
Overall, I felt like these results related to my question a lot more than the journal findings for the sake of my inquiry question but also related to my own experience and reflection.
Findings from my own reflections… In terms of my own reflection experiences and teachers and found the ones that I think of for being impactful really matched more the findings from the emotional and relational side.
Personally, I had one teacher, my Biology 12 teacher, who always told stories, and students were always engaged. She had high expectations of us, was strict, and had a really defined way of running her class. I think for her, that āitā factor was the relevance of her stories to the learning.
Where does my inquiry align with FPPL
Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.
I feel that the purpose of my research question is to support the myself.
Ā Finding a way to approach teaching in a way that can make my class ācareā may be a way to sustain myself in teaching and find a purpose to what I am doing in the classroom.
I think this inquiry also supports the community. The idea that my own perspective, and learning is essential to creating a better learning experience for all learners, and in turn hopefully through that also supporting the community.
Ā Learning involves recognizing the consequences of oneās actions
I think that this principle really applies to my inquiry because I am looking into the impact that I have on my classroom, outside of just the curriculum.
I think part of becoming an impactful teacher also comes from the understanding that there are a lot of outside influences that can impact oneās actions. So, understanding that actions donāt happen in isolation.
I think this may help make the connection with students through several different ways to be that impactful teacher.
Learning involves patience and time
I think this also acknowledges that this inquiry process takes time.
ButĀ I want to acknowledge that these self growth inquiry are going to continue with me into the classroom and practicum experiences.
How has this inquiry impacted myself as a teacher?
Personally, in my teaching practice, I always want to improve. I want to see what worked, what didnāt and how can I make it better for student learning the next time. I want to create experiences that are meaningful and not wasting the students time either. So, I think this inquiry really supported my ideals that hands on learning is important to creating meaningful practices. But at the same time, itās the relationship and seeing each student for who they are and what they need.
In conclusion, I feel like I have somewhat found a small fraction of what that impact factor is ā but at the same time I still think it depending on each teacher and on each student. At this point, I donāt feel my inquiry is over, and I am going back to reassess my methods. I feel that I left out a crucial step (because of time and resources) but I would have really liked to interview teachers and students in my community and hear their stories of impactful teachers.
References
4 Inspiring Stories of How Great Teachers Changed Somone’s Life. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wabisabi Learning : https://wabisabilearning.com/blogs/mindfulness-wellbeing/4-stories-great-teachers
Chrona, J. (2016, April). First Peoples Principles of Learning. Retrieved from First Peoples Principles of Learning: https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/
Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st Century Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 300-314.
Galazka, K. (2014, September 10). 8 Heartwarming stories of teachers changing people’s lives. Retrieved from Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kasiagalazka/teacher-appreciation
Speier-Pero, C., & Schoenherr, T. (2020). Creating Impactful Student Learning in a Business Analytics Program through Leveraging Scholar-Practitioner Engagement . Decisions Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 59-89.
