1. Related to Chapter 14, what are some ways the ideas/concepts/principles discussed in this chapter could be applied in your professional work? Do you see opportunities where these ideas could help you or your students?
The entire time I was reading this chapter I felt like I was in a special education meeting. The two acronyms HPI and HPT seemed very similar to three letters in special education, RTI. Though RTI is not really a special education initiative, it seems as though it is put on the shoulders of special education teachers to make it happen. For those of you who are not familiar with RTI or Response to Intervention, it is simply a measure used to identify at risk students. The idea is to give students services before they are identified as special ed. All students will be tested at the beginning of the school year. Any student that is below grade level will be given a research based intervention and be progress monitored. If students do not make adequate progress, they will be given more intense intervention and be progress monitored. If they do not make adequate progress, they would then be eligible for special education services.
I have a number of students who are extremely bright and articulate but for whatever reason they just cannot read, write or spell. It is a shame because they can do everything else. In our world and in our society if you struggle with reading, writing and spelling you are automatically pegged as dumb or stupid. I challenge anyone who reads this to go to an online forum and read some of the posts. Heck, reply to a post and make a spelling, or grammatical error. No matter how insightful or correct the content of the post is, people will judge based on your spelling and grammar. My point of that sidebar was to simply say that these extremely bight students made it all way to me (in the high school) and are not able to read or barely read. Then when I go through their record I see that the special education teacher in elementary school used the same intervention for reading for 5 years with no improvement. How could it be that they did not make progress and yet the same program was used over and over? If something is not working, who in their right mind would continue to do it?
2. As described above under Option 1, profile the podcast(s) you chose to subscribe and listen to (you don’t have to do this if you choose Option 2)
I chose a podcast of Mr. Armstrong's U.S. History class. They students discuss some of the information that they have learned. you can find the podcast at
http://web.mac.com/armstrong.anthony/Mr._Armstrongs_U.S._History_Class/Podcast/Podcast.html
3. What added value might pod casting have in your professional setting (company, school, etc.)?
I could see podcasts being a great tool to assist teachers and students to enhance learning experience by connecting lessons to the real world. I know that NPR (National Public Radio) always has interesting stories about people from other parts of the country or world. NPR has a number of podcasts that are available. Next trimester when I co-teach world cultures, we plan to use some of these podcasts to illustrate to our students how life is fundamentally different in other areas of the country and world.
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3 comments:
"...we plan to use some of these podcasts to illustrate to our students how life is fundamentally different in other areas of the country and world."
Podcasts can be/are a great way to introduce students to other cultures, geographic areas, etc. In an increasingly "global"/intercultural world, podcasting is a great idea for use in the classroom!
We were actually just discussing RTI in my Intro to Special Ed class a couple of weeks ago. I would completely agree with you that we have a long ways to go in terms of identifying students for special ed, or in the very least implementing new strategies that work for that student. It's so sad that we can allow students fall through the cracks and they can get all the way to high school barely able to read, write, spell or use correct grammar. Like you said, if an intervention is not working, then it should be obvious to try something new. One of our objective as educators is to catch the students who are in danger of falling through the cracks so they don't get so far along without some of the fundamentals of education. It's obvious that our system still has a lot of kinks to work out.
Rick
It's always exciting to hear fellow classmates describe how they are going to use the technologies we learn, in the classroom. I am always anxious to try out new things with my students as well.
I also appreciate learning about RTI, as I have several students in the special ed. program. It is mind boggling to know that students keep advancing to levels in which they are expected to have skills to match the advancement, and do not. What happens when they enter the working world? Limited guidance and instruction, etc.
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