02 Feb Defend a position

Unit 2 – Public Law Reflection

Choose a public law that has impacted special education and/or exceptional students and write a reflection. Possible cases include:

Brown vs Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas)

Sheff vs O’Neil (CT)

Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) vs Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Larry P vs Riles

Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District vs Rowley

Daniel R. R. v State Board of Education

Honig vs Doe

Board of Education in Sacramento, CA vs Holland

Provide:

Name of the law (PL# , title of law, and acronym if applicable) and year it became a law

What brought about the law

Review of the law

Implications for children with special needs

Implications for educators

Your personal opinion on the law

Paper length: 2-3 written pages, not including Title and References pages. Use proper APA format when citing sources. Include information from the resources provided as well as at least 2 other references.

Refer to the attached document for grading rubric.

Unit 3 – Evaluation of IEP Form

Review the Federal IEP form and CT IEP form. You may use your own state’s IEP form if you are from another state.

Federal IEP Form http://ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html

Scroll down to Sample form.

Connecticut IEP Form http://www.ct.gov/brs/lib/brs/pdfs/guidepostdocs/IEPManual.pdf

Select: SDE Forms

Select: PPT Packet

Select: IEP. There are 12 pages to view the CT IEP.

Note: Here is a more descriptive website for the CT IEP which will be very helpful with the Unit 3 assignment.

“So you’re going to a PPT … The IEP Guide” http://www.ct.gov/dds/lib/dds/family/iep_guide_page_by_page.pdf

Although the federal government sets the requirements for the IEP, states differ in how they meet these requirements.

Compare and contrast the form against the one developed by the state of Connecticut.

How are they different?

How are they the same?

Do they meet the requirements of the 2004 IDEA?

Is the Connecticut IEP form easy to use, useful to educators, and parent-friendly? Explain why or why not.

If you are not teaching in CT you may add comparisons from your state as well.

Paper length: 2-3 written pages, not including Title and References pages. Use proper APA format when citing sources. Include information from the resources provided as well as at least 2 other references.

Refer to the attached document for grading rubric

Unit 4 – Dual Language Learner (DLL) Scenario

Read the scenario below and using information from the weekly resources describe at least 3 DLL strategies you as the teacher can implement to increase Sheila’s participation in class. Should Sheila be referred for an evaluation at this time? Why or why not? Be sure to use the weekly resources to respond to this scenario.

Sheila is four years old and has just arrived from Bosnia and does not speak a word of English. She cries and throws herself on the floor when her mother leaves her at school in the morning. She will not participate in any activities and just sits by herself and waits for her mother.

Paper length: 2-3 written pages, not including Title and References pages. Use proper APA format when citing sources. Include information from the resources provided as well as at least 2 other references.

Refer to the attached document for grading rubric.

Unit 5 – Activity Modification

1. Choose a specific learning disability as your topic for your Unit 5 assignment.

Down Syndrome and Fragile X are intellectual disabilities as opposed to specific learning disabilities, so do not choose these for your assignment.

Here are some specific learning disabilities topics you may use for your Unit 5 assignment.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)

Dyscalculia

Dysgraphia

Dyslexia

Associated Deficits and Disorders While not designated as specific subtypes of LD, there are a number of areas of information processing that are commonly associated with LD

Language Processing Disorder

ADHD

Executive Functioning

Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities

Visual Perceptual/Visual Motor Deficit

*NOTE: You may not use the same disability that you chose for your Final Research Paper.

2. Write a 2-3 page paper including all of the following components:

Description of SLD

Possible causes

Define and describe the learning and developmental characteristics of students with your Specific Learning Disability

Interventions for infants and toddlers and preschoolers

2 useful websites with personalized descriptions

Use at least 2 academic resources other than your text.

Use proper APA citations and include Title and References pages.

3. Grading Rubric: Refer to the attached document.

Unit 6 – Rough Draft of Final Research Paper

Submit the rough draft of your Final Research Paper for feedback. After submitting, you can click on “View/Complete” again to access the SafeAssign report once it is available.

Include all three sections. Refer to the attached documents for assignment details.

Section A: Etiology of the Disability or Disorder

Section B: Educational Implications

Section C: Social Implications

Unit 7 Resource Inventory

Submit the completed Resource Inventory here with a minimum of 40 resources.

Resource Inventory

Beginning in week one, you will collect a minimum of 5 terms and resources each week pertinent to this course and to exceptional learners. During Unit 2, include ten terms and resources. This inventory will be submitted during unit 7 (40 resources minimum).

Example:

Term/Resource

Description

Unit 1

Exceptional learners

Exceptional Learners are ….

NAEYC: National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC.org

NAEYC is the leading authority on research and practices related to young children and their families

Unit 7 – Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Brochure

Develop a brochure for other college students about the implications of drinking during pregnancy, as related to fetal alcohol syndrome. You can make your brochure in Microsoft Word. Note: this is not a one-page flyer. Use information from the lectures and your own research.

Be sure to include relevant pictures

Research-based facts

Use APA for citations (you must cite the information you are sharing)

You may create the brochure using any program you wish, but it must be able to be opened using Microsoft Word.

Here is a sample brochure from the Minnesota Department of Health: “Childhood Lead Exposure: Are Your Kids at Risk?” Brochure sample childhoodleadexp.pdf

This brochure uses 3 columns per page which you may choose to do.

Refer to the attached document for grading rubric.

Unit 8 – Final Research Paper

Submit the entire 9-10 page final research paper (including title page, abstract, revised sections A, B, and C, and reference page) at the close of Unit 8.

SafeAssign Report: After submitting, you can click on “View/Complete” again to access the report.

Your research-informed, written paper must include:

A. Etiology of the Disability or Disorder (6d)

1. Definition

2. Causes or Theory

3. Assessment for meeting eligibility criteria (two or more assessments

4. Characteristics:

a. Research and review literature

b. Research and view a videotaped observation(s) of a child with the specific disability;

c. Compare/ contrast the characteristics from both sources. Write a brief summary. (1b)

B. Educational Implications

1. Philosophical Approach

2. Define and describe the learning and developmental characteristics of exceptional students

3. Teaching Strategies/Intervention:

4. Use literature and observed video(s) to describe how you would include a child with this

disability in your classroom. Include classroom environment, type of services, adaptations, and

supportive equipment (e.g., assistive technology). (1c)

5. Use literature and observed video(s) to describe how you would use assistive technology to

support the child in your classroom. (3c)

6. Describe a variety of observation and assessment methods — a minimum of two each: (3b)

a. Observation Examples: data collection including anecdotals, running records, checklists, tallies, and teacher-made formative assessments –

b. Assessment Examples: Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), Brigance Screen,

Preschool Assessment Framework (PAF), Devereaux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA)

7. Reflect and articulate the knowledge gained from data-driven decision-making practices. (3a)

8. Partnership with Families: Describe specific ways to:

a. build home-school connections (2b)

b. learn from families’ observations and involve them in ongoing assessment of their children’s progress, including the use of assistive technology (3c)

c. identify effective teaching strategies in both home and classroom settings (2c)

d. choose a video about a child with a disability and describe how you would design, implement and evaluate a meaningful and challenging curriculum for the child (5c)

9. Local Educational Programs/Resources (4c)

a. Research, list and describe at least one educational programs in your community that

service children with this disability.

b. If applicable, identify assistive technology.

10. Ethical Responsibilities to the Child (6b)

a. Explain how you would intentionally apply one ideal and one principle from the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment

b. Social Implications

11. Research local resources and support programs/groups. (6c)

List and describe:

a. one community program that welcomes and supports families of children with this disability,

b. one professional publication specific to this disability, and

c. one professional organization.

12. Identify any stigmas and/or biases associated with the disability. Present your societal

response. How would you advocate for this child? (6e)

Follow all APA guidelines for formatting and citations. All information that you learned from a source

must be cited in the text and referenced according to APA.

For a description of plagiarism, please visit http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/school/plagiarism.html. You

may not self-plagiarize. You may not submit a paper or any parts of a paper that you previously wrote

unless you cite and reference yourself and the paper.

Unit 1 discussion

Exceptional Learner

When you first hear the term, “exceptional learner, what comes to mind? What do you remember from your childhood experiences from preschool through high school? Please use no names, but you can refer to particular classmates and share ways they were different. Did they stand out in the classroom – why? Were they accepted by the other children- how do you know? Did you play with all children equally? How were children who were different than you get treated by the other children and adults? Were they in your classroom all day, pulled out by another teacher part of the day, etc.? What did you wonder? Please be as specific as possible, yet remember not to betray any confidences.

Unit 2 discussion

DQ1 Community Resources

This is a multi-step discussion:

Provide a brief description of your community including basic demographics and basic background information.

Identify 10 resources (5 community and 5 educational) in your town or county that are available to support individuals with disabilities, with a special focus on those resources available for children birth to age 8.

List the agency/support group by name, address and phone number including a brief description of the services offered by each agency and how they support individuals with disabilities.

DQ2 Assessments

From the readings, you can see that parents are often intimidated when told their child will benefit from an assessment. Their worries include thoughts such as, what will the assessment be like? Will my child be scared? What happens if my child doesn’t do well? Will I look like I’m not a good parent?

Now think about assessments from the perspective of children, especially young children – through age 8 years. How do you think they might feel? They will most likely be approached by a stranger and invited to go with him/her to a strange location. This person will take out the materials needed for the assessment and start interacting with the child. Imagine what is going through their heads. How will their feelings affect the testing results? Please be specific.

Please share any personal stories about assessments and young children.

Unit 3 discussion

Inclusive Practices

Think about inclusive practices and students with a disability. Why might a general education classroom be the least restrictive environment for most of these students? What are some effective strategies that you might use? What information might you share with the families?

Unit 4 discussion

DQ1 Down Syndrome/Fragile X

For this discussion, the class will be divided into two groups:

If your first name begins with A-L, you will work on strategies to support children who have Down syndrome.

If your first name begins with M-Z, you will work on strategies to support children who have Fragile X.

Regardless of the group to which you are assigned, the assignment is the same. Due to the complexity of this discussion, you will receive full credit when you provide your response to the prompt and comment on two other posts, one on your topic, one on the second.

This week we have reviewed typical development and began our work about atypical development. This week’s focus was on Down syndrome and Fragile X. Now that you have read the lecture, several articles and viewed several videos for an overview of these two disabilities, it is time for you to put all of your reading to practice. Your task is to provide appropriate teaching strategies to support the development of a student in your classroom who has the assigned disorder/disability. With what you have learned about the disability, please describe at least one strategy to address each of the domains: social, emotional, cognitive and physical. You can refer to the information provided, use the sites you have reviewed or locate other sites/information on your own. Whatever you decide, remember to cite your sources. Hopefully by sharing the strategies and resources, you will begin to develop a “Strategy Bag” so that when a child with one of these disabilities enters your classroom, you will feel more confident in your ability to meet his/her needs. We acknowledge that children with these disabilities are individuals and not all of the children will exhibit the same concerns or characteristics. This is an opportunity to put theory into practice.

Please state one of the disability’s main characteristics that your strategy is meant to address and provide the strategy that will address that characteristic.

The recommendation is:

State the domain

State a characteristic of a child with the disability related to the targeted domain

Describe the teaching strategy you would use

Domain

Characteristic

Strategy

Social

Emotional

Cognitive

Physical

DQ2 Learning Disabilities

Please visit all (14) tabs related to learning disabilities on this PBS site about learning disabilities.

Respond to this prompt:

Think about inclusive practices and students with a learning disability. Why might a general education classroom be the least restrictive environment for most of these students? What are some effective strategies that you might use? What information might you share with the families?

NOTE: The prompts for the Unit 3 and Unit 4.2 discussion boards are the same. However, the Unit 4 content and PBS resources are new. For the U4.2 DB, you must:

Visit the PBS Parents website and review all 14 tabs; and

Respond to the prompt using information you learned from the PBS Parent resources.

Thus your original reaction and responses to classmates are based on the current Unit 4 resources and should not be the same as your Unit 3 postings.

As you develop your original reaction, you could take the perspective of parents/families/guardians and critique the PBS Parents website from their lenses. Share your thoughts on: “How informative and helpful is this website and its resources?”

Lastly, it would be interesting to compare the Unit 3 and Unit 4 Discussion Board reactions. This is not required. However, you may want to respond to the following question:

After reviewing the PBS website, have you gained new knowledge and new resources?

Remember to use APA FORMAT in your responses!

Unit 5 discussion

DQ1 ADD and ADHD

Using the readings and resources provided as well as your own research, identify four facts about ADD/ADHD. Discuss specific strategies to use with children with behavior challenges, attention issues and high energy levels in the classroom setting.

DQ2 Culture & Development

Consider the readings and our previous discussions about families and the influences of culture and other values.

How might these differences influence a child’s social, emotional and behavioral development? How might we, as teachers, support the beliefs of the families and our knowledge of best practices?

Unit 6 discussion

DQ1 Mobility Impairment

Discuss how you would have a child with a mobility impairment participate in gross motor activities during recess. Then explain how you would re-draw the floor plan for a classroom that has children who use walkers, crutches, wheelchairs, standing chairs and other adaptive equipment.

DQ2 Intellectual Disability

Read and review one article from the Disability Scoop, Intellectual Disability section found in Readings and Resources.

Why should we read this article?

What did you learn?

How has the article influenced your thinking in any way?

Unit 7 discussion

DQ1 Autism

Think of yourself as the teacher of an autistic child and reflect on your own feelings.

What do you believe about the education of children with autism?

What do you see as the role of the teacher? What about that of the parents?

What would you say to other parents and families?

Should children with autism be included in regular classrooms? If so, when and how?

Discuss how you can support this child’s progress.

DQ2 Visually Impaired

Are you a visual person? How would you feel about including a child with almost no usable vision in your classroom? What would you have to change in your classroom? What would you do during circle time and center time to be sure the student is participating to the maximum extent possible in the activity?

Please also discuss accommodations you might make to support a child with limited hearing. What would you have to change in your classroom and during circle and center times?

Visual Impairment Simulator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9CawJSUy2c

Teaching Students with Visual Impairments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPC_–R-Ma0

Classroom Tools for the Visually Impaired https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi3dH_QnnWQBlindness and V

Visual Impairment Awareness Month: Visually Impaired Preschool Services

Child Vision Problem Awareness and Early Detection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB6ctyzDk04

Early Intervention: Helping Babies with Visual Impairments:

Unit 8 discussion

DQ1 Gifted and Talented

Defend a position on how well you feel gifted and talented children are planned for in the public school.

Reflect on what could be done to better meet their needs.

DQ2 Disabled Adults

Search the Internet and find a video related to a successful adult who has been challenged by a specific disability. You may not duplicate your peers either with the same person or the same video.

Post the link to the video and your reason for choosing it.

Please provide a brief description of the disability and how he or she overcame the challenges. What do you think could have been done or could still be done to better accommodate this person’s disability?