special-world-issue-1

FEATURE | INCLUSIONBACK TOCONTENTSto break down and students with cognitive challenges startto suffer.Depending upon where you live, the policy of yourschool district and the issues and needs of students withchallenges, the enrolment at the middle school and highschool levels can look like any one of the following, in orderof most inclusive to least:• Enrolled in a homeroom on a full-time basis (with orwithout an educational assistant).• Enrolled in a homeroom on a full-time basis with somelearning support in and out of the class setting (with orwithout an educational assistant).• Enrolled in a homeroom on a full-time basis with parttimeplacement in a Learning Centre Model classroom(with or without an educational assistant).• Enrolled in a Learning Centre Model classroom withpart-time inclusion placement in a typical classroomsetting (with a full-time or shared educational assistant).• Enrolled full time in a Learning Centre Model classroomdesigned for students with significant challenges (with afull-time or shared educational assistant).The terms ‘homeroom’ and ‘Learning Centre Model’may be unfamiliar to some readers, but the former refersto the room where students gather at the start of the schoolday before dispersing to other classes and the latter to amodel where a support unit or base is located within a middleor high school.In all of these models, even within a full-time LearningCentre model, there are some good basic inclusion practisesthat will help support both students and teachers,allowing us to provide our charges with a meaningful wellroundededucation.Structure and Consistency are extremely important to individualsliving in a confusing world. Designing a classroomroutine that is predictable helps to lower anxiety levels.Reviewing a visual schedule with the whole group in themorning along with prepared individual schedules for studentswith more challenges is very reassuring for everyone.Individual schedule types can vary according to levels ofability, ranging from segmented pictorial matching to acomplete written lists including time frames. Colour codingfor subject areas is particularly helpful for more independentstudents.Pre-Loaded Binder Work that is subject divided, and alignswith class work helps in both the homeroom and when studentsleave for other classes. This is not for daily work, butfor times when lesson plans simply do not fit student abilitylevel, when a test is taking place or when there is perhapsan off day and the student prefers to work quietly on theirown with work they can feel successful and independentwith. Personal binder work can also give gifted studentsoptions to work beyond classroom expectations when itlends well to do so.Individual Work Stations are mini offices with an emphasison ‘Take, Do, Put Away’. It is ideally an enclosed areawith a work table with four or five tasks in containers thatstudents take from the left, complete at the desk, and putaway to the right. These are tasks that have been pre-taughtand that students are capable of doing without help. Workstation time should be included in the schedules for a settime daily. It involves task work that will lend to employmentskills and will vary greatly according to student abilitylevels. Typically it involves hands-on work to enhance finemotor skills and basic matching and sorting abilities, butthey can also include file folder work that includes academicwork for higher levels of ability. This gives students anopportunity to be independent and teachers an opportunityto work with other groups.Structured Teaching Work Systems were developed byProfessor Eric Schopler and his colleagues at the Universityof North Carolina. It very much includes the above individualwork stations, but the same idea can be includedin other work tasks by simply outlining what the studentis expected to do for each activity. ‘What do you wantme to do?’, ‘Where do you want me to put myself and mythings?’, ‘How much should I do?’ and ‘What’s next?’. Itshould be arranged in a way that students will have littledifficulty figuring out what to do. How you do this dependson the student levels of ability, it can be exemplar, pictorialor written out or a combination of the three. As long as it isclear and simple and performed from top to bottom or left24WWW.SPECIALWORLD.NET | ISSUE 1 | SEPTEMBER 2014