Signing Santa Stops at City Creek

On Friday, November 30, 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune included a blurb entitled "Signs for the Season" in their Utah Section (B8). Since its length likely excluded it from being posted on the Trib's website, I've included the text here: "Ken McLean, a signing Santa, signs to 4-year old Quinsi Wakeland as she sits on his lap Thursday at the City Creek Center with 90 of her classmates from the Jean Massieu School of the Deaf in Salt Lake City. McLean, of Denver, has been a signing Santa for five years. The students met with Santa and participated in other holiday activities at the shopping center in downtown Salt Lake City." A jolly photograph of a red-clad Saint Nick (McLean) with a wee girl (Wakeland) seated on his lap and intently watching his face and fingers accompanied the text. I was delighted to see there are opportunities for children who are deaf to communicate their Chrismtas wishlist to the man at the North Pole. It seems Santa can suit every child's needs. (The photograph was taken by Steve Griffin. The text wasn't attributed to an author.)

IDEA Disability Category Handouts

Throughout this semester in my Diversity and Learning class at Westminster College (essentially an introduction to special education), we have all been required to give one small-group presentation to our class on an IDEA disability category. In addition to the PowerPoints and Prezis produced, my peers and I were also required to provide handouts with the legal definition and characteristics of the disability as well as teaching/learning strategies and links to helpful resources. My partner, Brittany, and I created the handout on Intellectual disabilities (seventh down). 

• Autism
• Deaf-blindness
• Deafness
• Developmental delay
• Emotional disturbance
• Hearing impairment
• Intellectual disability
• Multiple disabilities (with visuals)
• Orthopedic impairment
• Other health impairment
• Specific learning disability
• Speech or language impairment
• Traumatic brain injury
• Visual impairment, including blindness

English Language Learner Resource List

Learning can be a daunting task for students even when the language used in school matches the language they speak at home. English language learners (ELLs) not only contend with new content material, but they also must cope with instructions given in their non-native language. Teachers can help lessen ELLs' stress by becoming cognizant of their special needs. Below is a list of a resources designed to help educators teach students whose primary language is not English.

UEN's ELL Resorces

Utah Education Network (UEN) is an excellent starting place, since they have a full page devoted to ELL resources. The site divides their resource list into six categories: General, Teaching Ideas, Resources, For Students, Forums, and finally News and Research. For each link, UEN describes what the site includes and how it might be beneficial.

Colorin Colorado

Colorin Colorado's mission is "Helping children read....and succeed!" The cheery website is tailored to support Spanish-speaking families since 80% of ELLs first language is Spanish; in fact, the entire website can be viewed en Espanol. Despite their emphasis on Spanish, Colorin Colorado is currently in the process of expanding their resources to be inclusive of more languages. In addition to Spanish, they also offer reading tip sheets "for parents of children in Preschool through Third grade" in Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Korean, Navajo, Russian, Tagolog, and Vietnamese. Colorin Colorado was one of the links suggested by UEN.

UCLA Language Materials Project

Another resource listed on UEN's site, "UCLA Language Materials Project: Teaching Resources for Less Commonly Taught Languages," nicely supplements the narrowness of Colorin Colorado's focus. UCLA's Language Materials home page includes a clickable map of the world. Once viewers have selected a region, they can scroll through a list of languages spoken in the region and learn about individual language profiles. This is an excellent--albeit more academic--resource. It could be a wonderful site for high school world geography and history students to explore.

Vocabulary Games

Games can be an effective way to make learning fun, and Vocabulary.co.il has a wide variety. Twenty-four types of vocabulary games are listed at the top left of the site and language options are listed at the bottom right with flags symbolizing the language. The site also differentiates between ability/age level.

Rethinking Schools

Like UEN, Rethinking Schools has a page targeted to the needs of educators teaching ELLs. They list "Strategies for Improving Instruction for English Language Learners," "Strategies for Becoming More Culturally Competent,"a description of "Types of ESL and Bilingual Programs," and a lastly a list of additional resources from books to websites. They also link to their own specialized resource page entitled "Bilingual Education Resources."

SERGE

SERGE (Special Education Resources for General Educators) is a valuable site for general educators striving to include students with special needs in their classrooms. SERGE poses Seven Essential Questions general educators might ask and then provides teachers with the short answer follwed by additional sub-questions and resources for further exploration. Since I am earning a dual license in general and special education, I was particularly interested in Question 5: "How do I collaborate to benefit my students?" Included under this question category were resources and links on co-teaching, progress monitoring, and partnering with parents. I also appreciated the links SERGE gave to official government websites when answering Question 7 about teacher responsibilities tied to legislation at the federal, state, and local levels. SERGE is an excellent resource since it not only offers a synthesis of information, but also offers links to primary sources for those who have more time to investigate.

Ways to Differentiate

Mindsteps is a company committed to helping teachers improve their praxis "today to
raise student achievement tomorrow." Part of their resource collection is devoted to ways educators can differentiate instruction to fit their students' various needs and abilties. Mindsteps classifies students into four categories: Low Content, High Process (LCHP); Low Content, Low Process (LCLP); High  Content, Low Process (HCLP); and finally High Content, High Process (HCHP). The Four Types of Students – Reference Guide offers suggested strategies for each of these four types in the areas of content, process, product, and environment. To further increase teachers' awareness of their students' diverse needs, Mindsteps has developed a Blank Differentiated Unit Planning Sheet to guide teachers as they develop their lessons. The website also offers links to sample units in three different disciplines (English, history, and math) to serve as exemplars.

Technological Options for SPED

Special education does not lack for acronyms, and this week I discovered a new one: UAAACT. The Utah Augmentative Alternative Communicaiton and Technology Teams Project, supported by the Utah State Office of Education and the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation, provides professional links to over 30 sites related to technological adaptations and supports for individuals with disabilities. While some links were already familiar to me (e.g. The Arc and the Utah Parent Center), others expanded my awareness of available tools. Both Apple and IBM devote portions of their websites to describing product accessibility for those with special needs. Other businesses like RJ Cooper and Associates sell equipment that further extends access beyond what these brands offer.

The websites linked to from the UAAACT page varied greatly in design and credibility from individual educators assembling their preferred resource lists to companies attempting to market their products. Overall, I generally preferred sites associated soley with educational instituions (.edu) versus ones seeking profits (.com); the Enabling Devices catalog under the Toys for Children link was one major exception.

Exploring across several sites tonight, the options for adaptive equipment seem endless--limited only by human ingenuity. Happily, we've moved far beyond Stone and Bronze Age tools to technology capable of enriching the lives of those previously barred from full participation in society as a result of their disabilities.

IDEA on IEPs: Supplementary Aids and Services

As mentioned in my first post a few weeks ago, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY) contains pertinent information related to IDEA legislation, including extensive details on IEP planning and execution. NICHCY explains IDEA's legalese with relevant examples of how the law has been interpreted, implemented, and expanded through subsequent reauthorizations. Under the umbrella of  "Contents of the IEP,"  NICHCY offers links to 13 sections that flesh out IEPs' component parts. Of the links, only two ("Extent of Nonparticipation" and "Service Delivery") do not contain the specific heading "IDEA's Exact Words," though both still quote the legislation.

Under the "Supplementary Aids and Services" heading, NICHCY offers a more comprehensive look at aids and services provided for students with disabilities than offered in the brief IDEA excerpt. While I initially associated supplementary aids with technological supports such as communication devices, the article broadened my definition of what types of supports can be given. Knowing the array of options as well as the process for explicitly defining them in a student's IEP will be indispensible information for me to possess as a special educator. 

Resources from the Council for Exceptional Children

The Council for Exceptional Children’s website offers a plethora of resources for special educators. Under the “Support for Teachers” heading, instructors can access teacher-written articles related to streamlining SPED paperwork, collaborating and developing mentor/mentee relationships, co-teaching with general educators, retaining one’s initial passion for students with exceptionalities, and other topical issues related to special education. While these resources will continue to be beneficial to me, I can currently use them to augment what I am learning in class with perspectives of teachers already in the field. Below are three links to articles taken from the site:

My Dirty Dozen
by Sheila Amato, CEC Clarissa Hug Teacher of the Year 2008

Sheila was right: her title certainly piqued my interest. More importantly, however, her tips for both novice and experienced teachers rewarded my attention. Although I found all Sheila's tips helpful, number 11 was particularly memorable!

Co-Teaching 101: Lessons from the Trenches
by Marie Huggins, Jennifer Huyghe, and Elizabeth Iljkoski

Marie Huggins, Jennifer Huyghe, and Elizabeth Iljkoski's tone is less playful, but the information they share is no less pertinent. Grounded in their classroom experiences at the secondary level, their article provides a brief definition of co-teaching before delving into their own unique experiences as special and content area (biology and English) educators. Their stories gave life to the information about co-teaching offered in our Including Students with Special Needs text (p.76-79). One quotation from their article particularly struck me: "When arranging for co-teaching between general and special education in your schook, keep in mind that special education is a service, not a place." Too often—especially in the past—special education relegated students to a separate room instead of making them participants in a shared classrom. This sentence succintly sums up how I believe special education should be treated and delivered.

Five Strategies to Limit the Burdens of Paperwork
by Lynne Cook and K. Sarah Hall

Though I am dedicated to becoming a special educator, I am concerned about managing the paperwork it entails. Lynne Cook and K. Sarah Hall try to expedite the paperwork process while retaining its essential value. Their five strategies call for increased focus on student needs, using one source for a variety of contexts, reducing the amount of "informal" record keeping, understanding legal requirments, and finally encouraging student ownership of their IEPs by allowing students to participate in their IEP's development.

Parents as Partners in the IEP Process

The Utah Parent Center provides important information for families of students with special needs. One of the many resources included on their site is a link to the PDF version of Parents as Partners in the IEP Process. This handbook can help parents not only navigate, but also become active participants in the IEP process from their student's initial referal and evaluation to the student's graduation and transition to post-school life.

Individuals with Disabilites Education Act (IDEA)

IDEA’s history began in 1975 with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHCA) that guaranteed students with disabilities access to the least restrictive environment (LRE) for learning possible. Additionally, EHCA listed categories under which students with disabilities could qualify for services. EHCA was reauthorized 15 years later as IDEA, replacing the label “handicapped” with the more appropriate term “disability.” The reauthorization altered more than the existing name, however. IDEA added and strengthened existing services for children from infancy to five years old as well as students nearing the end of their education experience. Two new categories of disability were also added during this reauthorization: autism and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Seven years later in 1997, general educators were acknowledged as important contributors in students with disabilities’ education and were thus finally included in the teams of professionals and parents who developed individualized education plans (IEPs) for students

The most recent reauthorization of IDEA in 2004 resulted in another—but less drastic—name change. Now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, IDEIA simplifies paperwork, requires all students to participate in standard assessments, ensures highly qualified special education teachers, and designates funding to be used for prevention. IDEIA also allows for more flexibility in identifying students with learning difficulties through the response to intervention (RtI) process; students who fail to make progress despite increasing support can be recognized as having a learning disability.

Information taken from “The Foundation for Educating Students with Special Needs” (Ch. 1) in Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers

            Since the information—and actual legislation of IDEA or IDEIA—is extensive, some websites have prepared useful summaries of its content for parents and teachers alike. The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY) is an excellent source of information about the act. NICHCY includes summaries of IDEA as well as access to the official legislation. The website also offers links to areas addressing the needs of specific demographic groups such as children 3-22 (Part B of IDEA) and infants and toddlers (Part C of IDEA). Links beneath “Children 3-22” include resources on parental rights, the special education qualification process, IEPs (individual education plans), information about adapting instruction to students’ unique needs, and preparing students for life after graduation.

            Easy access to this information is essential for parents and educators, so they can become better advocates for their children and students’ rights. Increased understanding of the act’s regulations and definitions is also important to implement IDEA for the maximum benefit for students at every stage of their development.