Tate,+Zach,+Inclusion+Strategies+in+Social+Studies

Hello everyone,

My name is Zach Tate. My middle name is Scott, which most people probably don't know. Something about me that's pretty unique would be that I've been to all but 4 states (Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, and Texas) and I just recently visited Hawaii for my first time. However, other than Canada and Mexico, I've never traveled outside of the U.S.

I grew up in SE Portland, OR and graduated from Clackamas High School all the way back in 2004. I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree of Science in History from SOU in 2009. Currently, I'm in my second year of the MAT with an emphasis on Social Studies in the 3-4 (MS/HS) cohort. I would love to end up teaching somewhere in Oregon, preferably in the Rogue Valley or in the Portland Metropolitan Area. However, I do sometimes consider the idea of traveling overseas to possibly teach somewhere in Asia.

The main things that bring me joy in life would be sports, television, video games, music, and people (friends, family, teachers, students, and just people in general).

My greatest fear as a teacher is having a class of students who just plain don't like/respect me. Ideally, I would prefer to maintain a certain level of authority in my classroom. But more importantly to me is that I have a good relationship with my students.

I can surely recall a few times when I struggled to learn certain material. The first thought that comes to mind is a college Spanish course that I took about four years ago. It was my first class with a new professor and the class format was much different from what I was used to. In my previous class, for example, my professor went over answers by having each student reading their answers aloud to the class. In my new class, however, my professor would read her answer and move on to the next question. For me, this type of method wasn't as effective as was the first in helping me learn the material. In the first class, I was able to listen to multiple answers from several students. Also, the teacher would critique the answers and explain what was either correct or incorrect in each response. In the later class, the answers weren't covered nearly as in depth, and the teacher seemed to move at a much faster pace to get through all the material. If I could take anything from this experience as a prospective teacher, it would be to remember not to speed through my lessons without first making sure that all the kids understand the material and are ready to move on.

Through this course, I hope to learn about effective ways to work with students who have learning disabilities. My project will focus on Inclusion Strategies in Social Studies. Simply put, I find this information most beneficial as I plan to focus my teaching in this area. So I believe that it is imperative that I learn how to create an inclusive social studies classroom of my own.

Zach Tate Professor Crum ED 571: Inclusion Strategies February 2, 2012

CBL Project: Shadowing a Special Education Instructor

For my Community Based Learning Project, I shadowed Kate Sullivan; a special education instructor at Ashland High School. Kate works at a site-based learning center and assists students who have low cognitive skills. Autism is the predominant learning disability found in her classroom, followed by cognitive impairment.

Paul Kitzman; an education specialist; is also heavily involved in the classroom where he serves as a valuable assistant for Kate.

There are five children in Kate’s class. Kate likes to start off her class by having each student share something fun or interesting that they have done since their previous class. The students really seem to enjoy this activity. Each student took a couple of minutes to tell all about getting their hair done, visiting a relative, or their parent getting a new job. Everyone had fun and became very chatty.

On this day, Kate had the students complete a few math assessments. The problems were mostly basic arithmetic questions. This activity took up most of the class. A couple of students were having some difficulties and used the remaining class time to finish up in a separate study room.

Kate stayed in the study room to provide help for the students who were struggling. Meanwhile, the students who finished early got to play blackjack. Paul was a part of this activity, which he uses as a mathematical exercise for the students. He requires each student to add their cards together and announce their total before either asking for another card or staying put.

Throughout my stay in the classroom, Kate and Paul kept me extremely involved. They emphasize participation, independence, effort, and patience.

Ultimately, Kate says that she realizes these kids won’t be attending college. So she tries to teach them basic skills (math, reading, writing) in hope that they can receive and maintain a job of some sort.

Kate and Paul use a very calm, positive approach with their students. Here are a couple specific methods that I observed:

- Kate assigned the students 1 test but broke it up into 3 smaller units in order to not overwhelm the students with too much work. - When one of the students was becoming noticeably frustrated with how long they were taking to finish the test, Kate told the student that she appreciates how much effort she is putting into her work.

In addition, the classroom is structured much like a house. There is the classroom itself, a separate study room, a living room with a couch, a kitchen with a big table, and a bathroom.

The kids usually drink tea or hot chocolate during class. They are allowed to make a snack like cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if they’re hungry. When students finish early on assignments, they’re allowed to play with I-pads, which is pretty cool.

Kate says her main focus is to provide structure for these kids. She uses many visual aides. Her classroom itself is very friendly to students with learning disabilities. There are helpful educational posters all over the wall that display things such as: the alphabet, multiplication table, compass, punctuation marks, etc. Kate says that it’s crucial to use declarative statements. Understandably, these students talk out quite often, so she tries hard to make her rules and instructions as clear and explicit as possible in order to minimize the noise.

This experience was very interesting and informative for me. I was very impressed with how Kate and Paul work so well with their students. It was also very fun being included in some of their daily activities, getting to work with the students first hand.

Zach Tate Professor Crum ED 571: Inclusion Strategies March 5, 2012 RESEARCH TOPIC: Inclusion in Social Studies

5 Things that I learned:

1. So many students who have learning disabilities generally struggle with reading (especially textbooks)(8 out of 10 students w/ LD's are below reading level...according to the YouTube clip listed below). This seems to be the biggest challenge to overcome in teaching social studies to students with learning disabilities. 2. Students who have disabilities usually learn more effectively when being taught chronologically rather than conceptually because they can connect events together to make more better of the information. 3. There is a great deal of technology available for students who have disabilities in order to make learning more fun, engaging, and memorable. 4. Useful specific and non-specific methods of inclusion for teaching Social Studies (Venn diagrams, graphic organizers, vocabulary worksheets, prior knowledge assessments, visual aides, etc.) 5. Textbooks have important information to teach students, but the format often confuses kids. As a teacher, it is important to find ways to reorganize the textbook information and create active, easy to understand activities/assignments out of the content.

FAVORITE LINK!!!:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cts=1330976328110&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.region10.org%2Fsocialstudies%2Fdocuments%2FDIInclusion.ppt&ei=RRZVT9WnKYvaiQLl9eW2Bg&usg=AFQjCNHVoi64kE0JiHnB2tf0BTwUtuIjqg&sig2=kf7PejmeGRa-JxjmqDwyqQ

This lengthy URL provides a link to a very useful PowerPoint which runs through several inclusion techniques in Social Studies. I found this slide show particularly useful because of it is simply structured and easy to follow. It is laid out like a lesson plan in some ways, providing plenty of examples of inclusive strategies. Something I also like about this document is the clarity as it specifically lays out what social studies students need to be able to do in order to be successful in the class, as well as how teachers can do their best to accommodate student success.


 * Simple inclusion techniques: Slide 10 (Metaphors), 14 (Get to know students), 15 (Student profiles), 21 (Adjust classroom environment), 22 (Multiple intelligences survey)


 * Important concepts for effective teaching: Slide 32 (For all learners- prior knowledge, communication, vocabulary, organization, step by step instruction)


 * Examples: Slide 41 (Prior knowledge of WWII), Slide 66 (Vocabulary exercise)


 * Additional Links: Slide 87


 * Company Homepage: Slide 88

Rating: 4.5



This article points out that most history textbooks are flawed in terms of effectiveness for students who have learning disabilities. The author points out reasons why textbooks may not suffice for these students, as well as ways for teachers to help these students make better sense of textbooks. Lastly, this article discusses effective alternatives to textbook reading, such as: magazines, newspapers, and computers.

Rating: 4



This article echoes the main points of the first article, this time with survey-backed results in the form of charts and graphs. The results from this experiment determine that standard history textbooks do not teach students as well as the experimental textbook, which was designed in a way that was easier for kids to follow.

Rating: 4



This article focuses on ways in which teachers can train students to read and write historically, rather than simply reading for answers and writing down answers straight out of the book. The point being, that by getting students to read and write historically, their work will have more of a purpose and, therefore, students will be more engaged in these activities while also gaining a better overall knowledge of the material. There are charts and examples that help make the reading easy to understand and bring into the classroom.

Rating: 4.5



This article mentions several helpful tips for dealing with various learning disabilities (Low level reading/writing/language, problems processing information, organizational problems, memory disorders, and behavioral/social problems) and also warns about the difficulty of using textbooks with students who have such learning disabilities.

Rating: 4



This article follows up on the main ideas presented in the previous reading, suggesting additional ways to support students with different learning disabilities. In general, the author mentions ways to teach history as a story where students are able to connect historical events and identify cause and effect, rather than listening to/reading a list of facts (names, dates, events, etc.).

Rating: 4



This article emphasizes how to best teach social studies to students who are ELL's. Although this reading is specific to only ELL students, the author extensively covers the main challenges that these students face in social studies class and how teachers can make it easier for these students to succeed.

Rating: 3.5

media type="youtube" key="L3yes7RsvwQ" height="315" width="420"

This is a feel-good, educational clip that discusses the importance of technology in social studies class for all students, but especially students with learning disabilities. The idea of incorporating technology into social studies goes right along with the idea of lessening the use of textbooks in class. This is especially important with students who have disabilities, as a high percentage of these students struggle reading. However, this video warns that while technology can be a useful tool, it can not substitute entirely for other important teaching methods and tools.

Rating: 4

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/teacher-resources/6640.html

Unfortunately, you have to pay for a membership to this site, which I didn't realize when I first came upon this web page. However, the site allows you access to a free week trial and offers a vast amount of resources in terms of lesson plans and inclusion strategies for every general subject. There are also several links to similar educational sites. Lastly, before you are forced to sign up for a free week trial, you are allowed to visit five different pages on the site, so choose accordingly!

Rating: 3