Something that really stuck out to me was this chapter: In
early childhood every youngster is seen as a unique individual, however, now,
more than ever there is greater diversity in todays classrooms, differentiating
instruction to meet the individual need of all children is a necessity.
While I was reading chapter 3, the topic about children who
are gifted, who have learning disabilities and ADHD. While reading though the
whole chapter it opened my eyes to see what types of students you really will
have in your classroom. Those who are gifted are the students that you will
have to maybe have a back plan in your back pocket for, not busy work for them
to do, but something a little bit more challenging about that activity that you
are giving to the rest of the class. Those students also need to be able to
share what talents they have because they are your students that feel like they
do not get anything challenging and they get bored with school very quickly.
With that being said it is very important that you are always encouraging them
throughout the year. Maybe if you have some time in the year, let them share
their special talent with the whole class. Maybe one of your students is really
talented with the piano maybe have days for music where they get to show that
off. I know that a lot of teacher focus on those students who have learning
disabilities or special needs, because they want to make sure that those
students are not falling behind and they totally forget about their students
who are gifted. One really good idea that the book said about gifted students
is, if they finish their work early then let them, read of book of their
choice, or assist a student who is struggling, or work on an ongoing project of
their interest. I never knew that gifted children feel like that they are
forgotten. I also did not know that you have to be encouraging to those
students because they will get bored with school easily. I never knew that
there were students called gifted students, I might just have been very naïve
in school when I was younger but it was something that I never realized until
high school. The next big disability they brought up was learning disabilities.
There are a lot of learning disabilities. Reading about all of the different
ones made me think well I know someone with that one, and that one, and so on
so forth. I have a reading comprehension disorder and I have always had
problems paying attention in class, especially during reading time, because
when I was little I never really understood what I was reading. I was just kind
of reading it, because I was told to. Just like that children with learning
disabilities are the same way. It is hard for some of them to sit still for
very long without breaks, or it is hard for them to pay attention. The pictures
in the book would always distract me. The other thing that the book said about
children with learning disabilities they should have preferential seating close
to the teacher so he/she can redirect that student when needed. The last thing
that I really liked about the end of this section was that the programs for the
learning disabled and children with ADHD should be highly structured, with
short period of direct instruction. Provide materials that will interest them.
I agree that no matter what kind of children you have in your classroom they
need to have something that they can do that interests them, like projects and
readings. If they don’t have things that interest them they will get bored with
schoolwork and not want to do it or turn it in. Last but not least always be
encouraging towards your students, you do not always know the family live they
come from, so if you have a student with a learning disability try everything
you can to make sure that student always knows that they are the best and that
no matter what they can and cannot do, you will be there along the way to make
sure that they succeed.
I enjoyed reading your post, Jordan. I completely agree that it is so important to meet every child's needs whether they are on one extreme such as gifted, or the other extreme who sometimes struggle. I feel as though some individuals think that us "ELED Majors" are just studying to color pictures, do fun activities, and play with kids all day. What they might not realize is that we don't just create fun activities and lesson plans, but we create these lesson plans for student to learn and we must make adaptations to each of our lessons to be sure that all of our students can learn in a way that they are comfortable with. Another part of your post that caught my attention was your comment about busy work. I completely agree with this! Kids don't want to be doing busy work any more than we do. I know in some of my college classes, I'll walk out of the class and think, "why did I even do that activity?" I believe that kids can catch on to this too, and they will want to know why they are doing it. If they are doing it for no reason, they aren't going to get anything out of it, which is a waste of valuable instruction time. It's important for us future educators to be aware of our students, their capabilities, talents, struggles, and interests to make the most of our instructional time!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really great that you spoke about gifted and talented learns along with other types of diversity in the classroom, because gifted and talented students often get over looked. Teachers tend to think that gifted students don't need extra help because they are more advanced but as you pointed out in your post, gifted students also need special attention. I agree with how you said teacher should have a back up plan for gifted students and not just provide busy work for them. I also loved the idea about supporting peoples special talents how you suggested the child who's good at the piano could have a day to demonstrate that and I think that is the greatest idea.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great post! As someone who was in gifted and talented programs for most of my life, it was difficult being in elementary school often being overlooked or bored because I was a gifted student. It would have been really beneficial to have extra, more challenging work so I didn't feel like I was wasting my time in the classroom. On the other hand, children with learning disabilities are just as important and also deserve special attention! Structuring your classroom to get the most out of those students is important.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Jordan! I can actually really relate to your post because I have a learning disability and school was a real struggle for me. The hardest part was that the teachers never really knew what to do with me. I was never helped and my voice was never heard. Trying to keep up with school work was a real struggle when you had no idea what was going on. Gifted children, do in fact, feel like they are forgotten quite more than one may realize. It's not a fact of getting the teachers attention, but knowing that they care and will take the time to come up to you one on one and explain things to you without you having to ask them to. Overall, I think your blog was very insightful and allowing teachers to know that they are more than likely to have one, if not multiple, students in their classroom with a disability and knowing how to handle these students in the proper way that will help them succeed instead of pushing them farther down.
ReplyDelete