Emma Rayner

Annotations - Full Participation

Description

A strategy that was employed in the grade 3/4 classrooms was the use of the ‘calm down’ card. One student in the class had a learning difficulty and several others had anxiety. Before this strategy was in place students would sometimes throw a tantrum or run out of the room disrupting their own and others learning. If the student felt overwhelmed at any time they could hand their ‘calm down’ card to the teacher so that they could spend 5 minutes colouring in their special book, settling and getting ready to learn again. By using this strategy students come back into the classroom prepared to full participate in their learning again.

 

VIT Standard

• 1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability, Design and implement teaching activities that support the participation and learning of students with disability and address relevant policy and legislative requirements.

 

AusVELS

Students with Disabilities Guidelines 2014

 

PoLT

• 2.1 encourages and supports students to take responsibility for their learning

• 3.1 uses strategies that are flexible and responsive to the values, needs and interests of individual students

 

Personal Philosophy

I believe it is important for every student to have equal opportunities to learn, I support my students’ participation in class by creating individual learning plans and incorporating strategies that students can use such as the ‘calm down’ card.

 

Other Theory

“Students with disabilities are a diverse group.

They include students with high-level complex needs, multiple or severe disabilities, or learning disabilities, and mild impairments”(AusVELS, 2014) Students with learning impairments can benefit from strategies such as direct instruction which help their understanding by explicitly explaining concepts (Hicks, 2015)