What, I have to teach 5 components?

Yes, there are 5 components to a balanced literacy program and yes, all children should receive instruction in all of them.

At one time I was a doctoral candidate (no, I didn't complete my program but that is a different post all together) and I was required to write a meta-analysis on a topic of teaching for any population I chose. Teaching students with significant disabilities is my passion and drive each day so, I decided to study the research on teaching reading skills to students within this population.  I gave a wide berth to the research allowing 20 years and any school-age, 3-21.   I did a computer search and even went and read the table of contents for years of journals at the library to include as many articles as I possibly could.

You see, I didn't just want to do the assignment but wanted, desperately, to learn how to teach more; More effectively, more efficiently, more students, more content, more success, just more.  I read each article with a critical eye and made notes to any instructional strategies and content so I could compare them to my current practice and be, well, more.

At that time (about 8 years ago), the research was clear, students with significant disabilities are taught reading by being given a series of flash cards which they review and review until they reach the desired level of mastery and then additional cards are provided.  This is a common system for students and for homework.  I have flashcards the students take home as we learn a word through a variety of curriculums. However........

The found research was also clear, this is the only practice that was used in the research except for one article.  You see, flash cards can only get them so far.  In one study that I read, students were given sight words off warning labels.  This sounds like a really good idea.  However, the words ingest, vomit, and induce were taught directly but the word "not" wasn't.  There is a very serious implication to a student reading a label as "Induce vomiting" and skipping the word they don't know to the sentence "Do not induce vomiting."  This is not just poor teaching, this is serious!

I am not saying "no more flash cards," but rather, "what else do we have happening in our rooms?"  I know that I have colleagues for whom their reading instruction is far more rigorous and inclusive of all 5 components of reading.  We need to be louder about what we do so that researchers can find and report on the many good things teachers do every day.

Flash cards teach sight words for fluency and vocabulary but what else so we do to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension development?  I know that I use a range of curriculum, both formal and informal.  Students participate in a combination of Reading Mastery, Edmark, Reading Milestones, Wilson, FrogStreet, leveled reading, teacher created activities, and computer assisted programs to work on their current skill needs in each of the 5 areas of reading daily.

What do you do in your rooms?  What practices have you found to assist your students in becoming readers?  Do you have a particular structure to make sure all components are taught daily?

I want your ideas!  I still want to be more.

If Only...

This summer break I have spent reading and working on my house as so many teachers in America so I haven't posted as much as I would like but do I do have another quote that goes out to all my colleagues.  My own thoughts will be coming soon.  Happy Summer!

http://drpinna.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/CrowdedERWaitingRoom.jpg

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 30 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he (she) might have some conception of the classroom teachers job."

Donald D. Quinn

Goethe Said It Best

My philosophy of life in 2 sentences, thank you Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Treat a man as he is and you make him worse than he is.  Treat a man as he has the potential to become and you make him better than he is.

Labels, Diagnoses, and Definitions

There are campaigns to remove the "R Word" from common language.  This word, for those who are not certain is, "retarded."  When I started in my career, it was a commonly used term.  It was medical or diagnostic when referring to a student's learning difficulties.  The grief parents endured once their child was diagnosed as "retarded" was the same as the grief that parents today go through when their child is diagnosed "severely delayed," "cognitively impaired," "developmentally delayed," "highly impacted by autism," or any of the numerous other diagnoses that say to a parent, your child is not "normal."  The word retarded was not a problem when used medically, the problem was, it became a derogatory word to indicate that someone was an idiot, useless, not worthy, beyond stupid, horrible, or any other negative thing.

Please understand, I am not asking that we keep the word in our vocabulary any more than I am advocating for any other derogatory word to refer to people or communities in a way that places one person higher than another.  We all have weaknesses things we see about ourself each time we look in the mirror and hope no one else sees it.  We all also have gifts, and if we let them, this is what people will see.  But that is another post, another time.

The real problem with the word "retarded" is that, even if we use other terms or phrases, people will still hear "retarded."  If I say to a parent that their student is Intellectually Disabled, they aren't hearing a different story.  Telling your friends that your child was diagnosed "severely delayed," doesn't mean they think it is okay or that the grief they feel for you is any less.

As I see it, one of the problems with the word "retarded" is that we simply don't understand it.  We really don't understand any of these phrases, terms, or diagnoses.  I had a professor during my undergraduate degree in Special Education who challenged us to define the, then prominently used diagnosis, Mental Retardation.  It was fascinating how it was used in books, articles, research, the medical community, the education system, the federal laws, and households and yet, no common definition existed.  It was one of the most memorable assignments and activities I have ever participated in, still.  States and local education units are still trying to do this for all the different labels we use to determine eligibility for services and supports.  You see, people can't be placed perfectly in boxes.  They don't fit labels perfectly.  It is not an exact science.  People are dynamic individuals, whether they are 6 months or 6 years or 60.

So why figure it out?  Because the definition a person has for the diagnosis, label, or category of service   drives the grief, celebration, inclusion, and education of that person.  If the teacher and the parents can talk honestly about what that child's "label" means to them now and in the future, they can then, and only then, work as a true team to support, encourage, and educate that child.  I am not perfect, but I try to have this conversation with each parent, teacher, and paraprofessional that works with a child.  I have more work to do in this area, but I am trying.

To that end, here is my attempt at a definition in regards to the identification and education of children with the diagnosis of what is now referred to as Intellectual Disability.

Intellectual Disability is an impairment in functioning in a social, academic, home, communal and vocational environment due to a neuro-deficit that may be caused by a variety of physical problems or traumas.  Intellectual Disability is a changing, or dynamic, condition and therefore, the settings the individual is in should not limit or restrict growth or exposure to ideas.  Any program or training for the individual should be written for their current needs with the belief that they can and will meet or exceed expectations.

Thank You

Thank you.  Thank you to each parent who suspended judgment and gave me a chance.  Thanks to the teachers who welcomed the students.  Thank you to administration for giving me a chance to do what I love.  Thank you to the paraprofessionals who let me try things and then, try new ones.  I always knew they were there to support me if my idea failed, and to run with an idea that worked.  Thank you to my team for the blood, sweat, and tears we shared.  Thank you to IDEIA for letting me teach these amazing students.

But most of all, thank you to each child who tried.  That is all any teacher can ask of you and you each did, not once, but day after day, after day.  I love you all.

Soaring to New Heights

I tried something new this week, as the school year ended and we reflected on all the growth the students made, I also wanted to look forward, and up.

I had my students design their own goals for themselves and the coming year.  They each choose their own goals and lead themselves forward.  We wrote the goals on balloons filled with helium and let them go, to new heights.

As I watched each balloon, I also let go. Now each of the children I love can soar, to their own height.

That’s What It's All About

As a Special Education teacher I spend my days planning, teaching, and advocating for a future.  Not my future, the future of my students.  We all talk about, “one day when they are older” or “when they go to  high school” but do we really think about what we want.  I know, you are saying, yes, I think about the students job and living arrangement.  Their social group and how their family will support them.   But do we consider the little things, the moments that we all remember from our high school days but see as small moments.  I have to say, that I forgot the little things. 

Or at least I did until a young man, whom I have been fortunate enough to have in my life the past 12 years reminded me what really mattered.  He is an amazing young man who happens to use an augmentative communication device and wheelchair.  But please, remember, he is a young man.  He has crushes on girls, passions, and hopes just like everyone.  One of his hopes was fulfilled by a cousin who saw what I didn’t;  the little things matter.

reproduced with permission from their mom's and the young woman

Yes, I am talking about prom.  He went to prom, complete with two beautiful dates who danced with him and enjoyed it along side him.  His younger brother fit his chair with a camera and he shared the expeience later with his family in film as using the talker is more tedious.  At one point, as the juniors and seniors all circled around while individuals danced in and out of the circle, the young man’s classmates made room and had him join the center for his few seconds of dance solo.  Yes, one night of prom matters, and to a young junior, it is a highlight.  Prom wasn’t a single night.  No, it was a lifetime of memory.  I will always be grateful that he was my teacher as to how to plan what matters most in a person’s life.  I will carry this lesson with me the next time I start a sentence with “One day….”

Thanks, all three of you!!!