285 Review Questions

1. What is one reason that learners with EBD are underserved by schools?
            a. EBD is extremely rare
            b. Problem behaviors are just seen as disciplinary issues, nothing more
            c. EBD must be diagnosed by age 7 to be served in school; diagnosis often happens too late
            d. Only specialized schools serve students with EBD

2. What is the one trait that all Autism Spectrum Disorders have in common?
             a. Interest in bright lights and loud sounds 
             b. A fascination with a specific topic          
             c. Social and communication deficits/losses
             d. Repetitive motion, such as hand-flapping

3. Which of the following is not a criteria for an ADHD diagnosis?
             a. Symptoms present for at least six months
             b. Student demonstrates multiple inattentive/hyperactive behaviors (not only 1-2)
             c. Symptoms are present in multiple environments
             d. The student continuously misplaces papers and wanders the classroom

 Wordle for EBD/PBIS post!

EBD and PIBS

While reading Chapter 6 of the text about emotional/behavioral disorders, I was surprised to read the statistics about how many students potentially have an undiagnosed or un-served emotional/behavioral disorder. It is startling to think that so many kids who are labeled as “problems” or “trouble” may actually have an EBD, and could benefit from special services or interventions, but don’t receive them. While it is understandable that teachers, parents, and administrators don’t want to assume any behavioral challenge is an EBD, I feel that awareness of EBD needs to be raised; if more people are aware of signs to look for in students, more students may be properly identified. Understanding emotional/behavioral disorders also can cut down on teacher biases. Instead of teachers thinking that students just “have no self control” or are just “mean-spirited”, a properly diagnosed EBD can alert the teacher to the underlying cause of the behavior they see. Understanding ways of serving students with EBD is also important, as specific interventions, such as explicit teaching of some social skills, could benefit the student much more than the disciplinary punishments often used in schools.

                Based on previous placements, though working with students with an emotional/behavioral disorder may be challenging at times, these students need the most compassion out of any from teachers. While EBD-related behavior may seem extreme or irrational, it is a part of life for these students, and teachers need to work towards identifying what services the student needs. I believe that students with EBD are still good kids, they just have trouble with some skills most people take for granted, such as empathy, managing emotions, or showing patience. Too many times, I have seen instances of EBD-related behavior lead to students being punished; I have seen students in seemingly endless time-outs, routine afterschool detentions, and sitting out every recess. While I agree that the behavior is inappropriate and needs correction, the behavior should be punished, but not the student. Students need to be taught what is appropriate, as they may not understand on their own, instead of being yelled at or sent to “time out”. 

        Related to discipline, the use of school-wide PBIS seems like a great way to support all students, including those with emotional/behavioral disorders. Clearly setting expectations allows all students to better understand the expected behaviors, and explicit teaching of how to implement those behaviors can help make it possible. Though I hadn’t considered it before, it is ironic that we expect children to automatically understand how to behave without teaching them, and punish them when they do not comply with the rules we did not explain. PBIS helps explain behavioral expectations explicitly, so there is less room for question or confusion over the expectations. Overall, I feel that explaining rules and showing compassion to students with emotional/behavioral disorders, combined with the use of PBIS, could help students with an EBD, and make school a more enjoyable experience for all involved.

Blog 4 -- Placement and Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

  Placement this semester has definitely been an adventure thus far. I'm in a middle school EBD support classroom -- four boys and one girl -- at the Fairland Center, and I've definitely seen quite a mix of behaviors during my time there. Two of the students tend to become physically aggressive when they are upset (when I arrived this past Friday, my co-op was outside with one student, and another student had been taken to the "isolation room" after physical fighting had broken out), while the other students tend to physically keep to themselves, refusing to work or crying, but not  hitting anyone.
  While I had noticed this about the students in my placement class, the chapter in the textbook about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders definitely described what I saw pretty accurately. The chapter describes a variety of "externalizing" and "internalizing" behaviors. The two categories align really closely with the behaviors I have seen from the students at placement.The externalizing behaviors (fighting, disobedience, temper tantrums, etc) match up with the actions of some of the students, while interalizing behaviors (feeling inferior, self-conscious, and crying easily) describe the behaviors of the other students. I was suprised to see that the students were separated so neatly into two categories based on the nature of their behaviors, and was even more suprised at how well the categories held up to "real life" in my placement classroom. I feel that separating the behaviors into two categories is useful because it can help identify not only the behaviors themselves, but also possible interventions to decrease the occurrence or severity of the behaviors. Internalizing and externalizing behaviors require different types of attention (responding to fist fights or wanting to be alone), and identifying them can help make the appropriate assistance possible in a classroom.

Field Placement Reflections

  My first day of field placement on Friday was definitely interesting! This semester, I am at the Fairland Center, a school supporting students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. The classroom I am in has seven middle-school age students, though only three students were present in school on Friday. There were three adults adults in the room full-time, my co-op and two others, though several adults stopped by every once in a while to see how things were going.
   One thing that really surprised me about this placement is the non-traditional schedule and super-flexible set-up of the day. While I was there, the students had some time to play games, then they had gym, and then time to work (or avoid working), and I didn't see any academic group instruction. The only time all of the students were instructed together was when they were playing a game together during gym class. Instead of group instruction, each student had individual assignments to work on at his desk. I was surprised because the students seemed to spend a good deal of time off-task, and would be up and wandering around the room a lot, or simply refusing to complete their assignments. I wondered often throughout the morning how the students managed to complete any of their work! I am curious to see in the next few weeks how the schedules and routines change day-to-day. My co-op explained that because the students are at such different levels academically, group instruction isn't really feasible, and I am now curious to see the teaching strategies my co-op uses with the students one-on-one.
    The most interesting part of my placement experience on Friday was the students themselves. They are all great, and I was impressed by how well they worked together in gym games. They would all clap and cheer for each other, and were very supportive. My co-op also told me that the students have made a lot of progress on using sign language to communicate, as one of their classmates has a hearing impairment. From what I took from the conversation, the teachers and staff began using signs to communicate with the student with a hearing impairment, and his classmates willingly began to work on the signs to communicate with him. The student with the hearing impairment has difficulty hearing mid-to-high-frequency sounds, but can somewhat hear low tones. For this reason, my co-op and the other staff members hum as low as they can to get the student's attention, which really fascinated me. I am excited to go back to placement in the future to continue building relationships with the students and my co-op as well, and to see how the rest of the semester will be!

American Teacher Reflection

             The documentary “American Teacher” was certainly interesting, and brought up what I consider to be several important points about the teaching profession in the United States. Though there was a very heavy focus on the financial aspects of being a schoolteacher, I felt that the statements made about the respect a teacher receives were more powerful, though less focused upon.

                Throughout the documentary, the stories of several teachers from across the country were followed. Each of the teachers faced different hardships connected with being a teacher, though this documentary focused in particular on the financial strain that a teaching career placed on the individuals’ lives. While I feel that the scenarios presented were eye-opening, there is a lot of information regarding finances that was left unsaid during the documentary, including standard of living and benefits, which slightly took away from the argument. I feel that the stories of financial difficulties would most impact those unfamiliar with the teaching profession, who may be unaware that such financial hardship can occur while an individual holds a “professional” job.

               

                While the commentary on financial struggles was intriguing, the part of the documentary that resonated with me most was the idea of the respect that teachers receive in our country. It wasn’t something that I had given much thought to before, at least not from the angle of comparing the profession to others. When considering my own life, however, I found that the difference in respect between teaching and other professions has already begun to play a role. Both of my roommates intend on going to medical school, pursuing careers in pediatrics and optometry. We are often asked about our career goals, and the responses to my roommates’ and my own answer are always different. While my roommates’ answers evoke a, “Wow, that’s intense, good for you!” response, my answer generally evokes an, “Aw, that’s really cute!”. It is interesting to me that, though my roommate’s career choice involves children just as mine does, the responses to our intended careers are so much different. I feel that some of that difference comes from the perception of our careers by the public, and I believe that this documentary calls attention to that. I found the comparison of attitudes towards the teaching profession in the United States and in other countries interesting, and I would like to learn more about it. If our country were to follow the education profession models used by other countries, would our education system improve? 

                Overall, I feel that the documentary “American Teacher” brought up interesting points about challenges faced by teachers today, and presented a strong commentary about the perceptions of teachers in our country. I hope that this documentary will bring educational issues further into the public eye, and help our country to develop the best educational system possible for our teachers, and, ultimately, for our students.

IRIS Module

Prior to reading:              

               

                I think that Rosa Parks Elementary school is using Special Education services to help struggling readers after they have fallen behind their peers to the point where Special Education services are needed. They have a team formed to help support struggling learners, but the services seem to be coming too late for many of the students.

                School personnel are dissatisfied with this process because they note that many students as early as first grade struggle with reading, but do not receive the support they need to encourage their reading skills. This leads students who struggle early on in school to continue struggling throughout their school careers, and eventually qualify for special education services if they fall far enough behind. The school personnel are also frustrated because students who actually do need special education services are often not identified until third or fourth grade, by which time they have already fallen far behind their peers.

                The RTI approach could be used by a school to help struggling readers as well as to help identify students who truly need special education services. By using a tiered approach, RTI allows children who need extra support in an area, such as reading, receive it, without being placed into special education if they do not need it. If the tier 1 interventions are unsuccessful in helping a student in reading, then more intensive strategies can be applied in tiers two and three before the student is qualified to be placed into special education.

                When choosing an approach to adopt, a school could consider what areas the students struggle most in, and work to support the teaching of those areas for all students. The school could also consider the possible effects of identifying children’s needs earlier on their success in different subject areas. After considering the instructional areas, the school could then consider the personnel needed to transition to a new approach, and develop a method for putting the new approach into effect.

                To help struggling readers, the S – Team could propose universal interventions for all classrooms to support reading instruction from the start. From there, more specific interventions could be designed for continuing difficulties in reading. The team could also collaborate on developing intervention strategies that would be appropriate for different age and culture groups.

Post-Reading:

                One major disadvantage of the IQ discrepancy model is that it recommends special education only if a great enough discrepancy between IQ scores and reading scores is present. This prevents struggling students who need special education from receiving it if there is not a great enough discrepancy between their IQ and reading scores. Though the discrepancy may not be as great as that of other students, they may still benefit from special education services. The discrepancy model also places some students in special education who many not need those services; though there is a discrepancy in their IQ and reading scores, they may benefit from less-intensive intervention that would not require special education services.

                While there are many benefits of implementing the RTI model, there could also be difficulties that could come along with that implementation. Putting an RTI model into effect would require more training for staff members to increase familiarity with the research-based instructional methods and assessment procedures critical to the model. This could not only present challenges due to the amount of time it would require, but would also require changes in familiar teaching practices that some teachers may be hesitant to adopt. Establishing the model uniformly throughout the school could also prove to be challenging, especially at the beginning of the implementation as transitions took place. Though there are challenges, I feel that implementing an RTI model could be a positive choice to help all students.