Blog 5: EBD Considerations

This creative blog post focuses on the chapter 6 content, emotional behavioral disorders (EBD), and my visit to the Vista School.  To help students with EBD, the teacher needs to continuously collect direct data (observations of student) and indirect data (interviews with parents and other teachers).    An FBA may also be part of the data collection.  The collected data will help the teacher to determine if certain skills need to be taught to the student, develop a BIP, and plan reinforcement strategies.  It is important to immediately recognize when the student performs a desired skill and to provide the student with specific praise soon afterwards.  Most importantly, this chapter on EBD made me realize that a teacher needs to teach both academic content and behavioral skills to all students.  Teachers who teach students both academic and behavioral skills provide students with a meaningful education and skills need to become contributory and productive citizens. 

When I visited the Vista School, I observed a high school class.  Some of the students in the class had an EBD.  The teacher and teacher aides were providing the students with specific verbal praise when they performed a task.  For example, the teacher explained to me that one student struggles to follow directions from authority figures. The teacher did not specifically say, so I am guessing that the student has oppositional defiant disorder.  The student has two aides; one aide provides the student with specific directions and the other aide records data of the student’s performance.  This student was given written directions to perform specific tasks, such as to put the glue in the correct place.  When the student completed the tasks, the student was allowed free time on an iPad.  This observation showed me the need to record data, tailor instruction to meet the needs of each student, and provide students with specific feedback.  All of these important components help teachers to instruct students who have an EBD in a meaningful and appropriate way.  (I decided not to write about my placement because based on my observations and conversations with my cooperating teacher, no students appear to have an EBD.)



Blog 4: Considerations for Effectively Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities

            The Fat City video and Chapter 5 in our textbook address the topic of learning disabilities and how to effectively tailor instruction for students who have learning disabilities.  After viewing the video and reading the chapter, I have gained a better understanding of the struggles that students with learning disabilities face and how to create a positive learning experience for such students.  I intend to establish a welcoming and flexible classroom environment which incorporates many strategies from the FAT City video and the textbook to help students with learning disabilities achieve the learning goals.

             In order to create a learning climate which welcomes and accepts all types of learning styles, I plan to reduce the levels of frustration, anxiety, and tension in the classroom.  The FAT City video explains that teachers who fail to establish a classroom environment in which all students feel at ease and relaxed deprive the students from experiencing an advantageous schooling experience.  To help all students enjoy school and have a thirst for learning, teachers need to provide students with ample time to respond to questions and to complete assignments.  Additionally, teachers should ask students questions which they are able to answer and recognize correct responses.  This question asking and reinforcement technique will help the students become confident learners by raising their hands and taking risks in the classroom. 

            Additionally, the video and the text recommend that teachers incorporate UDL principles and direct instruction style into their lessons.  Crafting lessons which present the same material in multiple means, provide students with choices to demonstrate their learning, and engage them helps all students, with and without learning disabilities, master the learning goals.  Receiving the same information through videos, PowerPoints, demonstrations, and the like helps students process and comprehend the material.  Moreover, teachers should break the lesson into small steps to effectively help students with learning disabilities master the material.  This is known as direct/explicit instruction.  Students with learning disabilities benefit from explicit instruction because they are not overwhelmed with foreign material.  Instead, the material is presented to them in small steps and the teacher does not proceed to the next step until all students demonstrate an understanding of the previous step. 

            In my placement, which is a first grade Tier II reading support class, the teacher includes the mentioned strategies in her instruction.  The most important strategy that my cooperating teacher practices is modeling.  The teacher verbally models thinking processes to students.  For instance, to teach students how to think of the author’s purpose for writing a story, it is beneficial to verbally model to the class.  Talk to the students during a picture walk of the story.  Say, “On this page, I see a cat and a rat talking.  I think the author wrote this story to explain why a cat and a rat are friends.”  This explicit style of instruction shows students the steps involved in examining and evaluating a story to come up with an idea for understanding the author’s purpose. 

            Overall, the FAT City video, chapter 5 from our textbook, and observations from my placement all provide me with excellent ways to tailor instruction for students with learning disabilities.  I believe teachers need to establish a classroom in which all students feel comfortable and believe that they are part of a learning community.  Most importantly, teachers need to be fair.  The FAT City video defined the concept of fairness as providing students with what they need to succeed.  Fairness does not mean giving everyone the same thing because everyone learns differently.  As a future teacher, I will most definitely apply this concept of fairness in my practice.