Cook,+Tori+Inclusion+Social+Studies



**My name is Victoria Cook and I am from Southern California. I tend to think of myself as a boring person. I would say something interesting is that my favorite eon to read about and learn about is the Pleistocene eon. I’m fascinated by the ice age from the megafauna that roamed the globe to the time period of humans arriving in North America. Where I grew up there was a huge ice age mammal fossil discovery in San Bernardino that totally hooked me into learning about the ice age. Also in LA the La Brea tar pits are a big thing and I probably would visit them once a year. A cool exhibit there was the story about the murder of an early human woman in her 30’s. She was hit in the back of the head and her body was thrown in the tar pits. Fascinating as the tar pits perfectly preserved her so obviously they didn’t have CSI back then. **

**I find joy in reading or trying out something new. I try to get in reading time as much as possible. For trying something new it doesn’t have to be something entirely new, it can be a recipe or a new route. I just like to try to absorb as much stuff as possible. **

**My greatest fear about being teacher is chocking up and not saying anything in class or going so fast that my students are unable to understand what I’m attempting to teach them. I can talk pretty fast and that tends to cause people to have to ask me to repeat. I would say my fast speech is a remnant from when I had a lisp. I would talk fast to try to hide the lisp and in the process just completely changed my processing when it comes to speech. I was lucky enough in high school that a teacher recognized what I was doing and set me up with a speech therapist. In about 5 months the lisp was almost completely gone; however the fast talking was not. **

**Math has always been the most difficult subject to learn. I always felt stupid in class when I would get back tests or homework with a bad grade and my classmates were getting higher grades. It was especially bad in high school when I began taking Algebra and Pre-Calculus. I felt that my brain was just not right and would freak out over proposed IQ tests. For me I’ve had to learn to focus on what I excel at. Still I always hyperventilate when I see math problems on a test or take a test, like the CBEST, in which math is part of it. I think my past issues with math would help me understand the fears that many students have when they enter a class. I think the best method to helping students is making sure they are not fearful when entering a class and feel that some part of the class is accessible to them. **

**In Inclusion I hope to gain a better understanding about the learning differences and disabilities out there. It is easier to look at a student who may have a visual disability and work to tailor the class to be more accessible for them. With a student that may have ADD or a form of Autism it is much harder to understand what they need to be able to participate in their learning. I want to understand what I need to do to make my classroom as open and inclusive as possible. **

**Inclusion In Social Studies:**

**Introduction:**
My wiki topic is inclusion in social studies. Social Studies has critical importance in developing students critical thinking and analytical thinking skills. It also plays an important role in helping our students find their place in the world and understanding how the world works. Inclusion in social studies is important for all parties as it can help create a classroom dynamic in which multiple educational learning strategies are implemented. Those that are struggling and don't have IEP's can find new ways to learn and students with IEP's can be part of a classroom environment in which discussion and the ability to question is taught. I chose this topic as social studies is what I will be teaching and I often times worry that I may get lost when teaching my students. I want to make sure I'm able to provide a differentiated classroom environment in which inclusion is a product based off of already preset classroom practices. I hope that this wiki can be applied to all subject matters as many of the resources I found can be used across the entire spectrum from art to physical education.

**Top 5 Things I learned:**
  1) I should always be cognizant of different differentiated learning strategy's I could use when creating my lesson plan.    2) Content-Enhancements can be vital to all students and are a great way to organize the lesson plan.  3) Literacy plays a big role in all aspects of creating a inclusive classroom. Many of the strategies and skills revolved around literacy.    4) There are a wealth of learning strategies that I can teach my students; if one isn't working for everyone then I have a lot of resources to find one that will.  5) Many textbook websites have adaptations that can be used for my students.   

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">**Resources:**
My **top resource** is the powerpoint below. This is an wonderful breakdown on different content-enhancement strategies. //The Inclusive Classroom// states, "Content enhancements incorporate effective instructional design and make use of graphic organizers, including study guides, charts, diagrams, outlines, visual-spatial displays, mnemonics, and imagery, to promote learning and comprehension"(pg. 362).It provides examples for both science and social studies. However, after going through the powerpoint I think it could be applicable to all subjects. Lastly it provides a wonderful tie-in to RTI and literacy goals. I was unable to link directly to the powerpoint online so I have saved it and embedded it below. This powerpoint is original from the link <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #009933; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">www.scred.k12.mn.us/School/.../rti%20sim%20presentation.ppt. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800080; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px;">I would give this powerpoint a 5/5 based on examples, clear breakdown on what is being shown and excellent graphs on the results from each content enhancement strategy explained.

This link is to a website article by TeacherVision.com about differentiated textbook instruction. It provides a great breakdown on how to separate your class and create study guides for them to review. I'd give this resource a 3/5 as it is short and doesn't provide any examples, but it does give a simple overview on goals when doing differentiated textbook instruction.
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1) [|Differentiated Textbook Instruction] **

**2)** **[|Semantic Feature Analysis]** This link is to a classroom strategy overview called Semantic Feature Analysis. This is a strategy in which you create a relationship chart to go over major ideas and the content related to them. The site provides a brief overview of what this strategy is, provides examples for the subject you are teaching, includes some ideas when making it part of a differentiated instruction and even provides possible books to use when teaching. Based on that I'd give the site a 5/5.

media type="youtube" key="rUz_wGMcluQ" height="315" width="420" align="center"
 * 3) MultiPass Video: **

This is a video explaining the MultiPass concept. MultiPass should be primarily used with secondary school subjects and is geared towards students who are at a 2 year deficit reading level. MultiPass is a great way to help students read and not lose the concept being explained. This video provides a nice breakdown on how to do MultiPass and also provides an overview on who benefits from it most. Only negative to it is there is no voice or sound. I'd give it a 4/5.

**4) [|IF IT FITS]** This is a link to a webpage about the learning strategy IF IT FITS by the James Madison University. I'll let you click on the website to see what each letter in the acronym stands for. The general overview is that this is primarily related to helping students learn vocabulary and the concept attached to it. The strategy does take some time to do but after learning it it can become a valuable assest when reviewing with your students important vocabulary terms. I'd give the website a 5/5 as it is very clear and uses an example.

**5) [|Peer Tutoring]** This is a link to a webpage about peer tutoring. This was one of the best webpages about peer tutoring I found as it provides a clear and nice breakdown on how to create a peer tutoring classroom environment. Peer tutoring is a good assest for teachers to help students learn different concepts and engage with their peers. Study's have shown that student to student intervention have a high success rate and helps improve both students performance. This webpage is also great because it provides a link to a webpage about implementation and also provides a troubleshooting section. Based on my review this resource is a 5/5.

**6) [|Identify Text Structures]** This is a PDF link to a Austin school district resource document about how to teach text structures. It is important that when we have students reading both fiction and non fiction that they understand the set up of the text they are reading and the different structures being used. This can be applied to all subjects. The resource provides good example activities and has a nice breakdown that could be printed off and handed out to all students. I'd give it a 4/5 as the main end example is geared more towards elementary rather than secondary.


 * 7) [|Content-Area Textbook Study Skills] ** This is a link to a webpage about how to help students develop develop skills when using content-area textbooks. It provides five possible strategies to use when using the textbook in class. The website is short but does provide good possible strategies to use in your class. It also does not provide any examples. Due to this I'd give it a 3/5.

** 8) Highlighting Strategies ** media type="custom" key="13270942" align="center"

This is a slide share presentation about the benefits of highlighting and different ways to train your students highlighting. The presentation is clear and provides a lot of evidence as to why highlighting is a valuable resource. It also provides a few examples. One of the best parts of the slideshow is when it breaks down how it helps different learners. What is clear is that highlighting skills are important for every subject and helps students learn a valuable skill to use in the future. I'd give this a 5/5.


 * Community Based Learning Project **

For my community based learning project I chose to find out about The Arc of Jackson County. The Arc of Jackson County is a non-profit organization that provides vital services to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. The initials ARC stand for Association of Retarded Citizens. Today The Arc of Jackson County is one branch of 700 national branches of The Arc. I met with Trish Welch from The Arc at The Arc Thrift Store in Medford to learn more about The Arc and it’s interaction with the community. We discussed The Arc’s history, the current services it provides, the role of inclusion in schools, the current challenges for people with disabilities and what the next battle will be to guarantee fairness for people with disabilities.


 * A Short History of The Arc:**

The Arc has been around in some form since the late 1950’s. At that time it was only a locally managed community organization created to fill in a void filled by the inability of the federal and local governments to provide necessary and non-detrimental services. One of their first vital services they provided was opening a school for children with mental disabilities titled School of Hope Mentally Retarded Children in 1959. By 1980 the organization had opened several important community resources from workshops to preschools for adults and children’s with disabilities. In 1980 they incorporated with and became part of The Arc national organization. While the Jackson County branch is part of a national organization the running and programs offered are strictly local based and are not controlled by the national organization. As of 2011 The Arc of Jackson County has several programs in place to provide needed assistance and service to the disabled community.


 * Current Services:**

- **Lifespan respite:** This service offers temporary relief for family caregivers from caring for a loved one with disabilities. Those that care for those with disabilities often experience stress and a greater chance of falling sick or developing chronic issues. By offering caregivers a break The Arc is providing a needed service to insure family caregivers can continue to be there for their loved one. In the interview I found out that normally the caregiver could drop their family member off at The Arc community center in which the member can interact with other individuals with disabilities. The caregiver meanwhile will go out and run needed errands or take a little bit of much needed private time.

- **Ken Wonderly Memorial Fund:** Ken Wonderly was a supporter of The Arc who died in 1991. A memorial fund was set up in his honor to provide emergency relief to those that are in dire need of money. Trish provided one example of when this was used last year. A family that was barely hanging on was finally able to buy a run down trailer. Their son has autism and will sometimes just open up the door and run outside. Their trailer was directly in front of a busy street that could be highly dangerous. The memorial fund was able to help them build a fence and a porch to better protect their son. While a fence may not seem like a lot to some for this family it was everything.

- **Families For Community:** This program helps individuals with disabilities and families interact with each other and those without disabilities. They arrange mentoring opportunities, support groups and activates. By helping to form these vital connections the community can have more power and voice to assure rights are afforded to those with disabilities.

- **School to Community Transition Project:** This is one of The Arc’s newest programs that were created in 2010. The Arc works with Southern Oregon Educational School District (SOESD) transition program for students with developmental disabilities. They target 10 “at-risk” students and provide activities and support during the summer to help them stay engaged in the community.

- **Transition House:** This five bedroom house that at any time is home to up to 4 people with developmental disabilities that have a paid assistant. It provides them the opportunity to be semi-independent and allows them to learn the life skills needed to become fully independent.

- **General Community Interaction:** The Arc in general has an important interaction with the community. They provide social interaction opportunities between individuals with developmental disabilities both young and old. They also provide counseling services to those who need information about their rights and resources available. For example, if a parent was confused about the IEP process The Arc has a list of advocates and organizations that could be of use to the parent.


 * Inclusion in Schools:**

Trish Welch and I discussed the history of students with developmental disabilities in Jackson County and the struggle they have gone through to have their rights asserted. Inclusion is still a new idea that many parents are divided over. What all parents can agree on though is that their child deserves some form of education whether it is a slightly differentiated format to mainly basic skills focus. Inclusion in the schools in our region only happened within the past 30 years and there have been minor setbacks. There is also still a debate over whether full inclusion should be a goal. During our discussion it was clear that some form of inclusion could be a learning experience for all parties. However, full inclusion does raise the issue of fairness. Fairness does not mean equal but does mean that everyone is getting what he or she needs to succeed. Full inclusion with certain students versus a continuum of services could damage that goal. What is clear though is that it is at the parent’s discretion about how they want their child to be placed in school. Some parents don’t like any inclusion while others are very full inclusion orientated. There was a theme through the interview though about the struggle many parents face over insuring their child’s needs are met and that it is an ever-continuing battle.

One major challenge with today’s inclusion in the valley was the controversy over South Medford High School’s special needs program. When the new South Medford High was built they moved all students into it except the special needs students and students with behavioral issues. They titled the old school Central Medford High School. The reason’s they gave for this separation was that they had not built space to include a special needs department. This is a form of segregation that has parents of special needs students on both sides. Some parents don’t want their child to be in an inclusion setting and instead feel more comfortable with the separation. Other parents see this as segregation and violation of their child’s right. This debate is still occurring with no resolution being formed yet. More recently the state has become involved and two bills are waiting for a vote that would require by law a special needs environment to be included in the creation of new schools. An article to find out more about the upcoming legislation and reaction from the district and parents can be found in the link below:

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 * Current Challenges:**

When I asked about the challenges that the disabled community currently faces there were many that sprung up. They ranged from further community integration to issues brought upon due to the bad economy. One challenge that really made me stop and find out more was the constant threat of funding being cut for family services from the state. Many families that have a child with a disability are barely surviving and family services funding helps to pay for necessities like diapers for some, breathing equipment, specific food, etc. It is hard to keep a full time job or even a part time job when you have a loved one with a developmental disability. Often times we hear about budget cuts and only focus on cuts to schools but cuts to family services could have extreme negative consequences for the children we may soon have in our classrooms. As of this year the funding is again under threat to be completely cut.


 * Future Challenges:**

During our interview I asked a question about where the future challenges may lie. The answer took about 30 minutes because it was such a huge question. While there are going to continue to be monetary challenges for the future and the continuation of inclusion in the grade school levels there is a growing debate about where children with developmental disabilities belong in higher education, should they even be in higher education. For many the transition period between being in a type of school setting or at least education to being in a society in which IEP’s are not part of your life is difficult. Trish brought up the example of Eliza Schaff and the SOU controversy. To summarize Eliza is a young adult with Down syndrome that was in an SOU pottery class as a non-admitted student, non-admitted means that you can attend the class but would not receive a grade. About 6 weeks after being in the class they were told from SOU that they were no longer going to allow Eliza to attend class. To find out more about this issue and get more of a general understanding about it please go to the link below. In it you will see reference to Eliza being in an inclusion setting at Ashland High School with no issues occurring. The debate over individuals with disabilities in a higher education setting is one that is growing and as a teacher we need to be aware of what possible discriminations or set backs our students may face. Ensuring there is a good transition plan along with valuable community resources can lessen the hardship many families and individuals with developmental disabilities face as they attempt to find a role for themselves in society.

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 * Reflection:**

I was amazed how many organizations there are for those with disabilities and their family. The Arc of Jackson County was just one of many whose focus was towards partnerships and relief of families. After interviewing Trish Welch and seeing the different facilities it was truly inspiring and eye opening to see how hard parents have had to fight and still fight for the rights of their child. Often times though we neglect to see the strains the parent or caregiver are encountering due to the nature and stress of taking care of their loved one. It really opened up my eyes to making sure to not only get to know my student but to also get to know the parent and the community itself.

When I first thought about teaching I knew I wanted to make a difference. However, inclusion and special needs children never were in my periphery due to the nature of how I was taught to interact with children with developmental disabilities. When I was in school, those with disabilities were completely segregated from the rest of us. After touring The Arc and learning about the different stories of families who are struggling to get by I feel like I missed a valuable lesson in my journey. I truly want to be an inclusive teacher and can only hope that whatever school district I may land in they are also working towards inclusion.


 * Additional Resources:**

Listed below are links to different parts of The Arc website and articles I discovered during my interview with Trish.

The Arc Website:

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Transition House Overview:

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Lifespan Respite:

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School to Community Transition Project:

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OUS Article On Serving Students With Intellectual Disabilities in a Post-Secondary Setting:

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