Inclusion Works: The Proof is in the Puzzle

As promised in my previous posts...another story of inclusion working...

Mark was a third grader with a variety of diagnoses from Oppositional Defiant Disorder to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with Learning Disabilities and Social Anxiety thrown in.  Adopted from an Eastern European country when he was 5 years old, Mark’s early development was impacted by a lack of nutrition, education and love.

Never the less, Mark was one of the most caring children I ever worked with.  Educated in the regular classroom with his non-disabled peers, Mark received 100% of his instruction in Mrs. Dundee’s third grade class.  As the special educator assigned to Mark and other children in his grade, I co-taught reading and math daily while my paraprofessional supported the children during the writing time block.

Mrs. Dundee was and still is one of the most talented teachers I have ever worked with and she ran a tight ship.  She believed in inclusion and the concept that all kids need to learn in their own way, regardless of whether or not they have diagnosed learning issues. 

Mark was a child who, as you can imagine, struggled in most areas of learning and socialization.  Because of effective differentiation, however, he was able to be successful without standing out too negatively in the classroom.  The kids accepted Mark’s differences and because of the teacher’s ability to encourage empathy, all differences were not only accepted but also celebrated.

My last post highlighted how inclusion doesn’t just benefit the ones with the learning needs, but all children.  In that example, I wrote about how combining kids with needs and typical peers in a co-taught class, all of the students benefitted and improved in their learning.  In this case, Mark’s story reminds us the lessons of inclusion teach all students, in a real-life manner, how everyone has strengths and that we can all learn from each other.

Mrs. Dundee often planned dynamic math lessons that were hands on and differentiated but Mark still needed extra instruction and he realized he couldn’t keep up.  This day, however, when the concepts of an ancient puzzle called, “Tangrams” was introduced, would be different.  Various Tangram puzzles were set up around the room and students were required to go from station to station and try to solve the puzzles.  Being a very visual task and knowing that Mark was a visual learner, we had hoped he would find success in the lesson. 

Boy did he ever.

As soon as Mark stepped up to his first puzzle he just “got it.”  For those of you who know what it is like to have a child who struggles get something so clearly and confidently, there is no feeling like it in the world!  Mark knew how to solve the puzzle and quickly he moved onto the next.  Before he knew it, he had solved every puzzle in the room before the other students had completed one.  Kids were yelling out, “Wow!  Look at Mark!”  and “Mark, help me, I’m stuck!”  The day brought new meaning to “flying on cloud nine” as I don’t think Mark’s feet hit the ground that day.  He was truly floating with confidence and joy at being so great at something.  The other kids got to observe and experience, first hand, that just because someone might struggle at some things, he may actually be better than everyone else at others. 

All the students learned incredible lessons that day.  Mark went home and told his mother it was the “best day of his life because he was the smartest one in the class.”  Ten years later as I tell this story again, we are still learning from Mark….

When Inclusion Works.....it’s Elementary, Even in Middle School!

When I first started teaching, I worked as a special educator in an inner city middle school in the United States.  As the Individuals of Education with Disabilities Act (IDEA 1997) was just being passed, our school was a hybrid of an inclusive philosophy.  If students could manage in their regular classrooms with very limited support, accommodations or modifications, they could be there.  If not, they would be scheduled into a “resource room” class in a content area (Language Arts, Math, Science or Social Studies).  Those with serious emotional needs were confined to a class in the basement and the students requiring life skills had a small room off the library.  So, basically, as special educators we had to “fit” a child into one of those programs and rarely were we able to offer anything in between if the child didn’t quite fit appropriately.  Like jamming a round peg into a square hole, we had to use a hammer, metaphorically speaking, to get all the students to fit.

I was assigned to teach a 7^th grade resource room math class and being a first year teacher at the time, I had really only been trained in special needs, not curriculum content belonging to middle school math.  I had a class of 12 students, all with IEPs.   Not having any resources to draw from (no Google back in those days) all I could do was consult with one of the 7^th grade math teacher for ideas.  I assessed my students’ abilities in math and realized many of them, with regular practice, were pretty proficient in their math facts.  They weren’t quick at them, but I was pretty sure, being tagged as a “resource room math kid” for most of their school career, basic computation was about all that had been covered.  So I started each day with a basic practice concept but really felt that based on what the 7^th grade math teacher was doing in her classroom, I could introduce the kids to those topics.  If I could teach them in a way they could understand, I was pretty sure they could get it. 

And get it they did! 

By the end of the first quarter, my students, in addition to maintaining and enhancing their computational fluency, really started to comprehend the regular 7^th grade objectives!  Sure, they may have needed more hands on instruction, more manipulatives, more examples to draw from, but they were getting it!  I was so proud of them but I was also keenly aware I was providing them a mainstream education in a special needs, resource class….certainly this was not within the spirit of which this new law was being passed. 

I knew these students deserved a chance in the regular classroom.

I sat with my friend, Mrs. Jones, a 7^th grade math teacher, and told her my story.  I had identified at least 5 kids who could be and should be included immediately in her class.  After a discussion with the principal, multiple changes to children’s schedules and time consuming IEP meetings, we piloted this opportunity. 

The caveat was this:  I was to co-teach with Mrs. Jones every single day during this class period.  We were to plan together, teach together and reflect together for every student every day.   We worked in an inner city school where we certainly had under achievers in the regular classrooms and Mrs. Jones could see the benefit of both of us being there.  So we added five children to her class halfway through the second quarter. 

With her content knowledge coupled with my abilities to plan lessons that targeted various learning styles, we were a hit.  ALL students were learning and achieving.  For the rest of the year all of these students, who had been “fit” into a special needs class, looked no different than the rest of their classmates.  Sure, they struggled sometimes but with an effective differentiated approach and two teachers cohesively working together, the result…well, it was magic.

We knew it was working.  We could just feel it in the class dynamics, the excitement and positive energy in the kids…and in the data.  We conducted a survey of the class at the end of the year to determine if the children liked having the co-teaching approach to their learning.  All but two kids said they preferred having two teachers…the two that didn’t were part of the original mainstream class and they stated that now they couldn’t get away with passing notes between the two of them like they used to!

 

Back then we didn’t have standards based grading and still used the “old fashioned” letter based grades….but from the first quarter to the last quarter, every single child, without exception, improved their report card scores by one whole letter grade.

From the next year on, many teachers decided to follow suit and we continued to enhance and grow the co-teaching model which, in turn, improved the learning for all the children involved.

This was in 1997….Fourteen years ago…and yet still, I feel the need to share this story to try to convince people how powerful and beneficial inclusion practices, when done right, can be.   Did it work? Are you sold?

Do you have an inclusion “story from the field” to share?  If so email me and we just may post it on our blog as a “guest story!”

Generally Speaking...It Benefits ALL

As you may be able to see, my posts are progressing.  I rarely get the opportunity to take so much time to lay it all out there.  Never are there enough opportunities to share with people, in such a systematic way, what it is we believe in, why we believe in it, how it helps and what we can do to move forward in our mission in helping ALL kids achieve.  It is the gift of time, given to me by this blog, as to why I am happy to write each week.

If you have been following along, I hope by now you understand the philosophy behind our belief of inclusion.  Mind you, we didn’t just “buy into it” without knowing the facts, the benefits and weighing the pros and cons.  We live it everyday and we see it work, all the time.  We know it is the direction we should all be facing.  Mind you, we will always stand by our belief that inclusion is right for most kids, however, we also do agree, support and firmly maintain the notion that it may not be right for all.  Stay tuned for a post, in the not so distant future, about how to determine if the mainstream classroom may not be the best choice for a child.

It is also important to mention that just because we believe in the concept of inclusion, we believe it is necessary to appropriately determine if a child should be mainstreamed with their non-disabled peers for the entire day.  Some children may be best serviced through programs that required them to be away from their classmates and educated in other environments for certain parts of their day.  As long as we are always developing a program for a child and not fitting a child into a program, we are more likely to make the right decisions.

There are so many benefits for children in an appropriately supported, inclusionary classroom.  In my fifteen years of doing this worldwide, I have seen it work brilliantly.  I have also seen it crash and burn, and unfortunately I have to say, in many of the international schools I consult with, this is the case.  It is the lack of student success, extra work for the teachers and increasing demands from parents that cause them to decide not to give it the attention it deserves.  It is my contention, however, and the overarching belief of Live and Learn, that with the RIGHT supports in place, an appropriate inclusionary model will benefit all children, those with special needs, those without, and those in between.  I have concrete ideas on just how international schools can improve in this area, but that is another post for another day…

Generally, an effective inclusionary program will benefit all children in the following ways:

• Accommodations, modifications and strategies help all students.
• Inclusion encourages effective collaboration between professionals
• When 2 adults work collaboratively in a classroom (with a co-teacher or trained paraprofessional) questions are answered more quickly, projects are easily monitored and all students receive more individualized attention.
•  Students accept one another as contributing members of the school society because strengths of each child are recognized.
• Differences are more accepted by students resulting in more empathy towards those with disabilities or needs.
• Regular education teachers tend to view their students as individuals rather than a classroom of the same ability level.

I have dozens of “stories from the field” that will amaze you and hopefully convince you how important it is for all kids to have the opportunity to learn from students who are different from them.  I’m excited I actually have the forum, the time and the opportunity to share some of those stories and experiences with you here.  Stay tuned…