Wednesday Morning Reflection
(1) Think back on your experiences as a student, at any level. Discuss the goals, materials, methods, and assessment of an experience. Do you feel it was a “universally designed curriculum”?
Looking back into my early childhood years, there are countless stories I could share in regards to how I was taught. Let me give you a brief background of my educational upbringing–I grew up attending a public school where they had a self-contained deaf program. I was placed in the self-contained deaf program for two years, and the next two years was spent 50% in the self-contained classroom and 50% in a hearing, mainstreamed classroom. After that, I spent the rest of my educational upbringing full time in a hearing classroom with three other deaf students and sign language interpreters. Why do I need to mention this? Because it relates to how I was taught with a non-signing hearing teacher and a sign language interpreter.
I recalled having to take a weekly spelling test in my 4th grade class. This test was performed verbally–the teacher would verbally say the words and we, the students, had to write them down. Once completed, the teacher would collect the tests and grade them afterwards. Well, this was usually not a problem as long as we had interpreters presented. Unfortunately, the regular interpreter was out sick one week and the school could not find a sub, thus leaving the four of us deaf students with no interpreter for the day (this was before the ADA law became in effect). Of course, we were the first deaf students ever to be enrolled in this teacher’s class and she had no idea what to do with us. So, how did we take the exam? She looked at us, and identified who could understand her the most (we were all deaf and oral as well) to interpret for the rest of us during the spelling exam. So, my 10 year old fellow classmate actually interpreted for us. Great idea, isn’t it? If that actually existed in today’s society, legal actions would have been taken. Needless to say, this was not the brightest and most effective approach for my teacher to take.
While it was clear that she wanted us to hear the words and write them down, she didn’t realize that it was much harder for us to effectively complete the exam because not only we were just deaf, but one of my deaf classmates had to struggle to lipread her and assume what the words were said. At the time, I also believed we weren’t the only ones struggling. I recalled having a few immigrant students from Asia and Central America who’s first language wasn’t English either. It was clear that the teacher’s instruction was specifically designed for hearing English learners and did not consider factoring how deaf and immigrant students could participate without being singled out or having us accommodate her needs. However, I don’t think the teacher was aware that her teaching style was inaccessible for some of her students. However, one would have thought she would have developed different strategies of delivering instructions in her class and didn’t always have to be done verbally.
Nowadays, as mentioned in one of my blog entries earlier, more diverse students are entering schools that forces teachers to develop different venues of making their learning environment accessible. This meant not just for deaf people, but for hearing students as well. Looking at these younger generations here in America, I consider them very lucky to have the accessibilities that was once unavailable before. Access to learning should never be made difficult for students to retrieve.
on June 26, 2008 at 5:32 am
You write that “Access to learning should never be made difficult for students to retrieve” and I agree, wholeheartedly. Do you think, however, that your 4th grade teacher would understand now what she did not understand then? What experiences do you think might have (or might eventually) change her mindset and practice?
on June 27, 2008 at 10:26 am
It’s difficult to say whether my 4th grade teacher would be willing to understand the UDL concept, considering she was a much older teacher who has worked in the teaching field for many years. My impression of her was that she pretty much taught everything the same way and pretty much was set in her own ways. Though, I could be wrong but I think if she was still teaching today, she may not have a choice but to be forced to change her way of teaching because with more diverse learners entering the school system than before, she must realize at some point that she cannot expect her immigrant students to pick up things quickly as her native English speaking students, students with learning disabilities may pace slower than their peers, and the like.
on July 1, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Nicely put. I asked Joe the question earlier, did he think that special education was going to be necessary in the way it is deliver, if all of us finally got to the point and deliver the UDL model as it should be? I personally, do not feel that it would actually be deliver in the same model, because all of the accessibility will be handle in the classroom, which now makes me think about the teacher preparation programs. It has always stumped me as a student and professional, how they train general and special education teachers, so differently, when in fact we should be trained the same, whether if the student was bright, academically challenged, or physically handicapped, but they don’t. Which, I feel creates a social divide amongst educators, so I agree with you when you speak about it will take all of us. The gap has to be narrowed with us first to carry out such a concept, but I to believe that with the way the world is today, and how progressive we are in some respects, we will make change by 2013, but we will have to continue to make changes. Thanks for sharing, SMILE!!!!!
on August 6, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Thank you for sharing your story. I agree, as we advance in society, people immigrating to the country have an enormously increased availability of assistance. It is something taken for granted, though, perhaps in many areas, and it’s nice you made a note of it. Thank you!