Part 3 of “Education for All”
Education for All was written by a collection of administrators and professors lightly seasoned with a teacher. It is a collection of good ideas for clarifying the strengths and needs of students and working out ways to teach them well. Making the best use of it will require taking time to read it carefully and make note of the most useful ideas. Some teachers may find the ideas too time consuming. Not every idea is practical in every classroom, especially if there is only one teacher, but in principle, the ideas are promising. Here is a brief guide.
As I noted in a previous post, the writers failed to make their point about Universal Design but they did a nice job of demonstrating differentiation in the second chapter. They go on to make lots of useful suggestions for basic approaches to teaching. Unfortunately, as you will find throughout the book, the suggestions are general; to get something specific and especially concrete that can go from book to classroom, you will have to turn to other books. Some are mentioned in the bibliography, but they are not distinguished from the purely academic. This may seem a trivial point but for a teacher hoarding every minute, the time involved in sieving a bibliography for nuggets of usefulness can be too much.
The writers do refer to a great teaching method, but one I wouldn’t normally recommend for K to 6 students. The Expert Panel calls it Problem Based Approach (p. 17). They haven’t quite grasped the concept of Ill-Structured-Problem-Based Solving they are actually trying to describe. It is effective but needs careful design, firmness and support in order to work. There is a reason it started with Harvard and the innovative McMaster medical school and not in someone’s grade 4 class.
The chapter on Assessment and Evaluation of students with Special Education Needs is useful for both the new teacher who is unfamiliar with the steps required in getting help outside the classroom for students and any teacher who has been confused by the red tape involved. I have tried to create some charts to help teachers track steps and required information, but referring to this section would also prove useful. For the charts, please see the post EDUCATION FOR ALL: Stuff to Help Teachers in the next post.
Developing Learning Profiles: Know your Students
There are lots more charts in the next chapter to help teachers develop learning profiles of their students and the classroom. I have adapted them somewhat to make them easier to download and use. In the next post I will explain and offer the charts. The one thing the ministry does not provide but strongly suggests is questionnaires for parents and children. These are things teachers have not been trained to create. I am working on some and will make them available but I strongly suggest teachers sit down with their own divisions and create their own. My designs might be useful as a starting or discussion point. The parent questionnaires might stay the same for all grades but student questionnaires will need modification for most grades. Students may need some explanations about the questionnaires; doing it as part of a unit on data gathering as an authentic activity to demonstrate real life applications might be an effective way of killing two birds with one stone..
And Then We Get to the Part about Teaching in the Inclusive Classroom
Education for All spends three chapters outlining potential challenges for students in acquiring literacy and numeracy skills and ways of anticipating those difficulties. This is probably the most useful part of the book. A chart identifies these challenges and strategies for meeting the challenges. The suggestions are excellent but abstract; busy teachers need concrete suggestions that can be applied immediately. On the other hand, it is a good starting point for thinking about meeting these challenges.
Teachers would undoubtedly have been grateful for a list of books which had concrete methods, blackline masters and even lesson plans relevant to specific grades and subjects which met Education for All’s criteria. For example, I have found the following three books invaluable: When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6-12 by Kylene Beers; I Read It, But I Don’t Get It by Cris Tovani and Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom by Susan Winebrenner. In today’s inclusive classroom, I would add Teaching Kids with Learning Difficulties in the Regular Classroom, also by Susan Winebrenner. I don’t know what books I would add for numeracy, but the teachers guides to many recent textbooks do offer excellent suggestions for accommodations. These books, however, are favourites of this intermediate elementary teacher. Primary teachers would have others.
Accommodations and Modifications: What’s the Difference?
A good explanation of the differences between accommodations and modifications and a detailed chart of many accommodations a teacher might make is provided in Chapter Nine. A teacher might find it worthwhile to photocopy the chart and put it with the materials used to create lesson plans; it is a good general source of ideas. A word of caution to teachers: if you are accommodating four students and modifying lessons for three more in addition to being a good (not a walk on water) teacher you may find yourself putting in extra hours every day.
You Say Syllabus, I Say Curriculum; Either Way There is a Lot of Work to Do!
For each subject, Ontario’s Ministry of Education sets out in broad strokes an outline of expected knowledge and skills outcomes. They do not provide a detailed syllabus (or curriculum, depending on which side of the Atlantic you reside) with texts to use in order to reach those goals. As a result, teachers end up reinventing the wheel. In the primary and junior grades there are usually math texts with good to excellent teacher guides that the inexperienced teacher can follow.
The ministry is also creating Targeted Implementation and Planning Supports for Revised Mathematics (TIPS) that is available to grades 7 to 10 teacher at the moment. It is worth taking the time to figure out. The grade 7 and 8 teachers whose contracts are negotiated by the Elementary Teachers Federation will have to look under the Secondary section of the Education web site. Nothing similar has been done for the elementary grades.
Aside from math, textbooks are rare in the primary and junior grades. English textbooks don’t exist in grade 7 or 8. It used to be that curriculum consultants created a model curriculum that reflected the goals of the ministry. I still treasure my history binder from the board that I have interleaved with my notes, overheads and photocopied pictures. However, budget cuts have put an end to curriculum consultants who have the time to do more than workshops on changes to the curriculum.
That being the case, the Ontario teacher is now expected to create the course that will result in the proposed outcomes, and the accommodations and modifications. At the same time she is dealing with more duties and has less help because there are fewer specialists such as teacher librarians. Teachers in schools where there is another teacher with the same grade would be smart to team up with each other. With careful co-operation, teachers may reduce their workload to half the planning, half the returning items to the literacy and numeracy resource room, half the time spent photocopying and a better chance of getting home in time for a game of Ultimate Frisbee or to chill with a good book.
Who Does the Work?
The principal is listed under people who will share responsibility with the teacher for inclusive education. While a teacher may hope for the ideal principal on page 113, the reality is more likely to be a politician who has to watch her back; with tact and diplomacy teachers may get the facilitation needed to implement inclusive education. Principals who come close to that supportive, collegial ideal should be cherished. Teachers such as the Special Education teachers (the name changes regularly) who provide support in the classroom are not likely to be there for times other than language skills or math. Classroom teachers might consider switching subjects (such as history, geography and science) which make use of literacy or numeracy skills occasionally with language arts or math time slots. It would be an effective way to support these skills across the curriculum.
Notice that the principal shares responsibility and the special education teacher will provide support but the burden of work and responsibility rests on the shoulders of the classroom teacher.
Computer Assisted Technology
The document addresses computer assisted technology. While it has useful things to say about it, the most important things are not said. First, a child will frequently have to wait until the next school year to receive any technology he or she needs. In the meantime it will be the parents and teacher who will be improvising and trying to keep the child’s spirits up.
Secondly, all technology requires a learning period; initially the student will learn quickly but then start to slow. Although this is normal, it is discouraging; a student will get frustrated and want to quit. The teacher should check to make sure everything is working properly and then work with the parents to encourage the student to keep going. The assistive technology won’t prove really useful until it becomes a tool to do something else, not an end in itself. If you have read Outliers, you will know that mastery of any skill takes many hours of conscious practice. Parents and teachers will have to resist pressure from the student to let them give up the new aid. Things Take Time.
Tools for Implementing Inclusive Classrooms
It is fashionable in the educational world to talk about Professional Learning Communities and this document is not any different. When I picked myself off the floor where I was rolling around laughing at the concept of having the time for a professional learning community, I indulged myself with the fantasy. I think that the only thing better for a teacher than a professional learning community is personal time. One of the difficulties (besides time) is that a professional community involving a principal who will eventually assess a teacher might inhibit frank discussions. That being said, teachers who do have the time and opportunity for a real PLC should go for it.
The writers take five pages to suggest that Professional Development is a Good Thing. All levels of education, including universities, should be involved and teachers should have plenty of opportunity to learn the skills needed for the inclusive classroom. Unfortunately, they didn’t mention where the money is coming from.
Finally, the writers make 12 recommendations that should be read and considered by those who have the power to make them happen. Parents should read them and trustees should read them and administrators should read them. If inclusive education has any hope of working, these recommendations, practical professional development and, yes, professional learning communities need to happen. Successful change does not happen by saying, “make it so”.
For More Information:
Education for All: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students With Special Education Needs, Kindergarten to Grade 6, 2005
NEXT POST: Giftedness & Education for All August 21
FINAL POST: Help for Teachers: Charts taken from, modified and created from Education for All August 26
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Concerning Comments From Readers
My policy is to post all comments from readers provided that they are not abusive, illegal or fattening. I do have one other constraint: I am not comfortable in posting comments which refer to specific teachers, children, parents or schools by name or in a way that makes it easy for the general public to identify any of them.
You may have noticed that my criticism about education has largely been about ineffective systems which either cheat our children of reasonable educational attainment or load their teachers with demands that make them less effective in teaching our children. I do try to temper my annoyance with leaders in education who buy into these systems because they are more interested in their careers than the education of children.
After twenty years in the system I still believe that almost all teachers have the interests of their students at heart and do their best to act in those interests. I might disagree with their means but I rarely quarrel with their sincerity. Some teachers are so tired either because they are overwhelmed by their teaching situation or an extra-curricular problem or illness, that they must reduce their efforts in the classroom if they are to survive. Few teachers last long in the classroom if they suffer from any serious health problem.
It is tempting sometimes to pillory a teacher who has got up your nose in some way, especially if your child is involved. Before you throw the first stone, however, ask yourself what stories might be put about if 30 pairs of young eyes watched you at work for six hours a day, every day. Then imagine the mouths taking home stories about what they had seen and heard you do during the six hours. Ask yourself if you have ever seen a child slant a story to get out of trouble, to show herself in a good light, to illustrate her personal biases or just for the excitement of making it bigger than it is when she shares it with her friends.
Then pillory the teacher if you can.
Schools can be very small communities so naming a school can make it very easy to identify the people involved. Since critical comments often involve events which happen quickly in response to an incident, I am reluctant to embarrass people who are doing the best they can with what they know at the time. When it involves policy, the policy is often dictated by the board or agreed upon by the school council. It is never as simple as it sounds.
All this to say, I will not publish comments that name schools, children, their teachers or parents. School boards and their policies are fair game; they have consultants and lawyers and all sorts of people to help them get things right; when they don’t, it is usually not for lack of knowing what the best choice is: it is usually because the people who are ultimately accountable, the elected trustees, do not have the backbone to make that choice. Weak spines are contagious and will eventually infect all the administration in a board.
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