This is a distance learning course, concentrating on uses of the Internet for teaching, learning and professional development. It also is intended to give you enough web sites and leads-in to more web sites to be a continuously useful resource for your learning and doing.
This is a PASS/FAIL course. Therefore, SELECT and BASE YOUR WORK on those areas that best match your current interests. You can return any time to areas that match future concerns and changing interests--one of the many advantages of on-line learning
Assessment is based on work you produce in series of essays/listings for each Essential Question or topic you "connect with," and with an annotated list of sites supporting your views and reflecting your web work. Note the Rubric for Course Portfolio Assessment.
For instance, you might write “The site XXXX [http://www.xxx.com] gave me a different perspective on how to help students learn _____. It also cleared up for me something I was confused about, and that is what educators mean by __________.” Certainly you would want to elaborate more.
This work may be emailed to me at ozpk100@aol.com, or snail-mailed to me at Chad C. Osborne 13634 Leadwell St. Van Nuys, CA 91405. If you email the work, you may wish to put it in a Zip file, which compresses text and makes it easier to send over the 'Net.
Among the immense variety of ways in which individuals are different, we all have gifts and talents. This is a perspective helpful to take about "learning disabled," as well as the more traditionally defined gifted and talented students. This question addresses both the specific and broader meanings of gifts and talents.
We operate in an era of Standards and high-stakes testing for all students. Some states allow modifications of testing for students with disabilities. The SAT has recently begun offering adjustments in time limits for learning disabled students. Is it equitable and fair to test all students with the same tests, even though all do not have the same abilities? How should included students be assessed? What modifications are warranted for them? How should students be screened to qualify for special education services? How should they be periodically re-evaluated? How might assessment be used to improve leaning?
These are questions to guide you through the following links. They are questions many teachers continue to ask themselves today.
All students benefit from effective guidance and information about post-high school work and college options, even moreso special education students. IDEA, the federal legislation that regulates the rights of the disabled, requires that planning for life after high school begins at age 14. These links focus on transition services, how to help the child gain as much independence as possible, and how to move from being a student to being a member of the community. Only about 20% of high school students complete college; most high school guidance programs, in fact many feel that most of the high school curriculum, are oriented toward this minority of students. Ensuring that all students have access to high quality career-related learning programs and systems is critical to sustaining education in a democracy, and to unlocking student motivation through contact with competent, caring adults in a variety of settings.
Since about 80% of high school students will look to find a place in the working world without a college career, including but not at all limited to the majority of special need students, it is imperative that career guidance, school to work transition programs, and wider use of internships and apprenticeships are needed. Transcending barriers through cross-age tutoring and cross-generational projects will both further transition and strengthen schools. Helping students set and reach higher academic, career and personal goals depends largely on the models they see for reaching real life gains and rewards. The web can be a tremendous aid to students, families and schools; an excellent resource is Careers.org, that includes sites for students with disabilities.
Very seldom does life hand us challenges one at a time. We all need to deal with multiple obstacles, as many of our special education students and their families have learned. According to the U.S. Office of Special Education, an estimated 948,000 children may both be linguistically different and have disabilities (based on 1985 data). It is probably safe to assume that the same percent of language minority students as other students need special education; this would be 12-15%. To have learning disabilities and also be an English language learner raises fear and prejudice in some people in school and society. This fear and prejudice is rooted in what may be called the “Fear of the Other.”
Our nation's motto, on the back of all our currency, is the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one. The idea of multiculturalism is to preserve the richness and flavor of the many, of diversity, even as we strive to be one nation, one people. For those in the “majority,” this means learning to overcome fears and prejudice. Inclusion, embracing diversity, is part of the means to accomplish this.
Teachers benefit from knowing where to find resources to teach for and to diversity, and to understand and adapt to those students seeking to master English and compensate for disabilities at the same time as they study academic subjects.