REFLECTION Kliewer, McDermott and Varenne
REFLECTION
Firstly, I feel very connected with the subject of these pieces. Both articles focus around students learning with disabilities, specifically Down syndrome in the first. As an intended elementary ed major, with a planned content major in special education, this subject speaks closely to my heart. Also, it was interesting to read and learn about their social skills and how they learn. Perhaps it will help give me an insight into just how students with Down syndrome function in a school setting.
Christopher Kliewer "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome":
This texts gives a more broad approach as to how students with down syndrome learn, while mentioning a few students in particular. The author focuses on Shoshone, a parent run school for kids with Down syndrome. In this school, the author points out that students with down syndrome don't really communicate well using words. However, they communicate by being there for each other, without verbal communication. As a future special ed major, this will help me in terms of understanding their social development better, and how they function. Perhaps they are solving a problem, with a lack of words, but rather through kind gestures and body language. Instead of correcting them, I could leave them to solve it amongst themselves, as they are showing that they can, in fact, solve things, just by different means than neurotypicals. Reading this article has also encouraged me to, perhaps, shy away from traditional ways of teaching, and rather try different approaches, when it comes to kids with Down syndrome.
Varenne & McDermott "Culture “as” Disability":
This article talks on a larger spectrum about culture as disability. Simply put, this article does not focus on Down syndrome, blindness or cerebral palsy. However, this article focuses on how children's culture and social status ail them in learning and thriving in the school system. This article takes a very interesting approach, in my opinion, and I really do like how they classified poor social statuses and minority cultures. It really changes and broadens my perspective. One final thing that I would like to point out is their analogy for standardized testing, and how I like the message they put out. The authors use "Adam" to say that just because certain students are LD does not mean that you should add "smarter" children to raise the standardized test scores, because that defeats the purpose.
Talking points:
Finally, I've included a link that helps further to understand how kids with Down syndrome learn, as I related particularly well to that article.
Firstly, I feel very connected with the subject of these pieces. Both articles focus around students learning with disabilities, specifically Down syndrome in the first. As an intended elementary ed major, with a planned content major in special education, this subject speaks closely to my heart. Also, it was interesting to read and learn about their social skills and how they learn. Perhaps it will help give me an insight into just how students with Down syndrome function in a school setting.
Christopher Kliewer "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome":
This texts gives a more broad approach as to how students with down syndrome learn, while mentioning a few students in particular. The author focuses on Shoshone, a parent run school for kids with Down syndrome. In this school, the author points out that students with down syndrome don't really communicate well using words. However, they communicate by being there for each other, without verbal communication. As a future special ed major, this will help me in terms of understanding their social development better, and how they function. Perhaps they are solving a problem, with a lack of words, but rather through kind gestures and body language. Instead of correcting them, I could leave them to solve it amongst themselves, as they are showing that they can, in fact, solve things, just by different means than neurotypicals. Reading this article has also encouraged me to, perhaps, shy away from traditional ways of teaching, and rather try different approaches, when it comes to kids with Down syndrome.
Varenne & McDermott "Culture “as” Disability":
This article talks on a larger spectrum about culture as disability. Simply put, this article does not focus on Down syndrome, blindness or cerebral palsy. However, this article focuses on how children's culture and social status ail them in learning and thriving in the school system. This article takes a very interesting approach, in my opinion, and I really do like how they classified poor social statuses and minority cultures. It really changes and broadens my perspective. One final thing that I would like to point out is their analogy for standardized testing, and how I like the message they put out. The authors use "Adam" to say that just because certain students are LD does not mean that you should add "smarter" children to raise the standardized test scores, because that defeats the purpose.
Talking points:
- both articles talk about disability in two very different ways. The first will help me better connect with my physically and mentally disables students and how they learn.
- the first article also makes me think of my dad, who was born with cerebral palsy, and how his teachers may not have realized that he needed to learn differently than other students. This article inspires me to help children like my dad, by learning and adapting to just how they need to learn
- the second article makes me think about a whole different kind of disability. In fact, about something that I did not ever consider a "disability."
Finally, I've included a link that helps further to understand how kids with Down syndrome learn, as I related particularly well to that article.
I think that it's great how you can apply the readings in your own life and its clear that you'll take what you've learned into your future career, it'll make you a great teacher.
ReplyDeleteI thought it interesting how you mentioned a different approach in the classroom with students that were mentally challenged. You had stated the kids communicated by being there for each other instead of verbal communication. I feel like this type of communication could be applied to a regular classroom as well. relationships could be formed off of body language and companionship instead of being entirely based off of words in the form of verbal communication. The atmosphere would be completely different.
ReplyDeleteI also feel a connection to this reading having spent a lot of time with children who have special needs. I truely enjoy working with them and I can not wait to get my special education teaching degree!
ReplyDeleteI used to take care of a woman with down syndrome. she knew how to speak seven different languages! I don't know about you but I can only speak english fluently. I hate how some people underestimate others with disabilities. I wanted to become a special education teacher for the longest time after working in the field outside of a school system until I decided to change my career path.
ReplyDelete