Cory+Carnes

__Introduction:__
== My name is Cory Carnes and I'm in the SOU one-year MAT program. I am a 33-year-old single father of three wonderful children. My greatest joy comes from spending quality, uninterrupted time with my son and daughters, and every minute I spend with them is a minute that I consider myself blessed. I chose to enter the field of education because I truly believe that our children are our future. Every child deserves a chance to achieve to their greatest potential. A couple of years ago I returned to school after a long absence and what has followed has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I am extremely excited about what I've already experienced here at SOU and in my field placement classes. I am greatly looking forward to making a career in the field of education. Below are a couple of interesting pieces of media that are meaningful to me. ==

=__Inclusion Strategies in the area of Student Assessment:__=

"If I were teaching you how to play golf, I would not determine whether you had met my standards by giving you a multiple-choice test. I would put you out on the golf course to "construct your own responses" in the face of real-world challenges. Similarly, in school we are ultimately less interested in how much information students can acquire than how well they can use it."

~ Jon Mueller

Assessment is an extremely vital portion of the education process. Through frequent and diverse diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments, an instructor is able to evaluate how effective the teaching strategies he or she is employing are and how well his or her students are comprehending and following along with the material that is being presented. When addressing the unique challenges that students with special needs face, an instructor needs to be especially aware of how those challenges might affect his or her ability to accurately and efficiently assess the student's progress. An instructor who is providing accommodation for a student with differentiated needs must be prepared to employ varied and diverse assessment methods that will provide fair and non-discriminatory evaluation of the student's level of understanding.

=__The top 5 things that I learned while researching:__=

1. Diagnostic assessments are vital and often under-utilized tools that teachers can use to inform their lessons. Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed.

2. Frequent, diverse formative assessment is vital for making sure that your students are following along with your instruction. Formative assessments take place during a learning activity to provide the instructor with information regarding how well the learning objectives of a given learning activity are being met. When working with children with special needs, formative assessments are especially vital because they show instructors if they need to differentiate their teaching methods in order to make sure that their students are being taught in an effective and efficient manner.

3. Summative assessments must be designed in a way that utilizes a wide variety of assessment tools. Basing a summative assessment on a single high-stakes test does not accomodate learners who do not display strength in test taking. If the goal is to provide a measure for a student's level of understanding, then a summative assessment must take into account a wide variety of learning styles.

4. It is important not to discount the value of informal formative assessment in the education process. A simple "thumbs up, thumbs down" survey in the middle of a lesson can greatly inform a teacher of his or her students' level of understanding. Through assessments like these, teachers can intervene before a student is completely lost.

5. A key to formative assessment in all students is to provide non-judgemental, developmental feedback. This is especially important when working with children with special needs. Formative assessment is designed to informally asses progress and inform the teacher of where the strengths and weaknesses in their instruction lie. Students should be given opportunities to grow and improve in an environment that does not judge them or put them down.

=__My Top Resource:__=

[|The Importance of Assessment in the Classroom]

(5 out of 5) This is a comprehensive informational article for education professionals that introduces and elaborates on many valid and important reasons that varied, differentiated assessment is important in the classroom at all levels of instruction. This article provides wide and comprehensiwe breakdowns of the benefits of strong diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment. This single resource provides techniques, strengths, and implementational strategies for many specific assessment techniques. This article explains in detail why it is so important to provide diverse differentiated assessment opportunities that cater to the strengths of many different types of learners.

=__Additional Resources:__=

[|Assessment Issues in Special Education: A List of Resources]

(5 out of 5) The above link is to a web page that provides a number of valuable links to resources for addressing assessment issues assocaited with students with special needs. The links cover methods for testing students with disabilities, screening for special diagnostics, and the sensitive legalities associated with administering high stakes tests to students with special needs. This page is a fantastic resource that all inclusion specialists should have bookmarked.

[|Special Education Assessment]

(3 out of 5) The above link is to a web page designed to connect teachers and parents with special education professoinals in their area. This site provides links to foundations and organizations that specialize in providing training programs, materials, and diagnostic services for a variety of special needs. This would be an excellent resource for teachers to have on hand to provide parents with additional support in caring for and understanding the needs of their special needs child.

[|The Importance of Formative Assessments]

(3 out of 5) This is an article that discusses the importance of formative assessments and why they should be used in the classroom. While this article does not apply only to students with special needs, it elaborates on the importance of formatively assessing all students and the value of regularly informally checking student progress and understanding.

Fair Assessment in the Special Needs Classroom media type="youtube" key="Q8fmAJwln74" height="315" width="420"

(4 out of 5) This is a quick video that discusses the challenges of creating fair and balanced classroom assessment that effectively and accurately assesses students who have special needs.

[|Assessing Students with Adhd]

(3 out of 5) This is an article about how to assess students with ADHD. It discusses the special challenges that students with ADHD face and the different strategies that teachers can use to help accomodate those students' assessment needs.

[|Assessing Students with Autism]

(4 out of 5) This page is an extensive web resource for parents and teachers of students with autism. Itthus cusses and elaborates on some of the behaviors and tendencies exhibited by students with autism and discusses the unique challenges involved with communicating with and providing accurate assessment for students with autism.

[|The Importance of Diagnostic Assessment]

(3 out of 5) This article is an in depth study that discusses the importance of diagnostic assessment in the education process. Despite the fact that the focus is on all students as opposed to only students with special needs, the strategies and focus are very applicable to students with special needs and their parents.

[|How Good Assessment Improves Learning]

(4 out of 5) This article is a resource for teachers that discusses the importance of creating useful, valid, evaluative assessments for students. It emphasizes that the primary purpose of assessment should be to aid in learning. While summative assessment is important for determining how effectivly your students have learned the materials that the students been exposed to, diagnostic and formative assessment are designed to aid the student in developing that understanding.

[|Assessment for Students with Special Needs]

(3 out of 5) This article is a forward introduction for a book about how to assess students who have special needs in the classroom. Itdiscusses the differences in expectations for students with disabilities versus students who do not have documented special needs. It focuses on the new role of accountability at school and what that means for students with disabilities today.

=__CBL Project:__=

** CBL Project - Formal Lesson **


 * Lesson Title: Health and Human Body / Doctor Presentation **
 * Subject Area and Grade Level: Science, 5th Grade **
 * Approximate time/length of lesson: 50 min **


 * Part 1 **


 * State Content Standards**:

SC 5.3S2 Identify patterns in data that support a reasonable explanation for the results of ​​​an investigation or experiment and communicate findings using graphs, charts, maps, ​​​models, and oral and written reports.

El.05.RE.09 Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught ​​​directly through informational text, literary text, and instruction across the subject ​​​areas.

HE.05.HE.01 Explain how healthful eating habits can lead to wellness

HE.05.HE.02 Describe how media, cultural and family influences encourage healthy ​​​eating practices.

EL.05.RE.03 Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and ​​​​narrative text, including classic and contemporary literature, poetry, magazines, ​​​​newspapers, reference materials, and online information.

EL.05.RE.04 Make connections to text, within text, and among texts across the subject ​​​areas.

EL.05.RE.09 Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught ​​​directly through informational text, literary text, and instruction across the subject ​​​areas.


 * Assessments: **

Students will produce and present a PowerPoint presentation on Health and the Human Body, highlighting an organ or organ system, listing its functions and location, and stating how proper nutrition can aid in its health and well-being.


 * Selection of Instructional Strategy/ies: **

Direct Instruction: Initial instruction on how to complete PowerPoint will be most quickly and efficiently provided in a direct instruction situation.

Graphic Organizer: The PowerPoint presentation that the student constructs will serve as a graphic organizer that will help him/her to recall and organize all the information that he/she has been exposed to in this lesson. The visual aspect of the graphic organizer will help the student to engage in the assignment and will aid in storing the information in their long-term memory.


 * Part 2 **


 * Your lesson should include the following elements: **


 * 1) ** Housekeeping/Material Details ** : This lesson will begin with the whole class seated with their desks cleared off and the room picked up and free of obstacles. All students should be present and seated for the beginning instructional portion of the assignment. Once the initial direct instruction portion of the lesson has been completed and the general class has been dismissed to work independently on their lesson, the teacher can engage in direct instruction for the IEP student on how to complete the lesson at hand. The teacher will need to provide access to a computer located near the teacher’s desk. The computer must have MS PowerPoint and restricted access to the internet.


 * 1) ** Focus & Purpose: ** This unit focuses on the basic biological functions of the major organs and systems of the human body and why they are important. The big ideas of this unit are: The human body is made up of a number of “body systems” that work together to form a healthy living organism. A person can keep his or her body healthy by engaging in appropriate nutritional and fitness practices that promote organ, muscle, and bone health. The goal is for students to understand that their body functions properly because of a series of body systems that work together to accomplish specific vital tasks in the human body. Over the previous seven lessons, students have been exposed to the function and purpose of the body’s organs and systems. This lesson will serve as a summative assessment, allowing the student to exhibit mastery of the materials that have been presented to him/her. The student will be responsible for recalling information from a series of whole group discussions and handouts on health and the human body and applying this information to a PowerPoint presentation will complete and display in class. Because the student will be utilizing personal habits and life experiences as the basis for much of the information that they include in their data disks, they will be engaged and motivated by the personal nature of the PowerPoint presentation.


 * 1) **Objectives:**

Students will produce and present in front of the class a PowerPoint presentation utilizing information from handouts and class discussions, supplemented with restricted access to class-appropriate internet informational sites.


 * 1) **Procedure**:

OPEN:

(5 min) The teacher should begin the lesson with the students all seated at their desks and with their desks cleared. The teacher should first “hook” the students by referencing the hanging body diagrams that they have completed and the information that they have discussed in the first six lessons of the unit. He should solicit examples from the students in a whole class discussion of what they have studied and produced so far in the unit and what their impressions of this work have been. The teacher should ask provocative questions to the students like “Why is it important to understand how your body works?” and “Why might you want to be aware of how the various organs of your body work together in systems?”. With the students’ attention drawn, the teacher should take a moment and review some of the “big ideas” that they discussed in lesson one, and will be encountering this lesson and the remainder of the unit. The teacher can then introduce today’s lesson

BODY:

(Part 1 – Direct instruction, 10 min) The teacher should isolate the student and provide direct, one-on-one instruction on what he/she is to accomplish in this lesson. It should be explained that this is the student’s chance to show the teacher what he/she has learned during this unit about health and the human body. He/she is to create a multi-page PowerPoint presentation (utilizing computer skills and proficiencies that the student has already demonstrated that he possesses). This presentation must contain a title page, the name, location and three functions of a specific organ that we have discussed during the unit. These must information factoids must be bullet-pointed. It must also contain a diagram of the organ that will accompany the information. In addition, the presentation must contain the definition of one of the four nutrient types that we have discussed in class and pictorial examples of foods that the given nutrient is found in. As a resource, the student has access to the handouts and materials presented in previous lessons of this unit. The student may also have monitored access to the school-established safe informational websites. After this presentation is completed, the student will present his PowerPoint in front of the class.

(Part 2 – PowerPoint Design 35 min) The student should be allowed independent access to the computer nearest to the instructor’s desk. A browser window should be opened on the computer and directed to the school homepage where the accepted safe informational websites are listed. The instructor should also open PowerPoint and allow the student independent time to research and produce his presentation. The instructor should circulate around the class and frequently check in with the student to monitor his progress toward completion. If he/she is unable to complete the project by the close of class, he/she should be allowed to continue working on it throughout the day during his designated pull-out time. If there is time and the student has completed his/her presentation, the student should be allowed a 5 minute class window to present his PowerPoint in front of the class at the close of the lesson.

CLOSE:

(5 min.) When the allotted time has passed, the teacher will instruct the class to gather up their materials and prepare to sit back at their seats and transition to the next subject. The teacher should instruct the IEP student to save his work and log out of the computer. The teacher should engage the student one-on-one and reflect on the assignment, monitoring his progress and discussing with him what went well and what did not. Once the students have turned in their assigned work, the IEP student should rejoin the rest of the class. The teacher should instruct them to sit back down in their seats for a group review of the lesson and transition into the next activity.


 * Part 3 Resources: **

Ask Kid Student Information Site: []

Cyber Sleuth Kids Student Information Site: []

Kids Click Student Information Site: []

Yahoo Kids Home Student Information Site: []

REFLECTION

I designed this lesson for a student in my winter placement 5th grade class who is on an IEP for fairly significant behavior issues. This is not an academic IEP, but instead is an emotional one. He has a long, multi-year history of social interaction behavior issues that have severely impacted his learning experience in the classroom. His inability to control his emotions in a socially acceptable way have resulted in multiple referrals, suspensions, and even expulsion from his previous elementary school. He has a detailed behavioral plan with clearly laid out target behaviors, interventions, motivators, and consequences that are designed to allow him to operate in the general class population. As it is, this student is frequently pulled out of the classroom and sent to my placement school's resource teacher for focused individual instruction.

Even though he is not on a specific math IEP, the student is currently pulled out of the general classroom for math on a daily basis because he is unable to focus in a group under direct instruction. He is also frequently pulled out at the beginning of the day for the first hour of class, because he often begins the day acting either extremely despondent or extremely confrontational. The goal of the lesson that I produced is to allow the student to complete a lesson that is equivalent in standards and objectives to a lesson being administered to the rest of the class. This lesson could be taught right alongside the general class lesson, with the teacher laying out the same objectives for the IEP student as those used for the rest of the class.

This lesson is the final performance task for a unit the class is working on about health and the human body. The class will be presented with a scenario in which they are all doctors preparing a presentation on nutrition and the body organs. Over the past several lessons, the students have been instructed on the locations and functions of the major organs of the body, and healthy nutritional practices that they can engage in to keep their organs healthy. For this assignment, the students must choose one organ that they have learned about, and using their unit handouts, produce a one-page essay that describes an organ, lists three facts about it, and then lists three facts about nutrition that will keep the chosen organ healthy. Students are allowed to work together or independently create their presentation. The presentation must contain a graphic organizer visual aid, a one-page handwritten essay, and a decorated folder to contain it all. They must then present their information in front of the class.

My IEP student has a very difficult time socializing with his peers in a constructive way. The multiple tasks and independent nature of the lesson the class was to be given would almost certainly cause him to become aggressive and then non-responsive in class and would potentially lead to him needing to be removed from the classroom. In order to counter this in a way that would allow him to stay in the classroom, I needed to create a plan that would work with his documented strengths. I needed to design a lesson that would result in him being evaluated using the same measurable objectives and standards as his peers, but would also account for his behavioral tendencies in a way that would allow him to effectively complete his assigned work.

His behavioral plan notes that he has an affinity for working with computers and technology. At home, he is extremely comfortable with productivity tools like MS Word and MS PowerPoint. He also values the reference resources available on the internet and enjoys showing off his technological aptitude to his classmates. He has difficulty multitasking and working independently on a variety of projects at once. In order to account for these strengths and behavioral tendencies, I decided to create a plan that would consolidate the graphic organizer, research, and essay portions of the lesson into a single, technology-based PowerPoint presentation. I rationalized that this single unified project would be something that my student could wrap his head around and stay focused on. There is an Internet capable computer right next to the teacher's desk so his accountability to staying on task could be carefully monitored. His access to the Internet could be filtered and regulated because my placement school has a restricted portal to the internet that students are allowed to utilize for school research purposes. This student would need to be regularly monitored by the instructor as his lesson would run parallel to the alternate mainstream instruction being given to the remainder of the class.

Diagnostic assessments are vital and often under-utilized tools that teachers can use to inform their lessons. Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed Diagnostic assessments are vital and often under-utilized tools that teachers can use to inform their lessons. Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed