patrickverdun



= FINAL PROJECT: INCLUSION METHODS IN SOCIAL STUDIES = I chose my topic because it seemed to be the most relevant to my area of focus. I hope to be teaching social studies upon the completion of this project and knowledge on this topic would only benefit me in my student teaching and future classrooms. Already in my placements I have seen a lot of the strategies I researched and learned more about. Now I better understand why things are the way they are in current placements and strategies to use to be a more effective teacher.

Top 5 things I learned:
 * 1) Project based learning activities are a great way to help students with learning disabilities to learn in social studies classes and is equally beneficial for all other students.
 * 2) Mnemonic strategies are very effective for students with learning disabilities.
 * 3) Guided reading sheets, creative use of film and visuals, chunking information, and small groups are very effective for helping students with learning disabilities to excel.
 * 4) The use of multimedia and technology in the social studies classroom are more important than ever today. The ability to incorporate this into social studies curriculum will empower all students, but even more so for those with learning disabilities.
 * 5) Succeeding in content classes such as science and social studies is one of the most difficult academic challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD) at the middle and high school level.

TOP RESOURCE


 * 1) Project Based learning video in Social Studies-5 [] This video effectively demonstrates a wonderful example of a project based learning assignment that one may utilize in a social studies classroom. I put this as my favorite resource because I read about the success of Project Based Learning Activities. Most of other resources have a direct link to parts included into the PBLA so it is perfect for me to show this video which can be used in all other disciplines. I am really excited to look deeper into PBLA's I can use in my own teaching. PBLA are great for incorporating a variety of learning styles and work can be divided within groups based upon student's strengths. This is an amazing inclusion strategy as all students can be involved in one or more pieces of a PBLA. Often these projects include use of a variety of technologies and media which were shown to improve student success and involvement in other research I examined. This project is also a different form of assessment as students are producing something instead of taking a multiple choice test which is more accurate in measuring what students learned.

Elaborative Maps for Enhanced Learning-3  []   Three formats of map-like displays containing historical event and location information were presented to 72 middle school students with learning disabilities(LD). Although recall of locations was significantly greater than recall of event information in all conditions, both mnemonic and elaborative encoding improved recall. Beneficial for all classes utilizing maps such as my 6th grade geography placement now. Development of Geography-3 [] This paper addresses issues related to the development of geographic literacy by describing, explaining, and discussing these issues as they relate to the current reform movement in the teaching of geography. Emphasis is placed on how this information relates to students with learning disabilities. The paper emphasizes the importance of effective teaching of geographic literacy in students with learning disabilities.

Acquisition of and Application-5 [] Practicum was designed to improve the social studies averages of eighth-grade learning disabled students by using direct instruction and small group interaction. A study skills course was developed after student and teacher surveys indicated the need and desire for the class. The course curriculum included outlining skills, multiple choice and true false test preparedness, and organizational skill development. This led to greater confidence in student test taking abilities and classroom participation.

Authenticity in Learning-5 [] This article explains reasons for focusing on social studies as an untapped domain in which to foster thinking and problem solving skills of students with disabilities, discusses the use of multimedia technology in supporting projects in the social studies, explores considerations in implementing multimedia design projects, and examines challenges to implementation of such projects.

Teacher Guided Practice-5 [|http://web.ebscohost.com.glacier.sou.edu/ehost/detail?sid=03f55cd9-10ba-4207-825f-4566556ae99b%40sessionmgr12&vid=22&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ539242] Sixth and seventh grade students with mild to moderate learning disabilities (LD) were taught social studies by using instructional sequence techniques. Results found LD students performed significantly better when these techniques (breaking new material into small units of information and providing frequent student practice and teacher feedback) were used.

Reciprocal Teaching-4 [] This study examines the effectiveness of Reciprocal Teaching during social studies instruction in fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade inclusive classrooms in a rural school system in New Mexico. Reciprocal teaching is a method of scaffolded instruction that has been demonstrated to improve reading comprehension in students of various ability levels. Results showed that this technique was particularly effective for aiding students with learning disabilities (LD).

Knowledge Acquisition-4 [|http://web.ebscohost.com.glacier.sou.edu/ehost/detail?vid=27&hid=8&sid=03f55cd9-10ba-4207-825f-4566556ae99b%40sessionmgr12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eft&AN=507526332] Effects of project-based instruction were assessed in a study of 21 students (mean age 12) with learning disabilities who developed social studies projects from source materials using word processing tools alone or using multimedia presentation tools. Students in both groups acquired substantial content knowledge, but neither group differed in motivation to learn more or in length of written product.

Project based learning-5 [] This article focuses on the benefits of project based learning. It goes on to examine strategies for implementing this method effectively. Often motivation is brought up since this type of learning requires more work from the student, but it is more beneficial than other traditional methods of teaching.

Project Based learning video in Social Studies-5 [] This video effectively demonstrates a wonderful example of a project based learning assignment that one may utilize in a social studies classroom.

Cooperative Learning in History Class-1 http://youtu.be/OstNuHetRG4 Jerry Seinfeld demonstrates an ineffective attempt at cooperative learning in his history high school classroom.

__All About Me__

My name is Patrick Verdun and I am currently enrolled in the MAT program at Southern Oregon University. I can't wait to be a teacher and make a difference in children's lives. I want make learning an engaging and fun experience. I also hope to coach lacrosse on the side too. Currently, I am a captain on the lacrosse team here at SOU and play with a wonderful group of guys and the best coach you could imagine. I plan to take my passions for teaching and lacrosse where ever I go in this big ole world. I want to teach high school history and psychology.

In my free time I love to be with friends, family, or play lacrosse. I am a devout christian and enjoy music along with almost all outdoor activities and sports. Pretty much I just love to have fun. I hope to make my experience as a teacher fun as well, however, my worst fear as a teacher is that I start to not enjoy it when I get there. I don't think this will be the case, but if I have to think of a fear that would be it.



My most difficult learning experience came one fateful Halloween night I chose to be the designated driver for a group of friends. I was enjoying myself and so were my friends until we hopped into my friends car to drive everyone to a Halloween party. The car we hopped into was a stick shift and I had never driven one before. I was nervous and even scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it or that I would damage the vehicle. I didn’t really have a choice though. I was able to drive the car with some coaching from the backseat across town and get everyone home safely. It was a very difficult and tiring experience, but after I succeeded I was so relieved. I hope to help students overcome their learning obstacles and help them experience their own feelings of relief and accomplishment. From this course I hope to become better equipped to do this and I want to gain the knowledge to adapt curriculum for students with learning differences. I also want to understand IEP’s and 504’s better.

** WEEK 4 COMMUNITY LEARNING PROJECT ** On January 23rd, 2012, I had the opportunity to attend my first IEP meeting. It was for a student who is often off task in class, unmotivated, and struggles with remembering information from the day-to-day. It included the parents of the student the meeting was for and six school personnel. The personnel were a district psychologist, counselor, special education teacher, science teacher, geography teacher, and myself. The parents seemed rather uncomfortable before the meeting formally began. I could sense they did not want to be there. After all, no one wants their child to be singled out or taken notice of for struggling in school. The special education teacher led off the discussion with personal interactions he has had with the student in question. The staff had a lot of positive comments on the character of the child. This eased the parents’ minds. The special education teacher noted that the child took a lot of time to do simple tasks, but performed above average on all subjects besides reading. The reading score was only one grade level below the current grade level of the student so there was no urgent concern regarding special accommodations. Then the other staff started to chime in on how anxiety and stress seem to be the main culprits for this student being off task in class. The student stresses over simple tasks and labors over such decisions as to throwaway eraser shavings or leave them on their desk. The district psychologist mentioned that while the physician who performed an exam on the student noted no apparent learning disability, another should be done to address the anxiety and stress issues. The parents were pleased that no learning disability was noted and were easy to share any questions or thoughts they had throughout the meeting. The geography teacher and science teacher both shared personal pleasant experiences they had with student to the parents and professionals. The meeting concluded with parents leaving to set up another exam with the physician. I thought the meeting was very beneficial for all parties involved. The parents really got the sense that the school cares about the success of their child and steps are being made for improvement. The staff got a better since of the child from interacting with the parents and both parties were comfortable to share any thoughts or concerns so that no obstacles could slow down this process. My feelings are that a lot more goes into teaching then we are generally told in our society. Besides simply grading papers, teachers have to worry about the livelihood of their students outside of the classroom and take the time to make special accommodations for students who require them. How much time is needed to go through the entire IEP process? How successful are IEP’s? Does another route need to be taken to help students who require special accommodations? I am curious to see how the situation with this student pans out.