Essential Ingredients For Inclusive Schools:
Key to classrooms that support all students are teaching teams that share their skills with another. General and special educators, teaching together what are called collaborating classrooms, are often able to find creative solutions to the learning needs of both children with and without disabilities. An essential, and often very difficult, element in these programs is the development of new roles for educators(see the story by Debbie Morris at the end of this section).
New methods of instruction,
such as co-teaching in which general and special educators jointly
share teaching responsibilities and expertise for a single group of students,
can have a very positive impact upon learning. Yet learning new ways of
teaching can be very challenging for teachers who have long functioned in
the 'isolation' of their own classrooms.
In developing shared teaching roles, successful schools have found at least three things to be necessary. First, teachers need an opportunity for training. They need to learn how to work and teach together, how to develop individualized objectives for students in regular classrooms, and how to 'embed' instructions on these objectives into everyday classroom routines and lessons. Secondly they need a common set of expectations for their new roles and responsibilities. Thirdly, teachers need time to plan together - to discuss the needs of their students, to develop modifications for individual students, and to problem-solve challenging classroom situations.
A number of schools throughout Kentucky, and other parts of the nation as well, have identified strategies to increase shared planning time for teachers working together. These include:
Simply requiring educators to develop new approaches to teaching, without first defining a common set of expectations, providing necessary training to all involved, and ensuring ongoing, regularly-scheduled time to collaborate, is to invite failure and frustration. Classrooms that support the learning needs of all students can work, but we must insure that their teachers are supported as well, if inclusive education is to work over the 'long haul'.
We have been talking about
the need for general and special educators to share responsibilities for
all children if all children are to learn together. Yet programs
that successfully include all children have other essential 'collaborators'
as well - including the kids themselves! Consider these two teacher stories
if you doubt that point!
Flapping his arms wildly, Mark began to emit loud noises in a panic-stricken series. Confusion crossed the faces of the students in my class - they were looking toward me for direction and I was at a total loss! My first thought was, "they never warned me about this, what am I going to do?" My only choice, as I saw it, was to be honest and admit to the class that I'd never dealt with a situation quite like this. Together we came up with a plan of action to solve our dilemma.
As the year progressed, we surmised that intense or startling noises upset Mark. He reacted to this outside stimulation by copying and imitating the sound. We were able to find ways to help protect or restore Mark's secure environment once we knew the cause of his outbursts.
Sometimes fear of the "unknown" can make us leery of the change. Stories such as this might make us apprehensive indeed. Yet the success of this story lies in the acceptance of Mark's classmates - when problem-solving became a very real part of every day. Just as a child with epilepsy could have a seizure, a fight could break out between two children, or a natural disaster could occur, we cannot always predict our daily events. Knowing that children can respond to the needs of others gives me hope for the society of tomorrow. Children learn the lessons they live.
Jerry was a follower. He was like any other middle school boy. He liked to talk, disliked homework, and liked pretty girls. The 'diagnostic' characteristics that identified Jerry as having a moderate mental disability didn't separate him from his peers! However; his behavior did!
Jerry didn't have the ability to differentiate between helpful advice and malicious or mischievous suggestions. He was often led into displaying unacceptable behaviors or taking risks that were inappropriate. These behaviors began to lead to ridicule, a loss of his self-esteem, conspiring among classmates, and a lack of class focus during instruction.
Keeping in mind that I could not allow instruction to be interrupted, I asked Jerry to run some errands and then laid it on the line for my class. I explained that Jerry was participating in our class so that he could learn social skills and peer-appropriate behaviors. I asked the class to evaluate our success to this point and to brainstorm some of our problems and choices. The students were quick to identify the behaviors that detracted from the class and even took responsibility for several. It came down to one basic question or choice. Could the class function constructively with Jerry present? Or would he have to return to his original setting?
I am proud to say strong arguments were made that Jerry should remain with the class. Students didn't believe "it was right to shut kids away all day by themselves." They believed Jerry could learn more from them and that they could monitor students who improperly influenced Jerry's actions. The class took ownership for their behavior and the instruction took on a new tone. No longer was distracting ' class clown' behavior encouraged. Students began to redirect energy that had previously been drained from our lessons and the class blossomed.
Ever since Public Law 94-142 was passed in 1975, we have upheld the principle that parents are full partners in the education of their children. Indeed, federal law is very straight-forward about parental rights and participation in the development of their child's Individual Education Program. Yet this is one area in which the intent of the law has not been realized. Educators have often felt that they had to have all of the answers, that, as the 'experts', they were expected to come to the Individual Education Program meeting with a fully developed (although officially only a 'draft') IEP. Parental suggestions as to what their son or daughter should be learning were, of course, considered at the meeting, but as kind of 'afterthoughts' to what the educators' assessments had revealed were the child's greatest needs.
Hopefully, we are now learning that the best experts on the child are the child's parents and family. They have known the child all of his or her life, and they will be the 'constants' in their son or daughter's future years. Even the best of teachers will be with the student for but a brief span in that child's life. We are beginning to understand that the most essential goals for children must be developed collaboratively between the school and family. For example, how many times have families been referred to as uncooperative, unrealistic, unwilling to follow through with programs at home? Over the years, families have shared that they often do not really feel a part of their child's education. Sometimes, families have found themselves consulted on after critical decisions regarding their child had already been decided by others. Also, several families have reported that educators may not understand why they can not always follow through with certain "education strategies" at home due to their non-stop schedules, and time-consuming and often tiring health care routines. Most importantly, no one ever asked the family if they felt that the new strategies or activities for home were meaningful to the family. A good rule of thumb to remember is that families will "cooperate" and follow through when educators support them in achieving what is most important to them as a family.
Fortunately, we are also learning how to develop truly collaborative IEPs. For example, teams that use the COACH (Choosing Options and Accommodations for Children; Giangreco et al,. 1993) to build IEPs based on 'family-centered' priorities are creating learning plans highly relevant to both families and educators! Teams that are identifying IEP goals through other student and family-centered planning strategies such as Personal Futures Planning and MAPS are also achieving IEPs that reflect the expert knowledge and experience of families (See the Resource Section at the end of this manual to find out more about Personal Futures Planning and MAPS).
Finally, we are also learning to
include, whenever possible and appropriate, the student him/herself
in the IEP process. Especially for secondary-age students, it is altogether
essential that they have a voice in the selection of their learning objectives
and in the development of the educational program that will hopefully lead
to their successful employment, full participation in their local communities,
and independence upon graduation.
