As a person with a disability, I (Nikhil) have grown up surrounded by nondisabled figures in the media and in my daily life. As I get closer to reaching adulthood, I’ve become increasingly aware of the lack of representation of people like me who live with disability every day. While schools make accommodations to the physical environment and instructional approach to help students with disabilities learn and grow, the actual curriculum, the “what students learn,” is often silent about disability and the contributions of individuals with disabilities.
‘Essentially Abdicating Their Role’: Report Finds States Lack Plans for Ensuring Schools Spend Pandemic Aid on the Kids Who Need It Most
When Congress voted last spring to send schools an unprecedented $125 billion in COVID-19 relief funds, it laid down some basic guidelines. Most of the money should go directly to districts with an eye toward compensating for the pandemic’s academic and safety challenges, and states should track whether local officials complied.
District equity plans may become merely symbolic without further action
To further hold themselves accountable to their equity policies, districts can also establish action plans, Rice-Boothe writes. These might, for example, address the way discipline is delivered to make it more equitable for students of color, who are often disproportionately affected by exclusionary discipline practices.
How to Make Your Equity Policy a Reality
In the past two years, school districts across the country have been moved to write equity policies or pass resolutions to publicly commit to being a more equitable district. Unfortunately, for some districts, the work stopped there. Now, many community members inside and outside of the district are likely to see the approval as nothing more than a symbolic gesture. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
The Masked Teacher
While face coverings present barriers to easy communication, educators can build a rapport with students by being deliberate in their interactions.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, face masks have been a primary tool for preventing infection spread. In classrooms, however, they’ve created barriers to authentic interactions because of muffled speech and sounds that can lead to an overall “dehumanizing” effect.
How to Implement the Self Determined Learning Model of Instruction in Inclusive General Education Classrooms
Self-determination is defined by acting as a causal agent in one’s life. To be a causal agent, one must act with intent to set and go after goals using skills that include choice-making, decision-making, problem-solving, goal setting and attainment, planning, self-management, self-advocacy, and self-awareness. Supports available in the general education classroom can significantly influence the degree to which students develop causal agency and self-determination. Although teachers rate self-determination instruction as important, they also report providing limited instruction on skills associated with self-determination for a variety of reasons (e.g., instructional time constraints, unsure of how to deliver instruction, the perception that not all students need instruction to develop self-determination). This article provides a step-by-step guide for teachers to use to implement an evidence-based intervention designed to promote student self-determination, the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction, in inclusive general education classrooms by blending instruction in core content and skills associated with self-determination.
Formative assessment fuels literacy learning
Formative assessment is a key element in learning how to be a reflective practitioner who adjusts literacy instruction in ways to meet students’ needs and interests.
We want to use formative assessment to breathe life into our reading and writing lessons and across the day, not to replace valuable instruction time with unnecessary assessment time.
Are learning gaps stabilizing?
Findings on the current state of pandemic-induced learning gaps confirm disproportionate impacts and the need to target interventions accordingly
The relationships between Dyslexia and ADHD
Frequently co-occurring conditions
I’ve been exploring as many divergent neurotypes as possible, in particular those that commonly co-occur with autism and ADHD (my neurotypes).
ADHD and autism are my special interests, and I want to learn as much as possible about their comorbid conditions because many individuals I support are also more likely to have these traits. Here I share with you some of the similarities between ADHD and dyslexia.
Studies find virtual learning grows during COVID
Virtual learning in K-12 education continues to grow due to the health threat caused by coronavirus variants and the assistance this learning model can provide to at-risk students, according to two papers released today by Pioneer Institute.