3/21/2019
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Laurie Reeder
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- Think of a student with a disability you have now, or have had in the past. Identify their disability. Describe the way in which their disability affected their learning. Describe at least one or more ways you successfully accommodated or modified instruction for this student. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I once had a student in my theatre class who was severely ADHD. He had such difficulties sitting for even a short amount of time. He had to be moving all of the time. Once he was on stage, he loved it, but he was always interrupting others when they were sharing ideas. He often drew attention away from what others were doing. He always wanted to be the center of attention even if it meant disrupting a class discussion. He also had trouble committing to rehearsal time. He would choose a scene, but his partners were never sure they could depend on him to come through during a performance. Fortunately, as he matured, he began to give others the opportunity to speak and to perform. By his senior year he had developed enough focus to write and direct a play of his own. His friends were so proud of what he had accomplished.
edited by Laurie Reeder on 3/22/2019 |
3/22/2019
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Laurie Reeder
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- Describe how two of the strategies discussed could potentially be implemented in your classroom. Be sure to identify the two strategies by name and describe how they could be used to address a student with a disabilities needs.
Theatre lends itself so completely to both Cooperative Learning and Peer Partnering since acting students are often working on various scenes in class. Peer Partnering would work perfectly when assigning duet scenes whereas Cooperative Learning is the best way to have students work on a group ensemble acting scene. When a student with disabilities works with a peer partner on a duet scene, he/she is not having to worry about performing in front of everyone. He/she can focus on learning the scene and interacting with just one other person. When the duet is performed in front of the entire class, the student with a disability has already built some confidence working with just one other person.
Although Cooperative Learning requires the student with a disability to be in a bigger learning environment, it is still a safe space. Theatre is based on collaboration, and Cooperative Learning used for ensemble acting scenes is all about collaboration. |
3/22/2019
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Laurie Reeder
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- Describe an example of adapted assessment you have successfully used in the fine arts classroom for students with disabilities.
- I once had an acting student with downs syndrome. She actually blossomed in theatre class. I was afraid that she would be shy, but she loved having the opportunity to perform. She especially enjoyed improvisation games. I often started improv activities with pantomime for all of my students, and this was especially helpful to this student since she was more easily able to express herself in movement rather than words. Since she was able to participate so openly with pantomime, I believe it made her transition to the use of words easier because she had had earlier success.
- I also had a student with an orthopedic impairment. She was in a wheelchair, and she had trouble with writing. We had a journal entry each day, and although I told her she could abbreviate her answers and/or draw pictures to express herself, she was determined to take home any journal entries she could not complete during the opening of class and take the time to develop her answers at home. I always admired the fact that she did not want to streamline the process although it would have been easier and understandable for her to do so.
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