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Jillian Katz Posts: 1
5/13/2019
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I agree that theater is a wonderful place to accommodate students with varying needs and disabilities. Theater by nature is about working together through challenges and learning our own strengths and what we can bring to the creative process. In my classroom we focus on each student's unique abilities and work together with others who can help grow these abilities. Students chose partners who have other strengths, abilities, and skill sets that they may lack so they can learn from each other and each bring their own strengths, abilities, and skill sets to the production. Last year, I had a student with Tourrettes Syndrome. However, when he felt safe and secure it seemed that his outbursts were less. We spent a great deal of time building theater companies within our class and making sure we had a community of support. Also, when in character it seemed that he could go through all of his role without having any outbursts or ticks. So I gave him many lead roles in our productions that year.
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Barbie Spears Posts: 2
5/15/2019
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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.
Last year I taught a 9th grade student with Down's syndrome who was scheduled to be in a self-contained classroom. His mom advocated for him to go to my class one hour a day to participate with general ed students. He was successful in Pantomimes and was able to remember simple dialogue with prompting. At the end of the year, the class performs a one act play. One of the characters was a ghost that appears to scare people away from the old house. I gave my student a vest and collar that allowed him to have a "supernatural appearance" without wearing a hood. He was the "shadow" of the other student who played the Ghost. He crossed the stage making ghost spooky noises with the other actor saying the lines. We also invited his peers from the self-contained classroom to watch the performance. Everyone was so excited for my student to participate in the same exam performance as the rest of the class. He had to know his cues, he had to know his blocking, and he had to sustain a believable character. Success all around!
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Brooke West Posts: 3
5/23/2019
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I have a student with Aspergers who thinks very highly of himself. He is a decent actor but not the quality he claims to be. He doesn't work well in groups, not because of social insecurities but because of his sheer arrogance. His fellow group members don't like working with him due to his diva behavior. He is always constantly trying to take over the group and be the sole leader when teamwork is the goal. When his group members or I calmly remind him of this, he throws a temper tantrum, storms out, cools off, comes back in, and slowly tries to gain control back in the group in what he thinks is sneaky and strategic. I am constantly struggling to teach him teamwork and collaboration even with texts or performances pieces he likes. I am really only successful if he is given his way.
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Kym O'Sullivan Posts: 3
6/11/2019
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I had a student on the autistic spectrum last year, which sometimes made it difficult for him to participate. He was beloved by the other students, but often felt left out if they didn't enthusiastically invite him to participate. Fortunately, the group was so cohesive that they soon figured this out and made sure to encourage him to join improvisation scenes, teams, and groups. In fact, it go to the point where they would lovingly fight over who got to have him on their team or in their group. All of this encouraged this student and really helped his self-esteem, but still there were some days when he just didn't want to participate, and the other students understood this, too, so after some cajoling, they would allow him to sit on the sidelines and watch. It certainly wasn't perfect, but the cohesiveness of the class is what really helped him the most.
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Kyle Lacertosa Posts: 4
6/21/2019
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I had a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder who was not only an excellent actor, but he was also very interested in art and comic books. When things would become too much for him in class, I would allow him to “take a break” from the group and use that time to create set designs or art work for the scenes or shows we were working on.
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+1
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Kyle Lacertosa Posts: 4
6/21/2019
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I had a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder who was not only an excellent actor, but he was also very interested in art and comic books. When things would become too much for him in class, I would allow him to “take a break” from the group and use that time to create set designs or art work for the scenes or shows we were working on.
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Johanna Broihahn Posts: 6
6/24/2019
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For two semesters, I taught a young lady who struggled with depression and anxiety disorder (classified as Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities under IDEA). She had an unstable home life, and due to her parents’ divorce, was often pulled between two big cities. Because of this, she was often absent from school and when she was in school, she often isolated herself. She would frequently ask to go to the bathroom and sometimes stay there the whole period. She preferred to sit in the corner seat, and although she would do individual work, she struggled to participate in group work activities such as improv games, warm-ups, and skits.
Because theater is such a performance-based course, I had to find a way for her to still show understanding in a way that was comfortable for her. Because she had taken my class before, and my curriculum is the same each semester, I decided to try and give her a small leadership role with a girl who sat next to her (who was very shy). For projects, I would pair these two girls up together, with the hope that she would feel comfortable with this partner and take on more of the responsibility. During my observations, I saw some small achievements like standing up in class to perform a skit, or extra effort on a project. In addition to this, I made accommodations on days she wasn’t feeling up to anything, such as letting her write a story or draw a scene, instead of acting it out. Each day was unique, and as her teacher, I made choices based on what she was capable of that day.
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Johanna Broihahn Posts: 6
6/24/2019
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Working with students who are hearing impaired in your particular subject must be challenging, but the accommodations you make are awesome! I especially like the fact that you provide recordings of their work to send home as feedback.
KAREN ROMINE wrote:
I have a couple of students who are hearing impaired and I teach Chorus. It affects the class in that if the student is unable to hear the music, it makes pitch matching, improvising harmonies and many other elements of this performance based class difficult for all concerned. One thing I always do is make sure that they are close to the source of the music...whether that be an instrument, a person or a speaker. Another thing I do is surround them with strong singers so that they are encompassed by the sound. Finally, I have worked with students privately after school to help them with pitch matching and recognition incorporating hand signs to communicate pitch directionality and specific interval sizes. I also provide recordings of their voice part, the accompaniment and the voice parts of all the other singers to allow them to practice at home.
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Ann Marie Morgiewicz Posts: 1
6/25/2019
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I some students who had a difficult time reading. As a result, I would often find musical lyrics that would go with our theme. The lyrics would be on the computer while the class was reading together. This is a non-threatening way to teach basic sight words along with challenging words through rhythm and music. The student would hear, see, and feel it with our sign language motions.
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PATRICIA WRIGHT Posts: 5
7/11/2019
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- A student with a disability that I had in the past needed movement to maintain there focus. Due to this he sometimes would have to leave class during times when key concepts were being gone over. Some ways I was able to help the student was to have videos of lesson that could be gone over when they returned to the classroom.
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PATRICIA WRIGHT
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PATRICIA WRIGHT Posts: 5
7/11/2019
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I am going to be teaching an after school Chorus class and will try some of your accommodations during that time. Going advice.
Johanna Broihahn wrote:
Working with students who are hearing impaired in your particular subject must be challenging, but the accommodations you make are awesome! I especially like the fact that you provide recordings of their work to send home as feedback.
KAREN ROMINE wrote:
I have a couple of students who are hearing impaired and I teach Chorus. It affects the class in that if the student is unable to hear the music, it makes pitch matching, improvising harmonies and many other elements of this performance based class difficult for all concerned. One thing I always do is make sure that they are close to the source of the music...whether that be an instrument, a person or a speaker. Another thing I do is surround them with strong singers so that they are encompassed by the sound. Finally, I have worked with students privately after school to help them with pitch matching and recognition incorporating hand signs to communicate pitch directionality and specific interval sizes. I also provide recordings of their voice part, the accompaniment and the voice parts of all the other singers to allow them to practice at home.
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PATRICIA WRIGHT
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Danell Rose Posts: 1
7/13/2019
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I had a high level functioning Autistic student in my class.
I paired him with several peers that worked at his level of commitment to acting as well as used him and his amazing abilities as a teaching tool for the others,
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Susanna Wingenroth Posts: 1
7/17/2019
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- Think of a student with a disability you have now or in the past. Describe ways in which their disability affected their learning in your class.
My student had a form of muscular dystrophy that effected his gross and fine motor functioning. By 5th grade he was using a walker to make the trek from his classroom to his enrichment classes, like Art. He is intelligent, kind, friendly and doesn’t seem to let his different ability get in his way or bring him down. In art class it is difficult for him to hold pencils, paint brushes etc… In action he has adapted his grip to maximize the strength of his muscles, and was able to draw and paint very effectively, while holding the tool between his wrists, or painting with his fingers. I could have offered him adaptive tools, and will definitely do so in the future. But I also feel that in this child’s case, the pride that he takes in making his own adaptations was well worth it, and may have been lost had I provided him with a different set of tools. When finger painting, he was smiling and laughing, and the project was very suitable to using fingers instead of brushes, so other children at his table began to follow his idea.
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SusannaWingenroth
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Mary Jeter Posts: 4
7/19/2019
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Administrator wrote:
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 am a middle school chorus teacher. My student was hearing impaired since birth and wore hearing aids. Consequently because of his hearing impairment he had trouble match pitch. The first thing I did for him was to move him as close to the piano and speakers as possible. To help with his pitch matching issues which were too extensive to go into detail here, I worked with him one on one. This was done in short 5-10 minute mini lessons. Drilling hi and lo pitches to start. Then just 1 to 2 notes within his limited vocal range. The rest of the time I the classroom he sang with the rest of the class.
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Brook Hamilton Posts: 3
8/22/2019
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As a Theatre Teacher, Graphic Organizers and Mnemonics work great for students and performers to learn new material. These devices would help Students with Disabilities by offering a great way for them to follow the theatre management ladder, rules and procedures, as well as lines for monologues and scene work.
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Brook Hamilton Posts: 3
8/22/2019
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I have a student that has vision impairment and cannot read the font used for the class. Therefore, I allow the student to blow up the text on my computer to take tests.
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Brook Hamilton Posts: 3
8/22/2019
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I had a student with Autism which hindered their ability to focus on the task at hand. The student was asked to recite a monologue, which they were normally able to memorize with easel but for this particular assignment, the student simply told a personal story. Then the timer went off for one-minute, and the student refused to stop.
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SANDRA CAIN Posts: 1
8/26/2019
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I taught a student with down syndrome. She had a difficult time working in groups. I assigned a fellow student that she trusted to become her drama buddy. Her drama buddy guided her during group projects/assignments. This arrangement made a huge difference in her comfort and participation level within the group work scenario.
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Gary French Posts: 2
10/10/2019
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I taught a student with Autism as well. I seated the student close to my desk and the front of the room, so that I could subtly redirect, repeat instructions, and add details to my answers specifically for him. In addition, I taught how to follow the lead of students that sat at his desk, which seemed to help him stay on task.
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Scott Weill Posts: 3
12/8/2019
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I had a student who was legally blind. This was a reading class for struggling learners. I seated her in the group closest in proximity to where I usually lectured from. I also had her text specially magnified and provided her with a magnifying glass which greatly helped her.
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