7/1/2019
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Walter Younglove
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Ryan would always be seen around campus with a smile on his face and he was always happy to see you. I must say that I have never met a kid with Downs Syndrome that had the personality that Ryan did. I teach Television Production and suggested that Ryan sign up for my class. Sometimes a class that can be as creative as mine is a way for a student to use photography or shooting video as a great way to be self expressive.
When Ryan started in TV he was great at doing graphics that we use in our daily Television show and it seemed like he found his niche. I could always count on him to get something done. I did notice that despite his personality, he was having trouble working in groups to do other projects. Maybe he wasn’t sure what to do so I tried to direct him as best
I could. He had other assignments that he could do by himself but it seemed that he lost interest in doing them. Still had that same personality but started to not be interested in trying or doing what it took to get some projects done. I grade very fairly when if comes to students with disabilities or other family hardships that limit what they can do in my class but I do have one stipulation, and that is that they should at least try.
The third grading period, I decided to give Ryan a low grade in my class because in my opinion, he wasn’t even trying anymore. This of course raised some eyebrows with his parents. My thinking was that even though a kid has some disabilities, they are not always perfectly behaved or do perfect work. They can be just like other students. They can be lazy, they can misbehave, they can be procrastinators. When I read the People First language of folks with disabilities, I feel that it justified my reasoning for giving Ryan a low grade. Just because Ryan has a disability does not mean I have to look at that disability and take pity on him, he is just like many of my other students who have a hard time getting motivated.
I still run into Ryan at the grocery store where he works, and he still has that same personality. He is always asking “Do you miss me?” |
7/5/2019
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Walter Younglove
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I teach the Television Production course at my high school. One of the strategies that I could implement is Differentiated Assignments. Students in my classes come with different experiences and talents. Assignment can range from very basic to very complex. Students that are more advanced can be given the more complex projects while students with less experience can be given more basic assignments. This will allow me to offer individualized learning for every student in my classroom.
The second strategy that I am planning this fall is a Graphic Organizer. I am purchasing composition books for all my students to be able to keep Interactive Student Notebooks where they can keep materials to reference as they do projects in my course. They can use Venn diagrams to help students describe and compare things such as microphones, cords and connectors and ideas. I am hoping this will alleviate repeating procedures over and over again and give my students ways to reference and troubleshoot. |
7/6/2019
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Walter Younglove
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I had a student once that had a hard time reading the computer screen. The print was so small he could hardly read it. We looked for a screen magnifier to fit the computer screen monitor. We found one that could magnify it by 1 1/2 times the original picture. That was better but still not what we were looking for. It made the screen distorted around the edges. There must be a better way. The text needed to be clearer. We discovered that then computer itself had a display enlargement setting. Problem solved. Now we needed something to enlarge the picture on the television camera that students use to shoot video. We hooked up a mobile larger monitor on a cart and that remedied the problem. |