3/29/2021
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Diana Chighizola
|
I currently have a student (4th grade) who I suspect has a behavioral disorder. He is currently scheduled for testing. His behavior is not bad, just that he cannot focus and is so easily distracted by any thing he finds interesting. He also regularly misses social responses. I really like this boy and I know what works because I have had him since kindergarten. One of his favorite things to do is to look for "treasures" , beads, marker caps and broken pen parts, on the floor. It can distract him so much so that he forgets why he is in the class. I have created a routine with him, an undocumented contract, that if he gives me his full effort and attention for at least 20 minutes he can keep all of the treasures he finds on the floor. I do believe this student may grow up to be an engineer one day and I also think that his testing may reveal something on the Autism spectrum but I don't need a test to tell me how to help him. Our personal contract works well! |
3/30/2021
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Diana Chighizola
|
I regularly differentiate my lessons even though I teach in a Private school, and we are not required to provide for special needs the same way you would in a public school, we do accept and teach special needs students. Most often I will adjust the complexity of the product. I will provide exemplars of different final projects and allow students to pace themselves with the level of difficulty. My artists always go for the more challenging outcome. I also have systematic instructional routines that my students learn from Kindergarten on. One I can think of specifically is when I teach watercolor, we have a chant about the steps: "brush in the water, to the paint, to the paper". This works for all students. |
3/30/2021
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Diana Chighizola
|
I use several strategies when assessing art lesson with my students. For most lessons I will give a rubric. I have students self-assess to the rubric. When we are in the beginning stages of a lesson, say a drawing tutorial, I will teach and model how to self-assess. My students love to show me each step of a multi step drawing to help them check for accuracy. This gets to be too much so I start them as early as Kindergarten how to self-assess. (Did I follow all of the steps, does the scale of my drawing look like the sample, etc.) We also use journals/sketch-books both for reflection as well as practice drawings. I am teaching my students the difference between critique (positive suggestions and feed back) and criticism. I believe these strategies work for general education classes as well as special needs students. We aren't comparing ourselves to each other but rather looking for personal best and growth. It does help that I have these students for grades K-8th so I get to know them well enough to know when they are doing their best. |