2/6/2022
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Wayne Steadman
|
I had a student who was deaf/hard of hearing resulting in speech impairment. She had Cochlear Implants and although she would wear them often, she didn't like to and would often remove the outside device. We also had a classroom mic system specifically for hard of hearing students but she hated that also. She had very supportive parents and on our initial conference they informed me that she could read lips. My strategy moving forward would be to place her in the front of the class and always face her so she could read my lips when we had class instruction. In our theatre shop instruction, I did the same thing using one on one close proximity instruction. She was also good at positioning herself to see my lips and had no qualms about moving me so she could see my face. This student also had severe visual impairment which was corrected somewhat with glasses. I had her in class from 6th through 8th grade. She attended speech therapy sessions and I worked closely with her therapist to understand her speech. After the first quarter I began to understand her in conversation. She loved to read and was very quiet the first year but was totally engaged with learning theatre. Her disability was never a disability to her. Her advantage over her disabilities was her extreme intelligence and persistence. She was a student who never wasted her time and became a brilliant young actress. What I thought might have been a very difficult challenge in teaching became one of my very favorite experiences. |
2/7/2022
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Wayne Steadman
|
I'm really interested in using the TASK CARDS for Tiered instruction. I'm teaching my 7th grade class to run a theatrical production which involves each student learning to call a technical rehearsal as a stage manager, an assistant stage manager, a light board operator, and a sound board operator. Printing procedures and their sequence of implementation would be helpful for students to learn what is expected in each job to be performed when running a technical rehearsal from opening the house at half hour and beginning the show to final curtain and house lights up. Ounce students understand the procedure for each job, I could enhance their understanding of the sequence of setup by breaking down each step on a single card and have them arrange the sequence in small groups.
Another strategy I could incorporate is the use of The Cornell Note-Taking technique to help 6th grade students learn theatre vocabulary. This would be useful in learning the types of tools used in the shop and how they are used. They could use this strategy to learn the different types of theatres and other theatrical terms. I find that many 6th grade students do not know how to take study notes. The Cornell Note-taking strategy would enable students to have a differentiated strategy to take notes from which they can study. The simple practice of writing down the concepts extends the learning process physically into their body and mind. I would need to be mindful of students with writing difficulties so that would need to be monitored to make sure all students are capable of this strategy. If that is the case, I would adapt the practice to help struggling students. |
2/9/2022
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Wayne Steadman
|
Going back to my student with hearing disability, I had to give certain accommodations for her hearing and speech disability. In the 7th grade theatre curriculum I teach students how to plan and run a theatrical production. This involves all aspects of "behind the scenes" operations. I assess stage management abilities, light and sound board operation and assistant stage manager responsibilities. Because of the Cochlear Implants and hearing device, I physically adapted the headgear used for communication to the asm, and light and sound board operators so that it wouldn't compress the student's personal hearing device but could still be used to communicate with her crew. Because I knew that other students in the class frequently had trouble understanding her speech, I decided to use a sitz probe exercise for each group in the class where they could sit and practice calling the show before they moved into the theatre so that students in her group could get used to her voice and speech when calling her show. This was not originally in my plan for students learning how to stage manage. Usually, because of time limitations in the quarter, we just went to the theatre once we completed classroom instruction and theory and started fumbling through the show. By doing this for each group in the class, it allowed her to feel like it was part of the normal process and also allowed her crew to get used to her voice and how she called her show. As it turned out, all of my students with 504 or other IEP accommodations benefitted from this practice. It gave them another level of practice before the final skills assessment. |