7/20/2023
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Joesph Comer
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I had this student who I will call happy for the purposes of this forum. He was EBD and visually impaired possibly OHI. He lost one eye in an accident over a summer break a few years in the past.
Happy was so disruptive the other students were finding it difficult to learn. He would roam around the class annoying the other students and in some cases destroying the other student’s work. I called home and learned about the event that took his eye. After a long conversation with his grandma I learned things that I could use.
The first thing I used was to spend the first 5 minutes with him just chatting and talking about the reason I wore glasses. In collage I had a lab partner who splashed HCL (hydrochloric acid) in my eyes. This damaged my left eye and made my vision blurry. He asked several questions. The one he was most interested in was I still mad at my lab partner. I noticed that he was paying close attention to my answer. I explained it was an accident and if I spent time holding a grudge I didn’t have time to enjoy life. After our chat we were on the same footing. He calmed down and asked if he could set by me during the class. His seat was moved to the conference desk adjacent to mine. We would have the daily chat where I snuck in the lesson instructions. His work improved and was quite amazing. His anger was driving his behavior and In my class he was in an anger free zone. The change was remarkable and the other teachers noticed how his behavior was different around me. When they asked how I just said you need to talk to him and really listen. He wants to be seen as a normal kid ad treated fairly. |
7/22/2023
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Joesph Comer
|
2. Describe at least one way you have used technology to meet the needs of a student with a disability in your art classroom. Be sure to identify or describe the specific technology and the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion. With the post COVID classroom I have noticed that all my students are suffering from a gap in their education. These groups of kids are less focused and impatient. They are the group that requires immediate response meaning if the answer is not evident they will not look for it.
I had several students that were ADHD and could not sit still long enough for a fast introduction or explanation of the lesson. The strategy that I used the most was Google classroom where I posted short instructional videos of the subject that we were learning. For example one of my assignments was based upon a pop art variation where the student would find a subject on the Internet and take a copy of the picture they wanted to use and then trace that picture onto newspaper where they use the newspaper as negative space in their composition of the artwork. This lesson was videoed so that each step of the process was made available in short concise chapters of the lesson.
Using the Google classroom video assignments help the students who need it extend it or guide it instructions that were chunked so that the students could complete the process without worrying about the process itself. I found that my ADHD students reviewed and used the videos more than any of my other students. The use of the technology increased the ability of those students who had problems with sitting still and listening. The short attention span of those students was a giant deficit. I noticed that before using the technology the ADHD students would give up and not complete the tasks. Another plus was that it was easier to explain to the parents who wish their students to complete the work at home; they found that the work was easier to understand when they saw it being completed in stages.
Overall I found that the use of Google classroom and videos in the Google classroom made my students more attentive and gave the students who used it more confidence and the quality of work was increased immensely. |
7/24/2023
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Joesph Comer
|
1. Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the art classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
The past year in art I had a student that was vision impaired and diagnosed with ADHD. The student was concerned about his grade and refused to do the work because he was afraid of failing the assignment. That student was also a disruptive student who could not sit still and would not leave the other students alone. I spoke of him earlier in one of my assignments. I am using him again because he was the most outstanding and memorable student that I had. The student would not do the work and would destroy the art materials out of frustration. As I mentioned before a one on one intervention with him discussing different things about the aspect of art and life brought him around. In the situation that I am describing for this Reflection and conversation I want to talk about his question that struck my understanding of hoe to grade fairly to the core. His question spurred an adaptive or alternative assessment in not only his but all student’s work.
The student asked me, “If I cannot draw because I don’t see the paper properly how can you grade me?” My response was not immediate. I told him I had to think about his question. While I let him prepare for the assignment I walk the classroom observing other students. I did notice the quality of work differed immensely from student to student. This spurred me into thinking how do I grade my students when they are at different levels of understanding and ability. Do I grade it on how pretty the work is? Do I grate it on how colorful the work is? Do I grade the quality of work the student did? These questions came to mind and I had to think back on my teaching career. In the past I taught science and in science we learned that there were two types or qualities of investigation or observation. These qualities were considered to be quantitative or qualitative. In quantitative we look at the amount or degree at which the student is completing the assignment and understanding the concepts. In qualitative we look at how the students progresses with the concept and how pretty or colorful the piece is.
This is when I decided to start grading my work on quantity not quality. In fact the students question revamped my grading process so that I could give each student a fair and objective grade. This grade was not based on how pretty or how colorful the work was but rather how the work was completed the amount of Understanding that the student put into the work. This process gives us student the ability to do his or her very best by demonstrating the amount of understanding of the assignment.
This adaptive grading also gave the students the ability to evaluate each other. In the past the students would look at the work and say that is completely messy and does not look pretty. Both descriptions of the work were completely qualitative and did not demonstrate the understanding of the assignment.
I feel that greeting quantitatively instead of qualitatively the students have a fair chance at completing the assignment Regardless of their ability to do art with the added bonus of confidence. |