5/19/2018
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Stephanie McNaughton
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I currently have a student with cerebral palsy. He loves music and looks forward to class each week. I try my best to adapt all of our activities as best I can. When we do movement he stands (with his braces) by me and modifies his actions if necessary. When we limbo he wheels his own wheelchair and we adapt the limbo pole for him. What is toughest for him is playing instruments. I allow him to alter his matched grip to play xylophones. Recorder has been trickier. He cannot play with both hands. His left hand will play G-D, but his right hand does not allow him to play lower. He worked on pieces that used higher notes this year. Next year I am going to try to purchase a modified recorder (which I have seen before) to allow him to access all the notes. |
5/20/2018
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Stephanie McNaughton
|
I use my SmartBoard for many of my lessons. I am able to increase font and graphic size. Even videos are projected much larger than on a tv or computer screen. Not only do my students with visual challenges benefit from this, but also my students that are ADHD stay focused longer when I use larger pictures and multiple colors. A couple years ago I had a visually impaired student who was legally blind. I knew that having to sit up close to the board was making her feel a bit uncomfortable because she couldn't sit with her friends while using the board. I started enlarging lessons for her class. She still had to sit in the front row, but not on top of the board. I could tell this really helped her self esteem. |
5/21/2018
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Stephanie McNaughton
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Right now I have a student who can only hear out of one ear. He often lets me know when I am not talking loud enough or the music examples aren't loud enough for him to hear properly. I could assist him during assessment by showing videos with the closed cation feature on. I could also assist him during assessment by using sign language during a listening piece or turning the closed cation on for the audio recording. |