Methods of Teaching the At-Risk and Disabled Learner
This semester I was asked to use what I learned through assessments last semester and put my expertise to good use to help tutor a struggling student. I was asked to make goals for this student and help him work towards eventually achieving these goals. I thought this sounded like an easy task and I was initially unsure of what I would actually learn about my student and especially myself by conducting these lessons. However, I was really shocked to realize how difficult it was to work towards these goals and even more shocked about the problems I had trying to come up with a variety of strategies to try with my student.
After only achieving two of the six goals I originally set for my student I had to look back and evaluate why my student was unable to make more progress. Yet, it was not the student’s progress that had to be adjusted, but my expectations. I had chosen goals far too ambitious for a young student to be able to reach in just a few short weeks. My other problem was that I chose goals that are a few steps away from where my student currently is. What I should have done was talked more with his teacher and looked further at this student’s assessments and realized simpler goals would have been more helpful for my student. Building a strong foundation sets up hope for achieving future skills. If I had the chance to do this semester again I would have had more realistic expectations. I would have spent more time assessing the student and talking to past and current teachers to determine what goals would have been more appropriate for the student. Had I done this initially I would have avoided wasting time modifying goals and could have spent more time working towards them. In the future I will remember that the assessment is just as important as the learning process. The more assessments the teacher makes, the more realistic their expectations can be.
Another problem I had this semester was coming up with multiple strategies to provide my student with. If I had more methods to try to equip my student with, he may have made it closer to achieving his goals. I know that if I had worked with a partner we could have combined our ideas and would have been able to come up with twice the amount of strategies that I came up with alone. This, I realize, is why collaboration is so important. Working with other teachers not only would have helped me develop a better plan for this student but it would have helped me come up with more ideas to use. Collaboration with other professionals seems to be one of the best and unfortunately one of the most underutilized tool a teacher can use. As an inexperienced teacher I feel that the more I can take from my experienced colleagues the better. Of course I will be constantly thinking of my own ideas as well, but when multiple minds are put together the products are usually a lot stronger.
I can see now how difficult it must be to put only a few goals on a students IEP each year. Yet, with a team of professionals I think the goals can be a lot more realistic than what I started with. The more experience I have with students the better I will be at choosing goals for them to work towards. This semester I made a lot of mistakes when it came to working with my student, which was unfortunate for our sessions but beneficial when I take into consideration how much it has allowed me to grow. I am now aware of how important it is to take time to assess students and to always have realistic expectations. I am not saying as teachers we should lower our expectations depending on the students level but we should make sure what we expect them to do is in a realistic distance from their current level of function. It is simply unfair to expect something more of students that aren’t yet at the appropriate level to complete complex tasks. I hope in the future to keep these sessions in mind and try not to make the same mistake twice. This will be better for me and my future class.
After only achieving two of the six goals I originally set for my student I had to look back and evaluate why my student was unable to make more progress. Yet, it was not the student’s progress that had to be adjusted, but my expectations. I had chosen goals far too ambitious for a young student to be able to reach in just a few short weeks. My other problem was that I chose goals that are a few steps away from where my student currently is. What I should have done was talked more with his teacher and looked further at this student’s assessments and realized simpler goals would have been more helpful for my student. Building a strong foundation sets up hope for achieving future skills. If I had the chance to do this semester again I would have had more realistic expectations. I would have spent more time assessing the student and talking to past and current teachers to determine what goals would have been more appropriate for the student. Had I done this initially I would have avoided wasting time modifying goals and could have spent more time working towards them. In the future I will remember that the assessment is just as important as the learning process. The more assessments the teacher makes, the more realistic their expectations can be.
Another problem I had this semester was coming up with multiple strategies to provide my student with. If I had more methods to try to equip my student with, he may have made it closer to achieving his goals. I know that if I had worked with a partner we could have combined our ideas and would have been able to come up with twice the amount of strategies that I came up with alone. This, I realize, is why collaboration is so important. Working with other teachers not only would have helped me develop a better plan for this student but it would have helped me come up with more ideas to use. Collaboration with other professionals seems to be one of the best and unfortunately one of the most underutilized tool a teacher can use. As an inexperienced teacher I feel that the more I can take from my experienced colleagues the better. Of course I will be constantly thinking of my own ideas as well, but when multiple minds are put together the products are usually a lot stronger.
I can see now how difficult it must be to put only a few goals on a students IEP each year. Yet, with a team of professionals I think the goals can be a lot more realistic than what I started with. The more experience I have with students the better I will be at choosing goals for them to work towards. This semester I made a lot of mistakes when it came to working with my student, which was unfortunate for our sessions but beneficial when I take into consideration how much it has allowed me to grow. I am now aware of how important it is to take time to assess students and to always have realistic expectations. I am not saying as teachers we should lower our expectations depending on the students level but we should make sure what we expect them to do is in a realistic distance from their current level of function. It is simply unfair to expect something more of students that aren’t yet at the appropriate level to complete complex tasks. I hope in the future to keep these sessions in mind and try not to make the same mistake twice. This will be better for me and my future class.