What disability does Sheldon have?

The character of Sheldon from the hit TV show “The Big Bang Theory” is a humourous character because of all of his quirks and habits.  He is obviously obsessive compulsive, and a certifiable genius (with an IQ of 187, two PhDs, and a job as a theoretical physicist), but looking at his behaviour makes one wonder, does Sheldon have a disability?  If he were in school, he would be a code 80 (gifted and talented) without a doubt, but would he also have another disability?

Sheldon displays many signs of being unable to conform to societal norms.  He often says inappropriate things to people, pointing out their flaws openly with no filter.  He does not understand figurative ways of speaking, slang, or things such as sarcasm.  He has a very large ego, which in part contributes to his inability to ever see his faults or when he is at fault in a situation.  He also lacks empathy, never being able to see how he or anything else can upset a person, and never relating his actions to the feelings of others around him.  He believes that everything he says is completely true, and that there can be no other solution to any situation than the one that he comes up with.

Looking at all of these things, it seems to be apparent that Sheldon does in fact have a disability according to the Alberta Coding Criteria.  Looking at his symptoms it seems that Sheldon likely has an emotional/behavioural disability (code 53).  The following definition of a code 53 is found in the Alberta Special Education Coding Critera:

EMOTIONAL/BEHAVIOURAL DISABILITY

A student/ECS child identified with a mild to moderate emotional/behavioural disability exhibits chronic and pervasive behaviours that interfere with the learning and safety of the student/child, other students/children and staff.

Typically, behaviour disabilities are characterized by a number of observable maladaptive behaviours:

1.      an inability to establish or maintain satisfactory relationships with peers or adults

2. a general mood of unhappiness or depression
3. inappropriate behaviour or feelings under ordinary conditions
4. continued difficulty in coping with the learning situation in spite of remedial intervention
5. physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems
6. difficulties in accepting the realities of personal responsibility and accountability
7. physical violence toward other persons and/or physical destructiveness toward the environment.

Although Sheldon does not possess all of these criteria of a code 53 he does possess most, and I believe if he were in an Alberta school he would likely fall under this category.  He would of course be coded as gifted/talented as well, but teachers would have to work with him in the area of social norms in order to help him socialize with other students. 

"Setting the Direction"

“Setting the Direction” is the Alberta initiative to create inclusion in special education.  The main idea behind it is to create full inclusion in all Alberta schools, instead of having things such as special education classrooms in which students with special needs are separated from mainstream students. 

I have been thinking recently about how I feel about “Setting the Direction.”  In many ways I am against inclusion, because I find that students with special needs benefit more from one-on-one attention from a teacher, which is rare in a mainstream classroom.  Creating an IPP for a student seems to be very beneficial to students with special needs because they have their own individual goals to achieve instead of having to complete curriculum requirements along with the rest of the class.  I believe that special education classes or educational assistants are very beneficial for students with disabilities, and that completely ridding of this system could be dangerous.

On the other hand, I have been trying to see special education from another perspective.  I recently watched the hit movie “The Express”.  In this movie an African-American man plays football for the UCLA college football team in the late 1950s, but is not accepted by the league and the fans because of his race.  While watching this movie I began to relate it to children with special needs.  I began asking myself, “is this essentially what we are doing to children with disabilities?  Do we have a preconceived notion that they should be separated from “the rest of us” and that is where they belong?  What is this idea based on?  And do we simply think this way because this is the way people before us thought, and so this is how we have been taught to think?”  With these ideas in mind I began comparing the idea of segregation of students with disabilities to segregation of races.  Although there is evidence that students with disabilities do need extra help and attention to learn academically, whereas different races do not, there are realistically no differences between the situations socially.  Just like people of a race other than Caucasian, students with disabilities deserve to be placed in a classroom with the mainstream children, so they can have the same opportunities throughout their schooling and their life.

This new way of thinking has led me to believe much more in inclusive classrooms.  Students with disabilities deserve to be included in regular classroom situations to give them the same social and academic opportunities as all other students.  Although they may need to receive extra assistance in their learning, this may be received through an educational assistant in the classroom, or occasional “pull-outs” during which the student is removed from the regular classroom to work on their own goals.  I believe that there should be an “in-between” in inclusive education in which students receive the extra assistance they require but are involved in the regular classroom as much as possible.

Differentiating Assessment

Differentiated assessment is closely related to differentiated instruction, and is in fact to beginning of it, because in order to define how to differentiate instruction for students the teacher must first know how well the students perform.  It is assessing the students in different ways depending on their different needs.  It most often includes formative assessment, and can be used easily in an IPP as means of assessing a student's progress of their goals.

There are two purposes to differentiated assessment, including assessment for learning, and the facilitation of metacognition.  Assessment for learning, or formative assessment, includes giving the students immediate feedback on their learning and work so both the students and the teacher have an idea of how the student is progressing.  The grades given in formative assessment are not taken in as part of the student’s grade in that class, but provide an idea on where and how the student can improve.  The facilitation of metacognition includes the teacher giving the students the skills to be aware of their own thinking.  Metacognition is the highest level of thinking, as it is being aware of thinking.  It involves reflection of one's self and how you learn, or assessment as learning.  This is important in differentiating assessment because it helps student know how they learn best and what their strengths are so they can capitalize on them.

In planning for differentiated assessment there are 5 steps: (1) determine the purpose; (2) establish a focus; (3) select and use a strategy; (4) record the results; and (5) interpret the results and take action.

1)      Determine the purpose: determine what the point of the assessment is, and why.  Also ask yourself if the students are mastering the content you are teaching them

2)      Establish a focus: the teacher needs to narrow down the curriculum to a narrow focus, and make it more meaningful. 

3)      Select and use a strategy: the teacher should use some kind of formative assessment to assess the student’s learning pertaining to the subject they are learning about.

4)      Record the results: record the student’s progress and either use the results for feedback immediately or keep it long term.

5)      Interpret the results and take action: take the results you have obtained and consider if students have mastered the content you have been teaching them.  If they are move onto the next subject, or if they are not you may need to spend more time on that subject.

Differentiated assessment should be used in many areas of the classroom as it is very useful for the students in being able to master subject matter and discover how they learn best.  It is very beneficial for the teacher as well as it helps them to understand how well students are understanding the lessons and if they need to re-teach anything so the students understand it.  In the future I hope to use differentiated assessment in my classroom as I am a strong believer in formative assessment.

Differentiating Instruction

Differentiating instruction is essentially modifying teaching so students can learn better.  There are many things involved in differentiating instruction, and it goes hand-in-hand with differentiating assessment.  It is a very student-centred, progressivist way of teaching, and is generally quite effective in the classroom.

Because differentiating instruction has its roots in progressivism, it is very important to understand progressivism compared to traditionalism.  Progressivism involves teaching students practical things, things that they will need to know for their future.  John Dewey was one of the first people to reccommend this type of teaching, because he felt students needed to learn things in school that would be more suitable and relevant to their future careers.  Traditionalism is the idea that students are empty vessels to be filled by the teacher, and are "filled" with whatever the teacher should deem important to learn.  This often included things such as speaking Latin or being able to solve difficult math equations.

There are three things that are modified in a classroom that uses differentiating instruction, the content, the process, and the product.  Differentiating the content involves changing what the students are going to learn and the materials they are going to use to learn it.  This includes such things as the curriculum of what students are expected to learn, and any means they're going to learn through such as novels, poems, and movies, and any other resources they are going to use to learn from.  The process includes differentiating the activities the students are going to be engaging in in order to learn.  This includes reading books, any review activities, and many other things in which the students are learning.  And finally, the product is what it is the student creates that demonstrates their learning.  This can be most types of assesments such as tests or essays, or it could also be diagrams, artistic works, or many other unconventional things.

There are three means through which the teacher can maximize students' learning.  There is students' readiness to learn, students' interests, and students' learning profiles.  A student's readiness to learn includes where they are currently at, and how ready they are to move forward in their learning.  Scaffolding is a large part of readiness in differentiating instruction, as the teacher should always be teaching one step above where the student is currently at so they can build on their current knowledge and strive to achieve more.  A student's interests is also very important to use in differentiating instruction.  Students should be taught about things they are passionate about or that intrigue them.  A teacher can use a student's natural interests to get them to learn new things.  Lastly, teaching to students' individual learning profiles can be very useful to a teacher.  Each child learns differently and the teacher should try to teach according to a student's best way of learning as much as possible.  This may be learning kinesthetically, socially, logically, deductively, or many other ways.

By using these ways of differentiating instruction it is very possible to create an effective classroom in which students not only learn well, but they learn well because they want to.  They will be interested in the subject matter and will be able to see how it pertains to their future.  They will be able to use what they have learned in school in their adult life and are not forced to learn material that they have absolutely no interest in.  Differentiating instruction for students is a very good method of teaching, and I personally hope it will become more popular and will be included in schooling more often in the near future.

Creating Objectives for IPP Goals

When creating an IPP, it must include various things, but the most important components of one can be said to be the goals and objectives.  I have previously discussed how to create SMART goals, but under each of these goals there needs to be three objectives breaking up the goal into measurable parts. 

When creating objectives, it is important to keep in mind that they should adhere to the ACT HOW acronym.  This stands for action, context, and terms, and the HOW represents how you are going to measure these things.
A: Action.  This involves the verb of the objective.  It is the action that the student is going to take in order to improve in an area.  It is what they are going to do and learn, and it is what are they going to know when they have achieved the objective.  This can include many things, such as the student will be able to count to 50, or the student will complete written assignments.
C: Context.  The context of the objective is where, when, and under what conditions is the student expected to perform the action.  This may be written in a way such as the student will perform the action twice a week, at home or at school, in a certain classroom, by the end of class, or on the SMARTboard.
T: Terms.  The objective's terms involve writing the criteria for the student's work to be considered a success.  This includes how well or for how long the learning takes place, what percentage they must achieve on the work, or how much of the assignment or learning they must accomplish each time.  These may be things such as the student will achieve 80% on assignments given, or they must accomplish 2 out of 3 assignments.
HOW: How.  This is by what means is the student going to show they accomplished the objective. It is what the student does to show they have achieved their objective.  It also includes how the teacher is going to show that the student has achieved their goals, so how are they going to be assessed?  This may include tests, worksheets, self-reflections, and many other things.

Objectives are very important to an IPP because it makes the goals more specific and breaks them up so the teacher and the student have a vivid start and finishing point.  It elaborates on the goals and makes them seem more achieveable and less overwhelming as well.  A well written IPP should have objectives that follow the ACT HOW model that are specific and pertain to the goal they are under.

Creating Goals in an IPP

Students with disabilities require an individual program plan to be made for them so they can improve throughout the year and their progress can be monitored.  They often are required to learn different things than the other students in their classroom, so it is important to determine what they are going to learn and decide the best way for them to achieve it at the beginning of the year.  In order to determine what they are going to learn goals must be made for the student so they have something to strive to achieve throughout the year. 

The goals that are made must be “SMART” goals, meaning they must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.  It is important for a goal to include all of these things so that the student knows exactly what they are striving for and how they can best achieve it.  It is also important for the student to know how long it should take them to achieve the goal so they have something to look forward to, and can feel a sense of accomplishment when they have reached their goal.

Goals are typically focused on one of five different areas that can be improved.  The first area is self help skills, which includes choice making and personal advocacy, such as sharing with others what their needs are appropriately.  The second area is pro-social skills, including being able to get along with others, and managing emotions such as anger or sadness.  The third area goals can be focused on is communications skills, which involves both receptive and expressive communication like maintaining eye contact and actively listening.  The fourth area is academic skills, including reading, writing, literacy, and mathematics.  And finally, the fifth area of goal focus is work habits, which includes such things as working appropriately and on task, being punctual, coming to class prepared, and many other things.

Strategies for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities are always in need of “systems” and routines in their daily lives to make things less difficult for them.  Strategies are a way for them to learn new things in their lives, both academic and personal.  Strategies are often used by kids with disabilities but are useful for all people, as they help a person learn and remember new things. 

There are two main things that strategies do; one, it gets the subject active in their learning, and two, it moves the subject toward metacognition.  These are both very important in learning because the subject, or student in particular, will become more interested in what they are learning and will remember it better.  It will also assist them in learning the best way for them to effectively learn any subject matter, which will be useful for them in many aspects of their lives.  Generally students will not willingly consent to using strategies, but once they experience success with it they will adapt the strategy so it works better for them and will be excited about using it.

One of the most used strategies for students with disabilities is the “SQ4R” strategy for reading.  It is an acronym for multiple steps in reading and is used as follows:

S: Survey.  The student surveys the text, the content of it, any objectives involved in it, the introduction to the text, and the summary of the text.

Q: Question.  The student asks themselves multiple questions about the text, including what may happen, what the definition of something may be, who the main subject of the text is, and many others.

R (1): Read.  The student reads through the text, answering the questions they previously asked themselves, and paying attention to everything in the text.

R (2): Recite.  The student answers the questions they are answering out loud, reinforcing the knowledge of the text they are gaining.

R (3): Relate.  The student relates the text and happenings in the text to their own lives and events that they have encountered themselves.

R (4): Review.  The student reviews everything they read and recalls events and facts from the text.

This is a very successful strategy for students with disabilities to use when reading.  It helps them to concentrate on what they are reading and become active in their reading.  They can also use this strategy in areas of their everyday life that require reading, whether it be instructions, directions, or many other things.