AER Form
Curation Link: https://elink.io/980aa91
Summaries of Resources:
Policy 1: Fundamental Principles
Resource 1:
“Capacity Building Series: Parent Engagement.” Ontario Ministry of Education. Oct 2012. https://bit.ly/1kVLdnt
This Ontario document outlines the importance
of parental engagement in the classroom. On page 2 of the Growing Success
document, it is outlined that “the present document updates, clarifies,
coordinates, and consolidates the various aspects of the policy, with the aim
of maintaining high standards, improving student learning, and benefiting
students, parents.” This resource emphasizes that parents and guardians are an
integral part of a student’s education and success in the classroom. It is
imperative that these resources (Growing Success, Ministry of Education documents,
curriculum expectations and rubrics), be transparent to students and parents.
This ensures that teachers and parents are on the same page about the
educational expectations for their student/ child. This also allows parents to
support teachers in their assessment methods, and reinforce reasoning for a
given assessment to their child. Although there can be challenges involving
parental views and beliefs, and the intentions of the teacher, this document is
an effective resource in bridging the gap between parent and teacher
understanding about education. This document encourages teachers to have open
communication with families, in order for people outside the school community
to understand educational language. This source provided various means of communication
between parents and teachers, such as: school functions, interviews, phone
calls, and even surveys. Parents need to understand what their child will be
learning and how they will be assessed, in order to support student success.
Resource 2:
This page on the Halton website is called
“Getting Your School Ready For Parent Engagement,” and provides general
information and additional links for school faculty. The page provides teachers
and faculty members with 3 steps to follow in order to successfully incorporate
parent engagement in the school. There are suggestions under the heading,
“Assess,” wherein faculty members can reflect on their school and identify
where they can improve upon parent engagement, by following Halton’s checklist.
The checklist provides statements that faculty can easily answer in order to
gage their school’s level of current parent engagement, and serves as a way to
create criteria for what a parent- engaged school looks like. This source is
helpful, as it provides ways that everyone in the school can incorporate
parents into the community, demonstrating that parent engagement is not the
sole responsibility of the teacher. Parent engagement is not simply
incorporating the students’ parents and families into the classroom, but it is
about ensuring that families feel included in the school community. Under the
heading, “Increasing parent engagement: barriers and strategies for success,”
there are several ways in which parents can feel welcomed and engaged in a
school setting, which provides possible answers for my question on this topic.
Policy 7: Students with Special Education Needs,
Modifications, Accomodations and Alternative programs
Resource 1:
“Inclusive
Classrooms: Looking at Special Education Today.” ASCD In Service. 6 June 2018. https://bit.ly/2DnbCZn
This source states that it is required for
students with exceptionalities to be learning alongside children who are not
disabled. This practice creates an inclusive and diverse classroom, with the
successful educational achievement of all children in mind. Having an inclusive
classroom aids in reducing negative stereotypes about students with
disabilities, because all classmates have individualized learning needs. The
higher expectations for students with special needs benefit them, and help them
to be more successful than they would if they were in an isolated classroom. This
blog post provides “Strategies for Inclusion,” for teachers that are working in
integrated classrooms. This resource provides me with a better understanding of
how to incorporate differentiated instruction into an inclusive classroom, and
strategies for differentiating assessment. Additionally, this resource
highlights the importance of universal design for learning, which is the
concept that certain aspects of learning and education can be applied to
benefit all students. For example, if a teacher of an inclusive classroom is required
to teach life skills to students with exceptionalities, this also benefits
students without disabilities, who would not have had the opportunity to learn
these strategies in a homogenous classroom.
Resource 2:
Thakur,
Kalpana. “Differentiated Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms” Research Journal of Educational Sciences, vol.
2, no. 7, 2014, https://bit.ly/2QHaQu0
This journal article represents the benefits
and challenges of differentiated instruction, in relation to educational
psychology theories and learning styles. The paper focuses on the areas in
which teachers can differentiate their instruction and assessment: content,
process, product and learning environment. These strategies are easy to
understand and implement, which can effectively help a teacher to accommodate
the needs of every student. The first strategy provided is Big Question Teaching, where lessons and units are framed as
questions, to gage students’ understanding, and allow for different answers and
depth from each student. Centres or
Stations is a strategy that promotes flexible grouping, students can work
at their own pace, and the teacher can work individually with students or in
small groups. Project-Based Learning
is group projects that allow for peer support, and engage the student, as they
choose the topic. Curriculum Overlapping
provides more enrichment for students that need to be challenged, and Tiered Assignments are learning tasks
designed at different levels of complexity according to students’ readiness
levels. This source also explains how inclusive education aims to provide equal
access to education for all children, especially those marginalized by society.
This is an important anecdote for teachers, as they need to understand that
their students come from a variety of backgrounds, both advantaged and
disadvantaged.
Policy 8: English Language Learners: Accommodations and Modifications
Resource 1:
Alrubail, Rusul. “Empathy & Inclusion for
ELL Students.” Edutopia, 14 Sep 2014,
https://edut.to/2QFWVEl
This source is written from the perspective
of a former ELL student. They explain how they found teachers to be empathetic
and helpful, but the challenge was integrating into students’ social context,
which highlights the importance of teaching children how to be empathetic and
inclusive. The source provides strategies for teachers to implement to make ELL
students feel welcome in the classroom, such as: practicing pronunciation of
the student’s name, explain playground and school rules to ELL students and
integrating and celebrating diversity in the classroom. It is imperative that
the teacher reaches out to these students to ensure they feel represented and
included in the school community. These are often things I would not consider
when teaching ELL students, and this source is beneficial, as it provides a
first-hand account of what the experience of an ELL student can be. It is
essential that teachers think beyond the walls of their classroom when
incorporating ELL students in the school. The teacher can advocate for
multicultural displays to be present in the school, ensure that the school has
resources from different cultures, and students can be encouraged to speak
their native language. A valuable take-away from this article is, “our goals in the classroom should be to model diversity, inclusion, and
global citizenship to our students to build kind and empathetic future
leaders.”
Resource 2:
“Supporting
English Language Learners: A practical guide for Ontario educators, grades
1-8.” Ontario Ministry of Education.Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2008. https://bit.ly/1bbJiEn
This is an Ontario document that serves as a
guide for educators and school faculty for supporting English Language
Learners. It is organized by scaffolding, as it begins with information about
understanding English language learners, followed by strategies on how to
support these students, and concludes with methods for adapting Ontario
Curriculum to best serve these learners. This source provides samples of
adapted full unit plans and templates, to suit the needs of ELL students, as
well as rubrics to effectively assess these students. The appendix also
describes the skills that students demonstrate while developing their literacy
in their second language, (English). There are examples of adapting and
modifying instructional strategies to accommodate for ELL students. The
information in this text also helps teachers to understand what ELL students
should be learning, and how to gage their understanding and development of
English, using the rating scale of: beginner, intermediate or advanced. These
strategies of differentiated instruction are targeted specifically to ELL
students. Once teachers have a solid understanding of the needs of these
students, they can incorporate these strategies into their teaching practice,
and ensure that ELL students feel included in the classroom, while being
equipped to achieve their individual learning goals.
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