Reach 111 Session #2 reading

After some careful thought about the question, I decided that I have a lot of room to grow as a teacher in regard to providing the appropriate differentiation for students with special needs in my classroom. There are several students who I have in all four classes who present some type of differentiated instruction based on some medically diagnosed disorder. I know that I need to provide more organizers and visuals for many of my students. Specifically when it comes to the 10 tactics to foster attention skills, I paid attention to this one because I for sure have had two students this year L and I who have been diagnosed with ADHD and ADD. Having a highly structured class, display of classroom rules, (I have the core values and the creed posted, but I do not have a separate chart for "my classroom rules" I will focus on having one by the beginning of next school year.), daily class schedule is usually written on the white board and the children know the routine math meeting, homework check, time test, lesson, etc. They know which days to expect centers during the week and so on. The article also mentioned training the class on class cues using bells or charts. The use of two desks for these students and making it a positive is definately something that I would love to implement because it just makes sense especially for L who is up and out of his seat constantly. During assessments, I have had to isolate L completely so he can focus at the task at hand and come and check on him every 5 or so minutes to make sure he is on task and not wasting his time unfocused on someone or something else in the classroom. They all have their own "offices" for testing. L and I have their own specific office away from distractions from others. For these students specifically L he needs to have something in hand all the time to manipulate, so I have given him a small white erase board, marker, and eraser for him to use during group instruction. This keeps him focused and participating and really cuts down on his interruptions and outbursts which were a daily occurence throughout the course of the year. Keeping their desks clear is something that I insist on while testing. Of course visually monitoring them. In terms of providing color organizers I suppose that is something that I could implement as well. I really like the idea of using peer buddies which is just a win win situation when dealing with students with special needs.