Designing Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for Students with Special Needs Reflection

As an educator, teaching in an inclusive classroom, it is my responsibility for all students to meet high standards regardless of their learning abilities. With high standards in today’s educational system, meeting these expectations can be challenging. Throughout this course I have learned to become familiar with general characteristics of all learning disabilites along with where to locate additional information if needed, how to create, adapt and modify curriculum, instruction and assessments to provide optimal learning for students with special needs, and how to implement and follow a behavioral management plan. Familiraizing myself with the nature and characteristics of different types of learning disabilites has allowed me to develop empathy for the experiences of students with disabilities. This area of growth gives me a deeper understanding and awaremenss that allows me to appreciate the impact a disability has on a student. “Students with learning disabilities are students who achieve less than typical studens academically because they have trouble with processing, organizing, and applying academic information” (Friend & Bursuck, 2009). Having an awareness disabilites and how disabilities affect students allows me to accurately plan, adapt, and modify how to present curriculum, instruction and assessments. With an increased awareness and the ability to accurately plan, adapt, and modify curriculum, instruction and assessments based off of my knowledge gained in this course, I have also learned that many struggling learners with performance gaps are lacking learning strategies. As stated by Dr. Deshler (2008), good learners have a host of strategies. Students with disabilities and or performance gaps, often have less developed strategy banks, therefore it is beneficial for strategies to be taught and modeled. “Effective learning strategies can be developed by identifying skills that are problematic for most of your students, specifying

References: .Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. D. (2009). Including students with special needs: A practical guide for classroom teachers (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Killu, K. (2008). Developing effective behavior intervention plans: Suggestions for school personnel. Intervention in School & Clinic, 43(3), 140–149. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).(2008). Designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment for students with special needs. Baltimore: Author.