Inclusive Education describes the idea of creating a classroom and community atmosphere that emphasises validation of individual needs, and recognises that students will require variations in activities, assignments, and engagements if they are expected to do their best. The implications of this idea seem simple at first glance, however upon further inspection it becomes clear that inclusivity is not simply acknowledging that some children are “visual learners” while others are “auditory learners.” Inclusivity requires consideration of who our students are, where they come from, what types of conclusions their journey has led them to, and how their previous experiences can enrich their learning journey. This can be extended, with practice, to every exchange between teacher and student in order to validate not only the individuals existence as a student, but more importantly as the individual they are.
One example that I can directly recall from my limited experience as a teacher is from my first Practicum in English 8. The synthesis of my practicum surrounded a novel study of S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” which we completed together over the three weeks I was there. When beginning my planning, and through preemptive dialogue with my CT, I kept several considerations in the front of my mind. Namely, what is my intention in working through this book? What am I going to assess? How many times am I going to assess? What are my expectations? Those types of things. I knew that comprehension was going to be a primary focus of engaging with the novel itself, but when I considered that, I realised that it was specifically comprehension, rather than reading comprehension, that I wanted to focus on. I also wanted there to be a good emphasis on personal connections and discovery of identity. So then the question became, how can I work for my students in order to make sure the content, and their success was the most accessible to them?
I settled, on the delivery of the novel at least, to take a multifaceted approach in order to determine first where students were individually with various mediums, but also in order to understand what worked best for them individually. For the first four chapters, I alternated between reading aloud myself and having them read along, reading the role of narrator and having students pick character roles to read themselves while others followed along, reading aloud together in groups of 4 or 5, with little to no help from myself, and finally independently reading quietly to self. I also located an audio book version on YouTube which students were free to access individually or in groups in other spaces we had available. For those students with more overt considerations, I was able to track down a couple copies of the audio book for individual use with headphones. This allowed them to follow along during class reading, or to focus independently as they saw fit. After the first four chapters, the delivery of the novel became much more dependant on individual choice. Students were encouraged to engage in the comprehension portion in whichever way felt most comfortable for them.
For assignments, I spent a lot of time making sure to deliver a consistent and reliable “response” type activity for comprehension assessment, and beyond that I tried very hard to provide a wide range of very open ended projects through which students were encouraged to express themselves through creative means. For each assignment I tried to include avenues that students could take which relied heavily on visual/creative components, or alternatively more composition based choices if they preferred. One activity which invoked a large amount of student engagement was the “Indirect vs. Direct Character Traits” activity I developed which combined a visual comprehension with student focused response questions. While this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to inclusive education, it is my utmost desire to go forward with the concept at the forefront of my pedagogy. In time, I will become a master at weaving individual consideration into the communal spaces of my classrooms and schools.
Thank you.