HOW DOES THE IDENTIFICATION OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS, LEGISLATION, AND INSTRUCTIONAL DIFFERENTIATION RELATE TO MY PRACTICE AND MY

SCHOOL?

AIMEE COOPER

Wilmington College

My School

Arlington Heights Academy, located in Arlington Heights Ohio, which is in the Lockland School District.

The Lockland School District is a small district with approximately 700 students.

Arlington Heights has approximately Fifty-four students. Twenty students are on an I.E.P.

Arlington Heights

Arlington & Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction is instruction that focuses on the student’s needs rather than the school’s needs.

What does this mean?

Is differentiated instruction going against “Teaching to the Test”.

Arlington and Differentiated Instruction

Almost every child in our school is there due to issues from their previous school.

Most have been discipline problems in their school and a few have chosen to attend.

Arlington is unique in that our classes have a maximum of fifteen children.

Arlington and Differentiated Instruction

Arlington teachers follow what current research says that children do better in smaller classrooms and often children with learning disabilities need to have differentiated instruction.

Examples of these would be service learning projects that Arlington participates in.

Arlington Heights and Differentiated Learning

Examples of Lessons structured around Differentiated Learning Math ----- Making a scale model of a

house. This way students have to use measurements and learn math in a hands on practical way.

English --- Reading a story to the children, using the movie version of a book.

History ---- Having students do powerpoint presentations and also using movies in order to illustrate history.

Why I believe in Differentiated L.D. Students

I have been at Arlington Heights Academy since November, 2009.

I have seen many positive things in this area and I have seen how it can work better for everyone.

References

King-Sears, Margaret E. (2008). Facts and Fallacies: differentiation and the general education

Curriculum for students with special educational needs. Support for Learning, 23(2),

55-62. McDermott, Paul A., Goldberg, Michelle M., Watkins, Marley L,

Stanley, Jeanne L., Glutting, Joseph J. (June 2006). Journal of Learning Disabilities. A

Nationwide Epidemiologic Modeling Study of LD: Risk, Protection, and Unintended

Impact, 23(3), 230-251. Smith, Earl Bradford (2009). Approaches to Multicultural

Education in Preservice Teacher Education, Philosophical Frameworks and Models for

Teaching. Multicultural Education. Spring 2009, 45-50.