1. Several judicial decisions have been rendered that provide school districts with guidelines on the implementation of the least restrictive environment. Discuss the outcomes of three of these cases and their implications for making a determination regarding a student's placement in the least restrictive environment. (chapter 1)
- Describe what is meant by high-incidence disability. How does it differ from low-incidence disability? Be sure your response includes examples of the disabilities that fall into each of these two broad categories. Finally, select one high incidence and one low incidence disability and briefly describe pre-referral and referral steps for special education identification. (chapter 2)
3. It is time for your middle-of-the-year parent conferences. You want to share information with parents and solicit information and feedback from them concerning their children’s performance and feelings toward school. Describe the steps you would take to ensure parental attendance and participation. Be sure to discuss specific strategies relative to planning the meeting, structuring the environment, conducting the conference to promote participation, and evaluating the meeting. (chapter 4)
Steps to ensure parental attendance and participation in parent conference:
1. Tell parents the reason for the meeting.
2. Communicate the fact that you want to share information with them and would love feedback from them concerning their child’s performance and feelings toward school.
3. Gain trust by interacting with them in many setting and by attending after-school activities and community events.
4. Communicate frequently in a personal manner through written communication, phone conversations, face-to-face meetings, or electronic communications.
5. Let it be known that you have an open door policy for parents.
6. Advocate for families via professional organizations, presenting information/presentations, inviting community members, contact lawmakers.
7. Make an effort to get to know the family, including their culture and beliefs.
8. Reassure the family of the confidentiality of their conversations.
9. Try to emphasize the importance of parent teacher communication to best benefit the child.
10. Make accommodations that make it possible for parent to attend, including meeting before or after school, going to the parent instead of them coming to school, help arrange transportation if possible.
11. Be flexible with date(s) of meeting.
12. Express your desire for them to see, hands-on, their child’s work and progress in the classroom and see their learning environment.
13. Explain that you truly want parent feedback and desire to know the goals that they have for their child.
14. Provide reminders and confirmation for time and date scheduled.
While planning the meeting, the teacher should prepare work samples and test results to show student progress, provide anecdotal notes, create an outline/agenda of things to be covered, prepare questions for the parents, remember to be culturally sensitive, identify reasons for meeting, schedule any other school staff to be present (if necessary), and have copy of IEP on hand (if applicable). Always notify parents of other school personnel that will be attending and provide them with a list of questions so they can be prepared to answer questions and offer opinions and solutions.
The environment for a parent teacher conference should be inviting for the family. Provide a comfortable setting with comfortable, same-size furniture arranged to promote communication between everyone attending. Desks or other objects should not be placed as barriers between participants and everyone should be able to see each other.
Tips for conducting the conference:
1. Conduct conference in a positive way that encourages understanding, participations, and collaboration.
2. Welcome and introduce participants or ask them to introduce themselves.
3. Review agenda, state purpose of meeting, and establish ground rules.
4. Start on a positive note, discussing the positive point of student’s performance.
5. Allow participants to voice any concerns they have about student.
6. Present information in a way that is easy to understand for everyone.
7. Show work samples, test scores, anecdotal notes, and/or test results to back up concerns.
8. Ask families to discuss their issues from their perspective or respond to open-ended questions.
9. Encourage family sharing by being an active listener, being empathetic, and acknowledging information being shared.
10. Avoid asking questions with implied yes/no responses.
11. Ask questions that encourage family feedback.
12. Inform them of multiple solutions to issues.
13. Use a respectful tone without undermining families.
14. Do not criticize family members.
15. Check for understanding by restating or summarizing main points.
16. Offer translators or interpreters at the meeting, if necessary.
17. Close meeting on a positive note by summarizing point of agreement, disagreement, re-stating strategies planned, establish ongoing communication, and set date for next meeting.
18. Remind family of how to contact you or other school officials for further questions or concerns.
Teachers should make sure that they understand the parents concerns and utilize a plan to address such concerns. Teacher can talk to co-workers for assistance or opinions pertaining to the conference or plan of action with a child, if necessary. The teacher should contact the parent if there is something she forgot or if she needs further clarification or progress reports from them/home.
Question #4 A teacher can help students develop positive perceptions of persons who are culturally and physically different from them by reflecting on their own attitudes, behaviors, and language. This activity can help a teacher understand their own misconceptions and can work to improve them. Self-reflection activities would work well with students too. For example, have an activity where students write down all the characteristics that they contain (physical appearance, sex, race, hobbies, things they like/dislike, family). Put all the students characteristics on the wall and point out how different each and every student in the classroom is, then emphasize the point that every single person is different. Point out your personal characteristics and ask question to the class, such as, “I have brown hair. Does that mean that I am different from some people? Yes. Is that okay? Yes. Is that a reason for someone not to like me? No.” Continue with examples and then have the students point out things that they are good at to show that just because everyone is different, that does not mean that there is something wrong with them. Also, stating that everyone is different, but they are also all the same because they are human beings.
Another way to develop positive perceptions of those who are different is by learning about all your students and viewing them as competent, multidimensional children who all have abilities. From there, begin educating children about disabilities, cultural differences, gender differences, religion (where permitted), language differences, and socioeconomic differences. Educating the children will make them more familiar and less scared and biased when it comes to people who are different. Utilize students of diversity in your class or school to help educate and share with the class, have guest speakers that are culturally or physically different speak about their conditions and describe what life is like for them. Teachers can also use films, videos, and books to familiarize students with diversity. I am a big believer in modeling. Students look up to teachers and may try to be like their teacher. If a teacher themselves is comfortable with diversity and can show this in their classroom, students will pick up on that and possibly adopt the same attitude. For example, I worked in a classroom where a child had braces and he was made fun of a lot. The other students did not understand what they were for; they just noticed that they looked funny. After telling the class that I used to have braces, that they were uncomfortable, but made my teeth straight, and that I got to choose any color rubber bands that I wanted when I had them, the students understood their purpose, thought they were pretty cool, and stopped picking on the child with braces. Sometimes the story you tell the children does not have to be entirely true, but by modeling that you were in that situation, have been to another country, know someone of another culture/race, or that you merely like something, they can modify their opinions. Another great idea for a classroom in order to help develop positive perceptions of culturally different people, would be to become involved in a pen pal program or even a video conferencing chat with children in a different culture so that your students can learn about the different culture and see and relate to children their own age.
