Beth McCarthy
Collaborative Final Paper
Mary
I’ve learned that Mary is focused on building relationships and desires to see
students succeed. Mary has had experience co-teaching in a successful program for
students with mild to moderate disabilities and desires a shared role in teaching the
students. However, Mary is compliant and patient when seeking an understanding
relationship with Helen regardless of the difference in philosophy of teaching
students with disabilities. Mary used flash cards, explicit spelling instruction, and
repetition as strategies to assist Jim. She understood that while the words were below
grade level for most of the students in the class, Jim was on a spelling grade level of
1.8. After her interventions and research on Jim’s ability level, Mary realized that
spelling is something that Jim is not going to be able to do successfully on grade level
without adequate accommodations and support. Her recommendations are forcefully
turned down by her coworker and Mary complies with her strong feelings regardless
of her understanding. Further, while it is obvious that Mary’s desire is to help Jim
succeed in spelling, Mary knows that Jim has to feel motivated to move past barriers
to learning. The posting of weekly spelling scores is understandably not beneficial
for Jim but Mary is not open about the problem. Her compliance may be hindering
creating a successful learning environment for Jim.
Interview:
First, I would introduce myself to Mary and ask her how she is doing. Then I
would tell Mary that I would like to help her co-teaching team assist Jim and I would
like to find out some more information to help me understand more about the
situation. I will tell Mary that I would like to talk to her for about 30 minutes and I
will tell her I will be taking notes but I will keep all of the information I gain
confidential and study it for the purpose of assisting Jim. I will thank her for taking
her time to allow me to give some insight. I will ask her the next few questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tell me about your co-teaching experience.
How do you feel about your current co-teaching assignment?
What are the certain traits about yourself that you view as strengths?
If there was anything about yourself that you would change what would
it be?
5. How can your weakness hinder communication?
6. What can you do to overcome your weakness?
7. Tell me about what success looks like to you in the classroom.
8. Tell me about Jim.
9. What experience have you had intervening with spelling strategies?
10. How can you find strategies which are appropriate for Jim?
To end the interview I would tell Mary that I’ve benefited from the information
she’s provided and I appreciate her concern for Jim’s progress in the classroom. I
will ask her if there’s anything she wants to tell me that wasn’t asked about. Lastly, I
will tell her that she has important traits to bring to the classroom for students and her
time has been greatly appreciated.
Helen
I’ve learned that Helen feels her high expectations for students have proven to be
beneficial regardless of their present progress and she desires to see students succeed.
Helen is experienced with the English curriculum and feels firmly that she should
continue to lead instruction because of her knowledge base. It appears that she feels
like that would be an asset to the co-teacher because Mary would then be able to
‘focus on helping the ones having trouble’. Mary feels spelling is a necessary skill
for students desires a regular diploma because of the high stakes testing which is
mandatory for graduation. Therefore, she considers spelling to be an important factor
in her grading system and tests students weekly based on their independent review of
new word lists. She begins with words that are below grade level so that students will
have the benefit of beginning the year successfully in spelling. To facilitate student
progress in spelling she posts the spelling scores for students to compare progress and
create high expectations among peers. However, Helen does not understand the
difference in assessing student achievement and related factors that facilitate success.
Based on experience, Helen believes that her philosophy of teaching and student
learning is adequate. She wants to see Jim succeed but believes his success is based
on independent strategies used by the co-teacher and not modifications or
accommodations which would lower the expectations of Jim. Her inability to see the
difference in ability and her shared role in Jim’s progress is hindering creating a
successful learning environment for Jim.
Interview:
First, I would introduce myself to Helen and ask her how she is doing. Then I
would tell Helen that I would like to help her co-teaching team assist Jim and I would
like to find out some more information to help me understand more about the
situation. I will tell Helen that I would like to talk to her for about 30 minutes and I
will tell her I will be taking notes but I will keep all of the information I gain
confidential and study it for the purpose of assisting Jim. I will thank her for taking
her time to allow me to give some insight. I will ask her the next few questions:
1. Tell me about your teaching experience working with peers.
2. What expectations do you have about the function and roles in coteaching?
3. How do you feel about your current co-teaching assignment?
4. What are the certain traits about yourself that you view as strengths?
5. If there was anything about yourself that you would change what would
it be?
6. How can your weakness hinder communication?
7. What can you do to overcome your weakness?
8. Tell me about what success looks like to you in the classroom.
9. Tell me about the differences and similarities in your expectations for
students with disabilities in your classroom.
10. Tell me about Jim.
To end the interview I would tell Helen that I’ve benefited from the information
she’s provided and I appreciate her concern for Jim’s progress in the classroom. I
will ask her if there’s anything she wants to tell me that wasn’t asked about. Lastly, I
will tell her that she has important traits to bring to the classroom for students and her
time has been greatly appreciated.
Jim
I’ve learned that Jim is a 17-year-old who has strived to achieve throughout his
school career and overcome the barriers to his learning based on his language learning
delays and auditory processing deficits. Jim has high expectations for himself and is
motivated by his success in moving forward through school with adequate
accommodations and modifications. Jim has goals in mind that support his academic
achievement and he has a supportive family who are proud of his academic success.
Jim success is primarily fueled by his intrinsic motivation probably instilled in him
early in life by his family and early teachers who helped facilitate meaningful strategies
and support for his learning. Jim feels successful in school and values staying in the
same grade level as his peers and the opportunity for a scholarship. His desire’s of
feeling successful and achieving the scholarship are severely hindered by the posting of
the weekly spelling scores and the weight the scores place on his achievement in the
class. Jim desires to learn but feels as if the motivation carrying him through school
has been taken from under his feet and he is left with comparing the sufficiency of his
abilities to the high expectations set in the tenth grade classroom. He seems himself as
not good enough based on his failure and he has probably began accepting that he may
not be able to reach the goals he has set for himself.
Interview:
First, I would introduce myself to Jim and ask him how he’s doing. Then I
would tell Jim that I would like to help him succeed in his English class. I will
explain that I will need some information from him regarding his education in order
to help him succeed. I will tell Jim that I would like to talk to him for about 30
minutes and I will tell him I will be taking notes but I will keep all of the information
I gain confidential and study it for the purpose of assisting him. I will thank him for
taking his time to allow me to help. I will ask him the next few questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Tell me about your school experience.
Tell me about how teachers have helped you succeed in the past.
What are your strengths in school?
What do you perceive as your weaknesses?
How do you compensate to overcome your weaknesses?
What motivates you to succeed in school?
How do you feel about your English class?
What hinders your success in that class?
What could be done to help you succeed in the class?
To end the interview I would tell Jim that I’ve benefited from the information
he’s provided and I appreciate his desire to learn and succeed. I will ask him if
there’s anything he wants to tell me that wasn’t asked about. Lastly, I will tell him
that he has important traits to use in society and I look forward to his success. I will
tell him his time has been greatly appreciated.
Spelling interventions for students with disabilities: A review
Add-a-Word Instruction
This is a three step study strategy (copy, write from memory, compare) also
called ‘cover, copy, compare’ which Jim could use to help him study his spelling
words. This method would not be good for many young children to use
independently related to the time factor and motivation. At Jim’s maturity level and
with his desire he would be an excellent candidate to use this study method. Jim
would receive self reinforcement after the correct spelling of each word. There is not
anything of spoken language that would hinder Jim’s reception of the words. In the
strategy Jim would look at the word, cover the word and write the word from
memory, and then check the word he wrote with the original word. This strategy
would help him visualize the whole word versus parts of the word. He would selfteach spelling patterns, chunking of word parts, and letter-sound patterns.
Constant Time Delay
In this procedure the student would use his flash cards to practice spelling with
the special education teacher or a peer. This strategy could be done class-wide to
prevent any one student from standing out. If working with the special education
teacher, she would call out the word, give Jim a wait time to spell the word, and then
show the correct spelling to Jim. Increase the wait time (number of seconds between
calling out the word and time allowed to think about a response before showing the
correct spelling of the word) each time the words are reviewed. This strategy would
benefit Jim because he would have immediate feedback and reinforcement. He
would hear the word and see the word. Jim may have the option of writing down the
correct spelling versus verbalizing it because of his disability. It may be more
beneficial to make that adaptation for him.
Facilitating Collaboration
To facilitate collaboration I would encourage the teachers to understand how
they can use their strengths to come together for the benefit of all students’ progress
in the classroom. I would explain the importance of being open and respecting each
other’s opinion as valuable, considering different options. I think a time for the
teacher to explain their desire, feelings, and ways to overcome barriers would be
important to give the teachers here. It would be important to emphasize that the
teachers are a team and not individual parties working for specific groups of students.
I think it would be important to note that there are different types of learners that need
different types of instruction and assessment of their knowledge. It would be
important to give the teachers access to collaborative research and resource sites for
finding interventions and strategies. Understanding the learner and exploring
different research based strategies that may benefit Jim is important from both parties.
The focus should be taken off of ‘usual’ strategies and confrontation and moved
toward the needs of struggling students like Jim and his benefit. I think it would
important to discuss Jim’s ability and educational history. Explaining that both
strategies would be important to consider based on Jim’s need and leading the teacher
to explore other strategies, accommodations, and modifications to help Jim would be
an emphasis. Giving the teachers time to discuss the strategies and facilitating those
as well as discussion of further research would be important.