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Why
Inclusion?
The philosophy of
inclusion is to help both students and teachers become better members of a
community by creating new visions for school. It's all about membership
and belonging to a community.
INCLUSION:
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Helps
teachers to think thoughtfully about children and develop ways to reach all
children.
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Provides
more options for children as ways to learn.
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Resembles
environment in which children will eventually work.
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Includes
strong parental involvement, children make choices and a lot of hands-on
involvement.
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Includes a
whole school--everyone's responsible--kids learn from one another--the
teacher teaches to all ability levels.
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Helps
students with specific challenges make gains cognitively, socially, and
physically.
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Helps
children with "typical" development gain higher tolerance for
people with differences.
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No federal
law requires inclusion, however, through IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act) and Section 504 students with disabilities must be educated
to the maximum extent appropriate in the least restrictive environment,
which is the regular classroom, with the use of an aide and extensive IEP
deliberations, cannot be achieved to the benefit of the disabled child,
then, and only then, will placement be changed.
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Involves
the restructuring of a school's entire program and requires constant
assessment of practices and results. Constant reflection is necessary
if we ever hope to be able to make clear determinations about which specific
strategies will help children to become happy, contributing citizens.
Websites for more information
www.educationworld.com
www.specialnet.com/inclusion.htm
www.rushservice.com/Inclusion/classroom
Recommended
Reading:
(Control +
Click on
title to purchase from Amazon)
Inclusion:
450 Strategies for Success
by
Peggy A. Hammeken
Making
Inclusion Work by Frank Bowe
Including
Students with Special Needs
by Marilyn
Friend and William Bursuck
All
Children Are Special, Creating an Inclusive Classroom
Integrating Science and
Social Studies in Reading and Math.
Social Studies:
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Most
of our Social Studies books come with trade books – use these in
literature circles.
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Buy
more nonfiction or historical fiction books to use in literature circles
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Graph
information from history
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Use
timelines and subtract how many years from one event to another (also a
great sequencing activity)
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Nonfiction/biography
reports
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Use
textbooks and trade books to teach reading skills such as cause and effect,
fact and opinion, context clues, etc.
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Create
projects, such as brochures, to teach identifying important details, writing
and language skills.
Science:
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Nonfiction
books in literature circles
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Graph
information (weather)
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Make
sure all science projects have some type of math problem to go along with
them
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When
writing word problems for the day use science information
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Nonfiction/biography
reports
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Use
textbooks and trade books to teach reading skills such as cause and effect,
fact and opinion, context clues, etc.
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Create
projects, such as brochures, to teach identifying important details, writing
and language skills.
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