As a requirement for ED361, we were put into groups and asked to research and present on an educational disability. My group's presentation was on Emotional Impairment. Emotional Impairment is a broad topic to teach in a short block of time so the difficulty was in deciding what material to cover and what to leave out. We worked well together in compiling the most relevant information for a fluid presentation.
The key idea of our presentation was to help the class learn what teaching strategies are most effective for students with emotional impairment. We deemed it important for the class to be actively learning. To do so, each group was faced with a scenario relating a student with emotional impairment which required differentiated instruction to reach their full potential. The groups were required to discuss their scenario and to tap into their higher order thinking to conclude how they would handle the situation.
During the scenario portion of the presentation, each of us sat with a group and either listened to the discussions that were brewing, or helped guide the discussion based on or research. The group I had joined sparked great conversation and debate. From the reports of my EI group members, they too joined tables where most or all of the group members provided insight. We were happy to confirm that the students were referencing information from the presentation in their conversations. Unfortunately, their time was pressed, but the groups could have discussed much longer.
By the end of our presentation, we expect the class should have learned some of the characteristics of students with emotional impairment, how to prepare for such students, and how to adapt teaching strategies and daily procedures to maximize those students’ formal learning and their role in the classroom community. A large emphasis of our presentation was directed toward treating each student, with or without disabilities, as an individual who has needs independent from his peers.
In the future, for an assignment like this one, I would like to adjust the format of our PowerPoint. We, myself included, had a difficult time cutting text out of the visual aspect of the presentation. But when it came to presenting the lesson, I found it more apparent that most of our slides were way too wordy. Our presentation would have benefited from having about 1/5th of the text that was included. Next time I would like to have a visual aid which acts more like a run-down of events than a source of information.
The key idea of our presentation was to help the class learn what teaching strategies are most effective for students with emotional impairment. We deemed it important for the class to be actively learning. To do so, each group was faced with a scenario relating a student with emotional impairment which required differentiated instruction to reach their full potential. The groups were required to discuss their scenario and to tap into their higher order thinking to conclude how they would handle the situation.
During the scenario portion of the presentation, each of us sat with a group and either listened to the discussions that were brewing, or helped guide the discussion based on or research. The group I had joined sparked great conversation and debate. From the reports of my EI group members, they too joined tables where most or all of the group members provided insight. We were happy to confirm that the students were referencing information from the presentation in their conversations. Unfortunately, their time was pressed, but the groups could have discussed much longer.
By the end of our presentation, we expect the class should have learned some of the characteristics of students with emotional impairment, how to prepare for such students, and how to adapt teaching strategies and daily procedures to maximize those students’ formal learning and their role in the classroom community. A large emphasis of our presentation was directed toward treating each student, with or without disabilities, as an individual who has needs independent from his peers.
In the future, for an assignment like this one, I would like to adjust the format of our PowerPoint. We, myself included, had a difficult time cutting text out of the visual aspect of the presentation. But when it came to presenting the lesson, I found it more apparent that most of our slides were way too wordy. Our presentation would have benefited from having about 1/5th of the text that was included. Next time I would like to have a visual aid which acts more like a run-down of events than a source of information.
References
Wagner, M. M. (1995). Outcomes for youths with serious emotional disturbance in secondary school and early adulthood. The Future of Children, 5(2), Retrieved from www.futureofchildren.org
National institute of mental health:child and adolescent mental health. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/child-and-adolescent-mental-health/index.shtml
Emslie, G. (2008, May). The depressed child: The american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry. Retrieved from http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/the_depressed_child
Reflecting on other coursework experiences and making connections between your courses helps to build rich understandings about teaching. I get the sense that you are making connection through your thinking about the needs of individual learners, individuals with emotional impairment specifically. Can you say more about your connection? How does your thinking about this experience help extend or deepen your understanding of students' diverse needs? Our theoretical framework? Your understanding of reading strategies? Your personal learning goals? etc.
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