Inclusive education showed me several ways to introduce strategies in the classroom for my students. These strategies have allowed me to gain perspective with not only just the youth in the classroom, but also with the school based teams and other admin staff to work together in order to meet a students’ long term learning goals. I found that the ADAPT strategy to be particularly interesting in my practice as an inclusive educator. The acronym ADAPT, aside from it’s obvious concepts, applies the practical strategies necessary for at least considering the research and applying those to the needs of the student. I think beginning with gathering information on the student, addressing certain behaviour tendencies, and meeting with school based teams can go a long way in providing the right shift for the student with particular interests. Aside from the ADAPT strategy, I think what I have learned the most is that every student has an innate ability inside themselves to shine or show their interests in school. For example, a student with an ability in drawing, sketching, and other painting of art of some kind, there are many ways to adapt to this in an English classroom. Instead of requiring some written form to express ideas, I think there can be adaptation strategies for this students abilities in asking the student to express the same exact concept, but just in a different way (e.g. via sketch an illustration of a characters’ ulterior motives). Adapting the students talents and abilities to apply those within the classroom is something that might need to happen more often than one would think. Overall, the class provided a platform to explore a variety of case studies that were relevant and straightforward to many specific instances with students. By implementing strategies in the classroom for students who are either frustrated or are simply not heard, students will be given so many alternate opportunities to show their intellect. The course showed me that using strategies, planning for inclusivity, and above all, being intentional in the learning, can have so many benefits to even the smallest of student struggles.
Leave a Reply