Communicating about individuals with disabilities HW

Using sensitive and appropriate language is important in talking about individuals with disabilities, especially when collaborating with colleagues and families. What tips from the readings were new to you regarding communicating about individuals with disabilities? Which habits related to appropriate language do you think special education teachers need to educate their general education colleagues on the most?

Some general educators believe they do not have the time or the expertise to comply with a student’s IEP. Explain how you, as the special education teacher, would support such a teacher in order to best meet the needs of the student.

Provide an example of a situation where a student may need to bypass a learning step that cannot be mastered after a reasonable amount of time in order to move ahead. What adaptations might you make? When might this bypass of a step prove to be a mistake?

What are some behavioral accommodations that you might make for students with disabilities who pose behavioral concerns? How would you explain these accommodations to other teachers and school staff members? Provide an example.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.