Katlin's+Tech+Assignment

[] (the JSTOR link in the program)
 * Technology Assignment:**
 * Step 1**

[] ( the full JSTOR URL)

My article was titled Mapping a Pedagogy for Special Educational Needs, and i mainly focused on autistic students. In the class I am working in there are five autistic students. There is a helper that comes in every day and gets a copy of everything the students do, and takes notes for them because they are unable to do so. The students, I have noticed that my master teachers lets them just do their own thing; when I asked him about this he said that have routines that they do everyday. One student always gets up at 815 to use the bathroom, he says good morning and have a nice day every time too. To keep them engaged and in the mainstream class it is important that they feel comfortable and if that means they have to do things a little different then its not a bad thing. They as a whole are more auditory learns that feed off what I am saying. They interact more in the class than they do on paper, so I have learned to talk to them about different thing to learn what they know and assess them verse just having them write down what they know and what they are learning.
 * Step 2**

Content Knowledge Question: //Describe what you learned about diagnostic and assessment strategies that fit your target population.//
 * Step 3**

Assessing different special needs students in one group can be very challenging, on the other hand it can also be very rewarding for both students and teachers. When talking about a new subject I like to ask students what the already know about it; this works well for the mainstreams students but not the RSP and autistic students. If I say Henry VIII mainstream students can be a fountain of information, but for the special needs students they need more. What about Henry VIII, what do you want to know, you have to be specific for them. Once they have talked about it for a minute or so they feel more comfortable about the subject and they will interject their own information. This is how I best assess their diagnostic knowledge. I have to give them a little and then they can turn around and give me everything they know.

Pedagogical Knowledge Question:// Describe in what way/s assessment data would determine how you planned your curriculum and lessons for the specific special needs population?

When I plan the curriculum for the class I have to take into account my autistic students, ELL students, RSP students, and of course my mainstream students. I have to create lessons and activities that are going to benefit every student in at least one way. I know that my presence in class the first few days was very unsettling to the autistic students. When I asked what I could do to make things easier I was told to introduce my self and become familiar with them. This has seemed to help. I am going to take that approach when I plan curriculum. The students seem to do better if at the end of one day I talk about what we are going to do the next day; in a way it prepares them for what they will be doing. Now every day when the autistic students walk in I am greeted with a good morning where I then reply the same thing back. This is a good routine to get into for their comfort. Regardless of what the class does after that (lecture, activity, assessment) the day has started off the same. I know that if one of the autistic students walks in and does not say good morning then he is having a bad day and I need to take that into account. This is one way to assess the students attitude. When that happens I need to change the lesson for the day to make it best suitable for the student and the rest of the class at the same time.