Quote:
Originally Posted by Senusret I
And as someone who hopes to be a parent one day, I shudder when I think about my child being expected to help other students. There's a difference between collaborative learning and burdening a special needs child's classmates.
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Honestly, when you have kids, don't send them to public schools then. They
will be expected to work together (whether it is with a special needs child or a student they don't particularly like). I am teaching these children that people
are different, that it is a
fact of life and that they have to
work together. There is a big difference between having the kids rotate who works with the special needs student and having one person always work with that child.
I can say that the only time I have had to seperate a sped child away from another student it had nothing to do with his disability or his abilities, it was because their personalities didn't mesh and the sped child was violent (due to his dislike) to the other child (when I say violent I mean he would deliberately hit this child). I obviously couldn't have that happening in the room, so they were completely seperated in the room and in line. Once they were seperated from each other, my class ran fine and was smooth.
I know for myself and in my classroom, the students rotated on who they worked with. I was constantly changing groups. I didn't want them to become complacent in one group and think they didn't have to do anything. Plus, I would mix up the ability levels (like I wouldn't put all the sped kiddos in one group and all my gifted in another). Yes, some children would work with my sped kiddos a bit more, but I would ask them "hey do you mind working with this child" and they would say yes. Mainly because these two little girls really liked to be the "center of attention", which working with one of the sped kiddos and having to explain the assignment in child like terms and kind of being the "boss" something that gave them an ego boost. (They probably didn't think I knew this but I did).