Somebody Else's Kids

Lori Sjokheim. On the surface, Lori may seem like any other student, but deep down she is not without her own unique set of circumstances. Affected by damage to her brain from an injury when she was younger, Lori has issues that affect her ability to learn and perform academically, but it does not affect her emotionally or socially to the same extent. In a broad sense, Lori has trouble with identifying and remembering letters, words, and symbols that is coupled with hyperactivity and concentration issues (Hayden, 1981).  This poses a unique challenge in trying to teach Lori in a regular classroom. Lori needs individual attention due to her inability to read and write. In this essay, I will examine in detail the challenges Lori would face in a classroom, the accommodations and/or modifications she could receive to help, the positives and negatives of doing so, and how I would accommodate Lori into my classroom specifically. I will then end with foreseeable personal challenges handling a student like Lori would provide for me.

Lori Sjokheim may act like any other student, but there is much more to her than meets the eye. If someone were to see how Lori acts they would figure that Lori is intelligent with the stereotypical adolescent issue of lack of concentration. However, Lori’s learning disability alters that drastically. The cause of this stems from an injury she sustained when she was younger. Child abuse led to a skull fragment being lodged into her brain causing lesions. Although the fragment was removed, the lesions still remained and as with any injury involving brain cell loss, it was doubtful about how much Lori would be able to regain in cognitive function (Hayden, 1981). Decreased cognitive function at a young age can be both good and bad depending on the extent of damage. Sometimes, the brain is able to utilize its plasticity to learn new pathways or other times there is no development (Ormrod, 2011). Despite this setback, however, Lori still has a sense of goodness of the world around her and cares about everyone. Whether or not the excessive energy and trouble with concentration would be diagnosed as ADHD separately or along with her trouble with letters, words, and symbols would be up to the experts, but, regardless,

Starting with Lori’s excessive energy and trouble with concentration, she would be a handful for a teacher in a regular classroom, especially large classes of 30+ students. In those classes, a teacher is already stretched pretty thin in not only managing the class, but also trying to give each student the time and effort they deserve. If the teacher has other students who need extra attention such as IEP and 504 students, then it adds on even more to the teacher’s plate. Lori tends to be very involved in the teacher and her peers due to her embracing of everyone around her (Hayden, 1981). This can further eat up a teacher’s time dealing with Lori that could be used for other students. Dismissing Lori without upsetting her can be difficult as well as trying to make sure Lori doesn’t bother other students in the classroom. Balancing the emotional and mental health of the entire class is important for students during their developmental years as to make a positive impact (Snowman & McCown, 2012).

However, Lori’s major disability comes in the form of her inability to process and remember letters, words, and symbols. Progress is very slow and sometimes takes steps backwards. Lori tries her hardest, but her progress is difficult to differentiate from memorization and learning. For example, when Lori learns to read Dick and Jane it was hard to tell whether or not she was merely repeating the words from memory or if she was actually able to read the book (Hayden, 1981). This learning disability places a huge responsibility onto the teacher in a regular classroom. Lori would need things read out to her and lots of dedicated one-on-one time in helping her to understand assignments and prompts. This would use too much of a teacher’s time in the classroom away from teaching and helping other students.

When dealing with modifications and accommodations, it’s important to think about the long-term goals of where you want the student to be. Students are growing and changing drastically during this period of their life and the habits they pick up now and last a lifetime (Feldman, 2008). I feel as though Lori would benefit from both accommodations and modifications. Accommodations being practices to help the student while modifications change the learning expectations (Understanding the Important Difference…, 2013).

With this in mind, the accommodations and modifications I think would greatly help Lori to get both accommodations and modifications. Overall, giving Lori presentation, response, setting, and timing accommodations and assignment and curriculum modifications would be helpful. Something such as placing her into a separate classroom where she has a one-on-one to help her with her classes and assignments may be more effective than having Lori stay in a regular classroom even if she had an Instructional Assistant with her to help. I think that with Lori’s learning disability, she would need too many changes to make succeeding in a regular classroom too stressful. Accommodations Lori could receive are testing in small groups and limiting distractions by having her at the front of classes would be greatly beneficial, as it would help to control her high levels of energy and her trouble with concentrating. In addition, I could provide Lori with a set of notes (possibly audio notes and recordings), a scribe, or extra time.  Some modifications I could provide Lori include fewer problems, alternate assignments and exams, or different grading standards (Strom, 2014).

As with any decision about a child’s education, there are always going to be some positive and negatives based on your viewpoint. In my opinion, a major drawback would be the differential treatment for Lori. Lori craves the feeling of being normal and being in a regular classroom like her twin sister, Libby. Lori has a breakdown when she finds out she will be repeating a grade and that she will no longer be in the same grade as her twin sister (Hayden, 1981). With the accommodations and modifications provided, Lori may never quite feel like she fits in with her peers and could lead to negative self-perceptions. Students who view themselves as being treated differently and on a lower level than their peers can end up thinking that they are inferior even many years in the future (Feldman, 2008). On the flip side, getting the accommodations and modifications would help improve Lori to the point where she hopefully is able to reach the same level as her peers.

            In the context of my own class, there are a few specific ideas of how I would accommodate Lori in my class to help her succeed. One idea is to audio record all of my notes and lessons to provide Lori access to. This is something that can benefit both Lori and myself. By recording the audio beforehand, it gives me practice in delivering the content so that when I teach the class in person I am able to better present the information. Lori benefits because she still gets the information of the class without having the read or write any of the notes and lessons. Lori is able to process information in an auditory manner even if she has trouble with letters, words, and symbols (Hayden, 1981).  Another specific accommodation I could do is something that I’ve done before with low performing students in the past. I made what I call “foldables” with my students that had all of the information students needed. The part the students liked was that we did mostly diagrams, pictures, and charts rather than words because they preferred the visual learning.  With Lori I could verbally describe the information with her and then together we could come up with a foldable that had all the information in a visual manner.

            There are so many possibilities of how I could alter my class and activities to help Lori succeed, but dealing with students with learning disabilities like Lori’s can put a toll on the teacher without them even realizing it. Personally, I would feel stressed about whether or not I was doing the best I could do by Lori. With all my students the questions that run through my mind are things like “Am I giving him/her enough attention?”, “Am I getting through to them?”,  and  “Could I be doing something different?” With a student such as Lori, these feelings are amplified because of the amount of attention I would be spending on Lori in trying to help her. With any of my students with IEPs or 504s for whatever reason, I am always worried about having them leave my class worse off than where they started.

            My other main personal challenge when it comes to teaching students like Lori is whether or not my teaching methods are effective. Each teacher has their own style of teaching and opinions of what the best way to teach students. I inadvertently tend to stick with what I feel comfortable with, which may or may not always be the best match for my students. This is one of my issues that I have been working on addressing by going outside of my comfort zone when teaching.

            Lori herself most likely has similar anxieties about succeeding in school with all of the obstacles she encounters. Lori is a bright student who was dealt an unfortunate hand, but with the right accommodations and modifications as well as the right teachers to help guide her she can really blossom and grow. Lori was able to somewhat read Dick and Jane at the end of the story to anyone who would listen despite having previously had a breakdown when she had to read in front of her class. This growth is something that can occur if her learning disability is taken into account and not looked past as something she just needs to get over.

References

Feldman, R. (2008). Adolescence. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Hayden, T. (1981). Somebody Else's Kids. New York, New York: Putnam.

Ormrod, J. (2011). Educational psychology: Developing learners (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Snowman, J. & McCown, J. (2012). Psychology applied to teaching, 13^th Ed. New York: Cengage Learning.

Strom, E. (2014, January 3). Common Modifications and Accommodations. Retrieved August 5, 2015.

Understanding the Important Difference between "Accommodations" & "Modifications" - Howard County Autism Society. (2013, July 3). Retrieved August 5, 2015, from http://specialed.howard-autism.org/accommodations-vs-modifications/