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Inclusivity in the Classroom

Inclusivity in the Classroom

 Throughout my college experience in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, I’ve managed to work towards becoming an English teacher. Now that I’m close to reaching my degree with only a semester remaining, I wanted to start thinking of the kind of classroom I would like to create as well as what I expected my teaching philosophy to be like. It is to be expected that anyone studying to become a teacher would want to be a good teacher and form a nice environment for the students, but what defines a “good” teacher and a “nice” environment?  My ideal classroom would be inclusive for all students, regardless of any disabilities a student may have. In order to create the ideal environment, I’d take into consideration each student in order to allow all students to have equal opportunities. I decided to look into ways that inclusivity could be incorporated within a classroom especially for students with disabilities. I also asked a person who has disabilities questions based on inclusivity and reflecting his personal school experience in comparison with how I would want my future classroom to be like.  My focus was on how I could potentially create my own inclusive classroom regardless of any disabilities a student may have.

Inclusivity

In order to form an inclusive classroom it is important to understand the intended goal of inclusivity, The purpose of being inclusive is to allow all students to feel they are all equal and are being offered the help and resources available to allow everyone to be treated the same. When it comes to disabilities, there are important things to keep in mind. It is important to keep in mind the People First Language which discusses the appropriate way to talk about a person with disabilities. It is more appropriate to say the person with disabilities instead of the disabled person. The focus should be on the person not the disability a person may have.  Since I’m planning on teaching, I want to provide an inclusive setting to all my students. Apart from getting all students to coexist without issues due to any disabilities, I want to be able to provide a comfortable setting that allows all students to participate.

Tips on How to Create an Inclusive Classroom

 Marla Lohman created a blog titled “Preparing Young Children for the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities into the Classroom” and includes a list of helpful tips that I found useful and important to keep in mind when dealing with inclusivity. Some of the tips included in the article were:

·         Give all children tools for interactions and conversations. Provide them with toys or objects to initiate the discussion (an example might include a popular book).

·         Use a variety of methods for instruction—talk to your students, illustrate with pictures, model, and provide the opportunity for hands-on learning whenever possible.

·         . Provide a visual classroom schedule so that all children know the plan for the day.

·         Have high expectations for all children, regardless of their ability levels. (Lohmann)

I decided to talk about these tips during an interview with an old friend that I met in high school who had a hearing disability, being partially deaf, as well as a learning impediment. He relies more on reading or having loud conversations in order to process the communication well. He also gets distracted easily and has problems not only with concentration but retaining information if he isn’t interviewed. For privacy purposes I will be calling him by his initials, M.G. After discussing the tip, I will be including his responses it in order to see if he feels they could be helpful.

 Since I am planning on teaching older students, I’d want to include literature to include diversity. Prater is the author of the article “Using Juvenile Literature with Portrayals of Disabilities in Your Classroom” and discusses the use of including literature with people with disabilities.  He includes that, “Doing so provides an avenue for teaching about disabling conditions, as well as exposing students to characters with disabilities within the context of a well-written story.”(Prater) Article itself asks what books that include disabilities the reader knew. I was limited with my answer, only being able to answer The Fault in Our Stars or Little House on the Prairie. This article is important for me as a future professor because it includes titles of books, awards given and a small summary on how it has to do with disabilities. I want to be able to include ways I could incorporate books to disabilities can help other students gain an understanding as well as form connections not only between the student with disabilities and the characters within the book, but also with all students.

There should be an importance placed on including characters with disabilities to promote acceptance. A person without disabilities could benefit from this by relating to these characters even though they are different. They could share similarities and accept their peers with disabilities.  Literature that include characters with disabilities are useful because people may relate more if the characters are more rounded than flat. Allowing students to relate and understand people with disabilities. A student that has disabilities could see themselves in a more positive way through the representation. I asked M.G what he felt about including books in a classroom that could have characters with disabilities like he had and he responded with,” Really! There’s books that talk about people like me? I wanna see it!” The fact that he was genuinely interested gave me more of a reason to want to include diverse types of literature.

Prater is the author of the article. “Using Juvenile Literature with Portrayals of Disabilities in Your Classroom.” that talks about the use of including literature with people with disabilities. He includes that, “Doing so provides an avenue for teaching about disabling conditions, as well as exposing students to characters with disabilities within the context of a well-written story.”(Prater) Article itself asks what books that include disabilities the reader knew. I was limited with my answer, only being able to answer The Fault in Our Stars or Little House on the Prairie. This article is important for me as a future professor because it includes titles of books, awards given and a small summary on how it has to do with disabilities. I want to be able to include ways I could incorporate books to disabilities can help other students gain an understanding as well as form connections not only between the student with disabilities and the characters within the book, but also with all students.

There should be an importance placed on including characters with disabilities to promote acceptance. A person without disabilities could benefit from this by relating to these characters even though they are different. They could share similarities and accept their peers with disabilities.  Literature that include characters with disabilities are useful because people may relate more if the characters are more rounded than flat. Allowing students to relate and understand people with disabilities. A student that has disabilities could see themselves in a more positive way through the representation. I asked M.G if he remembers ever feeling left out or isolated and he let me know that,” I was always in a corner away from most people. I usually hung out with other students with disabilities since not everyone accepts us for our differences.” He did, however, feel that if he would’ve read something or if his class would’ve discussed disabilities, then maybe it could’ve helped him come out of his shell more.

Another tip was to, “Clearly spell out expectations before the course begins (e.g., grading, material to be covered, due dates).” (Picard) This is helpful since the students can do this by themselves, regardless of any disabilities. This tip in particular related a special tool that many students, like myself, could overlook. Professors I have taken in UTRGV already do this, regardless if the class has students with disabilities or not.  The use of visually planning a list of what will be going on in a day is useful for all students. It has been useful for me as a student, even if I hadn’t recognized or appreciated how useful it could be for all students, especially to someone who could potentially have a disability. It promotes positive class attitudes for everyone. When I asked M.G if he felt that having this tool could’ve potentially helped him back when he was in school, he responded with,” Maybe. I know sometimes I would be backed up compared to other kids. I am partially deaf so it is hard to hear. Being able to see could’ve helped.” Visuals can be helpful to include for people who may have a hearing disability, so I would want to keep that in mind which could relate to Lohman’s 3rd tip listed above.

The fourth tip from Lohmann’s article I felt deserved to be discussed, because it is important to, “Have high expectations for all children, regardless of their ability levels.” (Lohmann) A teacher should not only want to educate, but also motivate all students to better themselves. I’d want to promote reading, especially out of school and in order to do that, it is important to keep in mind that in order to want to read, the reader has to be interested in what they would be reading. Promoting literature that could relate to a student could make them interested in reading. I asked M.G what he thought about the reading’s he was assigned back in school and he honestly couldn’t remembered. He told me,” I dunno. I never really read much of anything. It was too boring and I didn’t like it.” I followed by asking him what kind of expectations his teachers had for him and he said,” They just wanted me to pass. When my teachers couldn’t teach me, they’d send me to Special Education so they could do it. I feel they had low expectations of me, but at least other teachers (Special Education) supported me and my friends (who also had disabilities of some type). She made sure our class was always working together and that we get each other.” Although he didn’t have the most supportive teachers or classes, he was offered resources that allowed him to better himself, which made it seem that his Special Education class was inclusive in all ways, which is what really mattered.

Talking to M.G. about tips to use in a classroom made me feel that I was heading in the right direction when it comes to forming my future class setting. I want my future students to feel they are being offered all the necessary resources to help them advance. It is important to form inclusive settings in classrooms regardless of any disability.

   Works Cited

Lohmann, Marla. “NAEYC.” The 10 NAEYC Program Standards | NAEYC, 25 July 2017, https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/preparing-young-children-inclusion

 Picard, Danielle. “Teaching Students with Disabilities.” Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University, 20 June 2018, cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-page

 Prater. “Using Juvenile Literature with Potrayals of Disabilities in Your Classroom.” Intervention in School & Clinic, vol. 35, no. 3, Jan. 2000, p. 167. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=2652318&site=ehost-live. es/disabilities/.n-inclusion.

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Reading List

Bednarek, M., & Caple, H. (2014). “Why do news values matter? Towards a new methodological framework for analysing news discourse in Critical Discourse Analysis and beyond.” Discourse & Society, 25(2), 135-158

Pennycook, Gordon; Cheyne, James Allen; Barr, Nathanial; Koehler, Derek J.; & Fugelsang, Jonathan A. (2015). “On the reception and detection of psuedo-profound bullshit.”

Gee, James Paul. “Discourse Analysis Matters: Bridging Frameworks.” Journal Of Multicultural Discourses, no. 11, vol. 4, Dec 16, 2016. pp 343-359.

Fredal, James. (2011). “Rhetoric and Bullshit.” College English, 73(3), 243-259

Account, Bernie SandersVerified. "Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders)." Twitter. Twitter, 28 Feb. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://twitter.com/BernieSanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor>.

Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet. "12 Glaring Omissions, Contradictions and Lies Bernie Sanders Spotted in Trump's Address." Alternet. N.p., 01 Mar. 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017. <http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/12-glaring-omissions-contradictions-and-lies-bernie-sanders-spotted-trumps-address>.

Eichenwald, Kurt. "In Opinion: The myths that cost Democrats the election." Newsweek. N.p., 23 Nov. 2016. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <http://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044>.

Halper, Daniel, and Joe Tacopino. "Leaked emails show how Democrats screwed Sanders." New York Post. N.p., 23 July 2016. Web. 21 Feb. 2017. <http://nypost.com/2016/07/22/leaked-emails-show-how-democrats-screwed-sanders/>.

Timothypmurphy. "Here's how Bernie Sanders may be changing politics for good." Mother Jones. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2017. <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/bernie-sanders-president-change-politics>.

Keith, Tamara. "Bernie Sanders Has Stuck To The Same Message For 40 Years." NPR. NPR, 11 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2017. <http://www.npr.org/2015/12/11/459231940/bernie-sanders-has-stuck-to-the-same-message-for-40-years>.

Staff, POLITICO, Austin Wright and John Bresnahan, Dan Diamond, Paul Starr, Ben Wofford, Darren Samuelsohn, Jacob Heilbrunn, Annie Karni, and Jennifer Gollan. "Why Democrats Should Beware Sanders’ Socialism." POLITICO Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. <http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-2016-socialism-213667>.

Tupy, Marian. "Bernie Is Not a Socialist and America Is Not Capitalist." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 Mar. 2016. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-democratic-socialism/471630/>.

FeelTheBern.org. "Who is Bernie Sanders?" FeelTheBern.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2017. <http://feelthebern.org/who-is-bernie-sanders/>.

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Here’s my pitch

Through my research paper, I want to see how Bernie Sanders was viewed during the last couple of years, since that is when his momentum picked up and his name started to be more recognizable. I want to see how news was spread by both parties and see how fake news might have contributed to his loss and how this compared to how he was viewed before or after the election.

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Beyond the #Hashtags

Freelon, Dean; Charlton D. McIlwain; Meredith Clark. (2016). “Beyond the Hashtags: #ferguson #blacklivesmatter and the online struggle for offline justice.” Center for Media Social Impact.

Did the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter expect that at one point it would blow up to the size that it did? It gained fame by time but did they truly know that it would catch on or did they question whether it would die out? I’m asking because it took a while for it to catch on so there could have always been a chance that it wouldn’t spread. 

“ For more than a year, #Blacklivesmatter was only a hashtag, and not a very popular one...”

“At the same time, the two terms are sometimes used to refer to a third idea: the sum of all organizations, individuals, protests, and digital spaces dedicated to raising awareness about and ultimately ending police brutality against Black people.”

I understand the targetted audience and the impact that it has had.  I seemed to be drawn into this because it shed light on some things that were happening but at the same time I myself questioned how many people have been affected and realized that this wasn’t something new. Police brutality happens and it can happen to anyone. this movement changed many people’s minfd=ds on officers and that had its downfall. Because of a certain number of officers throughout the years, many officers were looked down upon, were feared and overall judged on something that wasn’t their doing. While their job it to keep us safe, some fear them more than feeling protected. 

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Vice News. (2016). “The Business of Fake News.” Vice. Why is it that something posted on a website can get so many people to believe it, when in reality it's fake? Why don't people fact check what they read to see if it is actual? I fail to see how a man with no political background has made it to be the most powerful man thanks to his blinded followers. Maybe it is just me who still hasn't surpassed this election, but in my defense, I didn't wait all my life to vote to have that man represent not only me but all of the United States as a whole. "I know what stories will work. What will go viral" Horner, Vice "By the time they did a fact check, they didn't care." Horner, Vice Paul Horner helped voters turn in favor to the now president. Personally, I don't agree with the results of this election which any person reading would understand. This man made up lies, feeding these unintelligent feeble minds that would believe that the sky was purple if they read it online. I do want to say that I'm not trying to offend his supporters in any way because I know there are people who genuinely follow and support him regardless of fake news or not, but to those who read every post on Facebook and Twitter and comment on these post as if it were hard evidence, I would like to understand how it is so easy to take something so idiotic as if it were set in stone as hard facts. It's easy to share a post but realize that by doing so your encouraging people to read lies and all so a man behind a computer can get a quick buck. I hate to think that fake news could have possibly swung this election into the route that it did, but I'm not gonna blind myself and say that fake news is harmless and not something to take so seriously. If people were educated and could differentiate the difference between what is real and what is garbage then maybe we can grow and not just feed lies and weaken the truth.

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@engl4341

1. “Facebook Journalism Project Aims to End Fake News Once and For All.” Newsweek.

Facebook wants to “end fake news” but is it possible to actually end it? I questioned it because it seems highly unlikely that it can in my opinion. People will argue that they can post whatever they want or that it is all in fun, yet we have to think about the harm it does to the people being talked about. Maybe they won’t be able to end it, but educating people on the difference between real and fake could be better.

Facebook has faced criticism for inadvertently spreading fake news, particularly in the build up to the U.S. presidential election. (Cuthbertson 2017)

           Anyone with social media could see how it affected the election. I’ve come to question how this election would have resulted if social media wasn’t part of our everyday life.

His image was also shared on the social network in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, falsely suggesting that he was one of the terrorists. (Cuthbertson 2017)

           This stood out to me because it truly is amazing how much trouble this fake news got this man into. In serious situations like that, we should realize the severity of situations people can go through for messing with someone elses image.

2. “Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Oh My! Assessing the Efficacy of the Rhetorical Composing Situation with FYC Students as Advanced Social Media Practitioners.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and

What was it about this page that got this person thinking and how did it make you think about it? I never really thought how a page could get people thinking of the situation like this because it seemed to be something all in fun yet this too can have its consequences. This type of thinking is what the author was talking about.

The "Secret Admirers" page operates on a simple premise: hopeful admirers post a compliment to a Google form, and then the administrator(s) anonymously repost the content to the Facebook page. (Buck 2015)

           This seems all in fun, yet it also can have its harm. I mean it was probably an easier way to break the ice but it gets people thinking.

It is not, however, a specific interest in the "Secret Admirers" page which propels my current focus of study, but rather the community and the platform which enabled such a situation to occur. (Buck 2015)

           The fact that this was a first- year class and how it is these younger students who are more likely on social media are talking or better said posting shows that are more likely the audience was being targeted to.

3.”How Fake News Go Viral: A Case Study.” New York Times.

This went viral in such little time. Why is it that we believe everything we read? This is why I think we need to educate ourselves a bit more. I mean, I guess it is the fact that now that Trump gained the presidency, I can believe anything. Sure, this one didn’t seem true because it lacked evidence, but even like that, if someone brought it up to me without me knowing, I wouldn’t generally shut it down either.

But his recent tweet about paid protesters being bused to demonstrations against President-elect Donald J. Trump fueled a nationwide conspiracy theory — one that Mr. Trump joined in promoting. (Maheshwari 2016)

           This doesn’t seem to surprise me that Donald Trump would even bring it up. I mean this was something one man said after putting 2 and 2 together and even like that he was wrong.

But that didn't matter. (Maheshwari 2016)

           This stood out to me because once you say something you can’t just take it back. That is why we need to watch what we post.

4.      “On Bullshit.”

 It is more polite, as well as less intense, to say ìHumbug! than to say

ìBullshit!. (Frankfurt 2005)

           This made me chuckle. The level of politeness compared to the rudeness is funny to me. I mean, our term bullshit can be the same as someone’s grandparent’s favorite word or what they often say. I just didn’t think of synonyms for the words.

I am uncertain just how close in meaning the word Humbug is to the

word bullshit.(Frankfurt 2005)

           This was where I knew this was going to interest me. It is after this that the author breaks apart humbug and compares it to what e believes is the theory of Bullshit.

5. “Rhetoric and Bullshit.”

What is it about this word that makes people think? How does it initially make you think and how did this affect your view on it? To make an entire study on the word is awesome because it makes people think. At first I won’t lie and say that I never thought about it as a term but just as slang but now I like the fact that I can differentiate bullshit and try understanding it.

An understanding of rhetoric will help in the analysis of bullshit—its distinctive qualities and its types—and, more to the point, an analysis of bullshit will clarify the identifying features of rhetoric.(Fredel 2011)            I didn’t know how serious to take this at first. I mean it amazed me how we could break down the word and actually study its definition.

Thus bullshitting is not the same as a lying: whereas liars must care about the truth in order to steer their listeners reliably away from it, bullshitters show no such concern.(Fredel 2011)

           To be able to differentiate the two is interesting to say the least. I mean to bullshit is to not care while to lie you still have to put up a front. I'm happy to say I'm not a liar, but a bullshitter.

   "rp���

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@engl4341

 Donald Trump is Gaslighting America

1.       What are some ways of distinguishing Gaslighting by President Trump during the election? The way he would avoid questions, which is known as blocking, as well as denial. He would say things and say that never happened (ex: ridiculing a disabled reporter). “Yes, everything is painfully clear in hindsight, but let’s make sure Trump’s win was the Lasik eye surgery we all so desperately needed.” (Duca) This opened my eyes to what Gaslighting was and how it was used during this election. This quote in specific made me chuckle a bit because it was brilliant. Its comedic vibe blends well with the seriousness of the overall text. “Trump is not going to stop playing with the burner until America realizes that the temperature is too high.”(Duca) The reality of this scares me a bit because it seems true. He will keep pushing the people until he knows that the people won’t allow him to go any further. I fear that he will go too far, though.

Why do news values matter? Towards a new methodological framework for analysing news discourse in Critical Discourse Analysis and beyond

2.       What are news values and what determines it? News Values is criteria used by media outlets, such as newspapers or broadcast media, to determine how much prominence to give to a story. Things such as if it hits close to home, conflicts and uniqueness can all affect how much attention will be given to it.

 “By news values we mean the values of newsworthiness (e.g. Negativity, Proximity, Eliteness).” This may be basic, but I never really quite payed attention to what the news consisted of. I knew some news was more important than others, but never thought of what made news more worthy than other news.

“From a linguistic perspective, language can be seen as expressing, indicating, emphasising or highlighting news values (Bednarek, 2006; Bell, 1991; Conboy, 2006), or news values can be regarded as becoming embedded in language (Cotter, 2010: 67).” For someone like me with no linguistic background and never have taken linguistic, it was interesting knowing that language was different because it was Linguistic and how news values worked well with that.