So after Tracy’s lecture today I decided that I wanted to use two different ways to record my thoughts. I am recording on my phone with the voice memo app and I also have a Word document open where I’m using the dictate option on Microsoft Word. I just wanted to give that a try and thought it might be something that I would have to get familiar with in the future in my classrooms to accommodate for different needs, and as Tracy talked about a lot today it’s really important to accommodate for students who might need to look at things and hear things at the same time. That’s something that we talked a lot about in my multiliteracies class and it’s something that Tracy brought up as well. The idea of multimodal – which is delivering things in more ways than one – in text and audio or and text and video for example. We talk a lot in multiliteracy how important it can be for students to express their learning in multimodal ways on a platform that works well for them. So if they want to express themselves verbally they should have the option to do that or express it artistically in whatever mode fits them best.
Something that really resonated with me from Tracy’s lecture was the idea of assuming competency, because I we haven’t really talked about that a lot in the program. I think that a lot I’ve seen in my high school experience anyway about how competency is not assumed for people who had had learning designations and people often start with the really really basic base level things and they assume that those who learn differently kind of are at a really low comprehension level which is absolutely not the case. I really liked that term that she used because we should be assuming competency and we should be assuming that people are very capable and can express themselves in multiple ways. Something else that I was thinking about a lot during tracy’s lecture was that when I was in high school people who had learning designations would often be removed from the classroom and have their own learning space. Which is completely fine – I’m sure that some of those people definitely did learn better and in a quieter environment without as many distractions in the classroom. But it felt as though people with learning designations were being removed from the classroom because they might be a distraction to others or it could hinder the class which is absolutely not the right way to go about it.
I really liked what Tracy mentioned about kind of looking at it in a very holistic way of having people who are on either end of the spectrum in a classroom, and addressing that through how you’re going to teach the class and not just teaching to one end or the other kind of considering the whole classroom dynamic. Also recognizing students who have learning designations as really valuable to the classroom and important members of the community an because that’s not always something that is recognized at all.
I’ve definitely seen at my school placement this fall that classes are incredibly inclusive for the most part and they do their best to accommodate for students and make students feel valued and heard in the classroom if they do have a learning designation. I have been able to spend some time with students whose first language is not English and they are using variety of technologies to help them understand the content better and to be able to participate in the class at the same level as other students. I’ve worked with students over Google Translate and I’m helping them through a Word document and plugging things into Google Translate, so translating an assignment from English to Arabic for example or translating their answer from Arabic to English. I also work as a teaching assistant currently for the University of Winnipeg and there are there’s a student in the class who has a visual impairment so he has to dictate his assignments to a scribe who will write it out for him, which allows him to participate fully in the class. This makes it easier for him so he if can’t use a computer he has someone who can help him do that and fully get his ideas across. Overall I’m looking forward to next semester when we have a class more focused on student needs and student learning and I’m excited to see how technology can help students in the classroom who have learning designations and ultimately be successful in a classroom in whatever way that is the most meaningful and inclusive.
*transcription has been edited for clarity and flow
