I've been avoiding this assignment as I'm having trouble getting my head around it a little. While procrastinating I thought I would start with some background/introduction information.
With my science background, the most obvious start was to look at the stats... What will we be facing when we hit the classroom?
So I have downloaded the ABS data and have plotted the following two graphs for my report:
Using this information, I'm thinking of structuring my report to talk about diversity based on the break down in the second graph looking at the most common forms I'm likely to encounter.
So I will discuss:
- Learning difficulties
- Communication difficulties and
- Fitting in socially
I'm also interested in gifted and talented students, so this will be my 4th.
I'm personally a little uncomfortable with the concept of 'labelling' students/people and feel that it doesn't matter to me as a teacher if a student has Autism or ADHD or whatever (including un-diagnosed difficulties). The fact that they have a learning difficulty that I need to provide support for, and additional scaffolding for, should be all I need to address as the teacher.
Having said all of this, I am aware of your comments to Jo's post and wonder if it's possible to cover this in the word limit.
I would really like your comments and/or suggestions.
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ReplyDeleteThanks Gail, your graphs posted above are really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if we focus on the primary areas that need to be addressed when working with students with any of the above mentioned needs, you will be able to keep with in the word limit. You may like to do a dot point summary or simply focus on one area or one research document that really appeals to you
I would have really like to focus on Indigenous education only, but as this is just one of my four areas, I am going to address working with Indigenous students from the perspective of the Stronger Smarter Institute, established by leading Aboriginal leader and teacher Dr Chris Sarra.
To keep within my word limit I am going to introduce my paper with a focus based on this quote by Dr Sarra;
“Leadership is about being as exceptional as you can be, with words and behaviours that give licence to others to be exceptional also. I like to think that my own efforts to be exceptional and have high expectations of Aboriginal & low SES children have enabled many other school & community leaders to do the same... not because they feel sorry for Aboriginal and low SES children, but because they share our authentic belief in the pursuit of excellence for ALL Australian children."
From there I am going to approach each of my four ares with this in mind.
I think you can do the same, introduce your paper with your thoughts above, then dissect each area based on your above mentioned premise.
Cheers,
Vanessa
Thanks for your comments Vanessa!
ReplyDeleteYour tips have been helpful, particularly when trying to stay within the word limit! I'm actually finding that I'm putting a lot of additional information (via copy and paste from the net) in Appendices... I think that this suits the audience as there is additional information provided if they are interested or have the time to read it - it's like an annotated bibliography format for the reader.
I like the quote you found by Dr Sarra, thanks for sharing that with me - I was working my assignment along those lines but Sarra puts it very nicely!
Gail