Bryanna Seidl
EDUC 351-Pope
Midterm Essay Question(s)
Education 351 is a wonderful introduction class on special needs. Not every
teacher thinks about having a student with special needs being in their class, but on
the contrary almost every teacher will, at some point in his or her career. This class
teaches future teachers about different disabilities. As a class we are shown that
there is more then only visible disabilities like Down Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy,
but there are also disabilities that you might never notice if you don’t take the time
to look. Some of these disabilities include, but are not limited to learning, social,
and emotional disorders. When we as teachers think about these disabilities some
of the words that pop into our minds are modifications and accommodations.
Modifications and accommodations can be confusing to students that don’t
understand the purpose of them. Modifications are made when individual students
with disabilities “need” them. An example of a modification is when test questions
are changed with different vocabulary or even labeled pictures that students in
regular education do not have on there test, (but of course it is important to make
the changes as unknown to other students as possible). Accommodations are
sometimes confused or even thought to be the same as a modification, although this
happens, there is a difference. An accommodation is something like extending time
on a test or even letting a student take the test in a distraction free room. All the
questions are the same, but having a nice quiet place to take his or her test with no
distractions accommodates the student. This talk about accommodations and
modifications leads me to fairness and what being fair means in education.
The most common definition of fair is having or giving the same thing to
everyone. Although this is what most children and even adults learn as the
definition of fairness, the definition does not make much sense. Is it fair that Dad
gets two more slices of pizza than Jimmy, who is 7, at dinner? Well, most would say
yes it is fair that Dad gets more pizza because Jimmy has a smaller stomach than
Dad. Jimmy has a hard time focusing on problems when his friend siting next to him
is constantly clicking his pen, but Jenny doesn’t even notice the clicking. Is it fair for
Jimmy to sit in the next room with the comfy chairs to do his problems? Well, some
students might not think so, because Jimmy gets to sit in the comfy chairs, but
Jimmy needs a quite place to focus on the problem just like Dad needs more food.
“Why is it ok for Amy to have only A and B on the multiple-choice test when the rest
of the class has A, B, C, and D, it just isn’t fair!?” These are questions and concerns
that students may have and they need to be addressed.
In my classroom I really want to make the true definition of fairness very
clear at the beginning of the year. I will explain to my students that fair doesn’t
always mean getting the same things. I will have posters with the quote “Fair ≠
Equal” and at the beginning of the year I will make a point to talk about this as a
class. As a class we will do an activity to show how fair is not always equal. I will
have a handful of students’ pick a disability out of a hat (ie. Physical impairment: can
only write with their non-dominate hand) after giving all of the students the same
assignment I will ask if it was “fair” for me to have the students with physically
impairments do the same sheet in the same time as the rest of the class. I will do
this multiple times using different strategies to show a range of disabilities. After,
the activity I will record what the class has to say then I will make more posters
accordingly. Later in the year if a student questions the fairness in the classroom I
can review with them what we thought about fairness at the beginning of the year.
I hope that I can help my students see that fair is not always equal.
Accommodations and modifications are not in place to be unfair; they are tools that
we as teachers can use to make learning fair for all students based on individual
needs.