In "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome", author Christopher Kliewer gives insight into several different student's lives that are afflicted with down syndrome. One class that was focused on was Shayne Robbins' classroom. Shayne struck me as an excellent teacher. Robbin's school sounds like it truly cares about educating its students. It is a parent-run school that helps children in small classrooms. One of Shayne's students, Isaac, is afflicted with down syndrome. This label did not stop Shayne however, she still taught the class and treated everyone as equals. I enjoyed that the class as a whole acted out Isaac's favorite book, "Where the Wild Things Are." This is a very special book to Isaac and it must have made him very happy to not only read it in class, but later act it out as well by starring as the main character, Max. Shayne's ability to treat all of her students as equals was remarkable. This clearly had a large impact on Isaac's ability to learn and participate in class.
The main idea that I took away from this article was as a teacher, you should treat all of your students equally, regardless of any background they may have or how high they scored on a standardized test. You should treat them like you would treat anybody else, because they are their own person, not just a test score. I aspire to be more like Shayne in my classroom one day.
This article was an interesting read on teaching children with down syndrome and their teacher's ability to help them.
I truly believe in the statement you made: students are more than a score on a test. Their academic abilities shouldn't be measured by how well they do on a standardized test. Really good point.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with you on the standardized test point, I took the ACTS weekend to get into the education program and I am awful at them. It stinks how this determines whether or not I am in the education program or not. Very good post
ReplyDeleteI also really liked the point you made that students are more then a test score, this is so true..especially now with the new PARCC tests that will determine if someone passes to the next grade or not.
ReplyDeleteI back your statement up 100%! You can't treat people differently because of it. Or view them as down syndrome people. You need to view them as PEOPLE who just so happen to have down syndrome
ReplyDelete#teamfrankie #goodarticle #yes
ReplyDeleteLove the article! And I agree with the fact that as teachers we need to treat all students with the same respect!
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