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Articles Conference Reviews |
2007E12MieleE12: “Students with Disabilities: Creating Accommodations and Inclusion within the Composition Classroom” This session featured five speakers from five different institutions. Andrea Greenbaum, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL Chair Dale Katherine Ireland opened the session, noting that for many years she had worked on the student services side of education at UC Berkeley before becoming a composition teacher. Now, she explained, she deals with the same issues of inclusion but from the classroom side. Accommodating and including students with disabilities in composition classes was the focus of the session. “Nurturing Difference: The Autistic Student in Professional Writing Programs” Andrea Greenbaum, Ph.D., who directs a writing program at a small Catholic university, provided background on behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorders and the competing responsibility teachers face in making education accessible to these students and accommodating them while still meeting the goals of the institutions. She cited the alarming new statistic that 1 in 150 students have autism spectrum disorder. How, she asked, will teachers meet both the needs of the students and the goals of the institutions? There is, she said, a dearth of research on young adults with these disorders in higher education. In the past, research focused on younger students who, it was presumed, would not go on to higher education. Now that numbers of students with disabilities at the college level are increasing, the law requires equal access. She highlighted the stories of several students as evidence of the problems that students and teachers face in the classroom. Disclosure of the disability is key, according to Greenbaum. In the first example, the student was tested and identified as have a disability, which meant that the Disabled Students Office outlined the required accommodations. Despite accommodations, this student continued to be disruptive, in particular, because she could not read subtle nuances and social cues in order to interact with teachers and classmates in the way expected. Subsequently, the student received an internship, but faculty found her difficult to work with and said they felt ill prepared for dealing with the problems. Greenbaum quoted Simon Baron-Cohen’s definition of “mind blindness,” explaining the inability of some students to imagine what others are thinking. Meeting typical classroom expectations may be extremely difficult for these students. Ultimately, Greenbaum said, it is up to instructors to bridge the gap and make education accessible. She recognized the difficulty faced by instructors without training or experience in this area and provided a practical list of advice for working with autistic students in writing classes. “How I Learned to Hear in the World of the Deaf” Mashey Bernstein told the story of his first interaction in twenty years of teaching with a student with a physical disability. Putting himself in the role of tough guy Jack Palance, Bernstein told an amusing story in three acts—revealing his movement from ignorance to revelation. He said that he was ill prepared for the experience because he lacked training in how to accommodate the needs of the deaf student enrolled in his basic writing class. In act one, he admits his ignorance and details his resistance to what he considered an imposition on his classroom space by an “overly tall” signer. In act two, when the student reveals himself to be an excellent writer, Bernstein realizes that the accommodations needed involve cognitive issues related to how information is processed, not just translating spoken language into sign language. In act three, Bernstein’s revelation is fully realized when he has a conversation with the student about the ability of American Sign Language to express complex ideas with simplicity. He encourages the student to write about that issue. Bernstein read portions of the essay, which compares ASL and SEE using George Orwell’s, “the Politics of Language.” Subsequently, it was published and won a first prize in Starting Lines, an annual publication of student writing at UC Santa Barbara. In closing, Bernstein revealed that he is now a member of the Disabled Student’s Committee. “Outside the Box: The Revised Composition Classroom” Gillian Sternberg spoke about the physical space of the classroom, commenting that the pain of difference prevents some students from identifying themselves as having a disability, so she assumes that there are some “invisible” students with disabilities in her class. Her approach in the classroom is to incorporate accommodations for the whole class that do not single out individual students who may or may not be identified to her. Sternbeg said that the traditional classroom setting with students sitting calmly in rows their pencils at the ready while waiting attentively for the words of the teacher, may describe what teachers typically view as “good student behavior.” However, this setting may be uncomfortable for students with certain disabilities as well as impossible for some students to achieve. Students with disabilities may not be able to sit still for long periods, Sternberg explained. She shared experiences with several students for whom she provided accommodations, noting that it is the teacher’s responsibility to move outside of his or her comfort zone instead of expecting the student to change. We must rethink our ideas of what the classroom should be, she said. She gave examples of accommodations, for instance, helping a student find an object to manipulate with his hands that would be less disturbing in the classroom than the cell phone that he had been opening and closing repeatedly. Asking students what they think will help was another suggestion. She closed by encouraging the audience to experiment with new methods. “When One Door Closes: The Economics of Learning Disabilities in Adult Learners” Melody Wilson provided sobering statistics about the socio-economic impacts on students with learning disabilities and the likelihood that they would dropout of high school: 35% drop out of high school, which is twice the national average; 62% will be unemployed a year after leaving high school, 50% leave high school and become pregnant within one year; 71% attend community colleges. At Cascade Community College in Portland, Oregon, many students with learning disabilities have not been diagnosed. Wilson explained that while the law requires accommodation for those who have been identified as having a learning disability, it does not provide for the required testing. Because of the socio-economic consequences of their disabilities, these students cannot afford the required tests and do not receive accommodations. Wilson provided examples of students who had received assistance and as a result were able to turn their lives around. Other students have been less fortunate. Unaware of their disabilities and unable to afford testing, they attempt to improve their lives through education, she said, but continue to struggle. Wilson reported that across the country there is little infrastructure for adult testing, leaving those students least able to afford it responsible for paying for their own diagnosis. Since they are unable to do so, many students remain undiagnosed; consequently, they do not receive the accommodations to which they are entitled, which impedes their social and economic success. “Using Student Learning Outcomes to Create Inclusion for Learning Disabled Students in Composition Classes” Dale Katherine Ireland presented a paper that is part of larger project. She proposed using student learning outcomes as a departure point for inclusion within the classroom. Working backwards from what we want students to do, she said we can ask ourselves how they will demonstrate what they have learned and how we will assess it. She noted that using multiple modalities in the learning process makes it easier for learners to transfer short-term knowledge to long-term knowledge. She suggested methods for making use of multiple modes, for instance, reading aloud from a written text, and using scaffolding to assist students. A twenty-minute discussion followed the presentations. Panelists and audience members suggested that teachers educate and train themselves about these issues. ERIC was cited as a useful source for research and strategies as was AHEAD on online clearing house of resources. Dale Katherine Ireland closed the session commenting on the common threads among the presentations including the fact that for many teachers dealing with disabilities in college writing classes is new territory as evidenced by the presentation reports of teacher feelings of unpreparedness. While there is a need for programs to train teachers, she said we must also be willing to train ourselves. Comments? |