My 2^nd week at 44 sounds was a little bit more emotional and made me really reflect back on my practicum experiences as well as my future educational practices.

I came across a book called The Boy Who Learned Upside Down written by Christy Scatterella. It’s based on a true story—a story about Christy’s son, Alex, who has dyslexia and who never really liked going to school until he met Mrs. Sandy. Until now, I was only motivated by my commitment to help and support all students in the best way I can—whatever their learning needs may be—but I wasn’t really able to look at the world through the eyes of a student who struggled with a learning disability.

Although I was never a fan of pull-out programs (you’ll be amazed to see how quick and intuitive children are to judge other classmates for being “sent” to a different class), Alex receives a lot of support from his resource teacher, Mrs. Sandy. She tells him to do three things that take a lot of courage: tell yourself that “you can”, instead of “you can’t”; help someone else in need; and, finally, believe in yourself. Students like Alex need the support and encouragement more than anything else because they struggle with immense self-doubt and low self-esteem. For Alex, reading is almost impossible in the beginning because the S’s turn into snakes that slither away and the O’s become popcorns that pop out of the page. It’s not a matter or effort or laziness—they just need special and unique tools to learn differently.

This book really made me think about the widespread tendency for teachers to pull out students who need this extra support. Although the intention is great, I think that there is a better way than sending students out of the class. As opposed to the team-teaching model, the pull-out model forces students to miss out on the valuable class time to build stronger relationships with the teacher and their classmates. On the other hand, team-teaching allow students to belong in the regular classroom which helps them learn best as they also play valuable roles within the classroom community. During the school year, my group and I created a research package on the effects of pull-out classes on ELLs (English Language Learners). We realized that the effects didn’t only apply to ELLs but they were also strongly relevant to students with exceptional needs. According to Brownlie, Feniak, and Schnellert (2006), we found that the most effective method of approaching students with exceptional needs is to offer an ongoing program that is implemented within the classroom.

With strong collaboration and clear communication between the resource teachers and the core teachers, I believe that all students can benefit from the inclusive classroom values of team teaching! You can read more about the different teaching models here: https://prezi.com/xvodhoanfonx/tell-research-package-case-7/