Wednesday, April 15, 2020

IDEA and 504 Accommodations

StayWoke... Live Inclusively: Equity vs. Equality | The Inclusion ...

Have you seen this graphic? I'm sure you have, it's been floating around in many different forms for quite a while. It shows how equity and equality are not the same thing.  Many times in schools we will hear teachers say "I can't give Johnny a fidget because then everyone will want a fidget and I need to treat everyone equally." Or, "I cant let Sally sit on a yoga ball, then everyone will want a yoga ball and I treat everyone equally here." But, equality is not the same as equity. We see in the first image, that by treating everyone equally, only two of the children are able to see the baseball game. In the second image, all 3 are able to see the game by each one being given the support they need. So let's talk about this for a minute.

Let's pretend you have a child in your classroom who is 8 and has ADHD. Your child has a 504 or IEP meeting with you where you start to work on accommodations and modifications to make sure everything is equitable and accessible. As you start the meeting you hear modifications such as having Sally do only odd numbers on the worksheet at home, having her sit next to the teacher, bring in fidgets, sit on a disco sit, draw her answers for reading instead of writing them down. You start to speak up, "wait, but then all of my students will want to do that. How is it fair that she should only do half the work that they do and get to draw in class instead of write her answers down?" Well, Sally has a much shorter attention span than the other students, so when she gets home, it takes her 2-3x the time to do her work that it does her classmates, so reducing the workload, makes this equitable. Sally has a hard time writing out the answers to her reading questions, though she understands the questions and knows what she wants to say, she can't put it to paper. But, she is great at art. So, you are capitalizing on her strength in art, and using that to assess her understanding of the reading. If you were to make her write out her answers, which is more difficult for her, she would get a lower grade, even though she has the understanding, she just does not have the ability, right now, to dictate that understanding. This makes her learning more equitable. You are also letting her have fidgets because her mom has found when Sally has something to do with her hands, she is able to better focus on whoever is speaking. So, she will be able to listen better to what you are saying in class and will remember more of the content.

Many times when you explain to children that you are giving them each what they need to succeed, they will understand. They understand the Johnny speaks in Spanish and that is why the assistant translates things in to Spanish for him. They understand that Susan wears hearing aides and these help her to hear better in the classroom. Or that Bobby is in a wheelchair because his legs do not work in the same way that ours do, so this helps him to be able to get around the class. If you explain that other things like having fidgets can help someone learn, or that drawing helps someone who can't write as well, children will understand a lot more than we give them credit for.




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