Kliewer Article

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome – Christopher Kliewer

The part of this reading that really stuck out to me was reading about Shayne, Isaac’s preschool teacher.  Here is a teacher who works with students to help them to reach their fullest potentials.  She believes in all of her students, helps them both in her classroom and the community, and sees value in all of her students.  Though what impacted me the most was not  the role she played in her classroom.  Shayne took a special interest in one of the classroom aides, Anne, who (like 3 students in Shayne’s class) had Down syndrome.  Anne’s job of working as a preschool classroom aide had been chosen for her at a meeting that she wasn’t involved in, even though she had no interest in working with children.  Anne’s true passion was movies and she wanted desperately to become a Hollywood director.  Even though Shayne couldn’t help Anne to fulfill her dream of being a Hollywood director, she did recognize her desire to work with movies and set out to find a job that she would like.  Soon, Anne was working in a local movie store (wow, remember those?!?) and in a field that was of great interest to her. 

As a high school special education teacher, I find that it is extremely important to include students in conversations about their futures.  Much like Shayne did, it is important to find out what my students are interested in, and then try to look at careers that might be appropriate for them.

One of my favorite projects I have my students complete is called Top 4 Job Choices.  The students pick any four jobs that they might be interested in and do a project where they research the job description, salary, education required, why they would like the job, and why they wouldn’t like the job.  Then the students turn the information into a Power Point to be shared with the class.  By the time they finish sharing, the students have learned about 35-40 jobs that they might be interested in pursuing in their future.  It also gives us an opportunity to talk about the fact that some professions require a lot of extra schooling and are the students really up for that?  Also, we discuss that not everyone has to be a doctor or astronaut, but that there are many important jobs that might be more realistic and interesting to the students as well.

“Though Shayne Robbins at Shoshone School did not engage in extended discussions of Gardner or Vygotsky, she intuitively rejected the notion that nonconformity to the academic norm meant a student inherently lacked intelligence or was intrinsically burdensome.” (83) This quote really stuck out to me, because I believe that this reflects my philosophy in the classroom as well.  I have shared before that I do not always enjoy getting into the theory behind good teaching practices, but do believe in being a good teacher. 

During my undergraduate studies I spent a great amount of time studying Gardner and Vygotsky in both education and psychology classes.  We consistently discussed their theories in class discussions, saw their names on tests, and read countless articles/publications both by and about them.  While I can understand the importance of being familiar with their research, I do not think about them or their theories regularly.  Much like Zeke didn’t always know the why behind his teaching practices, I also don’t, but like to think that I have a lasting impact on my students.

Attached is an article about including students with Down syndrome in a mainstream classroom.  It provides research, suggestions for teachers and support staff, possible classroom models, curriculum and charts/diagrams to illustrate the ideas presented.  I chose this article because it has a positive outlook on including students with disabilities in the regular classroom.  The study considered input from parents and teachers through questionnaires and conversations.  I also like that this article looked at both elementary and secondary education in its considerations.