Friday, October 14, 2011

Not really a struggling student, but a student with a difference

Since my classmates are focusing on struggling students, I will blog about a student with a difference.
The PBL activity I am doing now is with a fourth grade art class. One of my students is blind. My host teacher does a lot of 2-dimensional artwork that requires lesson adjustment so the blind student can create something similar to everyone else. I am not sure if she likes or dislikes this.

This student works with an Aide while in the art room, and she and the host teacher collaborate to make paper projects with string instead of lines, and fabric pictures instead of drawn and shaded pictures.

By some lucky happenstance, my PBL involves kinesthetic artwork when I had no idea she was going to be in the class I was teaching (I see a variety of classes, Preschool-4th)
I am doing a pottery lesson, and by another stroke of luck I had brought both real examples that the students could pass around and touch, and visual examples.

She was completely elated about the project. Smiling, she explained to me all of her plans about what she was going to make, the handles were going to be wing-shaped like a bird, there were going to be human-like designs on the side of her pot, etc. She was so excited, explaining to me all the interesting things she was going to design. Normally, she and the Aide talk quietly in the corner while they do projects, so they seemed a bit isolated from the rest of the class. I was very happy for her that she was able to do the same project at the same time everyone else was. I think she liked that.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful! I can't wait to see the final products! I'm also exciting you are giving this student and opportunity to use her strengths!

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