Multiliteracies in the Special Education Setting

Presented by Rhonda BettsFor EDX3270 - Literacies EducationAssignment 1

By PresenterMedia.com

•Agenda

10 Annotations of articles based on Multiliteracies

Small snack

Midday meal followed by free play

Self Reflection on ICT learning

First Session

Little Lunch

Last session

Middle session

Big Lunch

Overview/Synthesis

• This article draws on the findings of the New London Group (2000) to justify why and how the response to intervention requires further examination to ensure that inequalities are not experienced in special and general education settings. Beecher states that “learning to read is not simply a matter of developing the required skills”, and promotes the findings of the New London Group that teacher’s should view literacy learning as “personally and socially meaningful problem solving activities”, Beecher further supports the New London Group’s findings that traditional literacy teaching methods must take on the role of multiliteracies in a technologically based society.

• Response to Intervention: A Socio-cultural Perspective of the Problems and the PossibilitiesConstance C. Beecher

• This paper examines the changing face of literacy teaching and learning across the curriculum. Cope and Kalantzis draw on the issues put forward by the New London Group regarding the need for dramatic change to occur in the classroom context to keep up with the ever changing technological advances of the current time. New social practices and ways of working in the new era of ever changing technological advancements ultimately must overflow into the classroom to enable students to acquire the tools they need to be literate and functional in the future. This carries over to the special needs setting as well as the general classroom setting.

• "Multiliteracies": New Literacies, New LearningBill Cope and Mary Kalantzis

• Henderson’s article pinpoints an important issue when considering the use of multiliteracies, or any subject for that matter, diversity. Henderson argues of the importance of looking at what students can do, rather than what they may struggle with. Student strengths are the starting point for successful learning, however it takes an expert teacher to be able to identify the diversity of the classroom and recognise each student’s strengths. In the special education setting every lesson is focusing on the student’s strengths and ability rather than the disability. Incorporating situated practice as recommended by the New London Group (1996), Henderson has stated that students can then be immersed in a range of classroom practices facilitated and scaffolded by the teacher.

• Recognising Difference, One of the Challenges of using a multiliteracies approach? Robyn Henderson

• This article begins by reviewing Evidence-Based Reading Practices for Response to Intervention: Diane Haager, Janette K. Klingner, and Sharon Vaughn (Eds.). (2007), which concentrates on literacy practices based on reading skill. In the section titled Privileging Reading (p7), multiliteracies are mentioned as being lacking in the book. Kraayenoord argues that proficient use of multiliteracies can enable students with learning difficulties (LD) to cope with and avoid further difficulties. Kraayenoord takes on the perspective that the use of any singular teaching approach with any student, including students with LD, because of their diverse characteristics, could prove detrimental to future learning outcomes. A broad outlook of literacy must also include the exploitation of wide and varied instructional practices

• Response to Intervention: New Ways and WarinessChristina E. van Kraayenoord

• The authors state that with rapidly changing technologies it is difficult to keep up with assistive technology for the promotion of communication, reading, spelling and writing within the special needs sector and highlight the lack of empirical research studies in the area of Assistive Technologies intervention. Assistive technologies are tools that allow a compensatory value to students with special needs to enable them to participate more fully in the area of literacy and multiliteracies, and the authors advocate the advancement in the area of Web 2.0 tools can only provide greater benefits.

• The effectiveness of assistive technologies for children with special needs: a review of research-based studiesDorit Maor, Jan Currie & Rachel Drewry

• In this paper, Meyer highlights the benefits of reciprocal teaching systems. This approach is a system that builds the capacity of teaching reading to students aimed at their individual learning needs. Meyer states that the system will support learners within the context of a collaborative community of learners, to enable them to be active participants in their own literacy learning. By using multi-strategic instruction, teachers can scaffold learning across all literacy levels with direct instruction, modeling and guided instruction. Meyer suggests that by asking students to be co-contributors in their learning and having students explain their way of thinking before, after and during reading, provides the teacher with insights to the student’s use of strategies.

• ‘Diving into Reading’: Revisiting Reciprocal Teaching in the Middle YearsKylie Meyer

• The New Basics and Rich Tasks were an innovative of the State Government in Queensland which linked learning to life outside school. In this article Osborne and Wilson compare many facets of the New Basics to the productive pedagogies where students can demonstrate their learning through the Rich Tasks. The New Basics offered an “uncluttered” curriculum alternative for schools that fell within the catchment. The article covers the area of multiliteracies by suggesting that the New Basics was able to provide realistic and holistic tasks for students that benefit their learning and future life.

• Multiliteracies in Torres Strait: A Mabuiag Island State School diabetes projectBarry Osborne and Eric Wilson

• This article emphasizes the role of computers in the promotion of literacy and the authors state that research and documentation in the area of special needs have been proven by listing multiple sources. The authors argue that literate behaviors and skills can be enhanced to avoid later literacy failure. The studies mentioned in this paper advocate the need for early intervention with the curriculum and classroom activities to promote multiliterate skills. Students with special needs have many obstacles to conquer besides the normal constraints of the curriculum, including school absences due to extended illness, doctor or specialist appointments and other physical or intellectual impairments. The adaptations to instructional activities all need to be related to the levels of emergent literacy skills and speech and impairment of every individual.

• Emergent literacy activities, instructional adaptations and school absence of children with cerebral palsy in special education.Marieke Peeters, Jan de Moor & Ludo Verhoeven

• This article brings into light some of the issues faced by students with special needs when learning literacy. Rogers argues that practices in the current system of literacy learning are the most important function of social relations and communication for students with special needs. The article draws on multiple sources including the work of the New London Group (2000) and refers to the use of situated practice and linking learning to real life functions. This article was based on the research with one individual (Vicki), and her progress with her disability and educational instructional discourses. The study was carried out over two years and sets the groundwork for many more longitudinal studies in this area.

• Through the Eyes of the Institution: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Decision Making in Two Special Education MeetingsRebecca Rogers

• In this paper the authors state that the lack of ability to access communication (written and verbal) decreases independence within all parts of the community, more so those with impairment as the resources for communication often rely on the ability to use augmentative and alternative communication. Literacy instruction within the curriculum for students with special needs can enhance their ability to function independently in society by incorporating the needs of students to learn important functional skills while still engaging in the curriculum that is used in general education classes. The paper argues that students who use AAC, literacy can take on heightened importance where the students require the ability to interpret language through symbols and symbolic language, and then translate those symbols into expressive communication.

• Teachers' Perspectives on Literacy Instruction for Students with Severe Disabilities Who Use Augmentative and Alternative CommunicationAndrea L. Ruppar, Stacy K. Dymond, & Janet S. Gaffney

Time for little lunch!

The special education resources section of the national curriculum is yet to be finalised and released (ACARA, 2012). Special education teachers have been advised to use the national curriculum as it stands and make modifications to suit the context (The Australian Curriculum, 2012). ACARA (2012), believes that all Australian students regardless of cultural background or impairment have a right to access the same learning opportunities in the classroom across all educational settings (The Australian Curriculum, 2012).

•Overview/Synthesis

The above annotations were chosen to highlight the fact that all students are indeed entitled to quality educational benefits regardless of disability. The techniques that special educators use to ensure students with impairment gain access to a “strengths based perspective” of themselves include IEP’s and extensive planning and collegial collaboration (Nevin, Smith, & McNeil, 2008). Special education teachers bring their own knowledge and experience into the special needs classroom which is a typical feature of the “Freire-type” of education that can expand on interaction and learning for each student (Freire Institute, 2012). In the late twentieth century Paulo Freire has been cited as one of the most influential thinkers on the topic of education (Hudalla, 2005).

Special Education has a place in education (Hocutt, 1996). With the push towards

inclusion and mainstreaming there will always still be a place for special education within the school system. Students with impairment also

still have the right of access to an education that offers the same opportunities as the

general education curriculum (The Australian Special Education Principals’ Association. N.D.).

Furthermore, students in special education classrooms also have the right to expect

accommodations that consider the diversity of individual student needs.

Multiliteracies have been practiced in the special education setting for a long time; however the need to extend the use of “gadgets” into real world applications is something that teachers in the special education sector really need to consider (Cormack, 1997a as cited in The Australian Special Education Principals’ Association. N.D.).

Multiliteracies pedagogy recognises the multimodal means of interpretation and communication by extending literacy education beyond traditional practices (New London Group, 1996 as cited in Ntelioglou, 2011). Situated practice (New London Group, 1996) involves providing innovative learning environments that provide opportunity for students to engage in meaningful educational experiences, making use of prior knowledge and life skill (Ntelioglou, 2011).

Multiliteracies pedagogy accepts that all experiences are fundamentally represented in a multimodal means and stresses the need for education in language and literacy to take on the responsibility of creating meaning in the classroom to everyday life (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). The New London Group (1996) argue that meaning within communication is made up of multiple modes, including:

• Written language• Oral language• Visual representation• Audio representation• Tactile representation• Gestural representation and,• Spatial representation.

A multiliteracies perspective that is inclusive of multimodal education is comparable to the nature of language used every day (Everett, 2006). Literacy has changed from the ability of writing names, to the capability of reading and writing, through to include the arts (Everett, 2006). Literacy in the sense is now seen in the plural “multiliteracies” that it is used in multifaceted ways to include, computer literacy, mathematical literacy, print literacy, critical literacy, emotional literacy, functional literacy, the list could be endless (Everett, 2006).

•Big Lunch

After recently completing EDX3100 ICT and pedagogy I felt quite confident in completing the ICT component of this assignment. The problem I faced was going through all the web 2.0 tools and finding the one I wanted to use that would do what I hoped to achieve with the presentation.

I decided to do my presentation in PowerPoint and convert it to an online slideshow through slideshare because I knew it could be embedded into Mahara and directly onto my ePortfolio.

•Self Reflection on ICT learning

The fun part was finding an exciting template to use that reflected the tone I wanted to set for the presentation. The templates provided in PowerPoint I found quite dull and boring, so I set myself the task of finding something a little more eye catching. I wanted something that was visible as an online resource that held the audience eye long enough to draw them in. When designing multimodal tasks in the classroom I will look for the same type of thing. I feel like the students need colour and excitement in the background to spark that initial interest and then to maintain the interest the presentation needs to have little breaks to allow students time to regroup thinking. This is why I set the presentation out with a recess and lunch break. While this presentation is not aimed at a primary classroom audience, I wanted it to reflect the type of presentation I would use in a primary classroom setting.

I was happy to have the opportunity to provide the multimodal aspect of this assignment as I really do not like using templates to complete my assignments. While I understand the ease a template provides for marking, it does not allow me to add my own style and show my personality.

ACARA. (2012). The Australian Curriculum. Retrieved 24 July 2012, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

Beecher, C.C. (2010).Response to Intervention: A Socio-cultural Perspective of the Problems and the Possibilities. Journal of Education. 191(3). pp. 1-8

Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2009). Multiliteracies: new literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal 4(3). pp. 164-195

Everett, T.E. (2006). Multiliteracies in early childhood education: the modes and media of communication by first grade students. Retrieved 30 July 2012, from http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1276&context=etd

Freire Institute. (2012). Education, Conscientization and a Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Retrieved 24 July 2012, from http://www.freire.org/paulo-freire/

Henderson, R. (2004). Recognising Difference, One of the Challenges of using a multiliteracies approach?. Practically Primary. 9(2). pp. 11-14

Hocutt, A.M. (1996). Effectiveness of Special Education: Is Placement the Critical Factor?. The Future of Children: Special Education for Students with Disabilities. 6(1). pp 77-102.

Hudalla, J. (2005). Transforming My Curriculum, Transforming My Classroom: Paulo Freire, James Banks, and Social Justice in a Middle School Classroom. Published by EdChange and the Multicultural Pavilion – http://www.EdChange.org/multicultural Retrieved 24 July 2012, from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/hudalla.pdf

Kraayenoord, C.E. (2010). Response to Intervention: New Ways and Wariness. Reading Research Quarterly. 45(3). pp. 363-376

Maor, D., Currie. J. & Drewry, R. (2011). The effectiveness of assistive technologies for children with special needs: a review of research-based studies. European Journal of Special Needs Education. 26(3). pp. 283-298.

•References

Meyer, K. (2010). ‘Diving into Reading’: Revisiting Reciprocal Teaching in the Middle Years. Literacy Learning: the Middle Years. 18(1). pp. 41-52

Nevin, M., Smith, R.M. & McNeil, M. (2008). Shifting Attitudes of Related Service Providers: A Disability Studies & Critical Pedagogy Approach. International Journal of Whole Schooling. 4(1).

New London Group. (1996). pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review. 66. pp. 60-92.

Ntelioglou, B.Y. (2011). ‘But why do I have to take this class?’ The mandatory drama-ESL class and multiliteracies pedagogy. The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 16(4). pp. 595-615

Osborne, B. & Wilson, E. (2003). Multiliteracies in Torres Strait: A Mabuiag Island State School diabetes project. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 26(1). pp. 23-38

Peeters, M., de Moor, J & Verhoeven, L. (2011). Emergent literacy activities, instructional adaptations and school absence of children with cerebral palsy in special education. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 32. pp. 659-668

Rogers, R. (2002). Through the Eyes of the Institution: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Decision Making in Two Special Education Meetings. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 33(2). pp. 213-237.

Ruppar, A.L., Dymond, S.K. & Gaffney, J.S. (2011). Teachers' Perspectives on Literacy Instruction for Students with Severe Disabilities Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities. 36(3-4), pp. 100-111

The Australian Curriculum. (2012). Student Diversity. Retrieved 24 July 2012, from http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Student+Diversity+Information+Sheet1.pdf

The Australian Special Education Principals’ Association. (N.D). Position Papers. Retrieved 24 July 2012, from http://www.asepa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=16&Itemid=129

•References