Inclusive Education – Assessment 2 Alper Karabork 17796675

Part 1 - Case Study - Student name: Max (Fake name used for this essay only*)

Max is a fifteen year old, year 9 student who was born with Down Syndrome.
Down syndrome is the most common chromosome disorder amongst the
entire population. The chances of a baby being born with Down syndrome is
one in every eight hundred. With down syndrome occurring to individuals at
conception, there is no reason as to why is happens, hence having no cure or
prevention for the disorder. Everyone who has Down syndrome will have some
level of intellectual disability. There will be some delay in development and
some level of learning difficulty. Because everyone is unique, the level of delay
will be different for each person. (Downsydnrome.org, 2011). Max often shows
great interests in his music and visual art classes, while using music as way to
calm down and take his mind off school and class work. Whereas during visual
art classes, Max often seems to draw and paint certain emotions that he is
feeling at that point in time through specific colours. As Max suffers from
down syndrome, he often finds it difficult to communicate and express himself
verbally, often he feels frustrated due to his lack of language skills which is why
practical lessons in music and art help express and communicate exactly what
he is trying to say. ‘Most people with Down Syndrome experience lifelong
difficulties in being understood by people outside of their immediate circle
(Kumin, 2006). As Max’s strength are generally based around subjects that are
more practical rather than theory and written work, this applies across all
subjects for Max excluding physical education (PE). Throughout his classes,
Max highlights some brilliant ideas and creates drawings and short musical
passages at a higher level when comparing to his peers. His enthusiasm and
willingness to constantly experiment with new ideas and methods in his
practises are positive signs for Max’s learning. Once Max in engaged the
classroom activity, he often out performs and stands out with his work.
Regardless of what the subject may be, at times when Max applies himself, or
finds a specific topic interesting in another subject besides Music and Visual
Arts, he often also excels and can perform at a high level both with the help of
a teacher/guardian and independently. However, in most of his classes, or in a
class that Max doesn’t find interesting he can often be disruptive and have
difficulties following teacher’s instructions. ‘Students with Down syndrome can
be problematic, as these students often display behaviours that can be
distracting and not conductive to learning in the general education setting.’
(Debra, 2010). As Max continuously tries to avoid doing class work, this results
in misbehaviour due to lack of concentration and attention. While disrupting
the class, Max keeps other students further disengaged to the lesson that he
too doesn’t seem to take interest in. When asked, Max stresses the fact that
he doesn’t enjoy certain lessons in school as he finds certain teachers and/or
tasks ‘boring’. He continuously replied with the same response when asked
why he didn’t enjoy these lessons. His poor attention and concentration skills
get more challenged as the day progresses, he loses interest and gets more
disruptive towards the final periods every day.

There are methods that allows students with disabilities to perform at a higher
level throughout general education. A way that approaches students with
disabilities, and incorporates every student needs, regardless of what it may
consist of. Universal Design for Learning is a concept designed to target every
student in the classroom, regardless of their abilities. This concept has the
potential to fit with any student, and doesn’t support the general idea that
‘one size fits all’. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an evidence-based
approach to curriculum and instruction that increases access to learning for
students with widely diverse backgrounds and learning styles. (Post, Katherine
M; Rainville, Ellen Berger.OT Practice; Bethesda). The concept of Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) has emerged as a point of emphasis from improving
how students with high incident disabilities perform in general education
(Hitchcock & Stahl, 2004; Scott, McGuire & Shaw, 2003). With some students
not being able to keep up or learn at a different pace to others, UDL is to be
applied in order to eliminate this problem and creates a classroom that can
accommodate for every student’s needs. UDL could be used to benefit certain
students that experience certain behavioural and/or cognitive difficulties, as it
includes all aspects in a classroom; i.e., Equipment used, class activities and the
environment of the classroom as a whole. UDL not only benefits those with
learning difficulties, but can also help regular students with their work as well.
Succeeding in general education settings is an increasingly important goal for
all students, including those identified as having high incidence disabilities.
Research suggests the strategy can equally assist mainstream students as well
as learners with disabilities. (Cobb-Morocco, 2001; Schulte & Villwock, 2004).
UDL unlocks the barriers between students with learning difficulties and the
obstacles that they face, making it easier to understand and foresee certain
areas of study. At the same time this gives teachers and educators the
opportunity to open different avenues whilst teaching. It may widen a
teacher’s educational scope, at the same time allow teachers to grasp an even
better understanding of how to approach students with certain abilities and
disabilities depending on their situation. ‘Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
has the potential not only to increase access but transform the learning
process. However, fulfilling this potential requires careful application of UDL,
taking into account the need for flexibility from the very beginning.’ (Rose,
2000). As Universal Design for Learning is based around experimentation
around neuroscientists, it attempts to figure out the complex functions and
activities that happen within the brain. With the backing of this evidence,
scientist can predict the learning outcome that takes place and how certain
students and abilities react with other learning and teaching methods. ‘To help
systemize and operationalize flexible curriculum design, the Center for Applied
Special Technology (CAST) has developed Universal Design for Learning
guidelines and corresponding checkpoints to design a curriculum that supports
all learners across differing educational settings’ (Rose, 2000). The aim of these
guidelines is to ensure learners are provided with the most beneficial and
researched framework that is applicable to every learner. The goal is to teach
learners how to learn.

As Max struggles to maintain his concentration throughout his classes, the

application of Universal Design for Learning does seem to have a heavy
influence on his school lessons. As authorities around the Universal Design for
Learning concept have directed their attention to three general approaches, it
shows the importance placed on these topics and the emphasis that is placed
on the overall outcome through these learning and teaching methods.
Authorities have directed attention to three general approaches, all of which
relate to UDL, to improve the performance and school completion rates of
students with high incidence disabilities. The first approach involves changing
teacher behaviours (Bost & Riccominni, 2006). By changing general teacher’s
behaviours towards involving students with disabilities in their classrooms and
altering their lesson plans to the students accordingly will benefit everybody in
the room. If a teacher was to better plan the lesson and sequences, then
scaffold the class lesson further for some of the other students, it’ll highlight
the changes and impact the overall learning of that specific class. A second
approach to change in high school has been a focus on helping students
change in some way, including becoming more proficient learners (see
Gleason, Archer, & Colvin, 2002) or improving their in-class social skills (Lane,
Pierson, & Givner, 2004; Maag, 2005). By educating students to co-operate and
learn with students that wouldn’t generally be in their classroom, it would not
only broaden their social group, but students will be better suited to
communicate and interact to people with disabilities, even outside of school.
Not only would it encourage students without disabilities to co-operate with
students with disabilities, but this method will also help students that enter
the class because of their disability. It will improve their reading and writing
skills, as they will learn off their peers, while they interact with other students,
helping them to grow as individuals. A final approach for change in high
schools has been a focus on changing various aspects of the general high
school setting (Kortering & Braziel, 2002; Lovitt et al., 1999). An overall change
in high school setting will see greater improvement on the student’s overall
study and grades. A fresh face in school has often resulted in a positive
outcome for students, as they are presented with new friends and peers, as
well as new teachers that provide different teaching methods and textbooks
that could be more beneficial for certain students. ‘Incorporating the key
principles of UDL also effect change in the students themselves by improving
their behaviour by helping them focus on ways to better engage students in
learning, and change in the school itself by providing an alternative or at least
a supplement to the traditional high school textbook and lecture’. (Rose, 2000)
As these key principles of UDL are applied correctly throughout Max’s learning
and classes. Both teacher and student must be engaged in incorporating
certain aspect of the UDL concepts to achieve the best result possible for Max.
The teacher can do this by scaffolding and connecting what is being taught into
Max’s everyday lifestyle. Through simple and easy to understand examples,
Max will better understand the lesson and will connect to what is being shown
much clearer. Teachers and educators must also place more emphasis on
positive student feedback, which is proven to have a positive reaction from all
students. Keeping these in mind, the lesson plan incorporates concepts from
UDL in Max’s music lesson by further scaffolding and a more broken down
lesson. This lesson activity in Music classes uses either keyboard of guitar,
whichever the student feels more comfortable with, and technology in the
form of students being able to observe what is exactly happening and when to
play. The lesson will encourage students to learn the main theme music to
Harry Potter theme song – Hedwig’s theme. With the application of UDL,
students will have an increased level of understanding and the lesson will be
broken down strategically making it more suitable for all students.
Part 2 – Lesson plan
Subject: Music Year: 8
Class time: 50 minutes
Colour Key: Changes from original lesson plan

Organisation Time Strategy

Roll and seating 10 Mark the roll and ensure everyone is in their seat
silently.
Describe the lesson outline and what is expected in
the next 40 minutes.
Play Harry Potter’s opening scene for students to
25 listen and get an idea of the musical excerpt.
YouTube Play a cover tutorial of the original piece on both
keyboard and guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCYwA0KF0Fo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aELUdM8Ckg
Repeatedly repeat the video clip excerpt.
Present musical examples of Hedwig’s theme on
the board. Both for keyboard and guitar.
40 Provide several examples of different sections of
PowerPoint slides
the piece.
Present the musical score on the board, and write
the notes and melodic dictation in a simple form for
students to understand. Students are provided with
a break-down of the entire musical score. Leave
slides on the screen the entire lesson.
Perform the piece as a class, on each student’s
Classroom 50 instrument of choice. Apply different musical
techniques within the piece.
performance
Perform only the first line of Hedwig’s theme
together, and work slowly with one bar from the
musical score at a time.
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wn_syndrome_Neuroscience_development_and_intervention

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