1. INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Talk with your TC about equity and inclusive education. How do you promote excellence for all students? How you meet the individual needs of students? How do you identify and eliminate barriers? How do promote a sense of belonging? How is equity and inclusive education demonstrated throughout the whole school system?
2. EXCEPTIONALITIES
For students in a second practicum placement, you can talk about how students are identified as exceptional.
Identify the range of sources of information that support the identification process.
Review the following resource: https://www.ontario.ca/document/special-education-ontario-policy-and-resource-guide-kindergarten-grade-12/categories
Explain how the Identification Placement Review Committee (IPRC) functions.
Talk with your Teacher Candidate about the exceptional students in your classroom. Talk with your candidate about how you work with English Language Learners (ELL). How do you use assessment and evaluation strategies that are fair to all students?
3. Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
Talk to your student about IEPs. Explain that an IEP is a written plan describing the special education program and/or services required by a particular student, based on a thorough assessment of the student's strengths and needs. An IEP is a record of the particular accommodations needed to help the student achieve the learning expectations. An IEP is a working document that identifies learning expectations that are modified from the expectations for the age-appropriate
grade level in a particular subject or course. It identifies alternative expectations, if required, in program areas not represented in the Ontario curriculum. The IEP is a record of the specific knowledge and skills to be assessed and evaluated for the purpose of reporting student achievement of modified and/or alternative expectations. It is an accountability tool for the student, the student's parents, and everyone who has responsibilities under the plan for helping the student meet the stated goals and learning expectations as the student progresses through the Ontario curriculum.
4. ACCOMMODATIONS /MODIFICATIONS
The term accommodation is used to refer to the special teaching and assessment strategies, human supports, and/or individualized equipment required to enable a student to learn and to demonstrate learning. Accommodations do not alter the provincial curriculum expectations for the grade. Talk with your candidate about how you accommodate the needs of your students. Examples of accommodations include the following:
- giving students extra time to complete classroom assignments
- allowing students to complete tasks or present information in alternative ways (e.g., through taped answers, demonstrations, dramatizations, role play)
- allowing students to tape lessons for more intensive review at a later time
- providing a variety of learning tools, such as adapted computers for completing writing tasks and calculators for completing numeracy tasks
- providing for the use of scribes
- using pictorial schedules to assist students in making transitions
Instructional Accommodations refer to changes in teaching strategies that allow the student to access the curriculum.
Environmental Accommodations refer to changes that are required to the classroom and/or school environment.
Assessment Accommodations refer to changes that are required in assessment strategies in order for the student to demonstrate learning, including accommodations for EQAO testing.
Help your TC understand the concept of modifications. Explain that modifications are changes made in the age-appropriate grade-level expectations for a subject. This will result in having expectations that differ in some way from the regular grade expectations. Generally, in language and mathematics, modifications involve writing expectations based on the knowledge and skills outlined in curriculum expectations for a different grade level. In other subjects, including Science and Technology, Social Studies, History, Geography, and Health and Physical Education, and in most secondary school courses, modifications typically involve changing the number and/or complexity of the regular grade-level expectations.
