Module 4

“Problem solving: formulating new answers, going beyond the simple application of previously learned rules to achieve a goal. Problem solving is what happens when no solution is obvious.” (Chapter 9. 352)

I really view special education teachers as problem solvers. We are trying to help our students find a path towards reaching their goals. Sometimes, that path is skewed and often out of sight based on our students varied abilities. It is our challenge to get them to where they need to be…on the path towards their goals. Problem solvers raising problem solvers. “Helping students become better problem solvers is one of education’s greatest challenges.” (352) For my students, solving even some of the most basic real-life problems can be difficult. Situations like; developing self-care skills, social skills like apologizing, determining other’s responses/feelings/perspectives, and coping in a distressing situation are real problems that they face every day. In the classroom, we use social stories to mirror these literal situations in order to provide our students with the tools to make decisions, socialize, and develop greater social understanding, and ultimately problem solve. We are solving the problems that go with helping are students solve their problems.

Of the types of based learning, I can see myself using a collaboration and cooperation based approach in my future classroom. “Learning to successfully collaborate is an important skill in itself, and necessary for success in the future…with positive effects—on students’ empathy, tolerance for differences, feelings of acceptance, friendships, self-confidence, awareness, problem solving, decision making, and even attendance” (399) In cooperative learning, students are arranged in groups where they work on tasks together to lead to explanation, questioning, elaboration, affirmations, and connecting context clues. Woolfolk denotes positive interdependence as “members believing they can attain their goals only if the others in the group attain their goals as well, so they rely on each other for support, explanations, and guidance.” (400) After goals are attained in small groups, findings can be shared and compared with the whole class as a further cooperative effort. To ensure that my students aren’t just socializing, shifting dependency to one person, or simply speeding through the work, I can assign roles to group each group member. “Assigning roles to students will encourage cooperation and full participation including: gate keeper, question commander, checker, and task maker (Table 10.4) A visual that outlines possible student roles in cooperative learning groups can also help my students stay on task and focus on their specific role. Chapter 10 points out that teaching students with special needs requires extra attention to planning and preparation for cooperative learning to be successful. As I continue through school I hope to learn ways to facilitate productive small groups and assign roles to keep everyone engaged.

Chapter 11 had a lot of information thrown at us all at once to sift through and process while reading. One section that stood out to me was about self-regulation. Emotional self-regulation requires an awareness of an individual’s emotions and the emotions of others around them. My students often have a hard time expressing themselves or jump from one emotion to another. A tool we use in the classroom is called the “zones of emotions”. There are four zone types blue: sad, green: happy, yellow: excited, and red: mad. When students are able to identify which zone they fall into for the moment, they are self-regulating. We use the zones of emotions chart to maybe resort to coping strategies, distressing emotions, or even a redirection.