Adaptive Dimension

I really believe that adaptive dimension is a huge piece of teaching. As a group we worked together and created some adaptations we could make regarding a specific scenario. Our scenario was about a 14 year old girl.

Scenario

One of the students I work with is in my pocket. She is an incredible individual who has been through a lot and has seen a lot for being her age. She is 14 years old and has experienced some things most of us often don’t like: taking care of the siblings she has left living with her, taking care of mom and any other challenges that come her way. She has a lot of skills that most 14 year olds don’t have at her age and that is just because she was raised “differently” than most others around her. For when it comes to her abilities, she has lots and like I previously mentioned a lot of abilities that most other 14 year olds do not have at that age. Now with all of this being said, I never thought about why she does poorly in school or not as good as she should be achieving at her grade. I never once took a minute to realize why she isn’t doing as well as she can in school because the picture of her doing poorly in school is so much bigger. We always first assume that these students don’t do their work at school, don’t do their homework and/or don’t always come to school. Now with all of that being true, I now realize and factor why this is. With this child’s home life, it has made her choose between keeping care of her family and school. Although she is balancing to do both, it is incredibly hard and challenging at such a young age. This child has such different abilities when it comes to school because of everything that is happening outside of school. Although this isn’t challenging her abilities, the personal life she is currently living is affecting her in different ways. She doesn’t get the time to focus on school work, nor do it if she attends school. She is making hard decisions for her age and these decisions are creating her to have different and challenging learning abilities. I still see this individual as such a powerful and deep learner due to the things they have experienced and put themselves through at such a young age. Although they might not have those “school smarts” right now, they most definitely have those “street smarts” and this will create them to be such deeper learners over the next few years. No matter the resources, strategies you give this individual, it’s tough for them to make time and with all this being said their abilities and school development is behind other classmates.

Our Adaptations