Question: Read over the criteria for Assignment 1. Take a look at the possible scholars and/or concepts/topics. Then, choose either a scholar or a topic/concept and begin to explore them/it. You might find a quote or an article that piques your interest. In your blog post, practice creating a short summary of what you have found. Then, finish up your blog post by outlining some next steps and possible directions for your first assignment. For reference: You should spend about two paragraphs summarizing what you’ve discovered, and one short paragraph outlining your next steps.
Topic
For assignment one, I chose the topic of disabilities within educational environments. I chose this topic because throughout my elementary and high school career I was involved with students with a diverse variety 0f disabilities.
Article and Summary
I choose to read a chapter from a book called, “The Disability Studies and the Inclusive Classroom” by Susan Baglieri, and Arthur Shapiro. I chose a chapter called “Conceptualizing Disability in Schools,” (CDS) because it thoroughly explains how students (mainly in the US) are tested and diagnosed with specific disability types within a school system.
This chapter introduces many varieties and definitions of disabilities; throughout history, and the present times. Many students within a school environment are tested through their IQ levels in order to determine if they have a disability or not. My focus for my assignment is the idea of “soft disabilities” (108) and the 4 sub-categories involved. The four types explored are, “mental retardation; specific learning disabilities; emotional disturbance; and autism” (108). A point that stuck with me is that, In the United States, the majority to all the states have different evaluations to determine whether an individual can be diagnosed with a disability; “which can range from as low as 2.1% in Georgia to a high of 8.6% in Rhode Island” (117). This determines that a student’s disability could essentially be removed depending on which state they live in, or move to. Throughout the US it does not matter which state you live in or move to because, within the school systems, students are differentiated through their socio-cultural status, socio-economical status, and gender.
Baglieri and Shapiro also go into depth about the sub-sections of each type of disability that is considered a “soft disability” (108). As well as an understanding of all topics discussed through a few major organizations; IDEIA, DSM and RTI. IDEIA for those who do not know stands for Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (105), DSM stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Wikipedia), and finally, RTI stands for Responsiveness To Intervention (CDS 117). These organizations’ definitions and descriptions of each disability allow the reader to further understand how students are affected by how the schools test and diagnose students.
Further Steps
To further my research I have decided that I am sticking with the topic of disabilities demonstrated within educational environments. I feel that this topic is something that can always be enhanced and deserves to be taught or learnt about. This concept will help me grow as an educator, as well as an individual. Furthermore, my next few steps are going to be creating an outline for my topic of “soft disabilities” (108) throughout schools, as well as possibly finding ways that can help involve individuals with disabilities, and try to find ways to better include students with “soft-disabilities” (108) within school environments.