Designing for inclusion

This week was an exceptional learning experience! I took charge of an Anatomy & Physiology 12 class block under the supervision of a TTOC, I led a 3-hour-long fetal pig dissection, and I taught a blended lesson complete with break-out rooms over Google Meets (more to come in this post!). My first practicum is under way at last, and being able to dive into teaching independently has been immensely rewarding in terms of learning.

The artifact.

The concept of “inclusion” came up a few times in the past week.

One less prominent example comes from my fetal pig dissection block. During my planning, I coordinated groups based on the strengths of various learners, to ensure that they would be able to support each other as needed. Many of the students submitted their post-dissection reflections, noting that their groups “got along well,” “shared the workload fairly,” and “were supportive.” The students who usually struggle to complete assignments up-to-standard submitted reports that were detailed and showed great critical thinking and creativity.

The scenario where making necessary accommodations came up was during my Thursday English 9 block. I taught a lesson that was an extension from a previous lesson taught by Karen on Tuesday. Students were expected to get into assigned groups for a break-out group discussion about their texts and asked to evaluate a character in a “Report Card.” Students recorded their main discussion points in shared Google docs created for their groups especially. We had six students come in to class that day for extra support (and accountability to stay on task!), so I asked them to get into two groups for the discussion.

With each group discussion task, I’d designed the worksheet to be oriented around five specific paragraphs within the text, to help focus the discussion and also help students who had not read the text. I thought it would work; but it turned out that the students in the classroom in-person were so behind on their other work from class, they barely knew how to begin. They had not read the story. They felt the pressure of a new assignment looming. They felt the pressure of so many old assignments piling up, making them more and more behind.

I did my best to encourage students to engage, speak, and interact for this activity, but it ended up being one of the greatest challenges from my professional year thus far. The students would barely speak at all, and when they did, it was off-topic. My questions were met with blank stares. Students and teachers alike ended up hitting a wall during this class period. For Karen and myself, we realized the immense challenge of navigating the needs and levels of all learners in a blended space.

When Karen and I sat down to discuss how it went later, we both decided that Friday needed to be a “mercy Friday.” We were not going to introduce another assignment. We were not going to teach new material. Instead, we were going to designate Friday for social-emotional connection, a low-stakes “Friday Free Write,” a mid-quarter reflection, and lots of time for catching up.

Originally, Karen and I were a little worried that most students would take advantage of this and simply not put in any work. Yet when we announced our plan to the class, all the students who had “hit a wall” during the discussion period on Thursday asked if they could come in again on Friday to catch up on assignments. Every student who was behind took the initiative, responding to our accommodation with a willingness to work hard and do their best.

Despite the challenges we faced on Thursday, we recognized some breakthrough during Friday’s English 9 class. One of the students who rarely speaks initiated a conversation with me, asking specific questions, and coming up with some solid points! Although they barely know each other, several of the students left the classroom together, laughing and joking.

Why it matters.

Making accommodations (as well as extensions!) for students, even in a blended space, is unquestionable. Students require equitable access to the learning in order to properly engage and develop.

Shelley Moore uses a bowling metaphor to describe inclusion in education. What usually happens is that teachers during instructional planning, especially with lots of other things on their minds (such as blended spaces), “aim for the middle” in the hopes of reaching the most students with the lesson. But to ensure all students can be successful (which is the aim of inclusive education!) the goal should really be to “aim for the pints that are hardest to hit.” By making accommodations that would suit and benefit all students, the learning becomes accessible to all.

The blended learning space has been less-than-ideal for the “outside pins” in our bowling metaphor. Giving students the option to come in to the classroom for extra support was our way of offering the accommodation, but it mostly ended there. The result was that students who were unable to complete activities fell severely behind and lost incentive to keep working, because it felt like there wasn’t much of a point.

My learning from this week shows the importance of taking a step back sometimes: Sometimes, we all need a day to catch up and breathe. The students who have been completely assignments diligently got most of Friday afternoon off — that was their reward. And the students who were behind on assignments were given the space and time to focus in on the ones that mattered most, and get more one-on-one help from the teachers during the work block. Students responded with hard work, showing that the issue hasn’t been a lack of motivation or drive — it’s been a lack of accessibility.

Next steps.

Next week, the Anatomy & Physiology 12 class is moving into the blended space, and the English 9 class will meet in-person. I am looking forward to implementing accommodations into the in-person English class to “aim at the outside pins.”

In looking forward to the coming weeks of switching to blended learning for Anatomy & Physiology 12, Nathan and I have been designing alternative ways for students to engage with the learning. Inspired by our staff learning opportunity on Wednesday, Nathan and I are designing a “Choice Board” project to experiment with various scaffolds for learners. In our Choice Board, we are including activities for students to choose from — some of which are standard proficiency-based tasks, and others which encourage students to go deeper or extend their learning. Students may choose three activities from a list of twelve. They need to choose activities from each category, but the choice is theirs if they would like to extend their learning or aim for proficiency. This accommodation allows students to decide their levels for themselves based on their comfort and skill.

In English, I want to come up with ways to ensure even struggling learners can successfully complete tasks I assign for them. Whether this means creating scaffolded graphic organizers or meeting with students one-on-one to discuss strategies for their improvement, the most important strategy I will use is to scaffold the learning from the beginning: at the planning level, lessons and activities need to designed in an accessible way. Truly, my lesson design should begin with a focus on the students on the tail ends of the learning continuum. If my curriculum is designed to help them be successful, my “centre pins” will succeed, too.

Professional Standard #1: Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.

Professional Standard #5: Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.

Professional Standard #7: Educators engage in professional learning.