2.1 Planning for Instruction

Candidates collaborate with members of the learning community to design developmentally and culturally responsive resource-based learning experiences that integrate inquiry, innovation, and exploration and provide equitable, efficient, and ethical information access.

In my second semester of graduate school, I took SPU 514: Standards-Aligned Instruction for Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms. The course was designed to address skills necessary for general educators to provide standards aligned services, structuring inclusive classrooms, and designing appropriate accommodations for their classrooms. While enrolled in this course, I interviewed a special education teacher about how she uses inclusion in her school setting. 

In creating the questions for the interview, I focused on how inclusion would be implemented or the results of it seen in a specific school setting. From what I read in the class, each accommodation and each student is a different situation which requires different tools that one could implement. In talking to a special education teacher, it was important for me to be specific about the situation that she is in, so that I can further understand how such practices are implemented. Through helping students learn in ways that they are comfortable and through the materials that the library has, I can also help them be a stronger advocate for themselves and their own learning tendencies. 

As far as a library goes, this interview taught me that as a librarian, I am someone who can help students in giving supports and giving them the opportunity to reach their full potential using inclusive practices. In collaboration with other members of the faculty of the school, including special education teachers, I can make sure to make the library the best space for the students that step foot into it. It is also important for me to be aware of the different ways in which students learn. As a communal place in the school that every student can frequent, it is important that I make the library as a space inclusive.