Our school is high-poverty level, and many of my special needs students are in this category. My students' disabilities include emotional, behavioral, physical, academic, and other health impaired disabilities that affect their abilities to remain focused on a task at hand and/or to retain information in a traditional educational setting.
Many of my at-risk students with special needs do not have access to technology at home; therefore, providing each student with a computer in my class is vital.
In order to close the achievement gaps in reading and math, my students need access to a computer daily to utilize technology-based instruction that is customized to each student's specific deficits. Data shows that repetition of instructional material is the best practice to reteach skills.
My Project
My compensatory class for students with special needs is designed to provide instruction to help bridge the gaps in learning deficits in reading and math as well as to provide additional instruction to ensure students’ success in their regular education classes.
Our school district recently purchased a technology-based assessment program that diagnoses the students’ math and reading strengths and weaknesses, identifies students’ skill deficits, and creates individualized practices and activities to help close each student’s specific gaps in their learning process.
Data shows that this technology-based program coupled with individual teacher instruction consistently raises student performance when used regularly. If each of my at-risk students has access to a computer on a daily basis in my classroom, he/she will be able to utilize the instruction that this class is designed to provide more effectively.
At this time, having to take turns on the computers limits my students' access to technology as well as teacher assisted instruction when completing technology-based projects and homework assignmed by their regular education classroom teachers. Utilizing class time is vital since some of the students do not have access to technology at home.
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