How can we close the achievement gap when students do not have the necessary materials to succeed?
The students in my classroom are students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.
Many of them have experienced trauma in their lives and have difficulty coming to school. My class serves students with a range of disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, autism spectrum disorder, and specific learning disabilities. The typical student in my class reads at a second or third-grade level and many struggle with basic phonics and number sense.
The opportunity and achievement gaps are apparent among our student population. Special education teachers are expected to deliver excellent instruction in science, math, English, history, and social skills without the requisite tools to teach our students.
My Project
One area my students struggle the most with is social skills. I'm requesting board games and exploratory materials for my students to use to build their social skills. Some requested games include Kanoodle, Don't Spill The Beans, and Cinco Linko.
My students struggle with basic conversation skills and board games encourage conversations between them and their classmates.
Not only will these board games teach them how to play games and interact with their peers but they also have built-in lessons on different social areas my students struggle with. Other materials, like conversation cubes, give them multiple options to explore having appropriate conversations with their peers.
In my classroom, we practice social skills daily using cooperative learning strategies. The addition of these materials will encourage them to focus and interact with their peers despite their disabilities.
Due to their various emotional and behavioral disorders, my students struggle with basic social skills, even just having friendly conversations with their peers. The implementation of these board games will give my students an interactive and engaging way to learn how to appropriately interact with others and how to adequately deal with their emotions.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Brown and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
