For students with disabilities and English language learners, school can be profoundly frustrating and overwhelming. Too many do not even finish high school. Text and lecture supported by visual aids, video, and interactive programs help them process material that would otherwise be inaccessible.
My students are Special Education students and English language learners in a Chicago neighborhood school that serves a high-poverty population.
They are an extremely diverse group of learners, and represent many different races, religions, languages, and socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
My school serves many immigrant families from around the world, and often my students enter high school with interruptions in schooling due to homelessness, transience, and lack of access to education in their home countries. Most of my students enter school with literacy and math skills significantly below grade level, in addition to the challenges of language barriers and disabilities.
For my students, math and science classes are often inaccessible and overwhelming, due to the technical language used, cumulative skills required, and complex processing skills needed to master new content and skills.
My Project
With a document camera and LCD projector dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of special education students and ELLs, I could provide much needed support and supplemental instruction in the form of visual aids, video, interactive simulations, and online activities both in my inclusion classrooms and through individual/small group instruction.
Using a document camera would enable me to model critical skills like note-taking, annotation, and problem solving in a multi-modal way that engages students' multiple intelligences and shows them in real time exactly what they need to do to be successful. Since many of my students have deficits in auditory processing, visual input is essential to remembering and understanding instructions and classroom tasks.
Using this technology with small groups during pull-out instruction would enable me to maximize the efficiency of precious instructional time, and help them keep pace with their classmates in general education courses.
Your support helps ensure equity and access in education for Chicago's most vulnerable populations.
Research consistently shows that students who interact with content in varied and multi-modal ways develop skills more quickly, perform better academically, demonstrate higher self-confidence, and are more motivated and engaged in their educations.
Please help bridge the achievement gap for students with special learning needs by giving them access to this powerful and much- needed technology.
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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. Wieselman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.