Kevin Gane

Chapter 4.1 Vignette Questions

1) Gregory is more susceptible to colds and ear infections. He has trouble pronouncing certain sounds and has trouble with noun-verb agreement.

2) The teachers and the parents are the stakeholders in this situation. The student will be posted affected by the actions taken.

3) The first thing would be to have the parents come in and observe the situation and then we would set up an IEP meeting to discuss further action. We as teachers are not certified to diagnose this types of situations so this course of action is the best that we could do.

Kevin Gane

October 7th, 2015

Chapter 3 Reflection

As, we dive deeper in to this book and as we being to prepare ourselves for the teaching

world, chapter 3 gives us an insight into the possibilities we might face with special education.

As it says on the first page of the chapter, music teachers don’t receive a lot of instruction in

teaching students with disabilities, so it is imperative that we receive all the information we can.

This chapter has a lot of useful info that we can use in regards to using fieldwork to help benefit

the students in their learning endeavors.

After reading this chapter and looking back on my own observations in special

education, I can agree on everything this chapter says about fieldwork. Most of my special

education experiences have been in the regular classroom with an inclusive approach.My first

few observations, them both being music courses with very little special needs students, took

the same approach towards teaching their students. It was when I observed a freshman math

class that I noted how the teacher taught the students. When she first taught the topic, she

taught it in the normal fashion: put the examples on the board and then went over the steps to

solving the problem. When she turned the students lose to do the exercises that accompanied

the lesson, she would walk around the room checking the students work, but she would pay

extra attention to the student that had the special need.

I thought that this was a great strategy to use with students. She wasn’t only doing the

observing with one student, but was including all her students in her instruction. Its strategies

like this that will help benefit the students while also maintaining that inclusive environment. I

hope to experience more of this fieldwork as I enter the teaching world.

Kevin Gane

October 14th, 2015

Chapter 4 Reflection

This chapter is filled to the brim with information on how to go about getting involved with

the needs of the students once you have been hired as a teacher. From tips to working with

paraprofessionals to attending IEP meetings this chapter was very helpful in understanding the

structure of an education plan for these students. The sentence in the end section really sums

up this chapter well: “Successful teaching of students with special needs requires an extensive

knowledge of the subject matter (in this case, music), a willingness to participate as a member

of a team, a philosophy that places the students first, and a great deal of time and effort as we

seek to provide each student with what they need to have the opportunity to succeed.”

What I really like about this chapter, is that it included images from a real IEP and 504. I

have never experienced these documents as a student and we only discussed them as

requirements for a course, so it was interesting to look at one. It was very helpful to see the

general layout of each document and what us as music teachers should be specifically looking

for. The section with how we can get involved with very useful to. When talking to the parent I

never thought to have them speak about the child’s disability first.

Overall I thought this was a very useful chapter. With now having seen a sample IEP and

a 504, I have a general idea of what I will be looking for when I come across these documents in

the classroom. This information will really help me build my relationships with the special

education staff as well.