Somebody Else's Kids: Student Analysis

In the novel, Somebody Else’s Kids by Torey Hayden (1981), we are introduced to a young student named Lori.  Lori is placed in Torey’s resource class, which is a sort of primitive special education class for the time the story is set in.  Among a few other students who didn’t quite qualify for the very low functioning special education class, Lori works through the school year battling hardships associated with her inability to read, recognize, or remember written symbols, including letters and words.  We are supplied with the story of Lori’s abusive childhood that resulted in a brain injury that is believed to trigger this incapacity.  Constantly feeling stuck and called out, Lori continues to be unable to keep up in her standard class to the point that the overly traditional, and in my opinion, heartless, teacher pushes her to a breaking point.  Lori’s main disability surrounds that inability to read, and, as one can imagine, this impacts a lot of her abilities through many different types of school activities, not just pure reading of books.  Lori cannot read instructions on an assignment or review assignment rubrics, or complete any written mathematics work due to her inability to recognize any kind of written symbols.  In a math classroom, this could include signs, symbols, numbers, equations, charts, or tables.  Given this, a student with this type of disability would pose a huge challenge in my standard mathematics classroom.

When it comes to potential accommodations for a student like Lori, the most apparent one would involve audio recordings of class notes or other assignments.  At my specific school, students have one to one laptop devices, so the availability of technology makes this seemingly labor intensive accommodation much more reachable.  A lot of the software and programs we use have built in or integrated accessibility features for audio of written items.  Also on a computer, students can use specific online tools that are designed to have text copied and then read aloud.  Through the devices, students can record lectures or any other verbal or spoken material.   From the details in the book, Lori demonstrated a keen ability with the subject matter, including math, but just could not connect it with the written version.  In my mind, this does not mean she is unable to learn, but just must learn in a different and very specific way.  I would ensure that instructions are presented orally along with any other directions or important information.  When it comes to Lori, her ability to write is also limited due to the inability to work with written symbols.  To account for this, from a student response perspective, I would allow for things like dictation to a scribe, recording responses on tape, or using an assistive technology on the computer to enter or record responses (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2006).  For testing, I would work with my special education department to allow for a scribe and dictator.  I would try to create assignments online that have built in accessibility features as well. I would also give a student like Lori extended time to complete assignments given the fact that she would have to go through more steps and work to be able to complete the problems. 

A student like Lori would also benefit from some modification in my class as well.  Modification is different from accommodation in the sense that modification involved altering the learning objective or content, whereas accommodation deals with changes to the instruction or delivery of the same objective or content (Crawford, 2013).  Because a student like Lori has a more extreme disability that directly impacts her ability to complete standard coursework, some modification may be appropriate.  In general, a modification could be only completing certain types of problems or eliminating parts of a lesson or topic.  For example, in a lesson or during a topic that deals with multiple representations (which is quite a lot in math!), I could only require that Lori learn the more visual modes.  This could be something as simple as learning the graph instead of the table.  In other words, where standard students would learn about the table and the graph, a student like Lori may only be required to learn the graph.  In turn, this would look like selective elimination of testing items or alteration of items to include the visual representation in replacement of the nonvisual one. Another common concept in math lessons involves working in prior skills or combining multiple skills into one day.  I would try to simplify the daily objective into one concrete concept for a student like Lori.  With all of the more difficult accessibility issues, stripping the requirements down to one specific skill or concept would make the material much more manageable for this type of student.

Although we can make our best efforts to accommodate a student like this, there are bound to be struggles and challenges both in accommodating and providing access to the content, and with the actual learning and demonstration of proficiency.  For the student, there are plenty of challenges that will be likely.  The first one has to do with frustration in understanding the material in the way it is presented.  In the book, Lori showed countless instances of extreme frustration and it is very taxing on both student and teacher (Hayden, 1981).  Lori constantly feels ”stupid” and expresses a lot of exasperation when it comes to learning.  She feels unable to learn no matter how hard she tries, and this mindset can be very detrimental to the student.  It would be important to always show positive encouragement and positive reinforcement and praise, even for small steps forward, just like Torey did when Lori managed to memorize a brief book and celebrated her new ability to “read” (Hayden, 1981).  Managing the student’s mindset and confidence would be a consistent issue, and I can definitely see these causing problems with student self esteem.  I also think the student may struggle with feelings of helplessness and being lost and unable to ask for help.  I think that it is important to consistently check in with the student and offer assistance or monitor to limit those types of issues.  Following up from the increased frustration, students may struggle with a loss of motivation and will just simply quit.  There are multiple instances where Lori had these kinds of thoughts, despite the teachers best efforts (Hayden, 1981).  This kind of thing is inevitable at times among all kinds of students, and it important to prioritize good effort and offer plenty of praise and support to help create a rapport where students know they can count on the teacher to look out for their best interests. 

Along with many potential issues for the student, having a student with these specific needs can pose a lot of challenges for the teacher as well.  Having taught some classes with a very high number of intricate IEP students, the first issue that I know I will face is time.  Managing not only the time used in class and planning how long things should take before moving is also followed by managing student-teacher time and how I will provide one on one assistance to those that need it.  It is very apparent that a student like Lori would require significant individualized attention.  Although I do believe someone with her disabilities would justify at least a partial one on one special educator within her general education classes, I still hold the majority of the content knowledge, which demands that I must also set some time aside for the student.  When you add up all of the other responsibilities in a standard class period, this can become a daunting task.  I do believe that student attention time management gets easier the more classes that go on as we all get to know each other and I can better determine where to spend my time and for how long.  I do have an extensive background in private tutoring, so I really do enjoy that one on one approach and can sometimes gets “sucked in” and lost with one individual student.  My natural inclination is to want to sit down and fully delve into helping every individual student and there are just not enough minutes in the period for this to happen.  I would have to carefully manage my time budget and make sure that I do not neglect other responsibilities during class.  Another struggle on the part of the teacher that I would foresee is excess planning time to write and implement all of the necessary accommodations and making sure that the resources are in place for a successful differentiated lesson.  I would try my best to compile a list of resources or assistive technologies that take less prep work ahead of time.  For example, instead of creating recording of lectures and assignments, I would just have the student use a recorder or some kind of recording application to record the actual class notes and explanations.  This, among with some other time saving methods, could cut down my planning time and help lessons be more seamless and accessible. 

Overall, having a student like this within a general education class is doable.  The work is very planning-heavy and there would be a lot of front-loading involved, but this would just make the rest of my job much more clean and simple.  After spending a good amount of time analyzing and brainstorming ideas for this student, I feel much more confident in my ability to take on a student like this in my class, and do so confidently and hopefully successfully!  I do truly believe that through learning and understanding the student and finding out what works for them, all students can have access to my content area and can develop their skills within it.

Crawford, L. (2013). Accommodations vs. modifications: What’s the difference. Retrieved from http://www.perkinselearning.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Accommodations%20vs.%20Modifications.pdf

National Center for Learning Disabilities. (2006). Accommodations for students with LD. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/8022