Pinterest Resources for Inclusive Classroom Assessment

I turned to Pinterest too see what resources there were for Inclusive classroom assessments.  I immediately liked the resources that popped up and followed this one, which took me to a blog called Mrs. McFadden’s Classroom Community.

Her website had a lot of great resources, but I really liked this one by Luminous Learning. It is a friendly reminder of various ways a teacher can easily accommodate a student in an inclusive classroom during assessments. The advice given here is easily adapted and scaffolded, making it manageable for a classroom teacher.  I would probably keep this by my desk as a teacher as a helpful reminder.

I like how specific yet simple it is and that it’s organized based on subject, but also includes a section for organization.  I think for students in an inclusive classroom, accommodations should take place during the exam, but also need to be present before.  Often students do poorly on an exam because they didn’t have the planning skills in place to properly prepare.  Building in organizational accommodations would be beneficial for all students in an inclusive classroom. Using strategies like color coding and a checklist would be really helpful for students in an inclusive classroom.

Another resource that I found on Pinterest was “10 Tips for Grading Students with Disabilities in the Inclusive Classroom” posted on the blog, The Inclusive Class.  Just like accommodations need to be in place to prepare for an exam, they also need to be in place afterwards.  Grading could perhaps be tricky, since students in an inclusive classroom need to be held to the same standards as all other students. Although this resource disagrees, I think that with proper accommodations, students in an inclusive classroom should be able to reach this standards with proper scaffolding.

This resource breaks students down into groups based on those who are working at grade level and below grade level.  Considering what we learned in class about Grade Equivalent Scores on standardized testing, I wonder how this grouping is determined and if it’s the most effective way of grouping students.  I don’t think so, and even if it is, I wouldn’t want to use these terms to describe the groups. 

This resource mentions that inclusive classrooms teach to the level of the student.  I thought that was all classrooms? How will students learn if a teacher isn’t teaching at their level?

Reading further I see that certain states even have modified standards for students on modified programs.  I’m sure if it exists, there are reasons, but I can’ help but be very skeptical of this.  When it comes to accommodating students in inclusive classrooms, more emphasis should be placed on how to reach the standards and the quality of these standards, not necessarily the level of them.  If all students in 2^nd grade need to be working on a skill, then students in an inclusive classroom need to be working on that skill.