Reflection: Understanding And Treasuring Of Students

My group’s presentation was built upon the central idea to which we were exposed throughout the seminar: the understanding and treasuring of students as individual human beings. In practice, this means that our lesson plan was an attempt to carry out a teaching unit which would conform to the concept of differentiation as a means of inclusion in a heterogeneous setting. Rather than teaching language content, our lessons’ focus was on teaching learning strategies, which might (and should) be put to use when students are learning a foreign language, especially if these are children with learning disabilities. In our planning, we considered teaching a class with 24 students, 4 of them diagnosed with dyslexia. The six lesson unit aimed to introduce students to the following learning tools: flashcards, mind maps, portfolios and mnemonics.

Students in the seminar were presented to several definitions of the term inclusion and a fruitful discussion about what it most often stands for, in contrast with what it meant to us and how learning theories define it, took place. Two definitions converge with the orientation we had for our work. According to a definition found in the article Gemeinsames Leben braucht gemeinsames Lernen in der Schule, inclusion should be found in all places of society in which citizens interact (4). Another definition, concerning children and school systems, can be found in the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action: inclusion acknowledges the value of diversity and the child’s right to inclusive education, that is, all children should be taught together regardless of their background. Children with special educational needs should not attend a special school, it is up to every regular school to provide the individual support their students might need