Justin Foster

Exceptionalities

Karen Ziarko

7 February 2012

FAT City

The FAT City video is an excellent video that helps the general population understand the

struggles that LD kids experience every day. The process that our mind exhibits every day is

something that we all take for granted and so we are ignorant to the difficulties that some of our

peers have. Now speaking of this video I have to say that I have never had any of the difficulties

that LD kids would experience in my formal education. I do understand the situations that they

deal with and how it can effect everyday life. My younger brother who is in high school

currently never measured up to my performance in school and in fact is listed by the Pre-SAT to

only be more intelligent than 10 percent of his peers in the state. He does not have an IEP or has

he been diagnosed with any learning disability but he still struggles in school. If he works hard

he still barely manages to get through a class. Teachers are not very accommodating to my

brother and it is probably just because he does not have an official learning disability but he has

clearly always struggled in school. They do try and meet with him after school sometimes to

help and sometimes it can be useful for him, sometimes he just needs someone in the family to

sit and explain it to him.

The part of this video that was more influential to me was when the instructor gave the 4

things that teachers do when dealing with a LD student. The teachers will ask students to work

harder, secondly they offer rewards, thirdly they punish them, and lastly we blame the victim for

not knowing the information. This hit me so hard because it is what teachers do and always

have done. I have seen teachers do this to my peers my whole life. Some of my best friends

would have to stand at the wall during recess for poor performance in the classroom. It never hit

me until it was shown and explained like in the video. It also hit me the most cause it shows how

education doesn’t evolve as there students evolve. As the classrooms change and need to meet

more expectations of the general and special education students, the teachers need to evolve and

use all the tools at their disposal. Accommodations should be made for all students whether

they have IEP or not because just because someone doesn’t struggle doesn’t mean they don’t

learn better in a certain way.

The video list several accommodations listed in this video that can be used to help a LD

student. This move was made in 1989 so these methods are considered by some “common

sense” by now but they are important none the less. The first tool is to buy time for a LD

student. Sometime they take a longer time to process the question. They can come up with the

same answer as everyone else but it takes them a few more seconds. So call on the students then

ask the question then do something like clear the board or prepare a next part of a lecture. These

few seconds in between will allow the student to analyze the question. Another method is to

make a copy of notes for a student who had a hard time listening and copying notes at the same

time. This will allow the LD student to focus on listening and have the notes available if the

class moves to quickly. The third and I would think the most interesting is to meet with LD

student. Let them know when they will be called on. Mention that they will only be called on

when the teacher stands in front of their desk. This will put the student on notice to listen to the

teacher’s question. This will eliminate anxiety of a surprise question that the LD student is not

ready for.

When looking at the second accommodation there are those out there who would claim

that making notes and guides for students is unfair to the rest of the class. Fairness has nothing

to do with being equally. Every person is different so to be fair we need to accommodate

everyone to the way they learn best. Every student whether they are LD or not has an efficient

way of learning. Some like to listen to a teacher and gather knowledge that way while others

may need to write it down to learn. The point is that every students needs should be met. In the

history of my education I am mostly satisfied with how I was treated. There is one small

accommodation I would like to have had, and be able to use. I can take notes and listen to a

teacher at a mediocre rate in the classroom. It wasn’t until I was a little older that I realized that I

learn most efficiently when I type notes. Using computers for noting take would have benefited

me my whole educational career if I was permitted to do so. I type about as fast as a person can

talk so I can keep my notes up to pace word for word while being actively engaged in what the

teacher is trying to explain. In addition a computer makes my notes much more legible. The

point of all this is when I took notes in school I found myself frantically writing trying to keep up

with a lecture or trying to shorten lessons to a few words that I would forget in a few hours. I

would have accepted this accommodation regardless of what other people thought because I

know that it’s with technology I learn at a much faster pace than I do trying to write down a hour

long lecture. Fairness is all about helping each student do what they need to do to learn the most

they can even if it makes other people unhappy. The computer accommodation is something that

I would like to see work its way down the educational system so everyone can benefit from its

effects.