Project Math Access DVD 06 - Perspectives- Part 08 Transcript Start Audio Description: Part eight, course projects. Marien Massa: Other changes to lessen plans... my students have to do projects. Some of them are minor; some of them are major. The second year I had the blind student, he had to do everything, so how do I make the adjustments? I would make it very easy for him figuring, okay, he can get it done. Well, the blind itinerant would come to me and go, “Oh no, he’s going to do the same thing.” I said, “Well, he can’t quite do the same thing.” So, we would work it out together then about what he could do, but that made me think about how l could change the problem for the other students... either to make it easier for them or harder for them. If he could do this, then they should be able to do more. So I was learning that way too. In my geometry class I have a final project... and I just wasn’t going to have John do it. I was like well, he can’t do it, because what were they supposed to do? They were given a list of 30 geometric things; hexagon, octagon, prism, cylinder, whatever, and they had to go out and take pictures... cut out pictures in magazines, videotape, whatever; you put a project together for me. Some kids actually did some great videotapes... came up with a story they were treasure hunting, and along the way they came across this octagon or the hexagon... or here's the building that's a prism, and they actually went downtown to the merchants and asked, “Can we come in your store?”... like the grocery store and stuff, and they would find a cylinder in the salt or whatever, and they would make some great stories. And I’m thinking, he can’t ever do that, and how’s he going to cut pictures out of a paper? So I said, “Okay, he’s not going to do it.” Well, the blind itinerant got a hold of that and came up here and she goes... “Well, you better figure out how we’re going to alter this." And I’m like man, okay. So, I sat down and thought a little bit and I said, ‘‘I don’t know. He could go to the Internet and he could just type it in.” And she goes, “What good does that do? He can’t see it.” I said but he has to be able to know... like one of them was the pentagon. So obviously you could type in pentagon and you'll get the pentagon... but other than that what's he going to do? So she came up with a great solution, and then I worked out a little bit with him. He had two parallel lines. We have our hallways lettered here, A, B, C, D. So he had to take his skills from his cooking class, his mobility class, and so on... and put them into the geometry class and say, “Parallel lines are represented by the A hallway and the C hallway.... Perpendicular lines the A hallway." Now I would have never thought of that... so she helped me incorporate other areas that would be applicable to him and make sense to him. So, that helped me change my project a little bit and not just go give me pictures, but we're in this building, do you see things? Things like that. So when we talk about parallel lines, okay which hallways are parallel, before we ever go to that point. Now they can tell me, which I probably would have never done before, but that helped me, and then reading through his. He typed a paper out, he didn't cut out any pictures, but she made it so he had to have all the figures and how he would use it. Like a stop sign would be his octagon, and since he had to take driver's ed. he kind of knew that one. Some other ideas... he had to explain to me his glass that he drinks out of is a cylinder, things like that. So, things that I would have never thought about, but now after reading that I'm thinking, hey, I can bring those in to class. When we talk about cylinders I can bring that in. I'm talking about parallel lines, I now can do that. We altered something, but that also helped me change my plans as to how to present things... so there was a learning experience on both parts there. You had to have communication again with the blind itinerant because I was just like he's not doing that project;... that's one less I have to grade. It was really a benefit to both of us. There are some things that you do, even just kids in class, different ways that they function too. You have to be within the vicinity of moving to him. A lot of times you're just up here, well now you're moving out there. They don't like that, but now you have their attention too. You have to strategically place him so you have everybody involved. We did keep him by the door all the time because it was easy for him. With 32 kids in the class, it was too difficult to move somewhere else. I was always walking back and forth, just to walk over and see what he has on his desk, see if the aide needed some help or whatever. So, you get the other kids' attention too and they start paying more attention, or they know what to say to him too. Like a couple times I'd say, “Okay, do you want to work by yourself? Do you want to work with the aide?" And a kid goes, “No, I'll help him, I'll help him." So they now could relate too. They began to see what needs he had, or that was helping them because that meant that they knew it so they could teach it to him or try to answer his questions. He even got to the point where we could do partner quizzes and things like that, which I would have never expected him to do beforehand. I had to have a willing person to do that, and they got confident in it, so once you showed confidence and say, “Hey, that's a great idea." Sometimes they'll throw you a curve or something. The story I had in class was... it was geometry and we drew a triangle. We drew in the altitude median, used different colors, and we were talking about that. And then later on I said so which one is the whatever, and he has his hand up. I'm like how does he know the answer? He can't possibly know the answer; the answer is in color. So I'm like, “Okay, John, you know it all. What's the answer?" He goes, “lt's pink." And I'm looking and like how does he know it's pink? The whole class is laughing. I go, “You're lying to me. You really can see after all." So that helped lighten the class up. I said, “You've been lying this whole time." He didn't know what to say right then and there. I go, “Forget what I said. How do you know it's pink?" He goes, “Well about five minutes ago you said what the colors were. I'm just guessing." So, sometimes he would do that. He was excellent when he could multiply numbers together. You're like, “What's the answer?" And he had his hand up before you're even asking the question; he had already done it. So, you're afraid to ask him sometimes. You're like these are going to be wrong answers, and then he was getting them right. He can surprise you, so you had to have confidence after a while that yeah, he can answer it. The only problem I did have, though, is every time he knew the answer... ohhhh... and he didn't know he was waving his hand that high. He's basically out of his seat, and they're all looking at him like okay. I'm like, “You don't have to get so excited, John. It's only math class." I don't think he still caught on, but he'd get mad when you didn't call on him. Well sometimes there was nobody else in class that had their hand up, and I would just keep waiting for another hand to go up... and they're like call on him, call on him. I'm just still waiting for another hand to go up. Well, he didn't know the difference, so it was okay. Sometimes he would want to answer every single question and he would get frustrated... so you have to watch too that you don't give him over attention and ignore everybody else. Sometimes you have to make him wait to let the other kids interact too. They'll get dependent on him and just let him answer all the questions because they're thinking his hand is up, why should I put my hand up? She'll just keep calling on him. At first I was like John's got the answer, I'm taking it because, you know, this is great. Then after a while I'm thinking I could be asking John for the answer; I've got to spread it around. So you have to watch what you're doing with the other kids too, that you're keeping everybody involved, giving everybody a chance. So when he's standing up outside his seat raising his hand, just let him keep doing it for a while, but it was kind of funny to share things like that. He gets so excited about it, and you're like, well that's great but it's somebody else's turn. When we go over homework, a lot of times I'll just go around the room and ask for the answers. Well, on his Braille Lite, it's really hard for him sometimes to locate the answer right away. So I go, “John, number 15." And he goes, “Oh, just come back to me." So we would actually go on, and then we'd come back. He goes, ‘‘I got it now." Even though somebody else is talking, ‘‘I got it now." You know, John, you have to wait. So, he had to learn to be patient too, but he was excited that he got it. There are some things that he learned that way. So, you do change a lot. You have to adapt. You do change your lesson plans. You do start thinking how else can I present this? And then it works for all the other kids too in some ways. Some things that I did last year with him, I'm now doing this year, finding it easier that maybe they understood it. You thought all those years that you were doing it the right way, now you're finding out some other things.