Project Math Access DVD 06 - Perspectives- Part 03
Transcript Start

Audio Description: Part three, planning instruction.

Marien Massa: After we made that decision, things started to get a little bit better because I think we sat down and said okay... we all need to know where we’re at and where we’re going, so part of the frustration went away. 

Some of it stayed, and that was more on my part because when you’re teaching class it's like... okay, that didn’t go very well, I’m changing lesson plans tomorrow. Oh, I can’t do that because I have a student and he needs it in braille, and he’s not going to have it because she’s not here. I don’t know how to braille. What am I going to do? So, sometimes it was like I had figure out something else he could do or make an alternate... so it was actually I’m making my own lesson plan plus a lesson plan for him. So, that was more frustrating than anything else because it's always like one more thing I had to do. 

As the course went on, we found more and more mistakes in the braille book that he was using. He would come in in the morning... now we were into 7:15 in the morning and he’d stay for almost 45 minutes... so it was almost like a one on one with him then, then I had him in class, then I would also meet with him seventh period, so it was almost three times a day. It was a very slow process. 

You have to be very patient, and at the beginning you don’t understand, well why can’t they see that? A couple times I just got so frustrated |’d finally just say, “What does that say there?" He goes, ‘‘It says A." I go, “Well tell me what is says over here.” He goes, “A." Well, then they brailled it wrong. It didn’t happen once or twice, we’re up to ten times, and it was whoever brailled that book. So, it wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t my fault, but because I can’t read that and he didn’t realize that they were both the same. Well, I guess as soon as he found where A was he assumed it was there. Well, when I asked him to go somewhere else, he goes, “Oh no, there’s another one." So, I’m not knowing if we are looking at two different diagrams or what. We found out there were mistakes there, so we had to be careful there. 

I got to the point where I tried to plan ahead of time and have models, as many models that he could handle as possible, and sometimes that's not real easy. We worked with Wikki Stix. I didn't know those existed until I talked to the blind itinerant and I said... “You know, I just don't know how to make these models anymore." And she goes, “Oh, don't you have a set of Wikki Stix?" And I go, ‘‘I don't even know what they are." 

So, communication again. I mean, she had a lot of things that I didn't even know existed. So, I kind of had to ask then, after learning to ask, “Do you have something that does this?" So, we even went to marshmallows and making things that he could take apart and put back together, but again... we're talking four months into the school year and I not knowing what Wikki Stix was, was pretty tough. 

As the year went on, it got tougher and tougher and tougher. I started writing more multiple-choice questions, really altering the test a lot, because now we are into three-dimensional figures. Flat figures are great; three-dimensional figures aren't going to happen. There is no way you can show them on a flat sheet of paper. A lot of kids cannot read a three-dimensional picture off of a fiat sheet of paper, because they don't understand the dotted lines or whatever. Now I'm asking somebody to feel with their hand, and it really was a lot of problem. So, we got a lot of three dimensional figures out and so on, and he still didn't quite get it. So, we were still into every single morning almost seeing me. 

I think this is a lot of work. I finally went to my department chair and I just said, “You know, this is way too much, and I'm not getting extra pay, release time or anything." So, they did relieve me of my duty three days a week, so that time was spent planning what he would do in place of what we were doing. He would listen to the discussions in class and participate in discussions in class... he would just have a different set of homework problems. The aide, I gave her a copy of the book with the answers and she'd check it every day, so that worked out great. 

It got better as the year went along, but very, very frustrating. I found out a lot about how to use different objects just for me to get across to him what I was talking about. And the other kids in class were pretty good. I use cooperative learning pairs and everything else. It was very difficult to put him in a pair, so he would be with the aide most of the time, which at the beginning, with the adults... was not a good idea because he wanted to be with somebody his age. So, the student aide worked out great, and I think he felt better at that point working with somebody his own age and somebody that... could explain things to him when he couldn't figure it out. When you put him with another student, the other student, I think, was afraid sometimes too that they would lead him down the wrong path.