Exploration Through Digital Photograpy

The students in our inclusion classroom are strong, determined little ones. Not only are they learning to cope in a school setting with their special needs, but they are also learning to speak English for the first time. Life as a first grade student with autism can be difficult. You do not understand exactly what games are being played at recess or how to interact with your friends. Communication as a whole is very difficult for you and first grade is heavily based in literacy concepts. On top of all that, determining what language to speak at home and at school is a challenge. At home you speak Vietnamese and have to remember to act respectfully in the Vietnamese culture, while at school you speak English and follow the American cultural norms. Your mom and your teacher cannot communicate without a translator so you often hear conflicting directions from the two authority figures. The home/school language and culture transition is difficult for any child, but is especially difficult for those with special needs.

Teaching in an inclusion classroom with students from seven different countries, five different languages and a wide range of abilities keeps us on our toes. It pushes us to be creative with our assignments, looking for lessons that give students kinesthetic, verbal, visual, and sensory integrated opportunities for learning. We frequently get out my old digital camera to make social stories, capture lessons, and create labels that will help our students become personally invested in their work. Motivation, beyond anything else, is what will make these students successful learners.

One particular reason we taught with digital cameras integrated math and science. We had been studying plants and geometric shapes. As part of this unit, we planted seeds and watched them grow in the back of the room. The students were making observations about these plants such as how fast they grew, the shape of the seeds, leaves and stems.

Before the students even got to see the cameras, we talked about the shapes and lines of symmetry. Then we did an exploration activity where they went outside with digital cameras and took pictures of these shapes and lines of symmetry in nature. Because our cameras were limited in numbers, we had only two groups taking the digital pictures. The third group was drawing the parts of nature they saw on paper. They rotated groups so that every student got the opportunity to take at least one picture with the camera. The students found objects in nature that had geometric shapes or lines of symmetry. It was amazing to watch their knowledge of plants and shapes pour out as they excitedly looked for their objects.

The next day we were able to take these pictures and project them on the Smart Board. The students came up one by one and pointed out the shapes we found and their lines of symmetry. This brought ownership to the lesson because they were looking at pictures they had taken themselves. They recognized the pictures, and were excited to point out the different math features they found.

If awarded this grant our school will share the camera lab throughout each grade level’s inclusion classroom. It will enable us to create more activities like the plant-shape lesson. It will allow special education students to create meaningful social stories to help them understand how to perform in their day to day routines. Teachers will be able to hand the cameras over to students to create labels for the classroom themselves. Having pictures throughout the classroom exposes our English language learners to new vocabulary. For example, a banana in English is easy for us to understand but if there is a picture with the word, the students will understand it better. Students and teachers will be able to upload their pictures onto our classroom Blackboard sites so that their parents can log on at home and see their work. After creating a successful pattern-block masterpiece a student can take a picture of his work, upload it to Blackboard, and go home to show his mom what he did in school that day. This not only allows the child to show off his great work, but encourages a friendly communication between parents and the school. Due to the language barrier we struggle to have continuous, quality communication with our parents, particularly about small successes. If a child is excited to show off his work on Blackboard the parent is more likely to log on at our school’s parent computer center and learn more about our classroom activities.

In addition to the cameras, student productivity would increase as a result of the software your company provides such as the ESL Bundle, Autism Bundle, and the On Track Reading Series. The ESL Bundle would be a great addition to our school’s computer software programs due to our students’ limited exposure to the English language. During guided reading our students are involved in reading centers. We could use this program as a center for English language learners. It is another way our students could be immersed in the English language.

The Autism Bundle would help reach our students both verbally and socially. The computer software would allow our students time to be creative and expose them to unfamiliar vocabulary. Our students also have difficulty putting things in the correct sequence. The software would facilitate the creation of stories that demonstrate a logical sequence of thought.

The On Track Reading Series-5 CD Set program will help our early learners build phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, and fluency. The students who have auditory processing deficits will benefit from listening to the different sounds the letters make.

It is often difficult to find good resources to support the needs of students in an inclusion classroom. If we had the cameras in our classroom, our students could take pictures of what they are learning. The cameras will enhance resources and teaching tools by giving our students the opportunity to take real-life photographs that will make learning meaningful. The students will apply their new knowledge in their everyday lives. If students can apply what they are learning to the world around them then they will have ownership of that knowledge.