BEYOND PLANET EARTH is intended to meet the specific needs of my students. Their ages range between twelve and twenty-one years. I teach a special needs class for students with mental retardation within the severe range. In addition, other significant needs such as expressive/receptive language disorders, significant visual impairment, and gross/fine motor difficulties can present themselves. Many of my students experience receptive language problems which inhibit their ability to comprehend long, complicated verbalizations and multi-step commands or requests. To combat this problem, I use repetitive language with visual and physical cues. In addition, many students experience expressive language problems which limit the students ability to use spoken language. My students use multiple methods to respond to questions such as simple utterances, pointing to objects or pictures, and directing the teacher through physical contact, etc.
Because of the wide range of needs within my class, I use a multisensory, concrete approach to teaching. I use hands-on lessons and experimentation to reinforce concepts within the thematic unit. An integrated curriculum provides the students with a more complete picture. A topic is explored from a variety of angles with opportunities to reinforce and expand knowledge. Teaching skills in isolation does not seem to benefit my students as the knowledge does not carry over to other areas. The students need to experience the information and how it is used in a functional and concrete manner. Not only does a thematic unit deter one from teaching a skill in isolation, the student is able to benefit from the repetition and overlap between lessons to draw connections and gain knowledge. This technique is called overreaching for the purpose of remembering information by overlearning to place it in long term memory. Through repetition, the student absorbs the information as it becomes second nature.
It has been my experience that science is a wonderful content area to develop topics for thematic units. Because science is based on first principles which are often simple and concrete in nature, I am able to break down a topic to its most basic components for instruction. Then, I am able to expand on that information that I have introduced as an architect would design a building from the foundation on up. With the foundation set, basic scientific principles have been learned. The class is ready to expand on the knowledge learned. New information presented can always be connected to some prior knowledge that the student can relate to.
In addition, the hands-on, inquiry based approach to teaching science is most appropriate for teaching students with special needs as well as primary age children. The teacher designs experiences for the students that incorporate scientific principles through their everyday activity. The students remember and learn from the experiences because they are actively involved in the learning process and having fun. Science becomes one of their favorite subjects.