I teach at Hill Regional Career High School in New Haven Connecticut. This school is a magnet school in an urban environment that services twenty-three area towns. It has two majors; business and health sciences. Students choose a major in their sophomore year and work toward the specialization for future undergraduate studies in their chosen field of study.
I am one of the three Special Education teachers at our school. I teach in a resource room. Students receiving services are instructed using the Student's Individual Educational Plan (IEP). Each student's plan is individualized. This plan is written according to academic, cognitive and behavioral assessments conducted by the school psychologist, Connecticut State Exams, school tests and observations. I write the IEP and plan my instruction according to Connecticut Mathematics and Language Arts Content Standards and Connecticut Academic Performance Test's (CAPT) Response to Literature and Second Generation Mathematics Content Standards.
Our school's policy is that the student takes part in regular academics subjects and receives additional support in a resource room. Our school's goal is for all students to succeed in their regular curriculum and to provide support for this success. I design instruction that teaches skills necessary for students to succeed in their regular education classes and in transitioning to post high school endeavors.
In the resource room students utilize my service approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes each week. The rest of their academics are in an inclusion setting. The students that will receive this unit are 12th grade students who have limited ability in written expression. Over the last three years I have been working on written expression by utilizing various instructional techniques. One in particular is an emphasis on the persuasive piece. Up till now my students understand the basic structure of the five paragraph persuasive essay but have yet to bring depth to their writing.
These students are transitioning into independent members of our communities and my goal is for them to understand that they can be productive citizens of our community. Having opinions is important to our democratic society, and an uneducated opinion can hinder the prosperity of the society. I do not agree that ignorance is bliss. For there to be a change in the current situations in our urban communities we must promote the importance of education. An educated community is a productive community.
