By: Neil Plotnick
This past spring, I was attending an IEP meeting in my role as a special education teacher. After the meeting with the parents was completed, our district special education director asked me to stay for a few minutes to discuss something. While my thoughts initially were focused on something “bad” I had done, my director actually wanted to speak to me in my role as a computer science teacher. “We would like you to create a class that our life skills students can take so that they have the opportunity to learn computer science. It does not have to be focused on any particular topic. Just a class that is different from their typical inclusion experience that is mostly a mix of gym, art and music courses.” Of course, I said yes!
For the past ten years, my job has been equally split between providing co-teaching in various content areas and cybersecurity as part of our innovation pathway. When I first started my teaching career, I went to graduate school to obtain my M.Ed. and earned my license in moderate special needs and political science. In my previous life, I had worked in information technology with a decade spent in supporting software development and publishing companies for Ziff-Davis. It was with the encouragement of a colleague that I began teaching computer science and obtained a graduate certificate in CS Education from St. Scholastica and another in Cybersecurity Education from LA Tech. My biggest motivation for becoming a teacher was my own son Marty. Diagnosed as an infant with hemiplegia, a type of cerebral palsy caused by a stroke or similar injury, I knew that children like him would face obstacles in learning. Being raised by public school teachers and having many, many family members who were also teachers, it seemed destined to be that I also went into the “family business” and entered the classroom at nearly 40 years of age.
Bringing computer science classes to students with learning disabilities is not as simple as selecting any particular curriculum and using built in features to support lesson differentiation, modifications for assessments or similar purposes is just not typically found. The same struggles are familiar to teachers who want options to help their students with limited English proficiency. My challenge this year has been to find ways to create engaging lessons that every student can appreciate yet make sure that scaffolding and other supports are available for the life skills students who have a wide range of learning disabilities. One of the most powerful impacts of having a special education background in the classroom is knowing that my teaching style informed by my training is beneficial to all students. In all my years of teaching in chemistry, math, history and English classrooms, it was never my intention to focus only on students who have an IEP. Virtually every student will struggle with some content throughout their day. Good teaching requires that you identify where your students are having difficulty and find ways to address their challenges.
One of the enduring things that was emphasized throughout my graduate school experience was that teachers should provide multiple means of instruction and multiple means of assessment. While some may argue that the theory of Multiple Intelligences as developed by Howard Gardner is incomplete or otherwise flawed, giving students the ability to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways is a great strategy. Some students do better with essays, some want to create posters while others will make presentations or comic books. Any of these artifacts can certainly be used to showcase what students have learned. For example, in my cybersecurity class I allowed students to respond to the same prompt, “What would you tell your family about avoiding phishing attacks?” Not only was the work done in different formats, but students were also free to provide their own cultural and linguistic references in their submissions. One student created a PSA style commercial done completely in Spanish.
Unplugged activities are an easy way to offer an easy on ramp to your students. One exercise that was used in my class during Cybersecurity Awareness Month this past October was the Digital Footprint lesson. Each student was asked to create a list of all the various social media accounts, email addresses and websites that they use. When initially asked for an estimate, students all underestimated their footprint by a very wide margin. One of my students didn’t even think that she had any email use until she learned that our district’s use of Gmail authentication for Google Classroom, Clever, Canvas, Canva, IXL and other learning tools was quite extensive.
I decided that I would be spending time using the Google Applied Digital Skills materials in my classroom. Since every student was issued a Chromebook and teachers expected them to be familiar with Docs, Slides and Sheets, this would be a great opportunity to provide them with ways to create digital artifacts they could use to express themselves as well as support work in other content areas. It quickly became apparent that just relying on the videos and text-based directions provided by Google was not well suited to my students’ needs. Echoing another mantra from my special education professors, “direct and explicit instruction” was the best way to help all my students. I created my own tutorial documents and slides that showed exactly how to create and edit files for each lesson.
Remember that each of your special education students will have their own Individualized Education Plan. Read them carefully and learn what struggles they have and what specific accommodations and modifications they require to be successful. Communicate with your special education colleagues to truly understand how your students learn best. Having worked in this role, I can assure you that a collaborative approach will really help you in the classroom.
Grading is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges you may face. As the “fair test” cartoon illustrates, it is not always appropriate to use the same diagnostic criteria for every student. I like to see my grading reflect effort and growth as the primary factors when recording them. One piece of advice that I got early on in my teaching career was to speak with physical education, art and other teachers who grade students on criteria other than strictly test grades. I also allow my students to complete quarterly surveys where they reflect on their learning and report on what they believe their grades should be. Not only have my students been uniformly honest about their efforts I always find their feedback invaluable in improving my own teaching.
Please remember that all students have the right to access to quality education in all content areas including computer science. Building a full inclusion classroom does not mean lowering your standards or skipping over important content. It does mean using differentiated instruction methods, flexible assignments and most of all, a welcoming environment.
About the Author
Neil Plotnick is a computer science teacher who has been with the Everett Public Schools since 2007. He has also worked as a special education inclusion teacher in grades 9-12 in math, science, English and history throughout his career. Neil’s specialty is cybersecurity and he established the school’s innovation pathway eight years ago. He has presented at numerous CSTA regional and national conferences. Neil has created curriculum for Cyber.org and founded the Cybersecurity Educators group on Facebook. When not teaching, Neil enjoys travel and sporting events with his wife Lisa and son Marty and their cats Homer and Robin. Neil is a national winner of the PAEMST, NCWIT Aspirations Educator Award, Civil Air Patrol STEM Educator of the Year and Cyber.org Cyber Educator of the Year.