Reading Struggles

I think that it is very important to come up with alternative methods of assessment for the student in question. It is impossible for them to demonstrate their knowledge of the material if they can't even read your test. How can you assess their learning if you cannot get passed their reading difficulties?

I believe that the sciences are an area where authentic assessments and other, less reading focused alternatives are readily available and easy to use. It would definitely be possible to incorporate a project or a lab into the evaluative process more often if that was more effective. Another option would be having somebody read the test to them so that they no longer are required to read it. For that matter, you could have them dictate their answers as well if they also had difficulties with writing.

Assistive technologies are great in this situation because they allow the students to work independently. Give them a program that can dictate the test to them and another that recognizes their speech patterns. You could create a test that asks questions and shows a visual on the computer screen. It is also possible to create a test where they can read it on the computer and if they get stuck, they click a button to have the question read to them. This means that there is room for them to be successful on the test and they can work on improving their reading ability.

All told, science is about teaching the principles and theories. Reading is an important aspect of being successful in these fields in the future, but that is something that they need to learn in addition to what you are teaching them. As such, your objective should be what you assess and you cannot do that unless you come up with creative methods for accommodating their disability.

testing based on reading ability? wrong!

Reading is an essential part of life in not just america, but in all parts of the world. It's obviously been important enough for standardized tests to be made based on the ability to answer multiple choice questions and reading comp. But as a science teacher, I think just the mere ability to speak english or read is not quite as essential. Science, along with math, are more universal languages. Even if I have a student that struggles with the reading i think that students should be able to learn more through hands on learning than tests. Labs and group work are more essential than tests in my classroom.
In one of my other education classes, I learned that multiple choice questions are more of a recognition test. You don't even really have to know what you're answering or what the question is asking. As long as you can recognize key words and phrases, you're golden. Tests should not be tricky on purpose! why are you trying to fail your students? we as teachers need to be fair when it comes to tests for all types of students (though this is not an easy task).
But tests are important. We use them to know where our students stand and if they understand the material. So, since these assessments are so crucial, for our students that have a disability, these assistive learning technologies are great! being able to hear the question instead of reading it cuts out a lot of time for some students who have trouble with reading.

A sweet resource!

Hey everybody,

I just stumbled across this online earlier today and I thought it was pretty cool! It's a periodic table that allows you to highlight different characteristics about the elements and particular groups of elements. It's very well done and would be a great resource for science students who are learning the periodic table. Take a look at it and bookmark it if you want =D

http://www.ptable.com/

Best,

community collaboration

Community collaboration can be helpful because experts in the field might be able to add new information on research about the topic that have not come to your attention yet. As mentioned before, the collaboration projects are also very helpful. Especially if you are able to coordinate the collection of data with students around the country or world. This gives the students a chance to see how people from other places think, learn, and interact.

Especially with the mentor collaborations, it may be able to show the student that, if they have an ambition in the expert's field the students will be able to see that it is possible to be successful in something you enjoy.

I saw a paper on Google (unfortunately I could not open it because it required a subscription) entitled: Community Collaboration: If it is such a good idea, why is it so hard to do? by Julie White and Gary Wahlage. The beginning of the paper talked about how community collaboration is hard to carry out on a large scale but that it might be beneficial to schools and outside programs because they can then share the economic responsibilities for programs.

As mentioned before, safety is an issue and as Dr. Parlo said, we should always make sure to get parental permission for online discussions with the expert. It is also sometimes difficult to find reputable people close to your school that transportation issues do not come up.

Everything's pretty much been said about outside collaboration, but...

I don't want to continue to repeat things that have been said, but I feel one thing that was not mentioned about the importance of outside collaboration is the introduction to new ideas. As humans, teachers may not explain something in a way everyone can understand, or may leave something they've taken for granted out. By allowing someone else to contribute to a lesson, then new ideas are introduced, new ways of presenting the information are shared, and new questions may be asked. Sometimes students chose not to like a teacher for whatever reason, but by giving the student a mentor/allowing that student to collaborate with someone else, the student does not have to completely blow off the subject and can still learn it.

Time is an issue and making sure students are getting the correct message are two possible setbacks.