Students With Special Needs or Exceptionalities Background Profile/Reflection

Student A is not in one of our music classes, but is in our Success (homeroom) class. Student A

is a 7th Grade student with an IEP centered on “other health impairments.” Student A has 2

goals, which need to be met by 9/13/2022. The first goal revolves around decreasing “incidences

of interrupting during classroom instruction and developing an understanding of the relationship

between his verbalizations and their effect on others with 80% accuracy or 4 out of 5

opportunities as measured by teacher data.” The second goal is defined as Student A being able

to “demonstrate self control of his body (good personal space, keeping hands and feet near his

body) in relation to the expected levels of the classroom and peers around them with 80%

accuracy of a 20 minute period.” Student A has several accommodations, such as a flexible

schedule, small group settings, and visual support for schedule changes and behavioral

expectations.

Overall, I have not had to modify my teaching drastically in any way. I haven noticed

times that Student A has blurted out in class, but I simply remind them to raise his hand. I

believe that he has done a lot better the last few weeks in regards to disruption and demonstrating

self control of his body. On Friday’s we play a game called “N-Ball” where we toss a playground

ball back and forth. Student A has demonstrated an increasing self control of his body, and

having good personal space. There are times where Student A will get excited and start to

unravel, but I believe that the trusting and affirming relationship I have built with them has

allowed me to give nonverbal cues that lets them know to focus in. I plan to continue to be

flexible with Student A and to give them opportunities to excel.

 Student B is apart of our 6th Grade Clarinet and Saxophone class. They have an IEP

centered on “specific learning disability, hearing impairment, speech-language impairment.”

Student B has several goals, all needing to be met by 09/09/2022. One goal is that Student B will

“demonstrate improved visual motor integration skills by completing written assignments with at

least 88% accuracy for visual organization, sizing, spacing, and orientation to writing lines/space

in 5/5 assignments.” Also, other goal is that Student B will “correctly produce ‘j’, r, and the

vowel r (ire, ar, ear, and er) at the word level of 75% accuracy with minimal verbal cues.”

Student A have several classroom accommodations including “flexible schedule, read aloud

when audio is unavailable for all assignments and assessment, and check for understanding

during independent work time.”

One observation I made rather quickly is that Student B sways a lot. Also, when asked to

play a certain note, they are able to play it by itself, but not in context. Student B knows when to

start playing, and always is engaged in the class. I have had to modify my teaching to

accommodate Student B. For example, when grading playing tests, I had to modify my grading

scale that was relative to Student B’s ability and progress. The student does not seem

discouraged, and seems to really enjoy bad class. I have had to speak louder several times so that

Student B was able to understand instruction. Student B has done such a wonderful job

participating and actively participating in class.