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Q1: While working at a magnet school in Cedar Rapids I was fortunate enough to be able to visit a few other magnet schools in different states and at the time choice boards were a big thing. We then took what we saw and tweaked it to fit what we need to meet our learners needs. I used choice board with my second grade Gen Ed and Special Ed students daily. I have done it a variety of ways and honestly it depended on the students learning preferences which worked best. One way was that each week they would get their choice board for math and another for ELA on a front and back laminated sheet. They would have the week to get the specific tasks done in any order throughout that week during the independent time that corresponded with the subject. Once they had uploaded assignment/activities to SeeSaw they were able to turn in their choice board and then work on their free choice activities.

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Question 1: Mithaug, Campeau, and Wolman (1992) say that "self-determination is a special form of self-regulation-one that is unusually effective and markedly free of external influence" (p. 4).  I have never thought of this relation before reading this chapter along with the reasoning.  However, after reading I can understand and agree mostly with the connection.  Along with this the discussion of setting appropriate expectations comes into play and supports students with disabilities to set reasonable and attainable.  I believe all three of these are difficult traits and or characteristics for Gen Ed students with "typical" executive functioning skills, and are much more difficult to teach with students lagging in some of these skill areas.  Starting these conversations and practices at a young age is extremely important.
Question 2: I believe a lot of these depends on a variety of factors: town/city, school district, school, grade level, and teacher, as well as class dynamic. When teaching Gen Ed second grade I worked a lot on developing and modeling what self-determination looks like and how it make look different for each of us with the goals and aspirations that we have but we are all capable of great things. We also worked a lot on goal setting with our social emotional components as well as academic areas. We set goals as a class as well and discussed how we would reach these goals along with why goal setting is important. I do wish there was a basic curriculum that supported teachers with young learners that focused on self-determination along with training for educators on how to best teach and support students in this area.

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The problem-solving steps can be used in multiple ways with various things that are implemented in any classroom. I would like to take the general problem-solving steps and put them on some type of board that would individually work for each student like a Velcro board. I would work together with a colleague to figure out a technology program that would work for the problem-solving steps. With the board and the technology program, I would be able to give feedback, advice, and ways to improve to them. Students would be able to visually see their work so they could reflect on what they did and how to improve for next time. They would also be able to self-monitor themselves because they can see what step they are on in relation to where they need to be. This would be scaffolded by transitioning the students into the problem-solving steps and being able to do it by themselves. I would start with doing simple problems and then gradually release the students by doing the steps by themselves as well as into more difficult problems.

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Research has shown that there is a lot of negative consequences with teaching problem solving skills in isolation to students with developmental disabilities. Individuals do not learn effectively when they are by themselves, they need to be around others to help their learning. Additionally, students need to have multiple opportunities presented to them to practice their skills with others. If a student with a learning disability is working on using public transportation, I would have the student learn about public transportation by looking on their website. I would have a lesson prepared with how public transportation works. I would work with the student on learning how to accurately read a map. I would find multiple opportunities for the student to practice and apply their knowledge that they learn.

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The common themes that I noticed with the various practices were mealtime, employment, shopping, leisure time, and lifestyle choices. When teaching “structured” choice making, teachers need to provide at least two options for students to choose from. The options provided to the students need to be something that they can experience and/or identify. It is important for students to communicate their preferences to others and not be influenced by others. In the classroom, teachers need to have realistic options for students. The students should be assisted by the teacher with the positives and negatives when making their choice.

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The relationship offers many opportunities for students to demonstrate their self-determination skills in the general education environment. However, it can be difficult for students to show their skills when they are not able to advocate for themselves yet. These opportunities will look different for all individuals because they need to have the skills first before they can have the full experience with the opportunity. It is important for teachers to continuously provide opportunities for students to show their skills. An example of self-determination that I have seen is a student wanting to show their knowledge that they have learned in special education when they are in the general education classroom, but they are not able to because the teacher does not think they have learned the knowledge. An opportunity for growth is for the general education teacher to communicate with the special education teacher on a regular basis to discuss how the student can show their knowledge. The support that that the general education teacher would need is planning these opportunities for the student throughout the school day. The support that the student would need is for the knowledge to be regularly practiced and being positively reinforced when taking the opportunities in the general education classroom.

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Self-determination means that individuals cause themselves to act in certain ways instead of something or someone cause them to act in a specific way. The level of expectations is up to the individual and the situation that they are experiencing. Self-regulation occurs when an individual accurately matches their capacity and existing opportunities as this is a repeated interaction. It is highly important for individuals to develop self-determination skills because of the benefits that they will experience with their learning.

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Q1: Research has found that it is not beneficial to teach individuals with developmental disabilities problem solving skills in isolation. I think this is because they were unable to practice with anyone other than the adult instructing them, making it difficult to develop the strategies and skills when problems arise. If a student with a learning disability is working on using public transportation, then I would recommend researching and discussing how the city bus/train system works. I would then look at a map of the desired city transportation system they are going to use. At some point, it would be beneficial for them to go out into the community and practice a route they plan to get home from school or to get to the grocery store, etc.

Q2: When I was reading this portion of the chapter, I thought that it would be perfect to implement in the regular classroom as well! Personally, I'm not super "tech-savvy" but I'm sure there is a way that you could digitize this so that students could access it that way. I also was thinking that having it as a visual might be helpful as well. I feel like you could somehow create a flow chart that would be helpful for students that have to reevaluate their plan and go back. I think this would be a good way for students to reflect on their work, especially in the earlier phases. This would also give me a good opportunity to give them feedback on what areas they could improve on and provide some suggestions, if I have any, on what they could try next. This could definitely support students' future decision making, especially as they tackle future plans like where they are going to potentially attend college, work after high school, live after high school, what they need to do prior to all of that, etc.

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When we are teaching "structured" choice making to students, it is important that we provide options that the students have experienced/can identify. We want our students to choose without coercion and express their preferences to others. Although we wish we could give our students endless possibilities for their choices, we need to have a designated number of options (at least two) and they need to be reasonable and realistic within our classroom setting. Some common themes in choice making that I saw throughout this chapter was leisure time activities, shopping, mealtime, lifestyle, and employment choices.

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Q1: Mithaug says that self-determination implies that individuals cause themselves to act in certain ways, not something/someone else causing them to act that way. Thus, the individual's actions are deliberate and intentional. Level of expectations depends on the person and the situation at hand. On pg. 12, our book talks about how research links enhanced self-management and self-regulation skills to the attainment of positive adult outcomes. In addition, teaching students self-monitoring strategies has been shown to improve critical learning skills and classroom involvement skills of students with severe disabilities. With all of this in mind, self-determination and self-regulation can significantly impact our students presence and involvement in the classroom. It's crucial that we teach them positive skills in this area so that they are able to build upon these skills in the future.

Q2: Self-determination is a difficult thing to teach students at times. We can teach the skills to students, but at some point they have to reciprocate some of those items that you've been teaching them to make progress in that area, which can be extremely difficult with special education students at times. I think that there are many opportunities for growth in this area in the general education environment. In a previous field experience, (just from what I had seen from the times that I was there) I felt like my cooperating teacher could've done a better job at connecting with the students who received pull out services. I felt like it was seen as Oh they worked on that in the special education room, they don't need to keep working on it or they don't need to answer the question even though they are some of the people that always want to answer the questions and always had their hands raised. I just felt like they weren't given as much of an opportunity to practice what they had learned in the special education classroom in the general education classroom later on and were just kind of looked past/looked over. Maybe they had more opportunities later in the day when I wasn't there though. I think that teachers need to continue working together with the mindset that they are all working together as a TEAM for the sake of their students. One book that I will never forget that I read for a class is "Your students, My students, Our Students." If you ever have free time, read it! It's awesome! In addition, I think students just lack confidence in the general education room. So I think we just need to keep supporting them in all settings and encouraging them in all settings. That is one thing I'm not sure on how to work on with students, is confidence.

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Isolation is almost always a last resort or a poor deision. This situation is no different, if a student is in an isolated place with very little opportunities to see different problem solving skills or ideas they will not develop strategies to truly problem solve.
I feel this is due to lack of diverse individuals in the class or area that can help the student build problem solving strategies.

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I have not had a ton of experience with educational programming for choice making. I did create some curriculum and a foundational job readiness structure at the Alternative High School in Mount Vernon that allowed for students to make their own choices on books to reach for language arts. They also had choices on internship opportunities and they could choose to do so much class work for early dismisal opportunities. I am not sure this is exactly the same thing, but I know that the students appreciated the ability to make choices and as a teacher I found that students would actually reach harder books than expected and chose to do more interships or job shadows.

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Question 1: Self Determination is when individuals do or cause themselves to behave in a certain manner. For a student the level of expectation is how the individual reacts to specific situations states Mithaug.  The levels of expectations for students is how they react to the situation that has arisen.
Question 2: Self-Determination is the process of when a person controls their own life. For many students with disabilities this is very hard for them to begin this procress or to continue it. Teachers tend to offer a lot of support, yet the students does not learn how to self-advocate and begin the process of self-determination. The general education environment lends opportunity or students who can self advocate for themselves.
Teachers need to continue to offer opportunities for students to learn how to self-advocate, learn how to build confidence for themselves and gain abilities to do things for themselves.

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I think when it comes to incorporating this into a classroom, I don’t think it would be too hard. I think there could be situations throughout the day where you could build this into the classroom schedule. I also think this would be a good opportunity to provide feedback to students and provide suggestions on what they could work on.

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Research has found that teaching individuals with developmental disabilities problem-solving skills in isolation has provided a disservice to them. They develop less strategies and skills to find solutions when problems arise. I think this is because they are somewhat isolated and they only have like-minded peers to practice with rather than typical developing peers. They don’t get as much interaction with others when being isolated. For a student working on public transportation, I would see if there was an opportunity to go out and practice in public. If not, then have some sort of simulation with another adult and practice problem-solving skills.

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It is important when teaching “structured” choice making that we provide the students with options. Teachers also have to be careful with how they respond to the choices made by individuals. We want to be supported of student choices, but also help them make realistic choices. We also want to help students be aware of the choices they are making and what the limitations could be within the choice. Common themes we notice in choice making is the categories we encourage the students to make choices in. These categories are typically employment, leisure, mealtime, shopping, and lifestyle.

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Self-determination opportunities in the general education classroom can look different for different individuals. For some, they can thrive in a general education classroom and want to make goals to do better. For other students, it can be hard for them to be in the general education setting and be self-determined. Since self-determination has been identified as something that you need to want, then it can be a challenge for some students. In a field placement of mine, there was a student who was in SPED, but had a chunk of his day in GenEd. He never liked to go there because he always felt as though he was behind the other students. He had a lack of self-determination and wanted nothing to do with being integrated due to the fact that he was “behind” his classmates. I think in situations like that, the students and teachers need supports. You can’t teach self-determination; it is still important to make sure the students know that they can still set goals and work towards them even if they are “behind”. The teachers should also be encouraged to encourage their students to set goals.

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When it comes to self-determination, Mithaug says that individuals cause themselves to act a certain way rather than having something cause them to be a certain way. The level of expectation depends on the individual and how they react to certain things.

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Chapter 4: Use this as a guide to support your final transition plan. There are great resources for thinking about goal writing, monitoring, and evaluation. Feel free to ask any questions you have around this on the Padlet.

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Chapter 3: Problem Solving/Decision Making 

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Chapter 3: Problem Solving/Decision Making 

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1. What has the research found about teaching problem solving skills in isolation for students with developmental disabilities? Why do you think this is? How might you do this for a student with a learning disability working on using public transportation.

2. 2. Look at the General Problem Solving Steps by Benjamin, 1996 (p. 40) How might you shift this into a routine protocol for a classroom of students with some developmental disabilities and some behavioral disorders? How could you incorporate technology, feedback, self monitoring knowing that you cannot always have 1:1 conferences with students in the classroom. How would this be scaffolded to shift some of the struggle to the student and support future decision making?

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1. Choice / Decision making is a large focus of educational programming for students with and without disabilities. According to the text, “(in 2000) , teachers felt unqualified to teach choice making” (Wehmeyer , p. 21). Briefly describe some of the ways we can teach “structured” choice making for students with disabilities. What is a common trend/theme  you notice with the various practices?

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1. Describe the relationship between self-determination , level of expectations, and self regulation according to the research by (Mithaug et al.)

2. Describe the relationship between self-determination opportunities and the general education environment. Where have you seen examples of this , what opportunity do you see for growth in this area? What support would teachers need, students need?