Essay 102746 – Inclusive Education-Principles and Practices – Tom Case Study – Arts and Humanities Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

TASK:

Unit Learning Outcomes

This unit contributes most prominently to the following Western Sydney University graduate attributes:
– Commands multiple skills and literacies to enable adaptable lifelong learning;
– Demonstrate knowledge of Indigenous Australia through cultural competency and professional capacity;
– Demonstrate comprehensive, coherent and connected knowledge;
– Applies knowledge through intellectual inquiry in professional or applied contexts; and
– Bring knowledge to life through responsible engagement and appreciation of diversity in an evolving world.

The Scenario:
You are a new teacher in a large inner-city school. Tom will transition to High School this year. As the Year Co-ordinator you have responsibility for introducing Tom to the school and, in addition, you will be his teacher (for your teaching method) in Year 7. Tom’s mother, Cassie has sent the school some information to help teachers plan for her son. The following information has been recorded in his file, including a letter from his mother, Cassie. You are reading these notes before your meeting with Cassie and the Principal next week to present his draft Educational and Inclusion Plan. You have had little experience with children who have a diagnosis of ASD or who are gifted but are eager to learn.
The class that Tom will be in, is known to be challenging. There are often 29 students in the class, of whom 60% are boys. Many of the boys having learning difficulties or behavioural challenges. School Notes on Student’s File:
• Diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Tests: Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) 
• Loves stories, especially fantasy
• Enjoys maths, history and gaming
• May try to abscond from school
• Early diagnosis of depression
• Risk averse, so fear of failure and fear of performance, impedes his willingness to engage in curricula
• Sensory and social anxiety and very challenged by the unpredictability of social interaction with peers

Extracts from an introductory letter from the parent Early schooling
Cassie writes “His teachers already knew that he was a student with ASD, but even with evidence of his IQ, they found it difficult to identify his strengths and work with them. They were more concerned with remediating his relative weaknesses and addressing the social and general anxieties that are the cornerstone of his spectrum profile. He was allocated a teacher’s aide for the first two- hour literacy block every day, which effectively meant that his aide was his literacy teacher. However, we later discovered that my son was using his prodigious intellect to mask the fact that he was struggling significantly to develop his reading skills. He watched and mimicked other children, used extra-textual information to infer meaning, and used a prodigious memory to repeat books verbatim.
His teachers knew that reading wasn’t his relative ‘strength’ (he had gone through the ‘Reading Recovery’ program in Year One), but they underestimated the severity of the problem, and also prioritised addressing his more ‘obvious’ challenges. His teacher’s aide didn’t have the training to recognise the sophisticated strategies and mechanisms my son was employing to mask his inability to read; the aide assumed that because my son was performing only slightly below the academic level of his age-peers, that his achievement was adequate.

Assessment Summary
The assessment items in this Unit are designed to enable you to demonstrate that you have achieved the Unit learning outcomes. Completion and submission of all assessment items which have been designated as mandatory or compulsory is essential to receive a passing grade. After completing each online module, you will be asked to post a response relevant to the vUWS discussion board. The response will be about a 100-150 words and referenced appropriately using APA 7 Style Guide. You will be directed with your response and it may include a critical reflection, a response to a reflective question, engagement in a conversation with your peers, an explanation of your perspective or application of your learning. Over the semester you will submit nine discussion posts-one for each module. The posts will provide evidence of your attendance and participation in the unit as well as your understanding of the key concepts. The discussion boards will close on the following dates.