Designing Personalized Learning for Every Student
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About
Today′s students are more diverse than ever before—in cultural backgrounds, learning styles and interests, social and economic classes, and abilities and disabilities. How can schools accommodate these differences while also dealing with the many other demands for change, from the push for tougher standards to the call for more discipline in the classroom? This book offers answers—and challenges schools to reinvent themselves as more flexible, creative learning communities that include and are responsive to a full range of human diversity.
Table of contents
Preface
Involving Families in Designing Classroom Curriculum
Planning for Everyone and Each One
About the authors
Dianne Ferguson (lead author) is a professor in special education at the University of Oregon. She is also director of Academic Support and Student Services in the College of Education. She is experienced at preparing teachers, designing systems that support ongoing school improvement efforts, and managing grants, which requires coordination between universities and public schools. Ferguson has taught classes and provided consultation for general and special educators in Canada, Iceland, India, Denmark, New Zealand, and Finland. Her areas of interest and expertise include issues and strategies for school inclusion for students with disabilities, administrator and teacher support for professional development, and collaboration. Ferguson is an experienced researcher and has published research reports to investigate curriculum decision making, school improvement efforts, general education experiences of students with disabilities, and the experiences of families of students with disabilities. Ferguson can be reached at College of Education, 1215 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1215; phone: 541-346-2491; fax: 541-346-2471; e-mail: diannef@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Cleo Droege has been a middle school language arts block teacher for eight years. After teaching for three years, she left public education to work with Dianne Ferguson at the University of Oregon, where she rounded out the research team as the “regular ed” person. During her four years at Oregon, she drew on the best of both worlds of education. Four years ago, Droege returned to teaching middle school. Now her classes are larger and include more needy students. She continues using the teaching practices she developed at the University of Oregon to teach her diverse population of students. Droege can be reached at Lincoln Middle School, 1565 South 4th Street, Cottage Grove, OR 97424-2999; phone: 541-942-3316; fax: 541-9801; e-mail: cdroege@lane.k12.or.us.
Hafdís Guðjónsdóttir is assistant professor of Education and director of the Division of Developmental Education at the Iceland University of Education (IUE). She worked for 20 years as a general classroom teacher and special educator in elementary and high schools. Her focus is on inclusion, curriculum development, differentiated learning, teaching mixed-ability classes, cooperative learning, authentic assessment, mathematics for all students, teacher professionalism, school change, and collaboration with families. She currently consults on inclusion with educators in Latvia and on preparing distance education courses and teacher exchange with Norwegian educators. Current research and writing projects include mathematics for all learners and self-study of framing professional discourse with teachers. She has presented her work at local, regional, and international conferences. Guðjónsdóttir can be reached at Iceland University of Education, Stakkahlid, 105 Reykjavik, Iceland; phone: 011-354-563-3800; fax: 011-354-563-3833; e-mail: hafdisg@khi.is.
Jackie Lester has had many roles in special and general education over the past 16 years in Oregon's public schools. She has worked with preschool through graduate-level students and has collaborated with the University of Oregon's Schools Projects. Lester is leaving her position as a speech-language pathologist and reading specialist to become the principal of a preschool through 8th grade rural school. She has worked extensively in the areas of language and literacy, attempting to bridge the gap between special education services and language support needed within general education classrooms. Lester can be reached at Dorena Elementary School, 37141 Row River Road, Cottage Grove, OR 97434-9801; phone: 541-946-1506; fax: 541-946-1507; e-mail: jlester@lane.k12.or.us.
Gwen Meyer is a senior research assistant in special education at the University of Oregon. She has 30 years of experience working with persons with low-incidence and severe disabilities in school, residential, institutional, and work settings. As a teacher, she developed and implemented systems and plans that supported her middle school students' participation in general education classrooms and in community contexts. Meyer is a long-term collaborator with the University of Oregon's Schools Projects and has participated on design groups for project products. She was an instructor in preservice courses. She also helped design, conduct, transcribe, and analyze interviews with teachers and family members as part of her research projects. Meyer can be reached at Specialized Training Program, 1235 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1235; phone: 541-346-2494; fax: 541-346-2471; e-mail: gwenmey@oregon.uoregon.edu.