Shine a Bright Light
In a recent interview, former Vice President Joe Biden said, “That’s how we make progress. Shine a bright light on a problem. Look at it closely, and change the culture.” He was talking about domestic violence, but doesn’t this work for all issues?
What issues do we have on a regular basis that seem to persist? It seems as though we humans would rather ignore any problem that doesn’t have an obvious solution. What if we tried the “shine a bright light” approach? Let’s shine a bright light on our inclusive practices to see how we could change the culture.
Schools do not confront bullying. When bullying is tolerated, students with disabilities and others with differences are not safe to learn. What if schools explored proven anti-bullying methods and implemented practices as daily behaviors for faculty and students?
Teachers rush through their rigorous pacing guide and leave some students behind. What if they learned how to break their content into chunks with formative assessments to inform them about individual student mastery? With data, they could provide interventions for those students.
Teachers set low expectations for students with disabilities. What if teachers believed that there is no ceiling for every students’ learning? They would brainstorm different approaches to reach the struggling students and see greater gains in achievement.
Teachers engage one student at a time. They call on one volunteer student to give an answer while too many other students take a brain break. What if they used every pupil responses and paired collaborative discussion to engage all students? Obviously, engaged students are more likely to learn.
Co-teachers struggle with collaboration in their shared classroom. It doesn’t help to tell them to “work it out.” What if they explored their differences with a collaborative styles survey and then were encouraged to share their styles for classroom management in the classroom, for structured learning tasks, for how to support struggling students? Through dialogue, they could make some compromises.
Parents passively participate in the IEP process. Too many parents don’t attend and too many of the ones that do, sit back and let the professionals take the lead. What if we built the capacity of professionals and families to become aligned partners to support each youth’s success through the IEP process and in all learning?
What issue have you been ignoring? When is the best time to shine a bright light?
