Someone's URSA Experience 2022

This week I started researching and putting together a curriculum that could be used to better teaching for neurodivergent students. I’ve studied and done my research on common types of neurodiversity and I used that knowledge while starting this curriculum. The research done on neurodivergent curriculum is very little compared to the other research done on neurodiversity. During my initial first research stage for this week I couldn’t find very much in this topic. It was increasingly hard to find anything on neurodiversity curriculum as I went on, and any studies I found were only covering extremely specific bits. An example that I found a lot of was teaching students with autism spectrum disorder social skills. As I read them, the same thought kept popping into my head, why should we try to bend students to the will of these core curriculums and social constructs when these students are just simply built and made differently? I tried to keep in mind that this new curriculum that I am trying to build needs to be flexible so instead of making students adapt to the curriculum, the curriculum can adapt to the student.

To start, I looked at the current way that schools teach neurodivergent students. I looked up my High School’s methods and even looked at their specific details and guidebook on their policies for special education. Unfortunately, it seems like they are very black and white with their methods and they don’t try to adapt the curriculum in any way except for extra time on assessments. They don’t have a very long list of possible accommodations either. It seems like this is almost the standard, and that special education kids are just supposed to change and adapt to the rest of the students.

When I finally found some good information on the new curriculum, I started off with what the students want and need in school and in teaching. With what I know from my research, many people with mental disabilities need down time. They need to relax, take a breath and be comfortable sometimes. Lots of people tend to have repetitive behaviors or specific routines that they want to follow so they can be comfortable, so with this I knew that making room for ‘me-time’ or just a break even for just 15 minutes every few hours can make all of the difference. Through my research I also learned that making all of the classroom items accessible and in different formats- especially in terms of slideshows and lectures in printed or audio format can be extremely helpful for someone who doesn’t work well with the ‘regular’ format.

I also realized that my own education could have been much improved if the stress of school had been removed. When I say stress I mean more than just daily struggle with homework or upcoming tests, but I mean all of that plus the social stress, the stress of grades, the stress of the competition-like structure that school has become. Dealing with all of these stressors daily for 8+ hours a day is not just overwhelming, but also exhausting. I realize that removing most of these stressors is difficult, but it should be worked towards as much as possible so that we don’t push students too far and burn them out. The first of these that is very easy to remove is testing and homework. I don’t mean removing all of it, but instead of long multi-hour midterms and finals, short weekly quizzes that go along with the current topic/content in the class can reduce the stress from the test but still get the assessment needed for the teacher. Another stressor that we can reduce is grades and competition. The way grading is now, can make the school environment quite the rivalry between students. To change this system making the grades not something of value, and basing grading more evenly instead of basing more than half of the grading on tests.

These are just beginning steps yes, but it is crucial to make sure that this new curriculum is friendly to everyone and is adaptable to students. In regards to how teachers conduct lessons, the rules should be more lenient, as many teachers complain about how strict the current core curriculum is in this manner. The new curriculum should only have baseline rules on how instructions are given and that all materials are provided in multiple formats so all students can participate easily.

More to come soon,

-Chloe