Most people would agree that a
student gets most of their education from being in a classroom, not on the
basketball court or football field. While in an academic sense this may be
true, there are valuable lessons teachers and coaches can instill in their
students outside of the classroom. Including students with disabilities in team
sports with their peers can foster relationships with both groups that span
outside of the sport and into the classroom. Nirvi Shan’s article Even in ‘Mean’ Schools, Teams With Students
With Disabilities he explains how sports can create relationships that will
help manage behaviors in the classroom.
A key aspect of effective classroom management is having a classroom a student’s that are
accepting and respectful of each other. In a classroom setting, especially in a
high school many students feel pressure to get good grades and be at the top of
their class. High school students are also often judgmental and want to impress
each other. They may feel pointing out the flaws of other will make themselves
look better. Students with disabilities are easy targets for these people
because they stand out. The typical student may not get a lot of interaction
with the special education students and therefore will not form a relationship
with them and get to know them. Because they do not know them it is easy to
tease and bully these students.
Shan (2012) writes about unified sports teams in high
schools where students with disabilities play on the same team as their
typically developing peers. In this setting the peers get to interact with the
special education students that they may only see occasionally in a hall (Shan,
2012). They get to see that the students with special needs have personalities
and form relationships with them. A student Shan spoke to stated “for the first
time, they became friends with students who attend the same school, but mostly
in separate classes” (Shan, 2012).
These friendships that the students form span outside of
the court or field. Shan (2012) reported that a week after the first practice
students were talking to and high-fiving the special education students (Shan,
2012). The students just needed an opportunity to see that just because the
special education students may look or act different they are still people and
can be fun to be around and interact with.
This relates to classroom management because one of the
keys to a successfully managed classroom is peer relationships and respect for
one another. If all students feel like they are in a safe environment where
they know their classmates they are more likely to come to class, participate,
and not act out. Even if the special education students were not in classes
with their typical peers I think the experience for the typical students would
be valuable. It would open their eyes to accepting people’s differences and
teach them that every person has something different to contribute. This would
go a long ways in getting students to not judge those that struggle in the
classroom or dress a little differently with respect.
I think it would be great for unified sports to become a
staple in all high schools. I learned a
lot in high school from helping with the special education gym class. If
all students got a chance to interact with the special education students in
their school I think they would treat each other with more respect and leave
high school with a more open mind.
Even though algebra, history, and creative writing are
not taught on the football field and basketball court some of the most
important lessons and skills a student can learn may come from a simple game.
Giving students a chance to bond with people they view as very different will
help them to see that they really aren’t that different overall and what better
way to show this then a fun, common interest.
References
Shan, N. (2012, July
3). Even In ‘Mean’ Schools, Teams With Students With Disabilities Thrive. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2012/07/even_in_mean_schools_teams_wi.html
Great article review, Alice! I really enjoyed reading your review. Special education is my passion and I absolutely agree that special education students NEED the same opportunity as other students to participate in sports. This benefits both parties and allows students to get to know the special education students and realize they are no different than everyone else. Have you observed many local high school sports teams mixing the special education students in? Do you think coaches would be fond of this idea?
ReplyDelete~Kayla~
I have not payed attention to the high schools around here and their sports teams. I have seen videos on Youtube of students with special needs being managers on a team and then getting to play in a game occasionally. I think there should be a push to get these students more integrated in sports so they can learn the skills it takes to successfully interact and play in a game with a group of peers.
DeleteAlice, I agree with you. I think that all students should feel safe in the classroom, and part of this safety can come from having social relationships outside of the four walls of the school. Is this practice of mixing teams something that happens often? It would be interesting to see how this changes the dynamic of the school.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this integration in sports happens as much as it should. In my high school we had peer helpers that went to help in the special education PE classes. The special ed students really enjoyed having these helpers in their class and always got really excited when they saw them in the halls or outside of PE. I think This should be taken even farther to having sports teams that are integrated because the special ed students will learn valuable social skills from their peers in that situation.
DeleteAlice, I have heard little about this subject, and have had mixed if not uneducated thoughts on the idea. It sounds like Colorado schools in this article have both traditional teams and unified teams. I think that is a great idea, and very inspiring to hear of the students who chose to play on the unified team rather then the varsity team so they could play on the team with the ID students.
ReplyDeleteI have some concerns, although I think the friendship and team building that comes from being on a unified team is fantastic, but what are the qualifications for being on either team? Could a potentially average basketball player choose to be on the unified team so that he/she looks above average? I know there is some legislation being presented to require intellectually disabled to have the opportunity to play on traditional school teams. How do you think this will affect high school sports? I played sports in school and would have loved to play basketball but, I didn't make the cut.
Thank you for sharing this article. As much as I see the benefits, I am interested in learning more. Great review.
In the article they said that they had separate teams, so the ID students weren't playing on a varsity team. The article wasn't extremely clear but it sounded like one student that played on the varsity team quit that team to play on the team with the students with special needs. I don't think it's fair that the athletes have to choose which team to play for.
DeleteI don't think the point of the team is to make the athletes good or bad. It's just to have fun and help build relationships.
Alice, I enjoyed reading your Article #2 about bullying. Working in a middle school I observed many bullying situations. The problem we ran into is that the student that was being bullyied would not admitt to it because of fear of retaliation. They even have a saying "Snitches get Stitches". How would you approach a situation where the victim does not want to admitt to being bullyied?
ReplyDelete