Exceptionalities in a classroom Essay

In any teaching-learning activity, there are major challenges that arise and must be addressed with a lot of concern if the success of the learners is to be achieved. In any given learning environment, which narrows down to a school setting, there must be a classroom whereby learning process takes place. A classroom consists of quite a number of learners who are from different ethic groups, different cultures and also different races. This therefore calls the teacher to understand that in every given population of learners there are diverse attributes among the learners and hence treat each learner according to his/her needs. In working with students with exceptionalities in my classroom, my main concern will be identification of the factor that makes such a student be an exceptional student. In the first place, I will be concerned with identifying the students who are physically challenged by simply using observation (Schulte, Villwock, Whichard & Stallings, 2001). Through close observation, those students who are visually impaired, hard–of hearing and those who are dumb are easily identified. It is very important to identify such group of students since they have special needs to be attended to as opposed to the other normal students. In many learning institutions, these students tend to be overlooked since the relevant learning aids are not provided to them. As a result, poor performance by an able student or even a high achiever is witnessed and if this persists, the morale of the student declines and it may even result to dropping out of school. My physically challenged students must therefore be having learning aids such as braille for those who are visually impaired, hearing aids and translators for those with hearing problems. (Schulte, Villwock, Whichard & Stallings, 2001). My concern will be on ensuring that these students are not side lined in any way and that their performance rhymes with the effort that they put in their class work. I would as well encourage them to always sit in front whereby I can constantly monitor them and give the necessary assistance. There is another group of exceptional students that have been overlooked in many learning institutions. In a classroom of slow learners who are also treated to be exceptional students and low achievers, my concern will be to identify them through assigning regular exercises and continuous assessment test. Schulte, Villwock, Whichard & Stallings, 2001). Most of these students have lagged behind with great work load to cover, most of which they never accomplish. This then leads to failure and lack of self esteem among these students. I would address in full, every question that they ask and at their pace, give them remedial hours and more exercises so that they can perfect on them at their own time. This particular group of students needs a lot of encouragement since they may take a quite a lot of time before realizing that they are slow learners. There is also another exceptional group of students referred to as the high achievers or the gifted students. These are the students who are highly determined to know everything and grasp everything taught in class very fast. They might even at times challenge the teacher with questions. These particular students should be encouraged by assigning them much involving tasks that will seek to keep them busy. This breaks the boredom that they might experience when the teacher tries to assist the other students. They should be helped to set their realistic goals in their lives and also in ways of achieving them.