Equitable Access Scenario

 

Mr. Jonesy is a 4th grade teacher in a highly diverse, Title I school. He has assigned an intensive unit project on Arizona History that will require his students to do a considerable amount of research and use of technology outside of the classroom. In addition to the low socio-economic class, his students include: 3 ELL students, a student with physical fine motor limitations, and 4 students with IEP’s. While Mr. Jonesy is aware of his students’ special needs, he is confident in his choice of unit project. 
 How can Mr. Jonesy continue with his unit while ensuring he is providing equitable access to technology to his highly diverse class?  

• I contributed the scenario by assisting in creating a realistic classroom situation that put equitable access in jeopardy. We not only created a real-world situation, we had ideas on how the teacher could ensure all of his students had equal opportunities to complete the assignment with fidelity.
• Mr. Jonesy has several options to ensure his students have equitable access to technology for this project. For his student with fine motor difficulties, he can ensure that the student has a dictation program on the computer he is using to work on his project. For his ELL students, a translation program can be used, and the project assessment can be modified to the use of images or drawings. His IEP students' evidence of mastery assessment can be modified to align with their individual learning goals. He can scaffold these students and work with them in a guided practice type of way while they research together. As a whole class, he can have several available resources on hand and give ample time to work in class. Mr. Jonesy can also have the students do their research searching in class and then printing those sources for the students to read at home. This way, they are still acquiring the skill of research in class and being provided equitable technology access, but spending the time to read it out of class.  Ultimately, Mr. Jonesy may have to heavily modify the amount of at-home use of technology- he likely is not in a district that can require this type of assignment of it's students.