Inclusion

Jon Felipe is in an inclusive 3rd grade classroom. Last week the students worked on writing biographies. On the day they presented their reports, they also dressed up like an important person from the life of their subject. Jon Felipe really likes the Curious George books, so he wrote about the author, H. A. Rey, and dressed up like the man in the yellow hat. He was SO excited to dress up and to take his monkey to school with him.

This week the students are working in groups to do research on different countries. Jon Felipe's group is doing their project on India. He has certain pieces of information that he is responsible for providing. I love that he is included despite his learning struggles and that he is expected to participate in ways that are achievable for him. He loves going to school. He comes home everyday and tells me all about the friends he played with at recess. This is how inclusion is supposed to work!

An interesting note: The children in his class have each been assigned a number and they write that number on each of their papers. That helps when it comes time to sort and return papers. Jon Felipe doesn't just know his own number, he can tell you the number of every student in his class. Interesting.