Knowing The Curriculum
Summer is in full swing. We just finished 4th of July, yet there are signs popping up that school will be back in session soon. I saw supply lists and workers stocking the shelves with school supplies yesterday in Walmart. For me, however, the sure sign that school is fast approaching is that my students schedules for next are ready to be mailed. Each year when they are ready, the office calls me and I run over to school to review them, make recommended changes, etc.
As I was doing this yesterday, I was reminded of how much we as Speech Language Pathologists must know about the curriculum. At the high school level, as a case manager I assist my students in filling out their registration materials and select required classes and electives. I must know what they be working on in the classes in order to make sound recommendations. I must also know what they will be required to do so that I can anticipate when they will experience difficulty and thus provide academic support. I also provide recommendations about modifications and accomodations to the IEP team. (This is a great subject for a later blog!) Therefore, I must be familiar with the curriculum.
I began thinking to myself, is this specific to the high school setting and I quickly realized "no". As an elementary and preschool SLP, I also needed to be familiar with the curriculum. I didn't have select classes, but I sometimes made recommendations on teachers ( another great subject for a later blog!!) and I certainly had to anticipate when my students would struggle with the curriculum. Best of all, I was able to maximize time in the classroom co-teaching.
So as SLPs, do we have to masters of all trades and be able to teach all classes. I don't believe that is necessary. We'd kill ourselves trying to be a expert in every subject, especially at the high school. We do, however, have to make ourselves familiar with what our students are learning in the classroom and know what they are expected to do. Some of the ways that I do that is reading over textbooks and talking to teachers. I try to spend some of my prep time observing in classrooms. I have started keeping files of teacher's assignments, test, and possibly notes so that I can review this material. There are so many novels used at the high school level and they aren't all the same as the ones I've read at school (ok there are also some that I just can't remember). unfortunately, I don't have time to read them all, so I listen to some on CD when I'm driving. Those are just some of my suggestions. If anyone would like to share their ideas on becoming familiar with curriculum that would be great.
I guess that's all for now. After all, it still is summer and the lake is waiting.
