About Me:
I have been teaching in Milwaukee Public Schools for the last eight years as a regular education and inclusion teacher. I live in the Enderis Park neighborhood of Milwaukee with my husband Juan and our three children: Stuart, age 10, Gabriel, age 4, and Isabella, age 1. My experience with special education also extends outside of the classroom. Stuart has been diagnosed with ADHD, Mood Disorder, and Tourette Syndrome.
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| Pattie with husband Juan and their children (by age) Stuart, Gabriel & Isabella. |
Fair vs. Equal
Education advocates are quick to insist that academics need to be differentiated so that all students can be successful. Learning in the classroom should include strategies that meet the needs of all students, whether that includes technology, music, oral representations, or visual representations. Teachers are directed to use the Multiple Intelligences during instruction and to offer multiple options for assessing a student’s understanding of a concept (e.g. multiple choice test, essay, project). There are professional development opportunities throughout the year for educators that focus on this topic. If there is a generally accepted understanding that not all students learn or express their understanding in the same way, then the leap can be made that not all students respond to behavior systems the same way.
The concept of a fair vs. equal behavior model is not new, however, it has not received the amount of attention that differentiated academics has (most likely because behavior concepts aren’t part of a standardized test). When teachers create a behavior plan for their classroom, it is often based on the school’s general plan. In Milwaukee, most schools have adopted the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support model (PBIS), which emphasizes being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. How the classroom teacher interprets these rules in their classroom is often very different throughout a single building. This standardized behavior model offers consistency, which is important, but it doesn’t offer the flexibility that students (especially students with special needs) require. In a typical classroom, students are required to sit straight up in their desks, stay silent during instruction, and are given increasingly harsher consequences for each infraction of the rules. The idea behind fair vs. equal, is that just like with academics, students don’t respond to the same set of rules and consequences in the same way.
Don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting that teachers should have a separate set of rules and consequences for each student. That isn’t even remotely attainable. What I am advocating for is a better understanding of how our students respond to behavior systems, what their behavior triggers are, and how to reach them in a positive and appropriate way. This means that not all students will receive the same level of consequence for the same behavior, but that each person’s consequence will be fair and reasonable for the individual.
How does fair vs. equal look in a classroom?
To sum up what has been a longer blog post than I intended (and truly, I could go on for much longer, as I happen to truly like this particular soapbox), I will leave you with the poster that hangs in my classroom, as well as a link to another blog post about this topic.
Thank you to my guest blogger (and sister), Pattie Morales, for taking time out of her busy schedule to write an awesome guest blog for me!
Peace to you and yours - Jackie
