New Directions

The past few weeks have been busy yet productive for me. On March 31, I had the opportunity to participate in the Plymouth Library Local Author Fair. At the event, I promoted, signed, and sold copies of my two children's books: The Thursday Surprise: A Story about Kids and Autism and The September Surprise: A Story Helping Kids Understand Autism and Co-Teaching. The occasion also gave me an opportunity to meet and develop contacts with other children's authors. After learning that I work now as a school librarian, several children's authors donated copies of their books to the three elementary school libraries I manage. Working with limited budgets, I was thrilled by their donations!

At the fair, I met several educators who were intrigued about the word co-teaching in the subtitle of my second book. Each time they asked, I eagerly shared why: In early '09, my school district appointed a new special education director whose vision was to move toward the least restrictive environment possible for special needs students. Instead of being educated in separate classrooms, many special education students in the district received placement changes and were enrolled in general educator classes for most, or all, of their instructional day. My classification changed as well: I went from being a basic classroom teacher to a language arts co-teacher. I also moved up the ladder from elementary to high school teaching.

Ideally, co-teaching involves a regular and a special education teacher whose shared vision is to accommodate students with disabilities in inclusive settings. The benefits to co-teaching are many. In particular, in a classroom with co-teachers, all students can be supported and are presented with diverse, enriching learning opportunities. Naturally, there are the obvious drawbacks to such assignments: two teachers have to be able to work together, and the regular teacher has to be willing to relinquish some of his/her duties and allow the special education teacher to do some of the teaching and lesson planning. Especially during the first year together, both teachers require patience and the ability to compromise. Nevertheless, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Fortunately, during my first two years of co-teaching, I worked with a colleague who had an open mind to curriculum and procedural changes. Though my language arts teaching experiences had been limited to the special education setting, I found my background came in handy for teaching writing. I designed rubrics and essay outlines that broke down the process of writing for students into a science. By having access to models and samples, the students improved their quality of writing. In addition, my colleagues in the special education department were experiencing success with developing accommodation methods in other subject areas.

During the first semester, some of the non-disabled students in my classes voiced concerns as to why they had two teachers in their language arts class. Some believed they had not performed well on standardized tests; as a result, they were placed in a remedial section. As we had done at the start of that school year, my colleague and I dispelled this myth by explaining that language arts classes require students to write many papers and that two teachers were needed to assist the students with writing.

That first year, the idea for my second book, The September Surprise, gained momentum in my brain. Taking about a year to write, rewrite, and edit for publication, the book helps to clarify for typical kids and special education children the importance of learning together in our ever-changing world. Equally important, the book teaches typical children about understanding, respecting, and befriending different learners.

The following are the dates where I will be appearing at local libraries to discuss autism and my books:

Oak Park Library - April 17 @ 7 p.m.

Ferndale Public Library - May 1 @ 7 p.m.

I look forward to meeting and talking to you.

Ryan Ennis, M.Ed., M.L.I.S.