Abstract
Ms. Kendrick is a certified special education teacher in an underperforming high school. This year, the administration moved her from a self-contained classroom at the elementary school to the high school because her initial degree in economics provided enough credits for her to be considered highly qualified to teach secondary mathematics. She teaches three remedial math classes and spends an additional three periods each day in a resource room, working with students who are at risk or have already failed the district end-of-course science exam.
Ms. Kendrick feels unprepared to help them succeed in science. She often has to use howjsay. com before she can even pronounce terms in their textbooks, and despite her best efforts, she rarely has time to connect with her students' science teachers. Over the past few months, Ms. Kendrick noticed that her students struggle with two broad aspects of their science curriculum: inaccessible content and communicating understandings. For example, Tammy has a learning disability in reading. Her difficulties stem from the inaccessible nature of the content. Even though the school district has audio versions of the textbooks, Tammy struggles with the complex vocabulary and often cannot transfer what she learned (i.e., through listening to the text) to the problems that her teacher gives her to solve. Huan, a student with autism spectrum disorder, has a different problem. He excels with conceptual design problems related to physics and engineering but struggles to communicate effectively with peers and the teacher during group activities. As a result, his lab scores and group project grades are often low.
Tammy and Huan have the potential to be successful in science. In fact, both are interested in careers related to science. Tammy would like to develop her own line of cosmetics, and Huan would like to work for an aerospace company. Unfortunately, both are disenfranchised with the content in their secondary science classes, and as a result, neither will have the grades or skills necessary to pursue career goals unless something changes.
The next day, Ms. Kendrick walks into the resource room a few minutes after the bell because of an individualized education program meeting that ran late. As usual, the students are not doing their science work. Instead, they are playing games on their phones, which, according to school rules, are supposed to be put in their lockers at the beginning of the school day. Suddenly, Ms. Kendrick has an idea . . .