Accommodating Differences Between At Risk Students, Students with Behavioral Disorders and Homeless Students

The purpose of this paper is to highlight three different groups within a typical classroom, the identifying characteristics of each, the challenges they pose and ways to accommodate them to advance learning.

Group 1: At Risk Students

Characteristics

Many at-risk students are ones with special educational needs, such as, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems. Most at-risk students soon drop out of school but, most have the following characteristics:

• Usually low academic achievers with low self-esteem.

• Most are males and minorities

• From low socioeconomic status families.

• Older age than their peers in the classroom.

• Have disciplinary and truancy problems.

• Exhibit impulsive behavior problems.

• Family problems, drugs, pregnancies, and other problems that interfere with their connection to school. This does not mean that these are the only students that will dropout of school. Some students that dropout of school comes from two-parent, middle income homes, and are actively involved in school and participate in school activities (Donnelly, 2000).

Challenges to teacher

Some of the challenges to teachers are:

• Must overcome the traditional concepts of education.

• Overcome the belief that at-risk students are deficient, and need slow skilled-based instructions.

• Must focus on working together in the classrooms as teams.

• Spend more time on coordinating instructions.

• Develop strategies for engaging students in active listening.

• Teachers must have significant support from administrators, community members, and parents (Ogle, 1997).

Accommodations

• Identifying at-risk students early.

• Regularly evaluate.

• Encourage participation in school and school’s activities.

• Create bri...

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... in this paper, group 1, 2 and 3 have some common characteristics. All of the groups display low self-esteem and behavioral problems. Most of the groups’ problems arise from the result of the family economic statues.

The three groups have some major differences. The at-risk students are mostly males and minorities, whereas the homeless and the groups with behavioral problems consist of the whole society. The homeless children suffer from hunger and health problems.

Upon reflection, it is my opinion, as an educator I must accept diversity in the classroom. I would use cooperative learning in the classroom where the children would work in groups. Small-group learning activities will encourage students to construct knowledge as they learn new material, transforming the classroom into a community of learners, actively working together to understand their assignments.