MGRP Reflection

While researching ADHD, I felt like I was able to have some insight into the experience of ADHD. I got a new perspective on what it is like to be in a class with ADHD, and the challenges that go along with that. I have experienced ADHD from the perspective of a teacher, but it was challenging for me to see it from the perspective of the student. I am grateful to this project for giving me insight.

For our genre pieces, Courtney and I wanted to have a cohesive, interrelated sequence of pieces. We started  with the perspective of the student who has ADHD. In order to do this I decided to use a poem. In a poem I tried to express emotions that I imagine a student feels. Poetry was a good choice for this. After reading the chapter about multi-genre poetry I wanted to use one, and this seemed like the best way to use it. I enjoyed writing the poem. It has been a long time since I wrote poetry so I used the book instruction on the different voices poem.

The next perspective we wanted to explore was that of the teacher. This perspective is specially relevant to us as future teachers. We will undoubtedly have many students with ADHD in our classrooms. The first genre from the teacher's perspective was a letter home to the parents about the students classroom behavior, asking for their permission to evaluate their son written by Courtney. Next there is an evaluation of the student by a special ed teacher. In order to do this evaluation I called my mother. She is a special education teacher and has done many of these evaluations. While writing the evaluation I got an idea of how to do that type of evaluation. It was useful to think about how to observe a student and what to look for. Next I wrote a practice Individual Education Plan. This was very complicated and I found it useful to take a closer look at the structure and content of an IEP.

The medical aspect of ADHD is also important. So we included a prescription for medication and a follow up request for information from the doctor to know how well the drug is working. Courtney worked on these two pieces.

Next we tried to make the genre pieces tell the hypothetical story about a school district that tried to make a difference in the problem of ADHD. First there is an newspaper article about a new after-school program to help students with ADHD.  Then we had a fictional letter to the editor about the article. When I wrote this article, I tried to imagine what kinds of objections a community member would have about ADHD programs. We also imagined a professional development workshop on ADHD management would be a good way for the school district to deal with the issue. Courtney made a brochure of that workshop.

Finally, in our hypothetical situation, so much awareness has been raised in this school district, by professional development trainings and after school programs that a public service announcement is put up to continue to raise awareness about ADHD in the community. I thought this was a good idea because the nature of ADHD can often make it a misunderstood disorder. Students with ADHD can become very frustrated and uncomfortable in a school environment and I think they are sometimes seen as bad kids, when in reality, they are kids like any others in many ways.