Kellen Hedler is actively engaged in his fourth-grade classroom: He raises his hand to correctly answer a math question, he reads prompts out loud for the class and he gathers with classmates to watch a science experiment during a lesson on erosion.
Kellen has Down syndrome, and he spends more than 80% of his school day with his non-disabled peers. That level of inclusion in a general education classroom involves a lot of thoughtful planning on the part of his teachers at Frontier Elementary School in Edmond, Okla.
Kellen’s homeroom teacher, Adam Frederick, says that inclusion also came with a learning curve: Back in college, he studied to become a general education teacher, but he doesn’t remember learning how to teach special education students like Kellen.
Read more at NPR.
