Donna's Level Of Self Determination

Self Determination is a focus on skills that will enable a student to advocate for their own needs, wants and goals. “Self-determination refers to an individual’s ability to decide what he or she wants or needs, and m by extension, to make decisions about his or her own future.” (Allman, C., Lewis, S., Wolfe, K., and Rosenblum, L. 2014) It is important for Dona to be able to self –advocate, problem solve, and set goals for her life, regulate her behavior and assert herself in situations where she is required to stand up for what she wants or needs. Currently, Donna does not have many reasons to want to build her level of self determination. She has most of her needs meet with the assistance of her parents in the home and with the Paraprofessional
For students to understand self determination, teachers need to use modeling of the behavior, providing situations when the student can practice the skill and provided direct instruction to allow explicit and incidental opportunities for practice. One opportunity where Donna would learn to make choices and assert herself would be during classroom center activities. Centers are used mostly in math and reading to strengthen a skill that is currently being taught or needs to be reviewed. Center activities will range from being computer based, to involving tactile ability to simply being an opportunity for small group of paired discussion or writing. Donna would be asked to choose her center, express her reason for choosing that center and then work on the center activity with her peer. The Para would be asked to limit her Paraprofessional would be asked to decrease her participation to active observer. Donna would need to work with the group and help with the center activities. She would need to express her thought and explain her decisions during the group activity. Donna would be rewarded when she participates and completes the activity with incentives preselected by