Topic Approval Form

Student Name: Jenna Preszler Period: 4

Topic Statement (full sentence):
Getting special education students involved in the community and school projects at elementary level.
1. What is your prior knowledge about this topic?
● When I was in elementary school I helped out with the special education students at my school
and I noticed how much they are only around other students like themselves and not out
working and being incorporated into the community of regular students.
2. What problem(s) could you attempt to solve/address in connection with this topic?
● My goal would be to help special education students learn how to act with other students in
regular classes to help with social skills. To do this I would create a plan where 1 to 2 times a
week the special education students could work together on a bigger project with regular
students to meet the goal of social skills.
3. How can you attempt to solve one of these problems at Poly or in the local community (not globally)?
What type of product do you anticipate completing (see ideas for final product).
● There is an elementary school right down the street from my house and so I would go in and
talk to the principal and teachers with a proposal of my plan to help special education students. I
hope to have achieved a deeper understanding of special education social skills and how
community support and help affect their education and skills.
4. Explain how you might spend a minimum of 10 hours outside of the school day in the community
working toward this solution.
● A few hours would be spent towards working with the elementary school and teacher to put
together a project that the student can work on to make a difference in their school and in the
students lives. More hours would go into actually helping the students work together and work
towards completing the project together as a team.
5. Explain how you might provide evidence of your work throughout the experience.
● The plan that is drawn up specifically for the school that works with their schedule and mine will
be evidence of work and then I would have interviews with teachers and students (who have
parent approval) of what they think about this project and how working with special education
students will help with their social skills.
6. Explain any obstacles you might encounter in your attempt to address this problem.
● Some problems that I might encounter is if the school does not let me work with the students or
if the students don’t want to work with the special education students or vice versa. Another
obstacle I could encounter could be if the plan we come up with doesn’t fit into the schedule of
the school and mine.
Your topic is ​Approved __________ Your topic is ​NOT Approved ________

Your next step is to complete the research questions. Recommendations:

Remember, if you change your topic, you must
resubmit this form for your NEW topic.
You will need to revise your topic and ​resubmit this
form​ ​BEFORE​ you begin work on the research
questions.

Teacher’s Signature: __________________________________________________________

Date: ___________________