Remedial Education Program

When there is a lack of completed development, students struggle to learn: The Extra Lesson™, developed by Waldorf educator Audrey McAllen, meets these students’ needs, and is a program of movement, drawing, and painting exercises for students with learning and/or behavioral challenges. Teachers looking to gain a deeper understanding of child development as a foundation for learning, as well as to learn more practical pedagogical approaches, will find this program helpful.

Extra Lesson assessments and exercises are the foundational material for the Remedial Education Program. Rudolf Steiner’s indications for curative education, including the soul and constitutional types, are also covered. The sources of student’s learning and behavior challenges are thoroughly explored, from developmental and educational perspectives to medical, neurological and therapeutic perspectives. How to use children’s drawings as indicators of their developmental level is another vital topic. Various educational, therapeutic, Waldorf, anthroposophic, and mainstream support resources are included as well. By relating the individual learning differences to students’ developmental situations, teachers can develop appropriate activities that meet the needs of their students, whether in the classroom, small groups or in individual lessons.

The Remedial Education Program is a part-time course of study designed to educate Waldorf teachers and related professionals in educational support theory and practice. This support includes assessment; individual drawing, painting, and movement exercises; creative tutoring; as well as classroom strategies to aid challenged students with their daily school work. Graduates of this program work as classroom teachers, educational support teachers, resource teachers, educational therapists, therapeutic educators, or educational consultants.

The program is designed to give participants the opportunity to do the following:

• Deepen their understanding of human development with emphasis on the foundations for cognitive learning skills.
• Develop a capacity to “read” the children in their care.
• Learn to perform remedial assessments.
• Develop and implement an educational support program.
• Enhance classroom work.

Prerequisites

• Completed Waldorf Teacher Training, including Foundation Program work or the equivalent; OR,
• previous teaching or other professional experience working with children AND Foundation Program studies or the equivalent.*

*Professionals who have been trained in Therapeutic Eurythmy, Spacial Dynamics™, Speech Formation, or anthroposophically-oriented Art or Music Therapy will also be considered. Prerequisites must be approved by the Program Director, Ingun Schneider.

Program Overview

This program begins in the fall and meets three times a year for three years. Sessions are held over a four-day weekend in the fall and spring, and for two weeks in the summers.  Between sessions, students have extensive reading, research, movement, painting, form drawing, and observation assignments. The second and third years include work with a mentor.

A new cycle begins every two years, and the next one begins November, 2014

Each session includes theory and practical activities, as well as the following:

• Movement classes, such as developmental movements, hygienic and therapeutic eurythmy, Spacial Dynamics™, pedagogical exercises, Move-in-Time and Extra Lesson exercises.
• Artistic classes to help deepen faculties of perception, including painting, drawing, clay modeling, folk-dance, music (singing) and speech.
• Therapies, such as chirophonetics, therapeutic eurythmy, anthroposophical medical interventions, rhythmical massage and an introduction to art therapy, music therapy, vision therapy, and craniosacral therapy.

Culmination

Successful completion of this program culminates in a Remedial Waldorf Teaching Diploma.

How to Apply

For information about the Admissions process, Tuition and Fees, and Financial Aid, go to ourAdmissions page or contact us.

Program Director

Ingun Schneider, P.T., M.A. has a MA from Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden and is an educational support teacher specializing in the Extra Lesson approach. Her international work as a remedial education mentor and consultant has taken her to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Israel, Hungary, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. Previously she has worked as a Waldorf class teacher (grades 1–8), a physical therapist, and a Lamaze childbirth educator. She is a graduate of the Spacial Dynamics™ Institute in-service training and is on the Board of the International Extra Lesson Association (IELA).