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* ASSESSING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS *
It is important to remember that special learning difficulties are so
individual that the following ideas will not suit every case. However, there is a good chance of success if students are given
enough confidence to tackle the task.
* FRAGILE CONFIDENCES NEED CAREFUL HANDLING *
Be prepared to devote as much time as is necessary to build up your student(s) confidence until the exercise can eventually be completed without supervision - maybe even for homework. Guide and praise constantly when starting,
whether letter by letter, word by word, line by line.
Proceed slowly, confidence-building at every opportunity; such care will pay dividends. If the size of the exercise overwhelms the student(s), cover it over with an A4 sheet, leaving just one line visible. (If necessary, cut a hole in the covering sheet, so just one word is visible at a time.) As
more gaps are slowly filled, reveal larger sections of the exercise until you are able to reveal it all, without panicking the student.
Most students with special learning difficulties have been ridiculed by peers and berated by impatient elders for most of their lives.
Introduced carefully, graduated exercises can help to restore battered confidences.
When presenting these exercises, a great amount of patience might be required to overcome initial panic and confusion at something new.
If you feel tired or irritable, stop immediately and re-introduce the exercises another time; no matter how well you try to disguise your feelings, your body language will be giving out different messages.
If you try to continue, the whole thing could well prove counter-productive; not only will no progress be made, but an already
delicate ego will be further bruised; regression could then result.
* REPETITIVE FORMAT *
There are two main types of repetitive format:
a) Same text, different task (see the next section)
b) Different text, same type of task
Choose the most suitable for your student(s). The repetitive nature of the
formats and text have been found to provide useful practice for students having difficulty with copying, reading, spelling, etc.
Many students with special learning difficulties cannot easily cope with changing formats. Therefore, subtle changes between exercises are
ideal, because students are not distracted by layout differences, but challenged by fewer mental tasks, thus allowing them to concentrate
without feeling overwhelmed.
* SAME TEXT - DIFFERENT TASKS *
Many exercises are available to practice different aspects of the same text, so students who have difficulty with script or words in context can practice over and over again, using different exercises, so they do not become bored.
* GRADUAL CONFIDENCE-BUILDING *
At first, some students might feel overwhelmed at the enormity of the task, if they are faced with a whole-page exercise. If this is the case, the
problem can be solved, by encouraging students to tackle the task little by little, as follows:-
a) Leave ONE WORD ONLY visible, by cutting a hole in a blank sheet of paper.
b) Leave ONE LINE ONLY visible, by using a blank sheet to cover the remainder of the exercise.
c) Ask your student to tackle only ONE LINE, or ONE VERSE, depending upon their level of confidence.
In the initial stages, it may be necessary to correct each word (or even each letter) as it is written.
No matter how laborious this might be, it is time well-spent, because many students will quickly grasp the repetitive nature
of the exercise and stop seeking constant reassurance, as they realise that the format is constant and predictable.
The completion of each line, then each verse and finally each exercise, will not only indicate an
improvement in seeking and copying skills, but will also act as an effective confidence booster.
* MATCHING EXERCISES FOR SEEK & COPY PRACTICE *
In a class of special needs students, a range of different exercises can be used
as follows:-
PURPOSE: To exchange information, either by:-
a) Speaking by reading it out aloud, (maybe calling out spellings), listening and writing.
b) Reading and copying from another's worksheet.
(At this stage, the grammatical purpose of the exercises could be ignored if necessary.
)
* CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT *
GROUP MILLING: Divide the class into two groups (A & B); give one
worksheet to group A and another to group B. Instruct the groups to mill, in order to fill the gaps on their own worksheet.
PAIRWORK: Each pair consists of student A and student B. Give all the A students different
worksheets from the B students. Instruct students
to gather the necessary information from their partner to complete their worksheet.
If students are to give information orally, arrange their chairs so they are either facing each other or back to back so they do not read
the information.
INDIVIDUALS: Give two differing work-sheets with instructions to fill
the gaps by identifying and copying the necessary information. Although the layout is very similar, it is not identical; this means that care must be
taken when copying to avoid mistakes. Surprisingly, these "simple" tasks often provide more challenge than might be anticipated.
* REVISION *
For revision, the same text could be repeated with a second set of differing worksheets. Most texts allow a range of possible exercises,
which would enable the text to be practised again and again with subtle differences in layout and vocabulary each time.
* WHICH WORKSHEETS? *
In order to gauge student response, begin by choosing very simple gapped exercises. (eg: ones which involve counting or matching letters.)
If you or your student(s) are unsure as to the suitability of an exercise, explain gently and patiently that there is nothing to lose from trying and
everything to gain. You may both be suprised at what is achieved!
Be prepared to offer frequent praise and encouragement.
* CO-ORDINATION OF MOVEMENTS *
Students with good reading and listening ability, but with poor co-ordination, could well benefit from a "jigsaw" exercise (sequencing
practice) which requires the student to line up pieces of paper in order to match the lyrics sheet, or to listen to the song and place them in order
accordingly.
* LISTENING & FOLLOWING THE WRITTEN WORD *
Many songs are slow and the language is repetitive. Once an exercise has been completed, play the song and allow the student(s) to follow the
words on the exercise sheet. As soon as a student's finger lags behind, stop the tune and point out the correct place.
Continue, or start again. Repeat this until all the lyrics can be indicated at the correct speed.
This exercise can also be done with transcripted text.
* PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE *
When working with music, play one line of the song at a time. Let students repeat it slowly, either singing or saying it. Give as much help as
required and exploit this type of practice as much as is necessary.
* ANTICIPATING POSSIBLE PROBLEMS *
Try to anticipate particularly difficult words (eg: contractions, spellings,
etc.), then give additional help in class, or dictate these particular answers, or even fill in these particular gaps in advance.
* USING DISTRACTIONS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE *
If a student is dreading an exercise through lack of confidence, one way
of overcoming this is to distract the student from thinking about the exercise.
Nevertheless, the distraction must not be so great as to prevent the exercise from being tackled properly.
I managed to achieve this with a middle-aged woman, based at a French factory, whose duties were to
deal with her company's head office in Holland by fax and by phone. She
was assessed as "an absolute beginner in English", yet three weeks later, I
discovered she was highly competent in the language. Her only problem
had been lack of confidence. Her progress in three weeks was ongoing and impressive.
We began with one-sentence articles from newspapers and three weeks later she was able to tackle a double page spread, answer the phone with confidence and write facsimiles.
HIGH-LIGHTING: With each article, I asked her to highlight all the words
she recognised. She busily concentrated on this task and forgot to panic at the increasing amount of words with which she was working each day.
SWEETS: I began by offering her a sweet as she started the exercise and whenever she started to flag during the exercise.
I decided a small bag of multi-coloured, multi-flavoured sweets would be the most distracting, as
she had to stop and think which one she wanted. I told her that the sweets would help her to concentrate and eventually she brought in her
own sweets to "aid her concentration".
* WORDS OF WARNING *
1. Do not expect students to employ more skills simultaneously than
their capabilities, eg: if practising "copying", reading and understanding
the vocabulary may prove too difficult. Allow them to use isolated skills
without feeling inadequate. Skills can be gradually combined when appropriate.
2. Do not just give out an exercise with a brief explanation, then expect
the student to tackle it alone, particularly if the concept is new; a shattered confidence could be the sorry result.
3. Do not persist with any exercise which distresses a student.
Exercises are only academically-beneficial if the student is enjoying the challenge they present.
* A LACK OF SUCCESS DOES NOT MEAN FAILURE *
If your student(s) are struggling too much with the exercise once a quarter of it has been tackled and it cannot be simplified still further, do not be afraid to abandon it.
It is important to impress on the student that these worksheets will not benefit every student and that no failure is involved if
they are not successful.
* MIRACLES *
Finally, do not expect miracles, but look out for them just in case;
the little ones which often happen tend to go unnoticed.
THE END
Copyright 2001, Musical English Lessons
International. All rights reserved.
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