This year several kids in our classes have learning differences. I’ve had some experience teaching kids with all manner of learning differences, including my son, who has dyslexia. I have a few tips I’ll share as situations arise this year. BTW, the families, Rob, and I email, text, and conference all the time. Here are a few tips.
1. Talk to the family! One mom just shared that her son doesn’t process words well. He needs pictures. So I made a slide show, Owl Pellet Animals, to help him process. Evidently, he needs to see the item or organism to understand what’s going on.
2. Select partners for kids. In our Co-op, we have a teen aide. Additionally, the kids partner with a stronger student to manage writing. Labs are frustrating when you can process the lab, but not all of the writing—at least simultaneously. Lab groups need scribes, someone to write things down.
3. Create templates such as this Lab Report Guide. Teens can just add text to complete their lab reports. Stronger students use the same guide for their labs written in a document.
4. Communicate! Ask the family what works. Network with friends who have kids with learning differences.
5. When our son, who is dyslexic, was little, the experts offered a diagnosis and no tips! Friends offered ideas. One tip was to record the book yourself. Audiobooks can be too fast for the child to read along. You can read a book more slowly, allowing the child to read along. (BTW audiobooks are NOT cheating! The kid still learns the content of the book.). Another friend’s son was profoundly dyslexic. She coded letters into numbers he could read. She also suggested putting a blue, transparent sheet over the page to make it easier to read. Often, the words on the page swim a little. Use a ruler under the line to help keep the words from swimming.
No comments:
Post a Comment