Sunday, July 21, 2019

Teaching with Special Needs in Mind

As the years have passed and my children have grown, their needs and learning disabilities have evolved and changed.  What worked last year, definitely will not work this year, and what works for one when they are twelve, most certainly will not work for the other one when they are twelve.  I find this fascinating and challenging.

Between the three of them, they have a wide range of special needs and learning disabilities.  Some mild, others profound/severe.  I am by no means an expert on the various diagnoses that they each have, but I have learned a LOT.  With that said, one thing that has remained consistent through the years, across the board, no matter the subject matter or the child, is this:  they need lots and lots and lots of review. The problem comes when you realize that there are only so many hours in the day, so if you want to move forward, how can you do that while not forgetting what you just covered?  Especially if what you just covered is a stepping stone for where you are headed?  

I have tried lots of different ways to incorporate the review that was sorely needed, while not eating away at instruction time.  For example, I have made folders according to topics with practice problems in them, so they can grab the folder of whatever topic is at hand and review on their own time.  I have made task cards and created boxes to hold them and assigned x amount of cards per day.  Both of those are great ideas, and in theory, would work, but I have found out that my kids need the review to be more structured, led by me.  Because sometimes they are reviewing something written on a card or in a folder, but it was if I told them to go eat using a menu at a french restaurant to pick their food when all that they knew of that language is the phrase 'french fries' (which I am fairly certain isn't even on that menu).  So then I tried using anchor charts, notebooks, printed notes, outlines etc; again, all great tools, but it just wasn't accomplishing what I needed it to accomplish.  However, this summer I stumbled on an idea, and it has already made a HUGE difference.

Every morning, I usually work one on one with my kids for the a.m. session.  We do language arts and math together.  As you know the phrase language arts encompasses a LOT: phonics, reading, reading comprehension, handwriting, composition, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and sometimes elocution and speech.  Due to the particular challenges that my kids have, they need to do one aspect of language arts every school day for a long time, so for example, if it is grammar this year, there will naturally be writing, reading, vocabulary, and even elocution included, but the focus is on grammar.  By grammar I mean, focusing on finding out what part of speech is doing what and where it is doing that at in a sentence, paragraph, and/or composition and what kind of punctuation is needed to make that meaning clear.  

So, this summer I took a spiral notebook and divided it in half.  One half is for the language arts topic (grammar for example) and the other half is math.  I then took the table of contents of the text we are using and/or the scope and sequence I use to guide our progress and created questions using Bloom's Taxonomy as a guide.  I use the questions in Bloom's Taxonomy to make sure that their knowledge, understanding, and grasp of the topic progresses from superficial to internal.  I not only want them to know what a noun is and what it is not, but I also want them to be able to apply that knowledge and use it correctly.  

The second half of the notebook I use for math. (example below)
Then every day when we begin the lesson we spend ten to fifteen minutes going through the questions.  As their knowledge and understanding increases and they are accurately able to give the definitions, then we progress into application questions, then into analyzing and evaluating and from there into creating.  This not only keeps the topics fresh in their mind, but it also creates a daily habit of review.  Eventually, there will be the things that they know that they know that they know, you know?  😃  When you reach something that you know they know, they know that they know, then you put a dot by it and review it at first on Mondays and Fridays, then just Mondays, and eventually just during review week.  

That is something else that I am doing this year, every two months I am going to have a review week. I call it a review week, but really it is a week of testing.  I use the notebook I am creating as a guide and create a test with one or two problems per question and then give it to them.  I will not help them, correct them, or allow them to use their notes for this, but I do sit next to them and it is never timed.  Afterwards, I file the tests away in a folder and use these 'tests' to show our progress over the year and also guide me in determining what questions still need to be reviewed daily that maybe I thought they had mastered when they had not.  

Also, a side note.  For the topics that we do together, science, history, and read-alouds - do not be afraid to make a notebook for these.  Science and history are pretty self-explanatory -science definitely lends itself to using the table of contents and/or scope and sequence, history I find using a timeline to guide us or a map of the country(s) helps with the review and solidifying of the knowledge/understanding.  Read-alouds though are in a class all on their own.  I use little dolls for the characters and have them re-enact parts or use them to discuss character development, I also use discussion dice - they are foam dice with discussion questions printed on them.  Mainly though I know a story has stayed with them because it shows up everywhere, in their play, at the dinner table, when hearing a news article, or real-life example and then they turn to you and say something along the lines of, "Doesn't that remind you of when Oscar N. Reteep..." Then you know that the Wingfeather Saga has made a difference.  Or "Do you think that Sundar Singh would have done that?"  Then you know they are thinking about the missionary biography you read last Wednesday.

Hope this helps😍 & have a great week!

No comments:

Post a Comment