A very tough part of my instructional duties. I make sure I meet with students needing help after class to assist, rather than embarass them in a classroom setting. I have also suggest they use certain word processing programs as an outside aid - not only to correct mispellings and grammatical errors, but to learn the proper usage.
Dennis,
these are great ways to provide "pegs" for these students to hang the course concepts.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Examples that relate to real-life situations with which the student might be familiar.
Jennifer,
this is great & I would add helping put the new terms in context seems to be very helpful.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I have found the student often knows best what strategies have worked for them in the past. So the first thing I do is ask the student if they have an IEP and what kind of resources have been made available to them in the past. I also ask them what I can do to help with their specific learning needs. You really have to get to know the student and how they comprehend material. There is no set rule for dealing with students that have learning disabilities. I take it on a case by case basis. Certainly, if possible, one on one mentoring is always helpful to determine the current level of academic progress.
i have many students that face struggles w/ a language barrier...
i have copies of my textbooks on line that are avaialable in 2 languages... i also have have a mild comprehension of 2 other languages... even saying a word in English w/ an accent of their language, usually helps them to understand
Mickey,
this is a great approach as it helps all of your learners have a chance to learn from their best perspective.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Play to their strengths and adjust for their weaknesses. In other words, use the words that they are comfortable with while expanding their vocabluary.
As described in the module, one must explain concepts according to the learner's ability to understand. I like to have at least two different ways to teach a concept. That way, if my student's don't understand my first attempt at teaching them the concept, they have another chance. Hopefully, that second attempt is more understandable for the students. One high school teacher of mine explained from the beginning that she would try not to assume that we knew anything. I now see the wisdom in that as I need to make sure that I don't assume that my students have a certain knowledge base that they, in fact, do not have.
Candace,
and it helps them see that we value their experiences & they learn from the practical lessons.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I like to draw from expeiences of other students and peers. The student usually becomes more comfortable with this method.
Dave,
hopefully this will prove useful & helpful to you. We have to make sure we are carefully evaluating each student & encouraging them to come to us for help.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Because I use so many different teaching styles all together, I have always offered out of class study groups with myself there to help where I am needed. Even if it is not a class I am currently teaching.
I appreciated the information provided in this section. I have worried about a few students and felt that they just did not have the educational background to succeed. Now, I will use the application of the words concept to help them understand.
Joseph,
I think by setting these expectations early on & following up, you have a better chance of seeing success with these students.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
terry,
these are a great way to help solidify the learning & help them attach more abstract ideas to relevant concepts.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I have them repeat the material out loud to themselves as opposed to just reading it silently. That way they become familiar with the sound of the word, and in addition, they are continually repeating the concept.
Definitely expect to be meeting with those students one on one more often. I try visual aids, and examples to best get my point across. I look at ways of how they are retaining the information the best, and if I have too, change up my approach to better match their understanding.
I always use analogies comparing to their everyday experience that they can relate to very easily
Since I teach technology (networking) what I always try to do is teach them to translate the words into pictures/diagrams. You know the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words. But I recently tried something different that seems to help and keep the students interested so they were more attentive. I would pick students to be devices or machines on the network. So, each of them had a different purpose that made the network work. So, I would ask them well Joe who is at his computer wants to have a conversation with the web server(Wendy) how will the conversation go? Then they realize that the conversation does not start as direct that there is a building process for the communication to get started. So, role playing in this case made it fun. So things that are fun are memorable and hopefully better retain in long term memory. I even asked them and they replied positively. But what works with one group might not work with all. I have another future group to test on. Let see how that goes.
