Thanks Mike; when adult students view their instructor as an educational partner, and rightly so, I believe they much more buy-in and engage in the learning process.
Jay
ED106
Hi Carlton, thanks so much for your observations. It really is a different world where more in-depth challenges with connectivity and function add to the more obvious challenge of simply not knowing the subject. We almost have to take it a step at a time, get to know our students' learning styles and frustration points, reinforce, and try to vary our instructional methods as much as possible in an attempt to reach our students.
Jay Hollowell
ED106 Facilitator
Ah yes, I have seen that look from time to time, Wayne! You're right, hands-on reinforcement is key to comprehension and application, particualrly for those adult learners who have to "do it" in addition to "hearing it" or "seeing it demonstrated."
Additionally, when I see the "look," I often stop and repeat and/or summarize, but a little differently from the first time, and often ask a volunteer student to paraphrase as well. Adult learners will definitely listen to each others' capture of material.
Thanks for your comments!
Jay Hollowell
ED106 Facilitator
I have instructed my students with these areas of attention that (I don't care what your piece of paper says on it. I want you to tell me what it's going to take for you to understand and excell in this course.) I have had much success with this approach by letting the student feel like you are going to do whatever it takes to help them through this stumbling block.
being more descriptive and using more items to explain the subject matter.
I can usually tell when students need extra instruction by the “deer in the headlights” look. Taking the class to lab and reinforcing the days lecture helps
Some of the greatest challenges come from not understanding why the learning disabled student doesn't understand. We who claim not to be learning disabled need more insight into the learning disabled world like the exersize in the course. That dyslexia exersize took a few extra seconds to decode. I just imagine if every sentence I read was like that. Everything would be harder to read and understand. I am just really becoming aware of this.
Getting the student in a private place for a brief one on one meeting to discuss what they need to be successful. Extra time is a common request just as the course indicated, a quiet private place to take a test,and oral reading of the test have been the most common requests brought to me. These seem to help most people be more sucessful. Most teachers don't really understand what a learning disability is like to live with in our own personal life. I imagine it could be like living in China without an interpretor. You would have to learn something to survive, but one would not thrive.
The greatest challenge to me is convincing the students that they can accomplish the task at hand. The method that has been successful to me has been the ability to make the student feel 100% equal with other students.
I find that students with ld's are often my best. They also bring out the best in me.
Hi David! You raise some valuable points. Many career school programs are indeed very accelerated and condensed; we only have so much time to enable students to learn the skills they need to be successful in the workplace. A faster pace can certainly be challenging to students with some learning disabilities. Giving examples of the topic, or asking students for examples, can certainly change the pace and accentuate the concepts.
You might also try visual aids, guided notetaking, demonstrations, and blending lectures with some discussions and hands-on activities. It sounds like you have a handle on adapting your presentation style to the needs of your students.
Thanks for your comments,
Jay Hollowell
ED106 Facilitator
For me the biggest challenge is having patience and maintaining patience. In the accelerated teaching environment that exists in many carrer schools instructors may fall into the "high speed low drag" approach to lectures. While many students can appreciate topics not being drawn out a student with learning disabilities will most likely not be able to keep up and will stuggle and interest will decline.
When I have a student with learning disabilities I make a bigger effort to slow the pace of my lectures just enough for them to keep up without putting the rest of the group to sleep. By doing so actually helps the entire class. An example of how its helps is that once a particular point has been made during lecture instead of giving one example I may give two examples or have a student give examples. This slows my pace and allows time for things to "soak in".
Good time management is a vital key to this approachs success for me.
Since each students learning dissability is as different as each student is, the challenge is figuring out something that will work well for them. I have used study guides that narrow the material to what is the most relative to the subject with some sucess. My prefered method is to use something that the whole class can participate in, but will help the person with the dissability at the same time. I have been using study guides, group study, and some interactive games and have had good sucess. I still continue to look for other ways to cover the material so I can cover each different learning style and learning dissability.
The greatest challange is understanding the students disabilities. I have found it easier for the students if you actually do more visual and hands on with these students.
Hi Eva! True, it can create strategic challenges. Somtimes I have varied the type of assessment as opposed to the location. For example:
-having students explain something in their own words, demonstrate an application, or provide an example or scenario
-provide a scenario and ask them verbally how they would address or resolve the situation
-ask students to come up with their own quiz questions, then answer them in written form or verbally
-ask students to explain how they interpreted a particular question and reasoned their responses
These strategies may not take the place of traditional tests, but perhaps can supplement the holistic assessment of students in challenging situations.
Thanks!
Jay
ED106 Facilitator
Students with learning disabilities have needs such as testing in a seperate location and additional time on tests that make it difficult to keep the class on schedule as quizzes are often given as part of class rather instead of it.
My classes are fast paced, hands-on training. Allowing for extra time for students with disabilities has been my biggest challange. What I have done is provide them extra time afterschool during tutoring hours. During my tutoring hours I am able to give them not just extra time but extra instruction if needed.
My greastest challenge is getting my students that have IEP's to come to me and tell me about it. By law we cannot pass information to other instructors about students. At the start of each class I ask students to come to me in private if they have learing issues. Pride keeps alot of these students from comming to me for help.
Thanks, John, valuable comments, varying your delivery style and tutoring are both excellent approaches; Surely, getting students with learning disabilities as actively engaged in the learning process as possible, like you suggest, is crucial to their success and it may have little to do with simply delivering content to them through a lecture.
Jay
ED106 Facilitator
The hardest part of instructing a student with a disability is finding diverse ways of delivering information to the student to where they can comprehend. Spending time with them tutoring and getting to know them really helps to find what works.
