I have mentioned in previous postings successful methods I have used. The most useful are to know yourself, and your students. Listen with patience...one of my professors in grad school said that we should learn to, "speak without offending, and listen without defending." This saying has stuck with me for years and has affected the way I interact with my students as well as people in my personal life.
To help students with learning disabilities varies from subject to subject.As a culinary instructor, it helps to demonstrate the techniques or recipes of the day as well as providing a critique of their work.
We have students with IEP's. Most just require verbal test reading and more time. Some students feel embarassed. I talk to them on the side and let them know i'm there to work with them. I ask them to tell me what works and I try to plan appropiatly.
Good job Donald!
Anything a student can do to reenforce learning is positive. Even those students without LDs can use the same stragegies.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
Ed106 Facilitator
One strategies I used was for the student to use flash cards to study with. After the student starting using flash cards his grades began to improve. The student ended up raising their grade by two letter grades. Another method was allowing a student to use a video camara to record the presentations and lectures for review.
Different media help the students with challenges. Reading and writing assignments, only, do not help people with learning dissabilites absorb the material you are trying to convey to your students. Power Points and demonstrations help. HAve the students bring in a recorder to tape your lectures.
By talking to students with learning disadilites i find ways for them to understand. The way to help each student is different.
Hi Bruce! Thanks for your ideas. Peer mentoring and tutoring are certainly very effective strategies for student learning if, of course as you note, it is done in the appropriate and supportive way under the guidance of the instructor - students very much learn from each other!
Jay Hollowell
ED106
One common but proven method for helping students with learning disabilities, if they feel comfortable with the idea is to pair them up with a student who learns well and quickly and kind of have a student mentor who they can understand and help with the daily problems of the class through another students eyes.
I agree, we need to accomondate each student according to his/her needs. We should not look upon a person with disabilities but one with individual needs. It is helpful, however, if we are informed of any special needs of the student so that we can accomondate him/her.
Hi there,
Couldn't agree with you more.
I had the same situation with my student who was certified as disabled...I talked to him almost every other day over the phone and basically walked him through the issues. They need help..and we ought to be able to provide it to them....
:-)
Mike
I remember once hearing about a parent of a "typical" student who, upon hearing about any special accommodation made for a student with "special needs", demanded that his child be awarded those accommodations as well. His reasoning was that, the schools job was to accommodate the learning needs of ALL students.
Rather than thinking of making special accommodations for students with special needs, I believe, as the parent above did, that a teacher/instructor's job is to assess every students "special" needs. Every student has them because every student, like every person, is different and learns differently.
The question is always, "What is necessary for THIS student to learn the most." If that means giving them more time (assuming the task to be learned is not time-restricted), then they should be given the time necessary.
Instead of thinking of two groups, "normal" and "with disabilities", I would posit that, as instructors, we think of our students having a range of needs and requirements from minimal to extensive; and we address these needs to the greatest extent possible.
In our setting we give both practical and written assessments. I have been able to read test questions to the student and allow the student to verbally answer the questions. Many times I find that I really get more complete and concise answers from students when I do this. I set aside time outside of class time to test the particular student, and most of the time the students involved feel very positive about the experience.
Carol Kravitz
I have found that learning about each students disabilities and working with each student sometimes one on one during tutoring helps not only the student but me as well
I really like the idea of recording the class lectures and discussions so that students can refer back to them later. Perhaps, I can look into posting the lectures and presentations on a blog so that the students can listen to them again in their free time. I think I am going to try this.
Once you know that the student has a learning disability you can help them. The problem I have seen is that many students do not tell you they have a disability and you just assume they missed the point. Students may be afraid to tell the instructor that they have a learning diability, because that may cause the instructor to single them out in the class. This should not occur and when I know a student has a disability I try to make sure that I do not single them out, but am just more aviliabloe to them.
