The Special Needs Issue – Kevin

Road Posts Along The WayKevinStein3 

Before I started working at my current high school, the man who interviewed me tried to impress upon me that the students were, “a bit of a challenge.”  They were futoko, which, he explained meant that they had missed over 30 days of a school year, not because they were truant, but because… and then he ticked off a laundry list of reasons. They had been bullied. They had anxiety disorders. They were diagnosed with light cases of Aspergers. They exhibited behaviors like mild self-mutilation. They had been victims of domestic violence. He looked at my resume, mentioned that he was happy I had social work experience in Chicago, shook my hand and offered me the job.  Funny thing, my social work experience hasn’t actually been all that helpful.  Not when I started and not now, five years into the job.

Now I know that futoko can be translated as school refusal syndrome. I’ve also taken in-services and learned that many futoko are labled in some way or another (ADHD, DD, LD), a garden of capital letters blooming throughout their school records. But being able to decipher a school record hasn’t taught me much about how to meet the needs of my students. Fortunately, my students are willing to tell me what they need themselves. All I have to do is pay attention to how they stand up for each other, and how they care for each other.

Here are six things that my students have taught me about how to create the kind of safe space that can foster learning in a classroom.  There is no particular order to this list.  On some days some things are more important than others.  Some of the ideas on the list might even seem contradictory.  That is because they are. Learners are people. There’s no manual for how to connect with people and there’s no map for how to go about learning. Still, a few road posts are better than wandering around lost.

1. Make every success a group success. My students all progress at different rates.  Some get stuck for weeks without any sign of improvement.  Some suddenly switch on and take in months’ worth of language in a few days. But when one of them passes a standardized test, wins a speech contest, or gets into university, they all celebrate. Because they are a language community, I do everything I can to foster this feeling. Learning to celebrate these successes—big and small—helps all the students feel as if they are moving forward. It is the tailwind that keeps them learning.

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2. Honor and welcome who my student is today. Yesterday and maybe for the whole month before that, one of my students might have taken notes, been active in class, and flashed smiles here and there. But today a cloud hangs over his head. He can’t put together a full sentence. Maybe he doesn’t answer back when I say hello. Still, he is in school. He managed to pull himself through whatever darkness greeted him when he woke up in the morning and got himself to class. Thinking about what he could do yesterday is not going to help him do any better today. One of my students’ most common greeting to a friend in a funk is a simple, “I’m glad you’re here today.” It is a great greeting. I would even put it slightly ahead of “nice to see you,” on my list of useful phrases.

3. Focus on the language, not the person. My students have been bullied, pushed out and ignored. When they share something about themselves, it is a gift. When they correct each other in class (and they sometimes do), they have a way of saying a word and waiting for a few heartbeats for their classmate to respond. That one word and pause seems to change the gears of the conversation. It shifts it out of the personal. Now I try and do something similar to separate the content from the language and make the class feel safer. Jotting down student language on Post It Notes, correcting it, and laying it down on their desk is one way I’ve found to help depersonalize the language of a communicative act.

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4. Focus on the person, not the language Often as I watch students have a conversation in my class, one of them makes a shocking grammatical error, and the other student does not comment on it at all. I think this probably has something to do with students’ ability to differentiate between an error, a mistake, and a slip. If you put the jargon aside, it is really about how sometimes people just can’t put together a decent sentence—in a second language, or even in a first. Depending on what else is going on with the person, sometimes those errors/mistakes/slips do not really matter very much. So on those kinds of days, let a student talk, and instead of checking for cracks in the surface of their words, dive a bit deeper down towards their intentions.

5. Have more patience for students than they have for themselves:  Missing 30 days, 100 days, 1 year, or 3 years of school can make anyone feel a little stressed about lost time. Compound that with a diagnosis that implies the future is less than well paved and it is no wonder my students get a little impatient with themselves. Fortunately, most of the students in class are in or have been through a similar situation. Perhaps that is why they never, ever, get impatient with each other. As the teacher, I’ve learned to take it a bit more slowly, extend my class wait time, and give hints as necessary until a student can answer any question I ask. Someday I hope to be as patient with students as they are with each other.

KEVIN Image3 6. Ignore general lists of things that should or shouldn’t be done for students. When talking with one another, my students have no such lists in mind. As far as I can tell, they also have no intention of making one, which seems to me to be a very good thing indeed. Watching them support, share, and relate with each other from moment to moment is the best way I’ve found to keep learning what it means to be the kind of teacher I need to be—for them and for myself.

The Special Needs Issue – Miguel

Different Abilities: Embracing and Supporting Diversity at the UniversityMiguel Profile

As member of a committee, I have been providing support to students with disabilities or functional diversity for some good 10 years at a public university in Venezuela. The term “special needs” is generally used for students in primary or high school. Even the term “functional diversity”, as appealing and inclusive as it is, has raised some controversies in our country since it would mean changing labels, laws and attitudes and it may also endanger the visibility disabled people have gained over the past years. For some people, they would become diluted within a diverse society that has traditionally valued able-bodiedness risking the attention disabled people have received so far. Ironically, this term was coined by a Spanish tetraplegic Javier Romanach, one of the founders of the Diversity and Independent Living Forum from Spain.

Some CAEDEBA and Students Union members. Librarianship School. Universidad Central de Venezuela
Some CAEDEBA and Students Union members. Librarianship School. Universidad Central de Venezuela

As a teacher more than how our disabled students should be called, labeled, or fit into a medical or social approach, I do care more for the support they need to study in the School of Librarianship in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). That’s what I try to do as a member of a Committee for the Integration of Disabled Students from the School of Librarianship (CAEDEBA). We offer academic help and guidance to these students. Also this committee – made up of 12 disabled students, 10 volunteers and 2 teachers – organizes workshops and events to sensitize our community about disability. This semester 2 deaf students will start studying this career and we are figuring out how to get Venezuelan sign language interpreting services in the classroom. Here are some tips I’d like to share with you when teaching students with different disabilities:

Asperger’s syndrome (autism spectrum disorder):

One Asperger can be totally different from another one. They may sound even different as if they had picked up a foreign accent. Some of them sound words and phrases carefully and may repeat what they say several times. It is true they function pretty well under a well structured environment. Also it is difficult for them to understand metaphors or jokes. They can be socialized though. Have you ever heard about Sheldon from the Big Bang theory? In our school, one of our Asperger students is about to graduate. Two more are just starting this career. Based on my experience, what would be my advice?

  1.  If you use metaphors or tell jokes in the classroom, explain what you tried to say. You can paraphrase, illustrate or give their literal meaning.
  2. Always let Aspergers know you are going to change lesson plans, class schedule or even seating arrangement. Some of them may feel threatened when things are suddenly changed. They may relentlessly hurt themselves under stress.
  3. Let them know there is a safe place at the university they may go to when they feel under stress: teachers’ office, university counselor, support group.
  4. Some Asperses may try to find their way around to justify not having studied or having finished a task. This doesn’t mean they don’t want to do the task or study. This is a hidden message telling you they might feel under pressure or it is not clear to them what they are required to do. Check what the cause of the anxiety is- if it is not classroom-related and you don’t know what to do get some advice from the university counselor or support group.

Blind students

An undergraduate blind student speaking at a university event (CAEDEBA member)
An undergraduate blind student speaking at a university event (CAEDEBA member)

We should always know if the student has total blindness or low vision. This will determine the type of help students may need. If it is total blindness they need to know how to use Braille or a screen reading software (eg. Jaws). They may also need some assistance to get around. Now be careful they would prefer to do this on his/her own. Partially sighted students may need magnifying glasses or having the font size of tests and materials changed. My advice:

  1. Check out what type of assistive technology students may need to read, take notes or tests (e.g. Braille, Jaws, laptop).
  2. For students with complete blindness, in a test situation it is always fair to give them a head start (about 15 minutes) before their classmates.
  3. For students with low vision, print out materials / tests with the most suitable font size (generally 21 to 25).
  4. It is a good idea to send materials, tasks, readings to these students’ emails in advance.
  5. Blind students may need to record the class lecture or discussions.

We have two low vision students and one complete blind student. They have never used Braille but it is always good for them to know if there is a place in the university where they can get assistive or adaptive technology to help them study, print material or even get equipment loans.

Deaf students using hearing device (Hypoacusia)

In our school, there is a partially deaf student currently working on her thesis. She uses a hearing device. What’s my advice this time?

  1. Make sure you talk to the student face to face and depending on the level of hearing loss speak slightly slower. Don’t talk to him/her as if they were dumb , though.
  2. Make sure he/she seats in the front row.
  3. They will generally have writing or reading problems. So they may need guidance on how to improve these skills at the university. You can also refer them to student unit services where they will learn about reading or writing courses they may enrol in.
  4. Deaf students may need to record the class lecture and discussions.

Students with reduced mobility

An undergraduate student with reduced mobility speaking at a university event (CAEDEBA member)
An undergraduate student with reduced mobility speaking at a university event (CAEDEBA member)

In our school, there’s a group of students with reduced mobility in their hands and legs, but they do not use wheelchairs. One of them uses a walking frame. One of the main things we have to consider is facilitating accessibility. Most students with reduced mobility in their hands may need:

  1. Extended time to start a test since it may take some time for them to answer questions or write essays, for example. Another option is for them to take oral tests instead of written ones.
  2. This may vary from one culture to culture, but it is always a good idea to make sure these students have a classmate who may take notes for him/her or share his/her notes with these students.
  3. These students may need to record the class lecture and discussions.
  4. Make sure there’s a fixed seat for these students in the front row and space is clear from obstacles or clutter.

Students with reduced mobility are benefitted by adaptive technology used by blind people.

Learning and psychiatric disabilities

In our school, we have also dealt with students with learning and psychiatric disabilities. In the case of learning disabilities students may need extended time when taking tests or substituting written tests for oral ones.  They may benefit from repetition and reviewing content in each class (able-bodied students will benefit from this as well). Instructions should be clear and teachers should make sure this is so (follow-up). They forget or misunderstand instructions easily. This may happen to able-bodied students too, but in the case of students with learning disabilities this might be amplified. Psychiatric cases should be dealt carefully- teachers had better get support from university counselors or psychologists.

In our country, disable students can have a place at the university from different modality entrances just like any able-bodied student, except for the so called OPSU-disability university entrance. Once they are part of our community they should receive support. This doesn’t mean special treatment, but promoting inclusive and equitable opportunities for them to thrive during their undergraduate studies. In this journey of disabled students becoming part of the university community, they have an important role to make themselves visible and proud of who they are. Otherwise, efforts from members of this community will not resonate as much as it is needed to embrace and support them in an environment that sometimes can be hostile and framed within old scholar values of what a “normal, smart” student should be.

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Some CAEDEBA members, teachers and friends. Christmas 2011

The Special Needs Issue – Gareth

No One Has Special Needs: We All DoGK_150x150

I was a ‘special needs’ kid at school according to modern definitions.  Nobody, including me, knew it at the time though. I wasn’t diagnosed until the age of 38. When I was finally diagnosed, a lot of my school experience starting making a lot more sense.

At the age of 14, I had another two years of compulsory French classes to attend, and the idea didn’t enthral me. But, in the first French class at the start of the new school year, my French teacher addressed me personally: “You can sit at the back of the class and talk to your friend Dave about any topic you like in English. However, do it quietly because the rest of the class will be learning French”. And, that’s what I did for two years. Needless to say I failed the French exam.

The irony is that I was probably one of the most motivated people in the class to learn French. If my teacher had asked me at 14 if I actually wanted to communicate in French, I would have responded with an enthusiastic ‘Oui’.  If he had then asked me why I wanted to learn French, I would have explained that my primary motivation was to talk to teenage French girls on my family trips to France. Thus, I required conversational ability to cover the topics of music, fashion, etc. But, we never had that talk.

So why did I fail at French? Two main reasons: 1) The course. The classes were heavily grammatical and had no conversational component. Thus, the learning was perceived as not matching my goals. 2) Me. With hindsight, my ‘special need’ made me incredibly intolerant and outwardly frustrated in any situation that is not furthering my personal goals.

When I became a teacher of English I was determined to have conversations with individual learners about their personal goals, and spent effort on developing methods of analyzing needs. I became aware of teacher assessments that asked students to rate the class without probing for any personal circumstance. Thus, I would read a negative comment from a student about another teacher’s class, but, in a follow-up question directly to that student, the student would readily admit that the class wasn’t a success for that individual due to a personal health issue. According to the biased assessments, the school owners were ready to blame a teacher for a student’s personal problem. I changed the way class evaluations were structured.

A book that had a profound influence on my teaching was Psychology for Language Teachers (Williams and Burden 1997), particularly the chapter on teacher beliefs about learning and learners. The authors quote sociologist Roland Meighan (Meighan and Meighan 1990) saying that teachers beliefs about learners can be construed metaphorically as:

  • resisters;
  • receptacles;
  • raw material;
  • clients;
  • partners;
  • individual explorers;
  • democratic explorers.

From my own French-learning experience, I knew I would never construe learners as the first three metaphors. As my teaching and teacher-training developed, I wanted to move from a construct of learner as partner (with the teacher) or as individual explorer to a belief that each learner in the class is a democratic explorer, but I was struggling for inspiration to make this happen.

The turning point was having my ‘special need’ diagnosed by doctors. This led to experimenting in professional groups I joined with explaining my behavior did not necessarily reflect how I felt about working in the group. I encouraged colleagues to challenge me if they felt I was being negative but didn’t mean to be. This approach worked well and helped me realize that we all have responsibilities as part of the group.

In the excellent book Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom (Dörnyei and Murphey 2003), the authors urge teachers to invest more time in the IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT (Space 2) activities. They say: “Learning about group dynamics and organizing well-functioning groups will go a long way toward facilitating smooth classroom management and enhancing student performance.

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 (From Dörnyei and Murphey 2003:p11)

I agree with them. Every member of the group has a responsibility to see its holistic nature and have positive intention for the group’s success. I have gone full circle. It was not my French teacher’s sole responsibility to extract my learning preferences. I had spurned an opportunity to explain what I wanted and negotiate with the class.

We are all special and all have special needs. In a group, we have to make the other members aware of what these needs are and be able to position them in relation to everyone else’s.

“un pour tous, tous pour un”

References:

Dörnyei,Z.. and T. Murphey.  2003. Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Meighan, R. and J. Meighan. 1990. Alternative roles for learners with particular reference to learners as democratic explorers in teacher education courses. The School Field, 1(1), 61-77.

Willams, M. and R. L. Burden. 1997. Psychology for Language Teachers. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

ELT Global Issues – Ann

ELT REPORT FROM RUSSIA  AnnaLoseva140x150

ANN image 1

To be honest, I am rather confused as to from which angle to approach this issue. I have worked with all age groups at all stages of education system except for pre-school. I have friends and fellow teachers who work in different types of institutions. I hear plenty of teacher talk in my staff room and just a little bit of it beyond its doors. Yet my experience is limited. It’s one particular private school, one university, one in-company ELT service provider, all located in Russia’s capital. Do they reflect the overall situation in Russia’s education? Probably they do. And yet I don’t feel comfortable drawing conclusions judging by my experience only. I am cautious to make generalizations here. For every point I could mention from my years of work or personal beliefs there would be found a dozen counter-arguments. It is a slippery way.

Education issues are causing heated debates everywhere in Russian media now. The Bologna process, state exams and subsequent changes in secondary education curricula, the introduction of paid secondary education in state schools across Russia: These are burning problems and, as it happens, they are followed by a lot of rumours, negativity, rejection and public disapproval, to put it mildly. What I’ll speak about may not be the most critical issue but it’s something that bothers me, something that I can relate to and that I can hopefully bring change to.

My concern is young teachers of English. I know dozens of young teachers, girls my age or younger, teacher training university graduates like myself, who flee from schools or education system in general. But wait… didn’t I run away from a school myself? That’s exactly what happened. I could no longer stand working in a school. Of course we should take into account all the factors and in each particular case of escape the factors might vary, but I dare say they won’t vary all that much. Low salary, work overload, teacher-parent issues and (as 90% of my case) the working atmosphere in general. Well, I’ve found my place after all but many don’t.

And yet the above-mentioned are not the reasons that worry me the most. There are a certain percentage of teachers willing to work in schools. After a while some of them burn out. A school year’s routine can be tiresome and can easily turn to a bog. This comparison is not accidental. I’ve heard the term more than once used by older, more experienced, and tired teachers. Burn-out results in further passivity towards development. It is caused by lack of motivation, inspiration and drive. I’m sure wherever you are you know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen these educators who might have once loved teaching; educators who used to be creative, unconventional and daring but over time have lost their interest.

There are two qualities that unite disinterested teachers: they are closed-minded and not informed. Well, it can easily be fixed, if you ask me! We need to show how exciting it is to be a connected English language teacher. We need to introduce them to web tools, international groups, communities and social networks. We need to encourage them to always remember to develop. My strong conviction is that at pedagogical universities would-be teachers of English should have a chance to learn about the global side of ELT.

I don’t know whether I will be a teacher for all my life or if there’s something else in store for me. Yet if I do teach for the rest of my life, I hope I will never turn into a Whining Teacher. It’s easy to find a Whining Teacher. They are ubiquitous and universal. It can be true that their universal whining is fair and logical, whereas their complaints reflect a teacher’s realia in any given country. I don’t want to become one as I want to believe, as I take my own little steps in order to look back one day and say, “Yes, I’ve tried. It might not have worked but I did my best trying to make a difference.”