Task 2 - Planning responses to individual learning needs
Task 2A - Adapting the grid for your own dyslexic learners
The grid you have just been studying deals with generalities. It is very unlikely that a single dyslexic pupil will manifest all of the characteristics listed, and not all those manifested will be experienced to the same degree by all dyslexic pupils.
On the blank planning grid (Task sheet 2) enter a few of the characteristics that most closely reflect the characteristics of your own dyslexic learner(s). Refine and extend the details - preferably with the help of a learning support colleague - so that the first column of each blank grid develops into a profile of a particular dyslexic learner. By focusing on each characteristic in turn, and working across the other columns, you will create working documents that you can discuss with other teachers, with the pupils, and perhaps with their parents.
You can also review the grid later to judge how successful the measures you adopted have been, or whether any further refinement is necessary.
PDF file: Maximising Potential - Task 2 - Planning Responses (10 KB)
Word file: Maximising Potential - Task 2 - Planning Responses (42 KB)Task 2B - Adapting the grid for other learners experiencing difficulties
Once you are familiar with the process, you can use a copy of the blank planning grid to explore and set out how you will respond to the learning needs of any individual pupil or group of pupils who are displaying particular learning needs. As you fill in the ‘Aims’, be very clear about what you are hoping to achieve; be precise, and not too ambitious at this stage. One or two aims and a few strategies for achieving them are enough for now.
The aims don’t all have to be linguistic ones. Behavioural aims may be prerequisites for progress linguistically. Focus on learning behaviour, though, rather than on behaviour for its own sake, so that the link between learning behaviour and success becomes clearer.
If possible, go for teaching and learning approaches that will also benefit the rest of the class. Try to involve the learners in the deliberations and try to adopt strategies which are sustainable beyond the life of the project. For example:
Avoid creating banks of customised worksheets and other special measures which will take up a lot of extra time. Unless you can divide up the work, or bid for additional SfL assistance, it is best not to go down this route. If you do consider developing support materials, make sure they can be used again next year and/or by other classes. Help sheets are often more effective than yet more worksheets.
Try to avoid the need for human assistance for individual learners. There are many calls on SfL staff time and SfL specialists may not always be available when needed. It is better if possible to devise strategies that can be implemented by a teacher working alone once the development period has ended.
NOTE - all the deliberations and decisions involved in the process of planning described above will be deeper and more productive if they are carried out in partnership with a member of the SfL staff. You may also wish to consider the benefits of involving the pupil/group in the process.
Task 2C - Customising your grids
On Hilary McColl's project website you will find some exemplar planning grids produced by schools which took part in earlier projects. Note that each of these has been customised to suit the particular needs of the schools involved. In some cases whole classes have been targeted, in others specific groups have been identified, or a single pupil. In the example from School C you will see how teachers returned to the planning sheet at a later stage in order to evaluate the success (or otherwise) of the strategies they had adopted.
You may wish to review your own planning sheet to see whether a different layout would be beneficial. The important thing to remember is that the process is one of problem-solving (first identify the problem, then try to devise suitable responses), so any new format you devise should reflect that.