End of Placement

End of Placement

7th January, 2016

Nick discusses his placement experience and a different type of special need

Happy New Year to all fellow PSTs and others who are visitors to the blog, I hope your Christmas and New Years break was enjoyable!

It has been a few weeks since my placement block concluded, however, what a wonderful and interesting four weeks it was! This experience for me was one like no other. I was placed in a primary school where a large majority of students were English as Additional Language Learners (EAL). My work as an integration aide and previous placements has provided me some exposure to teaching EAL students, however, this placement involved me learning a lot of new ideas to better inform my overall teaching practice. Many new and interesting challenges arose throughout as it was during report writing time, and there were many extra curricular activities occurring within the school as well.

The most important idea that came out of the four weeks is the significance of modelling correct language, both written and oral. It is something that I have been aware of, but have not consciously implemented into my practice. My associate teacher placed a large emphasis on pausing at words students may find challenging and using their ‘detective skills’ to attempt to work out what the word means in context. Furthermore, I observed the importance of modelling correct language to students. I witnessed many students attempting to implement some new and challenging words into their writing that arose from class based discussion or simply from a word that was read in a book.

One of the absolute highlights for me from this placement was being able to read to the students regularly. This particular group of students were really engaged with teacher read alouds and subconsciously were able to learn a lot from what they were listening to. Asking the question “With a title like this, what do you think is going to happen?” instantly had hands flying up to answer. This inferring practice is an important part of reading comprehension, especially when teaching EAL students as it encourages them to think about what they are reading while reading it. A follow up question I asked throughout the text was; “What do you think will happen next?” Again students were extremely eager to make predictions based on what they had read already. Reading aloud to students is something I value highly as a future educator and will endeavour to do on a daily basis as I think a lot can be learnt from simply listening to a teacher read a text. Students were also able to use their text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world connections in order to enhance their ability to predict what they thought was going to happen next in the story.

So how does this fit in with special needs education? As discussed in previous blog posts, the term ‘special need’ is a specific educational requirement that a student may need to benefit their learning outcomes; EAL students fall into this category. To be an inclusive educator lessons must be adapted to incorporate each student within the learning space. A slight adaptation to a lesson such as pausing and discussing new words is an example of being inclusive to this particular special need.

As future educators I believe it is a fundamental requirement to incorporate simple practices like these into the learning space to ensure each student feels as though they are supported and included within ALL lessons and activities.

 - Nick

Students with Special Needs

Students with special needs - They do exist... Don’t they?

8th October, 2015

 Nick provides an outline of the different types of special needs that a teacher may encounter within their learning space.

I was sitting in a lecture last week listening to the lecturer discussing all these BRILLIANT lesson ideas that we could use with our future students. However, I thought to myself “how are the students with special needs catered for and included in these lessons?” The lecturer seemed to be presenting the ideas based on the assumption that every student fits into a perfect box, when in reality we know that this is not the case.

It is inevitable that in our learning space we will have the opportunity and in my opinion the absolute pleasure of working with one or more students with a special need. In my three years of studying primary school teaching this important area of education seems to be neglected and there is a sense it is ignored, as if students with special needs do not exist. This leaves placement as the only time in which a preservice teacher may gain some knowledge and experience in the area of special needs education. Catering to students with special needs can be a challenge and requires careful and explicit planning in order to set these students up for success in their learning. As the teacher if you are able to effectively modify and adapt your lessons to be inclusive to the needs of these students the results can be amazing.

What is a special need?
A Special need is an umbrella term and can be summarised as a specific educational requirement that a particular student may need in order to benefit their learning outcomes. It is often viewed as what a student can’t do, when in reality students with special needs can achieve outstanding educational results. As I mentioned, special needs is an umbrella term for many different forms of diagnosis and can often be associated with a negative as students with special needs require individual planning. In my experience students with special needs can significantly enrich the learning of other students within the learning space as well as create many advantages and unique learning opportunities for all students.

In your classroom you may have a diverse range of special needs for example:
             •    Students who have higher ability
             •    English as an Additional language learners
             •    Students with learning disabilities
             •    Students with hearing or visual impairments
             •    Students with muscular mobility and muscular disorders
             •    Students with emotional difficulties
             •    Students with social communication disorders
             •    Developmental disorders
             •    Neurological disorders
             •    Students with particular food allergies
             •    Students with behavioural difficulties

This is just a short overview of some of the special needs you may encounter when teaching. Within some of the above dot points there are many specific special needs which as an effective teacher you will need to accommodate for to ensure inclusion of all students. My aim in my next few posts is to examine some of the dot points above and provide some information on prevalent special needs you may encounter in your future learning space.

- Nick