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Special
Education Needs |
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CASE STUDIES
Scenarios
David is a new
English teacher in a boys' secondary school. In one of his classes he
has two boys who have SLD (dyslexia). A classroom assistant has been
allocated to them (Mary) and she started in the school just six weeks before
the summer break. On the first day of term Mary arrives wearing what
can only be described as rather revealing clothes. The boys are rather
more interested in Mary than in learning about writing essays. David
says nothing.
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Next day Mary arrives again wearing similar
clothes. David wants the boys to attempt to write some poetry of their
own. He asks Mary to help generally with the boys' writing but is
horrified when he sees Mary bending over to check the writing taking the
boys' minds off their work. There is very little work writing going on
at the desks nearby but a lot of whispering! How should David approach
what is a sensitive but important classroom management issue? |
Study Points
This is a
comment by a Classroom Assistant. "I'm going to Mrs A's room next term,
worst luck. She's never worked with anyone before and chose not to take
part in the team teaching last term. It's a pity the children who need help
are in her class. I hope it'll be all right." Think about all the
potential problems and make a list of ground rules for a) the assistant
b)Mrs A c) the children.
Discussion
Area |
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Margaret has been in the
school for 20 years. When she started children with special needs were
uncommon in the school and little was expected of them. Now there are
several children in the class and each child is expected to achieve his/her
potential and to be independent wherever possible. However, when
children are given work Margaret's idea of helping them is to do it for
them, e.g. given four sentences to order and stick down, Margaret numbers
the parts for the children. After P.E. she takes off Calum's slippers
and puts on his shoes even though heis 8 and has problems other than
a speech disorder. If the teacher tells him to do it himself, Margaret
will say that it is quicker if she does it. Because the children in
this class have speech and language problems, they are encouraged to
collaborate and discuss work. Margaret frequently can be found telling
them to be quiet and get on with their work. |
Acknowledgements & Copyright
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