In every
one of my classes, I have a few students that are considered ‘special’. Just a
few hours ago I had a 1st and 3rd grade after school
class. I don’t know why but during the
lesson, I realized that I have not done enough to help differentiate activities
for students with special needs. Non-special education teachers only briefly
learn about taking care of these special needs students, but I can’t honestly
remember any TESOL training that mentions this subject at all. Why hasn’t this subject
been instructed in my TESOL training?
This
week, a number of students tested every ounce of my patience. On Tuesday,
students started to draw all over the desks and some got up and walked out of
my room during the middle of a lesson. Today, a student couldn’t stop making
disrupting noises during a reading activity. And to compound everything, their
low-level of English creates a major roadblock in communicating any
instructions. I really wonder what my special students think about English
class and if they are gaining anything from attending. I often feel like I’m
babysitting or talking to moving walls. I often spend so much time worrying
about planning lessons for the mainstream students that I often forget and
ignore the students that need special help. What have I done to help these
students? Have I done anything to make English more enjoyable? Right now I have
no clue, and I’m at a loss.
I remember having special needs students in my class when I was at my elementary school. They were quite challenging to deal with. I had one boy who routinely ran circles around the classroom, once he walked out of the room and ran up and down the hall screaming like a fire engine. My co-teacher went and chased him down after a couple of minutes. It is difficult to plan lessons if you don't know what their special need is and in my experience it is not something Koreans feel comfortable talking about. At the time I was not directly involved in the lesson planning aside from making the occasional suggestion. With those students I tried to help them through the parts that they seemed able to do and provided some activities like coloring sheets to keep them occupied. I don't feel like they received any benefit from my time with them, I guess they were considered the rocks in the class that Tom was talking about last week. Maybe I could have done more, I didn't have any answers then and really nothing to add now. I am sorry I wish I could help you find direction.
ReplyDeleteYea thanks. Even teaching in America there was helpers and the language barrier was not as extreme as the situation in Korea. I'll keep thinking of better ways of having them learn some type of English.
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