Dyslexic student in a group
My recent discovery
It's been few weeks since my first lesson in the linguistic school. Those few meetings with my students gave me the opportunity of getting to know them better. Now I often know who can give me the answer to witch question and I can decide how to conduct my lesson as to get the biggest benefit for all of my students. Obviously, there are some pairs of friends and some people who are not very found of each other. This is another factor of witch I believe good teacher should be aware of and take adequate actions.
I can surely say that my biggest issue with the students so far was the youngest group. Not only because they need more attention, they perception of the world is specific and some activities are simply much more difficult for them than for older students, but mainly because people in this group are on very different levels of advance.
Just two days ago I got an information from my superior that one of the girls, most advanced one, is going to attend different course because she and her parents felt like it's the best decision. And I strongly agree with them. Recently I passed by the girl and her father in the school in a corridor, she acted as if she avoided me. I felt uncomfortable, from my perspective there's nothing wrong with her changing the group and I don't perceive this as my failure or her bad attitude towards me as a teacher or as a person. But I guess her behavior was natural for her age, or her parents modeled different behaviors by themselves. I can only guess, my point is she is really bright child and I wish her all the best.
So, the dyslexic child
The main topic of this post is a dyslexic boy from the same group I described above. As the girl was one extremum in the group, this boy is the other. After first lesson with this group I was able to say there is something going on and this student needs more attention, more time than other, that he can't focus for long and that he needs physical movement more than other children. Few more lessons and it was even more difficult to cope him, the group and him as a part of the group.
After the sixth lesson, when I looked through the door to the corridor, a woman approached me. I guessed she was a mother of one of my students and, somehow, I correctly opted for the boy. First she asked me how her son is doing on my lessons. I admitted he is the slowest in the group when it comes to writing, especially from the board. Immediately she nodded and started talking about their latest dyslexic discovery. How is he being diagnosed, how most difficulties are now much more clear than before. She asked me no to cut him slack and make him write. I argued a little, I finished my bachelor's degree in this topic after all, but she was very strict about it.
After this conversation I was totally sure what the problem is when it comes to boys behavior on the lesson and now it's clear how should I work with him and how should I prepare lessons. For sure I'll continue describing our story in next post.
This is a very important post! Recognizing students' strong and weak points is a crucial part of teaching. I used to teach a group in which one of the girls might have been dysgraphic and/or dyslexic. She hated writing so much she would go out "to the toilet" during such exercises. She was always the last one to write down from the board and read the slowest. When I realized that she might have a learning disability I started giving her less writing exercises and very small passages to read. I didn't talk to the parents because I was a new teacher and didn't have my bachelor degree yet so I didn't feel competent enough. In retrospect, I wish I'd have said something. I won't make the same mistake ever again.
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