Participation

Participation

When people think about inclusion, participation within the lesson is probably the main area that springs to mind, as most people tend to focus on making changes to the lesson content rather than anything else. In this context participation means ensuring that students are able to fully take part in their lessons and for teachers this can mean making adaptions in a variety of areas. Adaptions to ensure full participation may include, but are not limited to; teaching style, language and communication, feedback, assessment criteria, use of question and answer, time allowances, content and resources. It is clear that this may seem like a lot of work, but you will be surprised how much of it you already do naturally and further to this a lot of the work has already been done for you by the inclusion team. For each student on the SEN register it is useful to write a profile detailing the best strategies to use to meet the individual’s needs, these can be written by the SENCO or inclusion team and should then be a teachers first port of call when deciding how to adapt your lessons.

To help you write student profiles, you will find on the blog a range of general strategy sheets. These may be useful when you are trying to think of new ways to support a specific student or if you are teaching a nurture group and would like strategies that could support the whole class.

The above statement from the SEND Code of Practice (2014) should be at the heart of everything you do when you are planning for the participation of a student with an SEN in your class. Your preparation time is precious and it would be wasted if you were to spend time creating easy work for students with an SEN. All students must be stretched and challenged, but this must be balanced with a particular need for students with SEN to feel that they have achieved in every lesson.

Below are some different ideas for making lessons more inclusive and ensuring all students are able to participate. These ideas are currently quite generic, but if you would like support with a particular subject just let me know.

 

Scaffolding

• Assess what the student already knows
• When teaching a new topic link to what they already know
• Teach new information in small ACHIEVEABLE chunks
• You can model new skills, provide verbal cues and adapt resources to help students achieve.
• You must give verbal feedback to the student
• When the student has mastered the new concept you can start to remove the scaffolding.

The idea of scaffolding links clearly to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development.

My turn, our turn, your turn

This is a technique that many of you probably use naturally in your teaching every day, but when you think it through it is particularly helpful for students with an SEN and can be used with a whole class, in small groups or on a 1:1.

This technique is also a simplistic version of scaffolding, but can be used on a larger scale.

• My turn – Teacher talk/ demonstration at the beginning of the lesson so students know what is expected of them.
• Our turn – Now complete the task alongside the students to provide support where needed.
• Your turn – Once the students have a good understanding allow the students to do the task by themselves.
• For some students cue cards can be used to help students will provide structure to the lesson.

 

Setting targets for the whole class based on SEAL/ hidden curriculum

One area that has clearly shown to be an important part of education for students with an SEN is the other skills they learn through the ‘hidden curriculum’. This hidden curriculum refers to the skills that are learnt, but not directly taught by being in a classroom with a group of peers. Students learn many skills from the teacher and from their peers, for example behaviour can be learnt along with other skills such as turn taking, managing own emotions, becoming responsible for own actions and becoming an independent learner.

It would be near impossible to set a social/ emotional target for students to meet through the hidden curriculum and it would be wholly immeasurable, however the idea of specifically trying to help student’s emotional and social wellbeing is not a new concept. The SEAL programme was created to teach students positive behaviours (DfE, 2005) and how to become an effective learner and this skills would be particularly useful for students with an SEN as they are often found to be years behind their peers emotionally (Ellis and Tod, 2009).

I have heard it from many teachers that the students in their classes are struggling with social skills and managing their own behaviour, so much so that it is almost impossible to teach the class. Where this is the case and particularly in nurture groups where many students have a SEN you may benefit from using aspects of SEAL in the classroom.

One way in which you can do this is to think of a particular area of emotional development to focus on for a term and build aspects of this in to your lesson by setting a whole class target. You may want to focus on behaviour or skills such as working independently, working as a team or managing own emotions. Once you have chosen an area to focus on build it in to your lesson plans and schemes of work. For example if you chose team work, build activities into your lessons to support this and think about a reward scheme you could use focused around team work. Whichever area you choose to focus on it is likely that it will benefit all of the class and not just the students with SEN so make it applicable to them all.

 

VAK Teaching

Over the past few years the term ‘VAK’ (Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic) appears to have gone out of fashion, but this doesn’t mean it is not an important teaching tool that should always be at the forefront of your mind when planning an inclusive lesson.

Students all learn in different ways and it is important to cater for all of them when planning your lessons. In particular students with SEN tend not to engage well with a lot of teacher talk as they find it hard to take in and retain information given to them in this way. Some students with hearing or visual impairments may indeed be limited in their learning styles so it really is of the utmost importance that your lesson is ‘VAK’ friendly. However it is also important to bear in mind that students will need to use all of these skills in life so it is important to build their use of all three rather than rely on just one.

The bullets below give you some ideas

Visual

• Use images, videos, hand outs
• Encourage students to draw and make notes on their worksheets
• Use demonstrations
• When reviewing lessons ask students to think about what they saw
• Provide visual feedback on how to meet different VAK needs in your lessons.

Auditory

• Build discussions into the lesson
• Watch videos and you tube clips
• Encourage students to verbally present their work
• When reviewing lessons ask students what they heard
• Give verbal feedback
• Use role play
• Read out loud to the class/ encourage buddy reading
• Work best when the classroom is not silent

Kinaesthetic

• Encourage the student to take notes
• Make your lesson hand on with lots of practical activities
• When reviewing the lesson ask student what they felt
• Use post it notes, flash cards and highlighter pens
• Give students regular learning breaks
• Kinaesthetic students learn well through making mistakes

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Questioning techniques

For students with learning difficulties answering questions in class can often pose a particular problem. Many students with an SEN take more time to process questions than their peers and then also longer to formulate an answer. This can lead to them feeling left out and inadequate during class discussions as they often don’t have a chance to get their answer across. Even using a hands down method doesn’t help unless the teacher is prepared to give extra time to all students before asking for an answer.

A valuable technique I learnt while in the air cadets was the three ‘Ps’

In this method you pose a question to the whole class or to a particular student, making it clear that no one is to shout out an answer (also try to keep the room quiet to aid thinking). You then pause for at least 10 seconds before asking a student for their answer. For some students within the school, 10 seconds will not be enough, in this instance it is a good idea to pose a question to that particular student, let them know you will ask someone else a question and come back to them in a minute for their answer, providing them with unpressurised time to formulate an answer.

Bloom Board

The bloom board is a power point that I have designed to help with posing different level questions in class. It is fully adaptable, so you can pre-set it with questions specific to your lesson. The board is based on blooms taxonomy higher order questioning. You can use the board as you wish either encouraging students to stretch and challenge themselves by choosing harder questions, or choosing a question for student at a level you know they will be able to achieve.

Teaching assistants and questioning

Recent research noted that teaching assistants struggle to ask higher questions when working with students. At the school where I work all teaching assistants have a set of questioning cards on a key ring to help improve this skill. I will put a template on the blog at a later date.

Teacher communication

Have you ever thought about what you do when you are talking to the class? Do you move around? Do you look at all the students? Do you use lots of arm gestures? Do you speak fast? For students with an SEN your body language and verbal communication can mean the difference between a student being able to learn or coming away from the lesson without having learnt a thing. The table below gives some example of how your communication can directly affect a student’s learning.

Recording Answers

For some students with an SEN writing can be a particular struggle. Of course most students will need to write at some point, but it is important to break up tasks so that lessons do not become wholly focused on writing. The diagram below shows some example of alternative methods for recording answers.

• Use the cloze method, this is useful for those who can read, but find writing particularly hard.
• Use computers – for many students this will be easier than writing.
• Presentation – offer a verbal method for presenting information.
• Dictaphones can offer an alternative to scribing.
• Allow students to represent their answers through drawings, signs and symbols.

Differentiation by task

Worksheets are often a good way to adapt a lesson to meet the different needs of students with an SEN in your classroom. However before you start adapting, figure three gives you some examples of how to lay out worksheets for all students so that they are as inclusive as possible.

In a future blog I will provide examples of lesson resources along with student profiles and I will give examples of how they could be adapted to meet the needs of the students. I think it is important to bear in mind that for some students you will need to design bespoke resources, for instance with simpler language used in the text (check the level of the work you produce using the Flesch scale) or in some cases completely different to meet the students learning need. I have heard from teachers that they do not have time to produce different resources, but this really is at the very heart of what is meant by inclusion and adapting your resources is now part of the job. The inclusion team are always here to provide assistance with ideas, but your role is to be inclusive and this means meeting the needs of ALL students in your classroom.

One way, in some circumstances to reduce your workload is to produce worksheets/ tasks that become progressively harder, this then gives students with a SEN the opportunity to focus on grasping the basics, while others can move on to harder tasks. However if you do this it is important to make sure that students are not missing out on critical learning because important information has been made too hard to grasp.

Some people worry about giving out different worksheets to students, but I have seen a really good example of giving out different level tasks without the students even realising it. In a recent French lesson I saw the teacher use a colour coded system to give out tasks – blue (easy), green (middle) and purple (harder), the students didn’t seem to know what the colours stood for and students were assigned a different colour each lesson dependant on the task.

Another key point about differentiation is to talk to the student, in a recent lesson I saw a student with a visual impairment given an A3 hand out, however on speaking to them although they did require a larger font they would have preferred to have this on A4 paper. Just having this conversation was able to save this student any further embarrassment.

Linking to key concepts from earlier curriculum levels

At my secondary school we currently have a student who is still consolidating key stage 1 level work and this has been particularly concerning for the student’s teachers, who are trying to meet the needs of the student within a KS3 classroom.

I have read about an idea called linking key concepts and I have adapted it for the needs of this student, so I hope you find it useful.

1. Plan for the key concepts method whilst planning your SOW.
2. Start with an age appropriate target for the subject you are delivering – then track back through the KS2, KS1 or even P levels to find an appropriate learning objectives/ targets for the student.
3. Identify the key concepts that the student with learning difficulties can be working on in each of your lessons. Be aware that you do not want to overwhelm the pupil and you will need to stick to a couple of key concepts.
4. Now plan your lesson and incorporate ways for the student with learning difficulties to meet the objectives from the necessary KS level.
5. Your lesson should now have resources and activities for all students to meet their objectives at an appropriate level for them.

Different methods of assessment

‘’Assess not only that which is easily measurable, but also that which is important to the student’’

By this I am not trying to say that exam grades are not important, as we all know they are, but what I am trying to say is that there are other things which are highly important for students with learning difficulties such as building social skills, self-esteem and emotional management skills and it is just as important that we take these into consideration when assessing a student’s progress at school.

Assessment in class

It is very important that students are given the maximum support in order to pass an assessment, by this I don’t mean giving them the answers, but instead ensuring all of the students strategies from their profile are in place so that they have the best chance to do their best. For some this may mean providing them with a little extra time, others like to have frequent breaks, some students may even find it easier to type up their answers. There really are many ways to adapt so it is best to follow the individual profile. One option that you may wish to take advantage of it room L4 in the link, this can be used (if you check in advance) for students to complete an assessment in a quiet environment.

Over the last two terms we have seen particularly good work from the science department when it comes to assessment. The staff have been taking assessment papers and adapting them for year 7 students, particularly for nurture groups. In particular they have removed formal signs of ‘exams’ such as header/ footers and scoring systems, they have added pictures to help students visualise the questions and they have adapted some of the language in the paper to ensure it is accessible for all.

As you can hopefully see there are numerous ways to ensure participation within the classroom and through using some of these methods you will be well on your way to an inclusive classroom. You will not be expected to use all of these methods all of the time, but with practice they will become a natural part of your planning and teaching and you will find it much easier to include many of them.

References

Berk, L. and Winsler, A. (1995) Scaffolding Children’s Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Department for Education (2005) Excellence and Enjoyment: Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning. HMSO: Norwich.

Department of Education (2009) Moderate Learning Difficulties. HMSO: London.

Department for Education. (2014) SEND code of practice 0-25. London: HMSO.

Ellis, S. and Tod, J. (2009) Behaviour for Learning Proactive Approaches to Behaviour Management. Abingdon: Routledge.

Ofsted. (2007) Developing Social, Emotional and Behavioural Skills in Secondary Schools. London: Ofsted.