Working with Secondary Students who have Language Difficulties

Mary Brent, Florence Gough, Susan Robinson

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781138180437
• eBook ISBN: 9781136605277
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Language is the foundation of everything that goes on at school and is critical for formal learning and to interact socially. This book represents a whole school approach that includes tips for: identifying pupils with language learning difficulties following the book's simply explained guidelines; helping pupils overcome stumbling blocks by using the book's practical classroom strategies; modifying the schools curriculum to best support pupils with language learning difficulties; and timesaving resources in photocopiable format.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1 The Language Learning Disabled Student

Chapter 1 Language Development and LLD — What Goes Wrong?

Chapter 2 Characteristics of Students with LLD

Chapter 3 Adolescence and LLD — A Potent Mix

Chapter 4 Social Skills and Language

Part 2 Teaching the Language Learning Disabled Student

Chapter 5 Organisation for Independence at School

Chapter 6 Preteaching

Chapter 7 Libraries and Research

Chapter 8 Libraries and Research

Chapter 9 Skills across the Curriculum

Chapter 10 Writing

Chapter 11 School and Beyond — Skills to Help in Everyday Life

Part 3 Modifying the Curriculum

Chapter 12 Framework for Modifying Curriculum

Chapter 13 How to Modify the Amount of Work

Chapter 14 How to Modify the Complexity of Tasks

Chapter 15 How to Modify Tests, Assessments, and Reports

References and Further Reading

Appendix

Index

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Sarah Fulton; Sylvia Walton (Principal of Tintern AGGS); Lyn Henshall (Vice-Principal, Tintern AGGS); Sue Healey (Director of Information Services) and the staff of the Cullen Resource Centre; the many Tintern staff members whose contributions are acknowledged in the text; the students, parents, teachers, and other professional colleagues who have taught us so much; the students who allowed us to include their work (Alexandria Copling, Ellen Davis, Michelle Ross); and our supportive families.

Foreword

The task of teaching children and adolescents with language learning disabilities is complex and at times taxing. It is also a task that must be shared between family and school.

Working with Secondary Students who have Language Difficulties specifically looks at the school area and the management of young people with this disability. It has been a great privilege for me to work within a school setting that has allowed and indeed fostered very strong programmes that are well integrated throughout the curriculum and are designed to assist young people with this particular disability.

Students with language learning disabilities are in every school. It is imperative that there be systems and structures in place to identify their difficulties and assist them in moving through the school system in ways that enhance their capacity to learn.This has led to the need for a whole-school approach, in which the teaching staff are knowledgeable about the students’ difficulties and have the capacity to work with specialist staff, particularly in modifying curriculum and assisting young people to understand how they need to learn and compensate.

It has been found that integrating specialist teachers with the staff, and supporting staff and students, both as individuals and in small groups, while keeping the students firmly linked to their class groups and to their timetabled subjects, has the practical benefit of skilling the teaching staff and assisting the students to move to the final years of schooling in a confident manner. By offering this range of different approaches, from individual to group to classroom, young people have quickly learned their own strategies and forms of management. Staff have also been greatly assisted, not only in knowledge and skill, but in supporting these students.

The work that has been done demonstrates that schools benefit from the addition to their team of professionals from other disciplines including speech and language pathology. The benefits gained by staff and students are enormous. The school has the added pleasure of seeing individual students with this very specific disability achieve their goals. Sometimes this involves vocational training courses within the school sector and at other times it leads to final exams.

Finally, it has been my observation that having these students so well organised and integrated into the school community and having a variety of professionals working with teachers has had an extremely positive and practical influence on the teaching staff and students. It has led to important curriculum developments that have benefited every student, not just those for whom the original work was specifically designed. The whole-school approach, with professionals assisting and working with teachers and young people, as well as a school climate that truly values the individual, can promote effective learning not only for adolescents with language learning disabilities, but for all students.

It is a pleasure for me to commend this book by Mandy Brent, Florence Gough, and Sue Robinson and also to compliment the staff of the school for the enthusiastic way in which this programme has been embraced.

Sylvia J.Walton

PRINCIPALM,TINTERN AGGS

INTRODUCTION

Language learning disabled students: who are they?

Language is critical for satisfactory progress at school.To cope with the school curriculum, students must be proficient in language in all its forms — speaking, listening, understanding, reading, and writing. It is generally assumed that children arrive at school with normal language. However, some children — more than we often assume — have problems with their language skills.They have difficulties with their mother tongue despite fine minds and good ears.

If apparently alert, capable students have difficulty with understanding or using spoken language — and consequently have difficulty with reading, understanding, and producing written language — it is essential to consider that they might have a language learning disability (LLD).

How do you notice them in school?

Teachers might notice such students because of their poor learning or because of their poor behaviour, but a great concern is that they often ‘hide out’ in classrooms and go unnoticed. Even if they are noticed, their problems are often misunderstood and the fact that they have language learning disabilities is often not recognised.

Students with language learning disabilities are generally not successful students and often quietly drop out without finishing school. They are over-represented in the number of students who fail to finish school. Students who do not finish school are known to have more difficulties in finding work than students who do finish school.

Some students are experts at covering up; they camouflage their difficulties and draw little attention to themselves. Others do not proceed as quietly. Some of them cause a great deal of disruption at school, particularly after the mid primary years. The skills they need for success at school are not developing, they are often confused and in trouble for not doing what they should, and they often have considerable difficulty with social skills and peer relationships. Their self-esteem is poor, and is precarious as they enter adolescence — a phase of their lives when personal identity and establishing a sense of self is a major goal.

Schools easily recognise negative behaviour, but the fact that this behaviour is caused by serious underlying difficulties with language often goes unnoticed. These language difficulties make the regular curriculum inaccessible and the school environment extremely frustrating.

How is language linked to learning?

Language is critical for learning and underpins everything that goes on at school. From the beginning, children use language to communicate — to tell stories, to pass on information and to question. Teachers use language to chat, to explain, to instruct, to direct, to discipline and to reason. Language is necessary for social interaction and for formal learning. At first, children use their language to talk about the ‘here and now’ — asking for things, greeting, and making comments. Then they move on to develop more sophisticated language that becomes the basis for the complex skills required for learning. Language underpins memory and makes it possible to develop higher-level mental operations or thinking skills — such as planning, reasoning and reflecting on issues and events. It is essential to recognise that spoken language is the foundation for written language.

Language travels along a continuum — from oral language used to communicate to written language used to educate and become educated. Difficulties with reading, writing and spelling are often part of a bigger picture of language disability that must be...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• References and Further Reading
• Appendix
• Index