Frustrated Teen Trying to Help

We have a certain way to go to uncover all of the strategies that will help students to be successful. And many of the traditional practices of school fly in the face of those strategies. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks and school is a fairly old dog and it resists learning new techniques that would help students with learning differences. It’s also hard to do much of anything for students’ individual needs when classes have 25+ students in them.

And I think it’s also true that school expects a certain number of students to do poorly in school. If all students did well, people would not believe that the school was hard enough. We sadly seem to need some failure in our schools to make success credible.

School was not designed for all children to learn. If it was, would we have designed it as we have? Sometimes with thousands of students in one building? School was designed to be a group process and to meet the needs of a group, not the individuals in the group. When individual needs become too different from the group, school - as it is - isn’t successful at helping those students.

We can hope for a better world with better schools in it as without that beter world those better schools don’t seem to be coming anytime soon.

Vanessa,

I agree with you. As a parent, I feel very fortunate to have recognized the dysfunctional aspects of the school system while my son was still young. I really don’t think sped is an appropriate place for many children who are placed there.

There is too much emphasis on modifying the curriculum rather than treating deficits or utilizing accomodations such as computers that would help children circumvent some of their deficits and display their strengths.

My son has seen great success through remediation of his specific deficits. He has a little way to go but I have little doubt he will get there now that I have a handle on things. I have taken him completely out of sped.

It is painful for me to see some of the kids I know placed in sped. I don’t think the parents always fully understand that their children who seem to be doing well because of the modifications are really not keeping up with the rest of the class. One parent I spoke with recently thought her son was getting the same exact work as every one else but just with a little extra help. She was a little shocked to learn that may not be the reality.

I will be doing audiblox with my other son’s preschool. I believe this cognitive enhancement program will help some kids get an early start on cognitive skills they might otherwise miss. It should also help to spot those who need even more help at the sensory level at an early age.

Maybe less will be placed in sped.

Well said, Linda F — I will not hope for a better world, but will make one for my son and hopefully my knowledge and opinions will spread through my circle…here in Ontario some changes are being made, but as Sara said the old dog does NOT want to learn anything — still, it is from people like us, spreading what we have learned through teaching others, that we will make these changes.

Unfortunately, ridiculously low funding will hamper our success — don’t think that will change anytime soon, since fancy lunches, breakfast meetings, and resort retreats seem more important than textbooks, at least at my local board…

Vanessa,

You are one astute young lady. You are absolutely correct IMHO that ld kids absolutely have the intellegece and can learn. The thing is that they learn out of the box so must be taught, or learn to create their own way of learning information.

As a mom, I am very worried that my child will spend 12 yrs. in school and get a worthless paper at the end. My son is in 5th grade with a super teacher who has made a huge difference in his learning.

I believe that experienced dedicated teachers realize that everyone learns has the particular way of actually learning materials. I think until colleges teach the educaters that there are many way to learn the problem will remain.

Thank you all so much for filling me in on what is truly going on with others around the country. I definatly want to puruse teaching the LD High school courses when I grow up because all these problems you are all discussing can be dealt with if someone speaks for all of you. Here is another question, if you all don’t mind answering, what are some of the techniques other schools around the nation are using to help with remedial reading and remedial math. I know in my area, they are simply giving them lower level books, which in my opinion doesn’t motivate, but infacts discourages because these kids know they aren’t reading what their peers are. What stratagies are your schools using?

I know. I am also very concerned about students not learning what they need to know to succeed.

I try very hard to help my students get the skills they need.

In fact, I have just published an inexpensive and very effective method for helping students with decoding words. It is a method which works NOW, and with any text. And it is quite commonsense. My students appreciate being taught the method, because it incorporates their own learning styles.

Take a look at the book, HEARING, SAYING, WRITING, SEEING, AND READING THE SOUNDS OF WORDS, at 1stbooks.com. I published it because I am tired of hearing about students who are not reading well, and I hope other teachers will find it helps their students to do as well as mine.

Anla

Vanessa,
You are a bright and caring teen. Your parents must be proud!

I will tell you that there are programs that work but most schools don’t use them.

Something like audiblox www.audiblox2000.com is very effective.
PACE is also effective, processing and cognitive enhancement.

These programs work to change the brain improving cognitive abilities such as memory, sequencing, and logic and reasoning. They can also speed up the processing of the information.

Programs for reading that are effective are:

Lindamood bell www.lindamoodbell.com and phonographix www.readamerica.net.

There is alot of scientific evidence to support these programs but unfortunately many schools still use whole language based methods.

You could help young children today. Becoming an audiblox tutor would not be difficult.

You are preaching my gospel, Vanessa!

I”m a high school spec. ed. teacher in New Orleans, LA, teaching learning disabled and emotionally disturbed students. In our system, the spec. ed. students who are pursuing a diploma are held to the same academic standards as everyone else. We do accommodations(testing in small group, for instance) and modifcations(shortening the length of a test but with the same level of difficulty), but the standards are the same.

You are right……..it is our job to help these students realize their full potential. My biggest dream when I first started teaching 21 years ago was to help these students realize that they are better than they think they are. By the good grace of the Almighty and much hard work, I believe I have succeeded. Not all my students were successful, but I believe I have made an impact upon all of them.
LD students do indeed have the same capacity for learning, but struggled in the process. Edison was learning disabled; so was Einstein, and many other brilliant minds. It is our job as teachers to help them compensate for their unique learning styles and help them understand language and numbers in a way that they can perceive it. It involves being a “detective” so to speak, unlocking, or trying to unlock, just how it is they think, how it is they process information. We do these students a grave disservice when we merely “dumb down” the material to a level that they can understand. Now, granted, as a teacher, I always start with what they are able to do and move on from there, but ultimately the goal is achievement at the level that is expected of the norm, that is, “everybody else”. You are right……making the requirements easier for them does not serve them well for the world at large-an idea I wish more parents would understand. Unfortunately, for many parents(not all or even most, but “many”) the goal is to “walk across the stage with a real diploma”, regardless of what that diploma might actually mean.

You are very perceptive about students with these disabilities. Continue to observe and take mental notes; your perceptions are going to be perhaps your most valuable asset in teaching these children, for the honest truth is, no college program can adequately train you for the totality of working with this population; they can only give you some strategies to start with as you learn from experience what will and will not work with them.

Good luck to you!!

Vanessa — you are absolutely right, and this is a systemic problem across North America. You can’t change it all at once, but you can do many things.

In the large majority of cases, most of the kids in the dumbed-down classes are there for one main reason: they never learned to read. Yes, there are some exceptions, but they are about 10%; 90% of the kids in those classes are behind the eight-ball because of lousy reading skills. Without those reading skills, they are stuck in any academic situation.

One thing you can do, even right now, is to become an effective reading tutor. Many people here are strong supporters of a program called PhonoGraphix, shorthand PG. You can go to the Teaching Reading board on this website and look up older posts by a teacher called Shay who works with kids *exactly* like your friends — Grade 10 or 11 and won’t graduate because they can’t read and write well enough to pass the tests. She uses PG *and* other programs to help them, and gets them through to graduation. If your friends are motivated to change, you can take a few hours a week and help them a *lot*. They have to come up with the time and willingness to work, but this approach really does succeed.
I use other things besides PG, and will be happy to send you suggestions; just click on my name above and email me.

Second, your high school/school board is making the usual mistake of starting ten to twelve years too late. If kids actually learned to *read* (as opposed to guessing from pictures, parroting back the teacher’s words, etc.) in Grade 1, then there wouldn’t be such a large number of kids in special ed in high school — and the special ed teachers could work with students who really need help, not just cope with overload. The school system puts its resources into the high school because that’s where the testing is done and the failure is more visible, but the problems are in the earliest school years, and that is where things can be most easily turned around.
You can inform yourself about how to be an effective reading tutor for young children. Many of the parents on theis website who have taught their own children to read are not college graduates, so you don’t need to be afraid about that. You can read the Teaching Reading board, and I will be happy to send you emails about my tutoring methods that you can use. They are direct and inexpensive. Then you can find kids who need you; there are volunteer tutoring positions through commuinity and church groups and schools (but be careful you don’t get stuck in a program where they force you to use more of the same ineffective methods that failed these kids in the first place.) If you need a part-time job, you can tutor for a higher wage than you get for babysitting, and do a lot of good while supporting yourself.

Good luck and I hope you continue with this idea.

I taught 8th grade students for 14 years. One of the most valuable things I did was to team teach my students with a regular education teacher. With two teachers and a supportive administration my students were mainstreamed in a regular team of English, social studies and science. The curriculum was interesting and my LD students worked hard to be successful. I had a pull-out study skills class for those students where we could work on assignments and provide extra instruction and/or help. I felt this program gave students a chance to see that they could be successful and make a more informed judgement about the kinds of classes they needed to take in high school. I also have a LD son who is very smart, but reads and writes poorly. I have never allowed those difficulties to stand in the way of his education. He is now 15 and still learning how to get the job done, his way. He uses audio books, dictates into a computer and tape recorder. You have a clear picture of how many bright children are not taught to read and are not receiving the education they deserve. I currently work in a program that provides one-to-one instruction to LD students. There is a lot of research and many excellent programs are being developed to teach LD students. This website will provide a wealth of information to you. Good luck.

wow! what a bright and articulate person you are! i think the sad facts of the matter are i) squeaky wheels get the grease-HOWEVER, the parents assume that the experts will guide and help and suggest and recommend things- not our experience.i.e. for a long time, we don’t even know what to squeak about
ii) money honey- the goal of our sp ed director is to minimize financial impact to the district, rather than help kids after hearing what’s he’s said about LD’s etc.
iii) lack of trainig/resources: once again, you’d like to think that the people with he the”expertise” know what’s up- rather than” what’s multisensory?” our kiddo has recieved anything that approaches adequate services only because of our chronic and constant prodding, pushing, educating the educators.

Vanessa,
You asked an important question about what school districts are doing besides remedial high school math and reading. State and federal standards require that students with disabilities have access to the general ed curriculum so how does a student who is not reading at grade level access grade level curriculum?

There are MANY compensatory strategies that are computer based that allow the student access to the curriculum which is the law. Unfortunately, many teachers (both regular ed and special ed) are not aware of all the programs that are available. For example, text to speech (TTS) software programs are customizable and remove the barriers that printed text offers to students with reading issues. Publishers should be required to offer an electronic text version in addition to printed text. When schools and curriculums are designed using universal design for learning strategies (see cast.org) barriers to learning are removed and students gain independence and become more successful. Compensation and remediation are not mutually exclusive.

Karen — I have some *huge* questions about the “universal design” concept.

One example that is used for physical disabilities is that all kitchens should have lower counters and sinks so as to be accessible to people in wheelchairs. Well. whoever made up that suggestion either is a male chauvinist whose wife does all the cooking, or else eats all his meals at McDonald’s. Have you ever tried to do any real cooking (anything much more than defrosting a Stouffer’s) at a regular table height? The standard counter height was developed so that the average woman doesn’t get a screaming backache in the first ten minutes.
True, people in wheelchairs should have accessible kitchens. But that doesn’t mean that every standing cook on the continent should be in the hospital with back strain, either.

In school issues, similar problems crop up. Proponents of “universal design” blithely order teachers to change presentation or parts of the curriculum, without first determining what the goals of having that activity in the curriculum were in the first place.
Just for one example here, they say that all students should be able to use calculators at any time, except (sometimes maybe) for tests on specific skills, and students who have problems with math shouldn’t be held back just because they have difficulty with the manipulation of fractions. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Just one problem — when you hit algebra, geometry, calculus, etc., you have to do fractions like x/y and (6 - x)/(8x2 - 72). If you are not really, really good with the fraction manipulations, you WILL fail advanced math. So, how do you learn how to be good at these skills? You *practice* them for years and years. They aren’t easy for anyone at first (I’m a math major, and this stuff was hard work for me too, thank you very much), but *with work*, they do come. Of course, if you skip around all the real work, you will fall flat later.
A second example: In English, how do you think you learn to write an essay? Think back to your own experience — did that incredibly dull series of lessons on outlining and all that make you a better writer, or did it just convince you the teachers were crazy? If you are like 99.9% of people, you wrote a few essays, got them back corrected and criticized, said some rude things, wrote a few more essays, got them back with corrections, and so on. It is an interactive process. requiring years of time and a lot of work from a lot of dedicated teachers — not only in English but in history and other subjects, even a few reports in scinece — to help a student develop the ability to organize and support an argument. The proponents of “universal design” who propose requiring little or no essay writing in most classes are entirely missing the point; they want to develop an Olympic skier by having him take three runs down the mountain in an entire year. Ain’t gonna happen.
Now, not every Grade 6 teacher knows everything about the Grades 9, 10, 11, 12, and college curricula and so not every Grade 6 teacher is in a position to make a truly informed decision about what skills need to be taught and what can be thrown out. Nor are all parents. That is why there are district and state curriculum committees. True, a lot of curricula are pretty bad – which is why it’s even more important to inform yourself before happily trashing things. You may be throwing out the one remaining bit of glue that is holding the academic standards together.

Victoria,
Thank you for your impassioned response. Unfortunately, it seems that people are describing “universal design for learning” to you in a manner that does not explain it properly. For example you say,
“Proponents of “universal design” blithely order teachers to change presentation or parts of the curriculum, without first determining what the goals of having that activity in the curriculum were in the first place.”
Hopefully, those in the assistive technology field are not “ordering” teachers to do anything except what benefits students. When I work with teachers, I always ask them to consider what the point of the task is and if necessary, to break down the task into parts and do a task analysis. For example, so many times teachers require students to copy sentences, math problems, etc. from the chalkbaord. I have worked with too many students who for a number of different reasons, find this to be an impossible task. So, I ask the teachers what is the point of the copying and it is never to improve the students’ copying skills but to work with what is being copied. When they understand that, they then provide a copy for the student at the desk so that the barrier to completing the task independently is removed.
You also say,
“The proponents of “universal design” who propose requiring little or no essay writing in most classes are entirely missing the point; they want to develop an Olympic skier by having him take three runs down the mountain in an entire year. Ain’t gonna happen.”
Couldn’t agree with you more. That isn’t what proponents of UDL are saying. Proponents never suggest requiring little or no essay writing (That is NOT a UDL concept!) because all students must be able to write. What we say is to remove the barriers to essay writing by providing the appropriate supports that will allow a student to compose independently. Too often I see resource specialists sit next to the student and work with them step by step (over many months with no increase in independent skills) to get through the required essay composition. We’ve all heard of learned dependence. UDL proponents believe that compensatory strategies need to be built into the curriculum while remediation is occurring. What if remediation takes several years. What happens to the student in the meantime? They are still required to have access to the curriculum and to demonstrate what they know. So let’s remove the barriers that prevent students with learning issues to have access to the curriculum and to independently demonstrate what they have learned.
There are some great tools out there that help improve student success. As federal law says, they must be considered for every student on an IEP. So let’s help each student achieve academic success by removing barriers.