setting up support center

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I’m hoping to set up a learning support service for L.D. students in my high school this year, and would appreciate input on the type of support you give, what works, difficulties and successes. From my school, i’m getting the feeling that there will be a great gap between theory and practice, and a need to compromise creatively.

thanks
Brenda Liptz

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 08/10/2003 - 1:03 PM

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I love the phrase creative compromise and your recognition of the gap that often exists - not just in your school- between theory and practice.

I see the first question when setting up a resource room as always being this. Will the resource room support the students in their school work or will it work to remediate their weak skills?

To me, by high school, there simply isn’t time to do both in the short time they’ll spend with you. And equally important, if one works solely to remediate their skill weaknesses, what happens to their grades and their self-esteems in their other classes?

My own school has a very confused philosophy on this and I watch our LD students struggle in their classes. They receive no support in our resource room but rather are assigned more work the intention of which is to slowly remediate their weaknesses. But… how do they keep up in their current school work while catching up in their skills? I’ve never seen it done successfully at our school.

Our reg. ed teachers here take a very short term view of the child (while professing that they do exactly the opposite) Our reg. ed teachers here eschew ‘creative compromise’. If a resource room were mine to run, I’d have it be a support center where students could get help with their school work - not be assigned more work. I’d have the textbooks on tape for those who need it and computers and printers so they can type their work.

Of course by high school many LD students are ‘shut down’ but if they sense a teacher is really on their side and not eager to put more obstacles to success in their path, they can and do come around.

Get hold of Mel Levine’s book Educational Care. It’s filled with great strategies.

Good luck.

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