Group: Oxent guys
Gabriela Felipe Machado
Luis Henrique Mendes de Melo
Gabriela Felipe Machado
Luis Henrique Mendes de Melo
Marcelo de Sales Cavalcante
Moysés Barbosa da Silva
Teresa Cristina Pedrosa
Moysés Barbosa da Silva
Teresa Cristina Pedrosa
Every family looks forward to seeing their kids smiling, stepping for the first time, speaking the first words and so on. When one of these signals is developed late, it is important to be taken into consideration. This analogy can also be seen in classroom: when a teacher does not get proper feedback from students - in terms of hearing what it is being said in classroom, having difficulties to see what is being written on the board or maybe in a textbook, connecting ideas, questioning, answering, writing words without misspelling them, pronouncing words accurately, being able to find the main ideas in one text or maybe in one paragraph, paraphrasing ideas, summarizing ideas, problems with socialization or even willing to be alone, etc.
On the one hand, it is a challenge inside a big classroom to identify students with special needs. Most of the time teachers are so busy with their work with students, lectures and evaluations that they cannot see if students need a different approach / special attention. We tend to think that when students fail in exams, than we (teachers) start considering that something might be wrong.
The ones with mental and physical especial needs are quite easy to spot, but the real challenge is to recognize cognitive and learning needs with few time per week (1:30’) with the students in class, especially as English teachers. What can be done, in case a student has a physical disability is to provide accessibility as well as adapt some activities or games which require from this particular student some quick movements; s/he can be, for instance, the referee or the counter, always changing the role according to the activity suggested.
It is important to note however, that in case a student lacks of attention or motivation it might be the first signal we teachers tend to be alert inside our classrooms. According to what we have read about it, we found that attention “refers to the idea that students have a finite amount of cognitive resources available at any given moment to devote to a particular stimuli from their sensory environment”. So when there is a lack of it, it is crucial for the teacher to insure that students understand how attention works and identify their particular profiles of attention strengths and weaknesses. Teachers also can use private ways of signaling students when they are turned out, for instance, a teacher raises her/his hands and so all students must proceed the same, giving a signal they are paying attention.
Another signal may be bad behavior in class, which can be explained by many different reasons and one in particular may be to hide some learning weakness. One student might not understand what is being lectured by the teacher and refuses to accept it and/or be afraid of jokes of the other students. It may also be seen as an extreme violent act or constant inquietude during classes, chit-chatting during the teacher’s presentation.
On the other hand, the Brazilian traditional way of teaching/lecturing, centered-based on teachers, may cover some of these individual needs and as we are teachers and part in this process, sometimes we tend not to see what is going on in our classes. Lack of time as well as planning are also factors that must be considered.
Fortunately, in case we improve planning, manage our time successfully and also prioritizing different learning styles, it is quite possible to reach a meaningful learning environment, accessing more easily students needs in order to include them all actively in the learning process.
References:
No comments:
Post a Comment