"Classified" students in regular class

[mercygate]

For the first time, I have a girl who is classified as learning disabled in my 6th grade evening religious ed class. It would have been a great thing if somebody had mentioned this before she showed up on my doorstep.

After our third session, when she failed to have her memory verse or any of her homework ready, and absolutely shrank into her seat during our power teaching segments, I called home to ask what I could do to encourage and help her daughter, and she explained the situation.

Each child writes out a memory verse of scripture at the beginning of class. Those who get it right (and they are all doing very well except two kids), get to light a candle at the front of the room to show that they are "part of the light." This has been a GREAT way to get the kids to do this little assignment. My little lamb (and probably the other kid, who is "close" to being classified) is not likely to be able to do this EVER.

My question is this: How can I adjust the assignment for this girl in a way that she can get to light her candle without diluting the significance of our little ritual for the others?

[upnorthteacher]

Could you give her a shorter verse or modified version of the verse? Another option would be to give her the verse with some of the words missing and have her fill in the missing words. You could adjust the number of words missing to what she seems to be capable of remembering.

[mercygate]

Could you give her a shorter verse or modified version of the verse? Another option would be to give her the verse with some of the words missing and have her fill in the missing words. You could adjust the number of words missing to what she seems to be capable of remembering.
I LIKE that! That way she could be doing her verse at the same time the others are doing theirs! I am sure she could handle that.

Thank you so much for a wonderful idea.

[lynn bambusch]

For the first time, I have a girl who is classified as learning disabled in my 6th grade evening religious ed class. It would have been a great thing if somebody had mentioned this before she showed up on my doorstep.

After our third session, when she failed to have her memory verse or any of her homework ready, and absolutely shrank into her seat during our power teaching segments, I called home to ask what I could do to encourage and help her daughter, and she explained the situation.

Each child writes out a memory verse of scripture at the beginning of class. Those who get it right (and they are all doing very well except two kids), get to light a candle at the front of the room to show that they are "part of the light." This has been a GREAT way to get the kids to do this little assignment. My little lamb (and probably the other kid, who is "close" to being classified) is not likely to be able to do this EVER.

My question is this: How can I adjust the assignment for this girl in a way that she can get to light her candle without diluting the significance of our little ritual for the others?
Please, keep in mind that this poor little girl is having the same problems in school, although, hopefully, she is getting the help she needs there. You do not say what the learning disability is, is it writing? reading? Does she have problems with fine motor skills, making it hard for her to reproduce the lesson? I don't think modifying the expectations so she can achieve them takes anything from the other students. Talk to the parents and ask them what she is capable of doing. She needs to feel accepted and especially since this is a church setting, the others should be very willing to understand and help. Yes, I am a Special Ed teacher.

[merrynl]

Talk to the parents and ask them what she is capable of doing. She needs to feel accepted and especially since this is a church setting, the others should be very willing to understand and help. Yes, I am a Special Ed teacher.

I completely agree. Make sure you're talking to the parents (or her special ed teacher, if that's possible in the situation) to find out what kinds of accomodations are appropriate for her. Use that to modify your instruction.

[mercygate]

Please, keep in mind that this poor little girl is having the same problems in school, although, hopefully, she is getting the help she needs there. You do not say what the learning disability is, is it writing? reading? Does she have problems with fine motor skills, making it hard for her to reproduce the lesson? I don't think modifying the expectations so she can achieve them takes anything from the other students. Talk to the parents and ask them what she is capable of doing. She needs to feel accepted and especially since this is a church setting, the others should be very willing to understand and help. Yes, I am a Special Ed teacher.

Thank you for this! I DID speak with the parents. She has short term memory problems and reads below grade level. She also has a you-can't-make-me attitude and is extremely obstinate when she doesn't want to do something. Her dad told me that when he smacked her on the behind and sent her to her room when she hit her 3-year-old brother two years ago, she set up such a raging howl for over an hour that the neighbors called CPS . . .

This is clearly a complicated case and I'll just have to do the best I can.

Our Program Director agrees that if she wants to transfer to my smaller class, he would be glad to accommodate her. Stay tuned.

[Boxcar]

Perhaps you could teach her a few memory stratigies as well. I would imagine that this is part of her supports as school and transfering the techinques over might help.

Some students also benefit from very personal connections to what they are trying to remember. Can you help her select verses that are very significant to her?

[Brit]

what is the purpose of the memory verse? is it solely a memory exercise, or does it serve another purpose? If it is solely a memory exercise, is it fair to ask someone with documented memory deficiencies to do it? If it leads to some other skill, can you get at that skill some other way?

just some things to think about.

[mercygate]

what is the purpose of the memory verse? is it solely a memory exercise, or does it serve another purpose? If it is solely a memory exercise, is it fair to ask someone with documented memory deficiencies to do it? If it leads to some other skill, can you get at that skill some other way?

just some things to think about.

The memory verse serves more than one purpose. First of all, in this age where people think rote learning is defective, it gives people a skill. The ability to memorize comes with memorizing, and having mental furniture in your head is very handy. Second, the verses chosen are pithy little selections that convey an important faith point that might come in handy in the future. It becomes part of their spiritual storm cellar.

In conference with this child and her parents, we have agreed that she will transfer from my big section to my small section because she is more comfortable in small-group settings. It was very good last night. Her assignment will be to copy out the verse at home and bring it to class. She will be the monitor who reads the verse aloud when the other kids pass their papers to one another to be checked before they are handed in to me.

The other kids are aware of her limitations and are completely accepting of the fact that her assignment will be different from theirs.

Last night, ALL the other kids had their verse down to a "t" and all of them, including this child, got to light their candle . . . We got to have a big "10-finger woo-hoo" for everybody.

In my other class, the child with learning difficulties will do a fill-in-the-blank version of the verse as was suggested up-thread.

[Brit]

sounds like you've got great strategies set-up. awesome! 10-finger whoo-hoo to you!

[mercygate]

sounds like you've got great strategies set-up. awesome! 10-finger whoo-hoo to you!

Awwwwww. Thanks. :o

I owe a lot of my ablity even to think about how to approach a challenge like this to having signed onto these forums last summer. It was here that I learned about Power Teaching, discovered Harry Wong, and Tom Daly and found people like y'all who are so generous with your good counsel.

I also owe a lot to all th e demons, who have attempted (sometimes with success) to sabotage my classes every year. I should have recognized by day three that there was something seriously amiss with them even though there was no special notation on my info sheet.

Because of these "difficult" kids and resources I discovered here, I crafted an optional information sheet for parents to fill out asking basic questions like, "Does your child read at grade level?" "Does your child behave appropriately for his/her age level?" "Does your child need help to behave appropriately for his/her age level?" That probing questionnaire prompted one parent to take her boy out of my class before the term began. Others responded (including the dad of my classified girl) with detailed information that has been very helpful in setting me up to work WITH this child.