Korean Job Discussion Forums

[whatthefunk]

Ill have a new student starting in April whos blind. Have no idea what to do with him... His mom is going to put brail in his textbook so he'll be able to read, but as far as games and activities, Im at a complete loss. He'll be in the class alone, hes a first year junior high school student. Any body had any experience with this? Any ideas??

[whatthefunk]

Giving this a bump cause I really need help with this...

[guangho]

http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=teaching_visually_impaired&OFFID=se2jp&KEY=teaching_blind

[desultude]

The first good step is that you are asking for advice, so you clearly care about doing a good job with him.

It's completely different, but I used to teach swimming to the blind. One thing I learned is that blind people usually want to be treated like sighted people, with minor adjustments. Include him as much as possible, and let him take some lumps. Maybe use some blindfold games where he can actually stand out for his developed skills.

I taught my blind students life saving skills, like rescuing someone in a pool who is yelling for help. They have better hearing radar than we do, and were usually able to find me quickly with the shephard's crook (that very long hook used to pull people from the water). After conking me on the head regularly, they were able to pull me to the side and get me out of the water well. They were thrilled to do something so useful and competent.

[ajuma]

Actually, this may not be as hard as it seems. Granted, you can't write anything on the board, but you can probably adapt this.

Do you know what his level is? It would be a help to know! If he's a complete beginner, you can start with touching things like "apple" "ball"...etc and go on to "This is an apple" and "What is this?" If he's more advanced, you can teach new vocab by playing Bingo...have his mom put the braille (in English, of course!) on new words and you say it. He has to find it, then use it in a sentence.

Think about how you would USUALLY teach in a 1 on 1 situation and just adapt it to someone who can't see. Can he READ English Braille or is his Mom writing the stuff in Korean? Check!

It MAY help (if his Mom's English is ok) to have her in the room for a couple of classes until he gets comfortable. Your school or his Mom may have to shell out some money for objects you might need (pretty hard to teach what a basketball is unless you can feel it!)

Has he had any English teachers before? Maybe his Mom can put you in touch with them so you can find out from them what worked and what didn't.

What a great challenge to your teaching ablility! Good luck...and I think I envy you for the experience!! Please keep us updated!

[thorin]

Use TPR.

[matthews_world]

I find that a lot of ESL teachers have know idea what that is or do not properly teach TPR.

What is considered good TPR instruction?

[ajuma]

TPR is great...up to about 2nd grade or so! Can't see my uni students doing "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes"!!!

[whatthefunk]

Thanks to all the ideas so far.
To clarify. He is going to be first year junior high school. He will have my class alone so team type games are out. His level is okay, knows how to read and the basic phrases...Id say high for his age. He reads brail but I dont kow if its English brail or what...Im assuming its English brail though. My coworker used to teach him in a group class but he cant go to the group class anymore cause he has to go to a special school for the blind and cant make that time anymore. I think as far as reading and writing, hes okay. But Im worried about games, activities and other ways to make the class fun for him. Any ideas? Please help if ya can!!

[ajuma]

The only thing I can think of is to talk to your director about having the kid bring a friend with him, maybe for free or at a discount. It's hard enough to find interesting things for one sighted child to do let alone one blind one! Maybe another kid from the blind school he goes to?