ESL and learning disabilities

Jenny Miller · Post by **Jenny Miller** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:10 pm

Hey all! I'm writing here because I'm trying to meet the needs of all my students, and I feel that I'm falling short with one. The guy is animated in any class participation, cracking jokes, laughing - excellent language output, but he just almost literally shuts down with any written communication. To me it's pretty amazing that he's learned to speak without knowing how to write the words. He may or may not have a learning disability, but I can assure you that his learning style is certainly different from the other members of the class.

I try to use a variety of activities in my class to keep it moving and interesting, but I just don't really know how to teach this fellow to write. At times, I have him orally communicate his thoughts, I write them down, he reads them, and then we go from there, but I feel that I could be a lot more effective. How do I meet his needs without stigmatizing?

Specific example: I am having my students keep a journal to help target language strengths and weaknesses and to help them correct mistakes (as a bonus I can learn more about them too). This task is a struggle for the one student, and I really don't want to frustrate him. Any suggestions?

Many thanks, and I'll eagerly await your replies!!
Jenny

joshua2004 · Post by **joshua2004** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:06 pm

Anytime I had a student that was really lagging in an area(or all areas), I found that they really need A LOT of encouragement and ongoing support. As the teacher it is impossible for you to do this, so you need to enlist people in the class to help him. Once you break that barrier where he believes he "can't do it", he becomes self-motivated. But I want to emphasize it really takes a lot of work to get there.

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:30 pm

In the meantime, perhaps, he might be able to keep a journal on tape?

Jenny Miller · Post by **Jenny Miller** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:14 am

Joshua and Lorikeet -

Thank you to both of you for your replies. I was actually musing today about doing a journal on tape, and then transcribing the tape to written form for him to read and correct mistakes. I'd do the transcribing as we're not talking but 10 or 20 sentences at a pop. What do you think? Also the bit about getting the other students to really encourage him is a great idea as I'm constantly worrying myself about whether I provide enough positive feedback...
Thank you thank you!
Jenny

joshua2004 · Post by **joshua2004** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:23 pm

Just keep in mind that the best solution is always not too taxing on your time.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:49 pm

Can you get him tested? Great facility with oral language can be a sign that students are compensating for a lack in other areas. Can you find out if he is doing this in other classrooms as well - talking but not writing? Does he type? It is sometimes better to get a student like this to learn to type and use a computer in the classroom rather than getting them to physically write with a pen. Then he will get spell checks and grammar checks automatically if those are a problem for him as well. I often found that personable students like this had been able to slip through all their classes because the teachers knew they were smart and that they knew most of the material and so they just passed them when it came to written exams. It would be great if you were the one to get him to face his fears and find ways to overcome them so he could be good in many things. But there are some people who never overcome this disability and have to have help in writing things down so that would be good for him to know as well so he can start to build strategies. There is a lot of information on helping special students with ADD or ADHD or Learning Disbilities or Learning Differences on the web and they might have hints for you help him if there is no other backup in the school.