[JohnDClare]

They arrive like a horde of wild things. You can’t get them settled, so the lesson objective becomes to try to get them to behave. It is a tense hour, and you rush round trying to satisfy a continual stream of shouted demands: ‘need a pen’, ‘he’s annoying me’, ‘this is boring’. You fly through reams of work that took ages to prepare, and at the end of the lesson it’s all half-done, badly-done rubbish. They are the class you dread.

Behaviour
I often say to young teachers: ‘Autumn Leaves!’ In autumn, piles of leaves lie on the ground. When a stiff wind whips up a few of them into the air, the way to settle them is NOT to flail about, shouting and creating – that just makes them worse! The truth is that many SN pupils cannot focus, not that they don’t wish to focus. So calm not confront. Sit at the front and exude calm. Don’t try to energise with your starter, but to engage and quieten. Be kindly and grandfatherly. In the SN classroom, Listen with Mother works much better than Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.

Planning
Plan the lesson as much to address the pupils’ special needs as to teach them an historical lesson.
To address the pupils’ Special Needs, you will need to know what they are. I use ‘whole class EPs’, rather than IEPs, so that a teacher can see the range of SNs at a glance. You MUST know which pupils have dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, emotional or social problems etc. If you have a decent SENCO, you will also know those who have problems with phonology, sequences, organisation, visuo-spatial awareness, auditory and visual working memory and things like that. Use the pupils’ CAT or MidYIS scores to identify learning strengths and weaknesses. It is essential you are familiar with the pupils’ problems, for only then will you be able to compensate.
A good teacher’s lesson objectives will normally include different outcomes for ‘more able’, ‘most pupils’ and ‘less able’ pupils. In the SN classroom, they must also include different provision for each special need, though you may be able to treat together children with the same deficit.
Having said this, it often makes little difference to your lesson activities in any practical sense. What is provision for one SN pupil’s strength will be practice for another pupil’s special weakness, and a good lesson will involve both. Include an element of Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic learning in every lesson, aware that a child – e.g. – with a kinaesthetic leaning will be able to thrive during that section of the lesson, but may be challenged during the other parts of the lesson. SN teaching is essentially just a development of this technique – if you introduce a phonetic exercise into the lesson, some pupils will be able to show off their ability, whilst for others it will be a vital piece of learning, tenuously appropriated. The key is to know what is difficult for whom, and to be able to adjust your approach accordingly.

Seating
The pupils must sit where YOU put them, without question, every lesson. If you have not been doing this already, they may moan, but most SN pupils like the consistency and security.
Social engineering via an effective seating plan supports learning and is key to securing good behaviour. Put the wriggly ones round the edge of the classroom (not, as you may have been told, near to you) and create a buffer between them and the rest of the class using a row of pupils who are quiet, easy-going and phlegmatic. Hyperactive children, in particular, need a location where there is the least opportunity for distraction (not only windows, but colourful classroom displays unsettle and over-stimulate, many SN pupils). Put those with learning difficulties in the centre front, where you can get to them easily to help. And then place for mutual benefit – sit the autistic or socially reticent child next to a friendly talkative pupil, and the limited pupil who can nevertheless read well next to the dyslexic pupil who brims with ideas etc. Girl-boy pairing in the secondary SN classroom is often a recipe for disaster, and be aware that SN pupils have very unstable social relationships – never try to make two pupils sit together if they are falling out today, but they will probably be friends again tomorrow.


The four-part lesson
Whatever you have been told about the three-part lesson, ignore. With an SN class, your lesson should have these four parts: starter, main learning, work activity, bribe.
Whatever you do, make sure that everything is to hand and ready-to-go, for it is at the seams that lessons fall apart. Also, in a ‘primary school’ kind of way, end each section of the lesson with a ‘clear away what you don’t need/ get out what you will need’ exercise – SN pupils often lack basic organisational skills, so you have to do the thinking for them.

Starters
I like to start a lesson with something that sets the principle of the learning outcome in the pupils’ own experience (if the lesson is about death on the western front, for instance, I might chat about how we feel when a loved one dies). SN pupils especially enjoy hearing relevant tales from your own life and family.
If you are very confident with a class, you may alternatively wish to play some basic skills games – e.g. simple spelling exercises (e.g. using the New Words and based around identifying phonetic elements or visual shape), or memory games (based on the concept of ‘I went to market’), or ordering tasks (especially those which involve reasoning). This tends to be easier with younger than with older pupils.
One extra thing, I ALWAYS start each lesson with a clear description of what they are going to do during the time, in terms they will understand – ‘first I am going to chat with you, then we are going to read round, then…’ etc.

Main Learning
This is the part of the lesson where you impart to the pupils the knowledge that they are going to use in the work activities later in the lesson.
The amazing thing about this is that – for SN pupils to enjoy your lesson – it does not need to be very exciting and often goes better if it is not! It is usually wise to avoid talking for very long, and I always warn pupils if they are going to have to listen to me for any length of time, and show them on the clock when I promise to stop, finished or not.
The key is to convey the knowledge necessary for the work activity as simply and clearly as possible. It is NOT the case that SN pupils appropriate information more easily from visual than written materials, and a busy picture can often be confusing. Similarly, cartoons are often far too hard, requiring, as they do, additional peripheral knowledge to interpret the allusions.
Provided you have a textbook with text at an appropriate reading level (or if you write your own text), most SN classes love to ‘read round’. I have never believed that dyslexic pupils should automatically be excused this, just as I cannot see why timid pupils should never be asked questions – that is the ‘challenge’ element of their lesson. But it is important to get the classroom ethos sorted out firmly. I always explain at the start of the year that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and no one in the class is allowed to mock or comment if anybody falters. I am cleverer than all of them, but I won’t make any of them look or feel stupid, and they must obey the same rules. The second rule, when reading round, is that I decide when the reader has struggled enough and needs telling the word – there is no ‘helpful’ shouting out of words in my lessons. I usually read the passage at least twice – first with pupils ‘reading round’, and secondly I read it to them, while they listen and follow.
Strangely enough, you will find you can revisit the same pages two, or even three lessons in succession, providing the lesson focus and consequent work activity is different each time. SN pupils enjoy this, because they become familiar with the content, and can show off their knowledge, and enjoy success. Thus, a documentary source about waiting to attack the German trenches might be used in three successive lessons – once towards a comprehension exercise, once as the basis of a drama, and once as the basis of some empathetic writing. By the third occasion, most of the class are desperate to read aloud because (like very young children taking their first reading steps) they know as much from memory as they are decoding from the page.
Make a lot of use in this part of the lesson, also, of paired work. I usually tell the pupils what questions I am going to ask of the materials, and give them time to think about them with a partner (jotting ideas in the back of their exercise book if they wish) before I ask the class any questions. Again, it is part of a process of giving them every chance to succeed, for nothing succeeds like success.

Work Activities
Always try to build into every lesson a section of at least 5-10 minutes where the pupils work on their own in silence. Where poorly-behaved classes find this exceptionally hard, run it as a competition to beat last week’s time, with rewards for the whole class. I sometimes play Mozart during this time as well, and some classes enjoy ‘our working music’ – it certainly gives a clear definition to the time when they are expected to work alone in silence.
The key here is to make sure that EVERY pupil listens to, understands, and has appropriated the instructions. Make sure the instructions are available in different forms – tell them orally, but write them on the board/ draw a flow diagram of steps etc for future reference. Much SN disruption occurs because the pupil has not listened and tries to ask his partner, or gets frustrated because he doesn’t know/ has forgotten what to do.
I often try to avoid a written activity altogether, and use drama, freeze-frame, speeches, interviews, spidergrams, diagrams, and other non-written forms of expression. Where your work activity does involve writing, be aware that there is a difference between work which is to stretch and develop, and work which is to consolidate and rehearse. There is a time and place for both. Many SN pupils – whilst they will cause trouble about writing which requires thought – love to copy the textbook. This is because they can do it, and it involves minimum mental effort.
When I wish to set a written activity, I usually offer the pupils a set of alternatives, and let them choose which they want. Sometimes the alternatives need be no more stimulating than: 1.Copying a passage from the textbook, 2. Completing a cloze exercise based on the textbook and, 3. A piece of free writing using a writing frame. However, it is possible to include more exciting alternatives such as wordsearches, drawing etc. Whatever you offer, once they have chosen, require the pupils to work on their own in silence, each individual doing what s/he can, sorting out his/her own problems, without recourse to you or their friend, taking responsibility for their own product.

Bribe
The other KEY element of any successful SN lesson is a time at the end – 10 or 15 minutes – of something they like, which you give them on condition that they have conducted themselves during the lesson exactly how you required. It is sometimes necessary to be incredibly OTT and sulky about this, taking minutes off the bribe for poor conduct, and adding minutes back on from good work or answers, throughout the lesson – just hope that a normal human being doesn’t see you posturing and pouting! The obvious bribes are a film or a quiz, but I trust to your ingenuity for other ideas.
Make sure that it relates to the content of the lesson, and you can call this the ‘plenary’!

[neil mcdonald]

An excellent breakdown of SEN teaching. I have a bottom set Year 9 class and will try some of these ideas on the class as a new year - new start concept. What would you do about the homework issue though?

[Anne Piper]

This is wonderful - I find my SEN classes really hard to manage, I think because so many needs are concentrated into one class. I shall certainly refer to this for guidance. I shall have to think about the 'bribe' issue as we are only allowed to reward good behaviour with commendations, letters home, or 'things that are appropriate to the subject'. I guess I shall have to be rooting through the video collection!

[vicki mawson]

thank you john, i have especially found helpful your ideas about the seating plan. I am working with a graduate teacher trainee and will pass on this very useful information tomorrow. thanks.

[jmurray1212]

Thanks for the great advice John. As a post-graduate trainee teacher I have found on my placements that on occassion SEN classes can be more about 'crowd control' rather than a constructive and stimulating environment. I will try the stategies on my next placement in February and will report back with the results which I have no doubt will be positive.

I think in many ways TEI's do not prepare trainee teachers in any great depth for the rigours of SEN classes and it is through highly experienced teachers that we as students gain the most practical and realistic advice. This said though the TEI's are under immense pressure to get the students through a very condensed one-year programme.

Many thanks and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
James Murray
(Strathclyde University, Jordanhill Faculty of Education)

[JohnDClare]

One of the issues in teaching Special Needs classes, of course, is reading for understanding.

Beware of just reading through a passage and then proceeding as though they have understood it all - with SN classes, you have to be very careful that they have appropriated the meaning.

This is going to be different for different pupils:

1. True dyslexics will have IMMENSE difficulties ploughing through the text (either because they're dysphonetic - can't easily split the words down into their phonetic parts - or dyseidetic - can't easily remember words 'on-sight'). But once they have had the words decoded to them they:
a. CAN understand the general meaning of the text,
b. BUT (NB) they can't skim/ scan and locate as well as an ordinary reader.

2. MLD pupils MAY be able to decipher the words and 'read' quite fluently (or they may not, depending on their balance of deficits) BUT they can't appropriate the meaning of what they are reading. There is a whole category of pupils who read beautifully, with inflexion, and seem to appropriate nothing! Similarly, they may be able to skim and scan quite impressivley, but they don't understand.

3. And then there are the Asperger's and ADD pupils who lost concentration some where halfway through the passage. Some even seemed to be paying attaention, but their minds were elsewhere!

Particularly for the MLD pupils, I use a strategy which might be described as 'Q&A every which way but'.

This is how to do it:
Choose quite a small section of text.
Then exhaustively ask the pupils 'simple-understanding' questions about what you have read.

The key is to do this 'every which way but'.
To elaborate:
Take the text sentence:
"Karl Marx changed the world."
What could you ask pupils to establish understanding of this, 'every which way but'?
Most mainstream history teachers might not even check understanding of this sentence AT ALL - once the pupils have read it, they will largely assume it's been appropriated.
With an SN class, I would ask, successively:
- Who changed the world?
- What did Karl Marx change?
- What did Karl Marx do to the world?

The next sentence is longer:
"He said it was wrong that the rich got all the money but the poor did all the work."
Asked questions? I would ask, one after the other:
- What did he say the rich got?
- What did he say the poor did?
- Who did he say got all the money?
- Who did he think did all the work?
- What did he think was the difference between the rich and the poor?
- What did he say about this state of affairs?
- What did he think was wrong with the world?
- Who said all this?

And in this way I would work on down through the text we have just 'read round', stripping every setence for its meaning from every different angle in this way.

You may say: 'Don't the pupils get incredibly restless?'
Funnily enough, to repeat a point I made earlier, no they don't!!
They ENJOY understanding, and being able to show they understand.
You may get a few funny looks the first time you start to do it, but eventually the pupils come to love answering correctly, over and over again.

We make these pupils advertise to the world, 5 hours a day, 200 days a year, that they DON'T know. You'd be surprised how much they appreciate showing you that they DO!

The 'Q&A every which way but' exercise also teaches them the vital skill of locating information in a text, and it emphasises the principle (lost on so many SN pupils) that the answer is in the text(s), NOT somewhere in the ether. (Just think of how many times, when you ask an SN pupil a question, their eyes turn upwards - indicating that they are accessing the creative or logical areas of their brain - and not downwards to seek the answer in their sources.)

It is also worth pointing out that, while this helps MLD pupils establish understanding, it also gives dyslexic pupils practice in scanning, and ADD pupils practice in paying attention. (To repeat a point made earlier, what allows one pupil to demonstrate a strength, is re-inforcement/stretching for another!)


Just for practice, the next sentence in my text is:
"He wanted poor people to take power in a revolution."
What questions-to-establish-understanding would you ask of this sentence, 'every which way but'.

[Lesley Ann]

JohnDClare, on Dec 31 2003, 12:50 PM, said:

One of the issues in teaching Special Needs classes, of course, is reading for understanding.

'Q&A every which way but'.

This is fantastic....I shall be putting this on my Dept meeting agenda.....
Thanks...

[mattzb]

we had INSET today based around a software program called ENABLE which is designed to help identify behavioural patterns in pupils and help pupils, staff and parents think of appropriate learning styles to fit the behaviour.
Has anyone else came across this program in their school and if so, how effective have you found it to be? Does the program simply replace IEPs?

[Dan Lyndon]

I have just read your excellent advice John and will certainly be using this with my department too. I was wondering if I could present you with a case study of one of my pupils, who I have found the most difficult in all of my years of teaching and I would be interested in your opinion (I know that I am asking alot here without actually meeting the child)

- grew up in a rural community in the Caribbean with virtually no formal education, arrived in the country 3 years ago and could not spell 3 letter words or know any of his times tables - has made quite remarkable progress in some respects - yesterday he called out William Shakespeare, when asked to name a famous person in history - and can manage sometimes to copy from the text or the board. Generally struggles to complete work and often shows poor levels of understanding - He is roughly NC level 2
- the main problem is behavioural - he is a constant mover, he may return to his seat but is out again very quickly. He is aggressive towards the other students, although he probably sees it as more like 'friendly' aggression and to be honest it never ends up in a fight. He has a tendency to try to shock by using rather graphic and explicit references to the opposite sex (in an all boys school) on a regular basis. He likes to climb on the tables, swing back on the chairs and yesterday spent part of the lesson showing various members of the class a coin trick (which was rubbish!)
- Whereas most students tend to settle down and you can establish a routine with them, this is not happening here.

Any thoughts?

[georginadunn]

Oh John you have made me

Reading your invaluable info reminds me so much of my first SEN group two years ago in Jersey. They were a year 9 group, totally off the wall and the first few lessons were a nightmare, but after doing stuff similar to your suggestions, they soon sat still all lesson, behaved wonderfully and completed their work. By the end of year 9 they had become my favourite group ever and loved hearing me telling them that. If a smiley face went on the board at the start of the lesson to say I was happy, they were well chuffed. But if I put a sad face up, they all tried hard to get it to change. We also used to make up silly rhymes about each other if someone wasn't co-operating: i.e. 'Sam the man has a pink barbie van' springs to mind and it would then make them laugh and get them back on-side.

My bribe by the way (and don't laugh!) was related to the class pot plants. The boys in the group (and I kid you not, they were 'hard' lads too) liked nothing better than to have my plants on their tables with them; so as a reward for good behaviour, they were allowed to choose which plant they wanted (Britney and Buffy - also named by the group!) on their desks. Poor behaviour during the lesson meant someone else got to have the plant. The looks I used to get on playground duty when one of them would run over to 'book' the plant before the next lesson still makes me chuckle. They also made me cover their exercise books with bright pink wrapping paper with daisies on it - it started as a threat to anyone who covered their book with something horrid, and two of the lads requested the paper - they showed them off to everyone else every lesson! I do miss them!

[Dan Moorhouse]

Some fantastic advice so far John.

Ideas that have worked for me in the past:

Use of humour in a variety of ways. We have a varied system of rewards and one of these is a paper reward slip for a good behaviour prize draw. Younger students really like receiving illustrated versions of these, particularly if the illustration is a cartoon drawing of one of their teachers (though I only do them of teachers who know that this ploy is sometimes used, it could be fairly embarrassing otherwise).

The box of sweets in the desk. Simple. They attain their targets for the lesson, they get to have a sweet.

Positive phone calls home. This is part and parcel of our behaviour system but it has a massive impact with students, particularly those who are often overlooke because they are the quiet ones in a group perceived as being quite rowdy. This also helps to improve relationships with 'awkward' parents.

Historian of the week / month / term. I ask students to pick a prize from a list of things I'm willing to give them as a prize. Interestingly they are most keen on Horrible histories and vouchers for book shops - they are always offered things that are more 'hip' as well. This can be done for each class, year group, key stage etc. depending on available funds and / or the depth of your pockets. If the award is backed up with a nice certificate and a celebration of achievement appropriat to the student you've chosen (assemblies aren't always the best place to praaise people) they can have a massive impact.

'Challenge the teacher' is a strategy that has worked well with SEN groups as well. Students are told what they will be studying in the next 3 to 4 weeks and as a homework have to come up with up to 5 questions that the teacher has to answer whilst they work in the next lesson. If the teacher can't answer the question, which must relate to the subject content, they get a merit. This engages lots of students, can be adapted to build classroom management into it: 'The teacher needs 10 minutes to answer the questions' (depending on the tasks they are doing, the available support in the room and the nature of the task being set, clearly you can't do this if the students need you at their side). Extra prizes for most imaginative research, trickiest question etc. can also be built in: they can also then create their own quizzes using the questions they create which can then be used to challenge other students or groups within the class.

I make all of my groups come up with their own rules for classroom behaviour and presentation of work. With SEN groups I'm fortunate enough to have the support of a minimum of 2 support assistants: usually one for SEN and one for E2L in the lower groups. We split into equal groups and discuss what they think behaviour should be like ad how they think they should present their work. Each group then makes a group contract with the assistance of whichever member of staff is available. Referring back to their own rules works extremely well and tends to result in improved levels of compliance from disruptive elements and a higher standard of presentation, and often content, in terms of the written work produced.

[Nichola Boughey]

I teach a Yr. 7 SEN class four times a week.

Twice for History and twice for Geography.

Teaching them is not a problem - but I have a Chinese student with ESL issues.

Over the last week I have sat down with a Chinese dictionary, BabelFishTranslator and my worksheets and created new worksheets for her to use in both my own specialist subject and in Geography.

Does anybody else have this situation?

[georginadunn]

Dan Moorhouse, on Jan 6 2004, 07:29 PM, said:

Positive phone calls home. This is part and parcel of our behaviour system but it has a massive impact with students, particularly those who are often overlooke because they are the quiet ones in a group perceived as being quite rowdy. This also helps to improve relationships with 'awkward' parents.

Definitely agree with that one Dan. We introduced it last year in Jersey in a similar way. We had A6 slips of purple paper with a smiley face printed on them that teachers could issue to parents to say they had done well in something. I remember it worked particularly well when one of my year 9 superstars (not one from the above post) had gotten himself into major trouble with the head. However, he had just had a series of fantastic history lessons and I hadn't begun to use the slip system. Seeing him worried about his dad's reaction to this current bout of trouble made me remember that I could soften the blow slightly by offering praise in another area - it worked! Dad was thrilled, was first in the queue to see me at options night, and the pupil concerned signed up for GCSE history - I hope he is still fulfilling his potential!

[Dan Lyndon]

Nichola Boughey, on Jan 6 2004, 09:51 PM, said:

I have a Chinese student with ESL issues.

Does anybody else have this situation?

Where do I start? - well my current year 9 class has polish, morrocan, palestinian, somali, iranian, kurdish and iraqi (we tend to keep the last few away from discussions of world affairs!), but I have also had a class with boys from Brazil, phillipines, mongolia, afghanistan, croatia, albania, kosova, serbia and Lithuania - I did have a chinese boy this year - didn't speak a single word of english - very good at copying though!.

So Nicky, count yourself lucky!!!