CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this Booklet
This booklet is designed for class teachers and Support for Learning teachers to help them identify pupils with dyslexic difficulties and provide practical strategies for use in the classroom.
WHAT IS DYSLEXIA?
East Lothian has adopted the following definition of dyslexia:
Dyslexia is evident when accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty.
This focuses on literacy learning at the “word” level – i.e. persistent difficulty with letter sounds, blending, syllabification and rhyme – and implies that the problem is severe and persistent despite appropriate learning opportunities. It provides the basis for a staged process of assessment through teaching.
This definition logically requires that three aspects be evaluated through the assessment process:
- that the pupil is learning/has learnt accurate and fluent word reading and or spelling very incompletely;
- that appropriate learning opportunities have been provided;
- that progress has been made only as a result of much additional effort and instruction and that difficulties have, nevertheless, persisted.
Ref:
Report by a Working Party of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology – Dyslexia, Literacy and Psychological Assessment (1999)
Points to consider
Dyslexia occurs independently of learning ability. Children with learning difficulties can be dyslexic, as can those of high ability and everything in between. Dyslexia is also independent of social, ethnic and linguistic background. Teachers should be aware that children from multilingual families are no more or less likely to be dyslexic than the rest of the child population. Decisions on identification must be made in the light of each individual child’s circumstances.
WHOLE SCHOOL ISSUES
ASSESSMENT
Principles and Aims of Assessment
The purpose of assessment is to provide pupils, teachers and parents with sufficiently dependable information and feedback to inform judgements, choices and decisions about learning, and to inform planning for improvement … No decision a child’s attainment or future learning should be made or reported on the basis of a single assessment or test score, as it will not, on its own, be sufficiently reliable for that purpose … All assessments and tests used to monitor children’s progress and attainment should be demonstrably fit for their purpose. (Assessment and Reporting: Circular 2, June 2005, SEED)
Assessment should have a clear purpose which will help to indicate the most appropriate methods of information gathering. Assessment may include, for example, any of the following purposes:
- to provide a baseline measure of current abilities and skills
- to inform intervention planning
- to evaluate intervention
- to confirm whether or not dyslexia is evident
- to build a profile of the pupil’s strengths and needs
- to gain the pupil’s and/or parents’ views
· The Staged Assessment and Intervention process is used to address concerns around learning and teaching for all pupils
· Assessment is a dynamic process which takes place over time and forms part of the ongoing cycle of assessment, intervention and evaluation.
· Assessment should take account of the whole child. The involvement of parents and pupil in the process of assessment is therefore crucial.
· Pupils may have other difficulties which co-exist with Dyslexia e.g. Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dyspraxia (DCD) or current or past speech and language difficulties affecting literacy development. While these guidelines are written with reference to Dyslexia, assessment in practice needs to consider the child as a whole.
· No two pupils with Dyslexia will have the same profile of strengths and needs: each pupil needs to be considered on an individual basis.
NB Class, subject and support for learning teachers should gather information to inform assessment (See Appendix – Teachers’ Toolkit)
Key roles and responsibilities
Class and subject teachers have responsibility for all the pupils in their class. Support for learning teachers may offer support to the teachers through any of their 5 Key roles:
· Co-operative teaching
· Consultancy
· Staff development and training
· Tutoring and teaching
· Providing specialist services
For further information and advice, schools can contact the DSS, an Outreach service providing support to pupils, school staff, parents and carers.
It can provide:
· Consultation with class/subject and support for learning teachers
· Training for staff
· Advice on identification and assessment
· Advice on appropriate strategies, programmes and resources
· Small group/individual tuition where appropriate
· Advice and support for pupils in transition
INTERVENTION
The following are suggestions which may be implemented as part of whole class practice or with respect to individual pupils. The ideas suggested here are not exhaustive and you may have additional ideas of your own. Different strategies will be effective in each case and assessment information should help to inform which strategies are most likely to be appropriate. Other teachers involved with a pupil, as well as parents and pupils themselves, are likely to provide valuable contributions in terms of which strategies to select.
Class and Subject Teachers - general advice, teaching and learning
§ Ask Support for Learning staff for advice and strategies that might help individual pupils with dyslexia. Written information may be provided on an annual basis with regard to individual pupils if their dyslexia is considered to be significant. It is likely that this will include strengths, challenges and strategies that help.
§ Class teachers should devise ways to adapt their teaching to allow dyslexic pupils (and others with learning difficulties) full access to the curriculum. [A definition of inclusion might be “appropriately taught”].
§ Many of the needs of dyslexic pupils can be met by good teaching approaches e.g. multi-sensory teaching (hear, see, imagine, speak, feel. trace, write), which can be used appropriately with all children.
§ Teach answering techniques such as “Do what the question says. It asks for 2 examples so give 2, not 1 or 3.”
§ Use regular encouragement – e.g. Have a go. That is a good piece of work. You have achieved well. What is your best guess? etc.
§ Consider the pupil’s preferred learning style (Visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) – does your teaching style suit?
§ Acknowledge the frustrating and tiring consequences of dyslexia.
§ Provide opportunities for strengths and talents to be used.
§ Acknowledge the pupil’s level of understanding, which often does not match reading/writing abilities.
§ Encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own learning.
§ Provide the ‘big picture’ for new topics – give an idea of content. A note of the intended learning outcomes for each topic/unit of work supplies a list of areas for reinforcement or revision.
§ Promote thinking skills. Dyslexic pupils often excel in this.
§ Use open-ended questions.
§ Prioritise into - MUST LEARN, SHOULD LEARN, COULD LEARN.
§ Give a plenary after each lesson and particularly at end of each topic to reinforce what should have been learned.
§ Help with development of automaticity. This comes from repetition or over-learning.
§ Make good use of handouts. Dyslexics can take an inordinate time and use up considerable energy and concentration in copying and taking notes. This time would be much better spent reading through and discussing information.
q If overheads are used provide a photocopy for highlighting.
§ If PowerPoint is used, provide a printout for highlighting, or make into cloze giving the required words at the end.
§ Give all the required sentences, but jumble them up for the pupil to sequence and stick.
· Make up ‘prompt notes’ or ‘think sheets’
§ Make out practice cards to reinforce work, e.g. learning new words, formulae or sequence of events.
§ Make up additional revision materials for supported use at home.
· In whole class teaching use techniques such as:
- recapping from previous lessons
- story telling
- leading class discussions
- teacher explanations
- drama
§ Instructions:
- keep to a minimum
- give one step at a time
- break down into sections e.g. “turn to page 44, look at exercise 2. [pause] Look at Section A, Question 1”
§ Pair with an able pupil who can keep work up to speed, help with reading, organisation, setting out of work etc.
§ Make full use of visual images:
- mind maps/spider diagrams
- large labelled diagrams and/or with pictures
- classification
- keyword concept maps
- graphs
- continuum diagrams
- ripple diagrams
- Venn diagrams
- flow charts
- tables
- PowerPoint presentations
- poster of topic words
- slogans
Worksheets
These can be made more dyslexia friendly by using:
- typed rather than hand-written text
- a simple font e.g. Comic Sans, Arial, Century Schoolbook, Garamond
- left justified text
- font size of no less than 11
- shorter words
- short, simple sentences
- short paragraphs
- high frequency words
- active verbs
- small blocks of text rather than large blocks
- colour coding of text
- clearly defined spaces (paragraphs)
- large spaces between different ideas
- boxes to separate ideas or functions e.g. instruction in one, explanation in another
- concrete text rather than abstract
- bold or underlining – but do not overuse as underlined words can run together
- bullet points
- lists
- diagrams
- pictures
- flow charts
- number instructions
§ Place comprehension questions close to the information text rather than at the end. e.g. a paragraph with one or two questions afterwards, followed by another, similarly set out.
§ Provide write-on worksheets instead of having to copy out information.
Avoid:
- condensing or stretching the text
- italics
- bright white paper
- multi-clausal sentences
- use of passive voice contributions
- use of metaphorical language
Spelling
To be a good speller requires good visual recall, accurate mental imagery, good auditory discrimination and awareness of sound/symbol correspondence. It should be taught as an integral part of every lesson – in all subjects.
Try:
- providing a list of key words with their meanings to pupils for each topic/unit of work as this will help with spellings and allow pupils to consolidate ideas at another time
- displaying key words on the classroom wall – helps discreetly
- teaching the reason why words are spelt a particular way
- teaching spelling rules – these help to jog memory
- understanding of short/long vowels is important
- understanding of the part that syllables play is important
- clapping the rhythm when teaching the spelling of new words
- using look – cover – write – check
- using cued spelling
- teaching the use of mnemonics to help with spelling or phrases
- making up an individual subject dictionary/word list with all key words for each topic contained
- Self-help spelling aids such as ACE Spelling dictionary
Try not to over-correct spelling errors. Rather, pick on a few important words which are wrongly spelt.
Writing
§ Structure written work by using:
- sentence starters
- an brief outline of required paragraph content
- use of who/which, what, why, how, when, what happened
- organisational frames (for note taking, planning, sorting and arranging)
- writing frames – suggested paragraph openings, sentence stems (We know ... because ...),
- scaffolding (thumbnail sketches of areas to include in work)
§ For grammar, make out rule cards to use/keep in jotter.
§ When pupils are asked to write, reduce the quantity expected by teaching how to use mind maps/spider diagrams.
Reading
Try:
- teaching scanning and skimming of text to be read
- teaching when to read in detail (for comprehension exercises), when to skim (for a general overview) and when to scan
- reading the text out to the class so that the work is familiar and memory strategies can be used.
- using pictures with text where possible – helps with memory
- teaching use of clues from pictures, diagrams, graphics, captions, headlines and subheadings
§ When using text books, direct to the place by:
- holding up the book and showing the area to be read
- pointing at the text
- identifying the colour of box
- paragraph number
- cueing in e.g. above the picture, on the right-hand page, half-way down, just after the questions
§ Discuss the topic with the whole class before individual work begins.
§ Ask pupils to predict what will happen next.
§ Use coloured pens on a whiteboard/chalk on a blackboard as this can help with scanning and relocating. (Beware of dyslexic pupils who have Scotopic Sensitivity and areas of light contrast within the classroom).
§ Ask pupils to summarise what was taught at the end of each lesson.
Diagrams
Give an example of how to do best:
- main label – where should it be printed?
- show size
- should it be sketched or clearly drawn?
- shading/colour
- preferred labelling lines – should pupils use a ruler, arrowhead, not overlapping, simple angles?
ICT Support
ICT can motivate learners with specific difficulties more than most. It can help them to acquire specific skills for reading, spelling, writing and maths, as well as give more general support across the curriculum. ICT offers a whole toolkit of strategies from simple word processors to speech recognition, software and the Internet.
Strategies and types of ICT
Access to print
Black print on white paper is difficult to focus on for long periods and some learners report that the words ‘dance’ on the page. Microsoft Word allows users to experiment with the background and text colours, and alter the font and character size to suit their preferences. Going to Format and then Font allows teachers to set the default font. Comic Sans, Sassoon and Ariel are clear fonts which make reading from the screen easier. Double spacing can also make text clearer – to do this it is helpful to customise Tools and put the icon on the toolbar. There are many shortcuts to using Word which enable the slow writer to produce more text with less strain on the memory.