Secondary
‘What a pig’s ear you’ve made of this’
was a comment
at the bottom of my work in maths
How dare you,
what right did you have?
to write that and simply smirk
when trying to explain to me
the error of my ways.
Which of course
I just couldn’t see,
as you’d already lost me
with your remark,
it didn’t matter at all
what you tried to do
as all I could feel was hurt.
This is huge. The feedback from teachers, talking with a child in this way is completely monstrous! Surely inexcusable, how dare she say that to me, how dare she write that in my book, in red indelible ink? Not even my amazing little rubber from years before could help now and there was no such thing as an erasable rubber for ink pen, but more of that later. Really, how did she get away with that? I am hopefully reassured that this sort of thing no longer happens? But happen it did and unfortunately it was not an isolated case.
Another teacher, who had taught one of my elder brothers commented on my handwriting, ‘Your handwriting is not as neat as your brothers!’ Well Mr Stanford, you’ll be long dead by now, but your comment still has the power to ignite the painful flame. Maybe my handwriting is not as neat as my brothers due to the fact that I am not him. I am an individual with my own set of needs. If you only took the time and effort to look you would realise that and not have exactly the same expectations for very different children.
We need to make it absolutely accessible and absolutely accepted that IT can be used in the classroom to aid in the writing and recording of children’s work. We need to accommodate those dyslexic children whose needs are so severe that they need to have the support of an adult scribing for them.
In my career I have really only taught two severe dyslexic children. Both boys, both highly intelligent, both very articulate with both with an expansive and mature vocabulary. Both boys eventually had the support of a scribe and did amazingly well with their GCSE English exams. However, this does not take away any of the need from those less severe but who have a diagnosis of dyslexia.
It also does not take away need of those children who are not diagnosed. Those children who are just bubbling under where they could be if they had better access to the curriculum.
But of course, not all learning takes place with a pen or pencil, not all learning needs to be written down. In fact, so much fantastic learning takes place without either a pen or a pencil! A teaching assistant can and should write down a child’s thoughts, a Dictaphone or recording device can and should keep thoughts and ideas safe for a child. We know that the working memory of a child with dyslexia is weak, we know that the short-term memory of a child with dyslexia is weak.
The child with dyslexia can be amazing while they are sitting on the carpet of a foundation stage or key stage one classroom, or on a chair of a key stage two classroom as they listen to the introduction of the lesson. They even look interested and engaged while attempting to follow instructions of what they need to do next.
By the time they are back at their table and expected to write independently; much of what has been said has been forgotten, if it was ever even understood in the first place. What do they need to do, what did the teacher say, what did she show them? A teaching assistant or the teacher themselves can begin the writing for a child, as so often a dyslexic child can struggle to get started on a piece of work. This can be said of those children with high intelligence levels so pleased do not be fooled.
In particular, writing can be a real difficulty. It can be a real challenge and a real struggle to know what to write, even to just make an initial mark on the blank page staring up at them. But so often, once a start has been made with the written work, it is far easier for the child to continue their work. So, there are many ways to offer proper structure and scaffolding.
Activity sheets to be written on need to be clear and not contain too much information, if they are in colour, all the better. Of course, if a child has had an assessment for the use of a coloured overlay, then their work needs to be on that chosen colour. All their work, reading and writing needs to presented in this way to remain accessible for them. This way they are then in line with the rest of their peers.
Sentences can be stuck into a book as an initial staring point. Ideas discussed and written on the large interactive white board for the whole class can be written on a write on wipe off board, again there are different colours available here.
This enables the child with dyslexia to see right next to them what they need to write rather than them needing to continually look up and down, back and forth from their paper to their book and back again to the white board. They can much more easily access the work from the board when it is printed out and placed right next to them. This will of course then both encourage writing and also take away the horrid feelings of anxiety and low confidence.
If these measures are in place, the dyslexic child will have the chance to not feel so overloaded and so overwhelmed. They simply cannot retain all they need to in order to get started on their work. This then so often leads to feelings of complete inadequacy, a huge loss of confidence and any self-esteem that may have been present has long since dissolved and crumbled.
A variety of other writing prompts should also always be made available. A variety of word mats with high frequency everyday words need to be on all tables, so as not to single out the child with dyslexia. A letter mat should also be made available with the 26 individual letters of the alphabet, as many children with dyslexia struggle with making the right letter choice. Once the letter choice is made, they then need to write it, so further choice is needed as to how the individual letter looks and needs to be formed with their pencil or pen.
We know that for those with dyslexia /b/ d/ /p/ /q/can get easily confused as can /m/ and /w/ to name a few of the more common letters. I have seen very often children with dyslexia write in capitals for letters /b/ and /d/ so as not to be in a position of mixing them up. If these word and letter mats are on all tables, then the child with dyslexia will not feel singled out and not be made to feel at all different. Topic words specific to the task can be made easily and need to be on every table. Topic words or in secondary school, subject words and vocabulary is often new learning so these words need to be made readily available for children.
In addition to this, a variety of different coloured paper needs to be accessible for the child with dyslexia. We know that some children with dyslexia and indeed some children without a diagnosis of dyslexia can feel challenged by visual difficulties. We know the challenges of reading for a child with visual difficulties and these can be the same when writing.
The tracking of text can be extremely difficult. Imagine trying to track, read and understand text that is moving, jittering, has white space surrounding it, moves to the edge of the page. These are just some of the difficulties reported by children doing a visual difficulties assessment with me in order to choose the correct coloured overlay to support reading.
A simple and reasonable adjustment would be to offer the same-coloured paper as the overlay used by the chid when reading. Some schools do use buff paper, off white which can be helpful while looking a little grubby. It is so worth considering and in an ideal world, all children in school would be screened for this need from the age of 7. A child’s eyes are fully developed by that age and they have some level of maturity in their ability to say why one colour is more supportive than another. It is so important they are working with the right colour, have the right tools for the job. Would you expect a carpenter to make a wooden table with a blunt saw and rubber nails?
Any assessment for the use of a coloured overlay needs to be carried out by a professional with a suitable qualification to assess this need. By giving this level of much needed support for writing in this way a dyslexic learner will have a chance to achieve what is being asked of them alongside their peers and within the given time frame as they are now on a level playing field and have the right equipment needed to attempt the complex job of reading.
One of many bad experiences in secondary school came in English one day. We were writing persuasive text, although I cannot remember if this is what it was called then. We were told to create a branding and slogan for advertising. This was the 1970’s and the television advertising of cigarettes was on our screens every day with no questions asked as to the appropriateness of each two-minute advert. I actually enjoyed doing work like this, work that was creative and individual, making up slogans, short songs and jingles. I feel I would have done well to follow a career in advertising. I would have loved making up short, silly rhyming songs and still do so to help with memory tasks and individual spellings. I quickly came up with what I thought was a cracking little advert. It showed an upper-class lady smoking a cigarette in the back of a limousine being driven by a chauffeur.
I wanted the slogan to be ‘Chauffeur, for people who want to drive smoothly through life’ Chauffer of course being the name of the cigarette. The trouble was, I couldn’t spell chauffeur, (I had to look it up now) so rather than ask any of my ‘friends’ on my table or worse still the teacher, I left the work yet again, unfinished and asked my mum to help with the spelling when I got home. All she did was give me the correct spelling for chauffeur. I then completed my work and brought it back the following day for the next English lesson.
I was full of anticipation and keen to receive praise for my efforts. Keenness was not a feeling I was very familiar with, so please dear teacher, please celebrate this with me and help develop my confidence and self-esteem. But no praise was forthcoming because sinfully… no one believed it was my work! Even despite me fully insisting it truly was my work; I was shot down in flames by those horrid children on my table.
What is worse is that I am really still to this day not entirely sure that the teacher believed me either. It was so very upsetting as I was very proud of what I had done, but spelling, dammed spelling had got in the way of my achievement again!
The writing aids previously discussed would have been so useful here and if I had also felt in any way; in any small way confident enough to ask the teacher, the same teacher that had shot me down in flames on more than one previous occasion for spelling, then the result would have been different. I may have been praised for my creative efforts I may have even had my work held up to the whole class as a good example, now that would have been a first.
So, this is about fostering a classroom ethos of support and encouragement. It is about giving good scaffolding for children to add to and build upon; it is about good modelling so children have at least a remote idea of what they are aiming for in their work. Above all, it is surely about giving children the opportunity to succeed, the opportunity to share good work and the opportunity to be praised and congratulated. It is also the job of a teacher to ensure that the ethos is one that accepts errors.
It took many, many years for me to use an electronic spell checker in front of the children that I taught. It was, I thought beneficial for them to see that I their teacher also had difficulty with spelling. Young children in primary school may put their teacher on a pedestal as they really love them and sometimes see more of them than their own parents. So, I thought it would be helpful to show my own weakness here.
I remember one time I asked how to spell a word I simply did not know. I cannot even remember why I needed it or what I was writing. I do though unfortunately remember the reaction when I asked what I felt was a simple question. It must have been a huge joke as it was met with great but completely cruel laughter.
