LK & SEN – Bridging the Gap

1. LK & SEN – Bridging the Gap National Jewish Education Conference – 21 January 2014 Facilitated by Rena Lichtenstein and Shoshi Marks

2. What do YOU think? What is the purpose of Jewish Schools? What is the responsibility of Kodesh Teachers?

3. Our challenge • Including and inspiring all children - not just those who want to be there or who find it easy • Meeting a variety of needs within the same classroom • Delivering the curriculum

4. Session Aims • To think about how to enable all students to access Kodesh lessons • To consider types of SEN and how they can be supported in a text based lesson • To identify successful differentiation strategies

5. Is your setting inclusive in the following areas? Physical layout Attitudes Being inclusive Learning objectives& teaching style language

6. What is your preferred learning style? visual auditory tactile/kinaesthetic

7. How will I introduce the topic? What can I assume about pupils’ prior KSU? Input How do I make my expectations clear? What teaching and learning objectives have been identified? Can different children approach the same task in different ways or do we need different tasks for different groups? Task In what different ways can learning be assessed? OutcomeandResponse Lesson planning for Inclusion Resource Support What resources and materials are available to support the learning ? Can I adapt or modify some with a minimum of effort to make the task more accessible? How will pupils work? Mutual support in pairs, groups, peer tutors or support from TAs? Use of electronic devices – tapes?

8. Approaching a Chumash Text: Underlying Literacy Skills • Visual memory and visual tracking skills • Phonic skills ( decoding) • Chumash vocabulary and grammar skills • Picking out salient information • Finding your way around the Chumash • Looking back at the text for answers • Independent work skills • Giving evidence/reasons from text • Understanding ambiguous language e.g idioms/words with multiple meanings/implied meaning • Generalising information from one context to another • Higher order comprehension skills - inference, hypothesis, prediction…

9. Potential difficulties • Speech clarity and fluency • Reading: decoding & comprehension • Memory - auditory and visual • Understanding and acquisition of vocabulary • Following and sequencing a story line • Retelling a narrative • Higher order language skills such as verbal reasoning, deducing problem solving • Sitting still and listening • Maintaining attention • handwriting

10. Approaching a text: Suggested Strategies • Skills list –encourage a student to develop an list of steps involved. • Self monitoring skills –develop a students ability to check their work and grade their work. • Ask for a reason – encourage students to relate their responses to the text – either to explicitly stated information or for basis of inferences • Give constructive feedback –provide positive reinforcement once a reason has been given for an answer – to reinforce the value of the reason as well as the answer. • Identify underlying skills –build these up one by one. Target identified skills outside of literacy first where possible. Make sure that the number of different skills needed is manageable before setting a piece of work.

11. Group exercise…

12. AD(H)D - Strategies • Structured environment with clear expectations • Behaviour management strategies • Clear and firm limits • Teach good listening skills • Easy to follow rules and routines • Set clear targets • Structure learning tasks • Tackle tasks in short chunks and allow child to be physically active between tasks • Frequent praise, feedback and reward- small frequent rewards rather than long-term goals • Work well with computers because of immediate feedback • Reduce distractions • Keep child close to teacher • Class ethos that stresses tolerance and supports individual differences

13. Dyslexia - Strategies Learning programme need to be: • Structured • Cumulative, i.e. built up in small steps • Repetitive Multi-sensory approach using different channels: • Auditory • Visual • Tactile Alternative means of recording – tape, scribe, multiple choice Teach study skills Opportunities for developing /demonstrating strengths

14. Dyspraxia – Some Strategies • Recognition of uneven development • Children may need extra time to complete tasks or activities • Seating is important- check that child sits upright with both feet on the ground • Attaching paper to desk avoids difficulty of having to anchor it with one hand while drawing with other • When possible allow child to dictate work • Break tasks into small steps • Keep instructions simple • Give breaks if child tires easily • Handwriting programme / Introduce IT • Occupational therapy (individual therapy and also advice to teachers) • Instrumental Enrichment to improve thinking skills • Other strategies as for ADHD

15. Receptive Language Strategies : • Visual reinforcement, cues & gestures • Engage attention and make eye contact • Be as clear, explicit & simple as possible • Ask for clarification • Have pupil repeat instructions • Give time to process instructions • Make links to familiar vocabulary

16. Expressive Language Strategies • Time • Build up vocabulary book • Work on grammatical structure in isolation • Model appropriate language - repeating after pupil • Give choice of responses in place of open ended questions • Teach use of story frame and planning • Encouraging participation • Positive reinforcement

17. More Differentiation Ideas • Visual cues/ presentations • Objects, demonstrations • Mind maps / thinking maps • Specified vocabulary – word banks, personal dictionary • Sequencing and sorting tasks, Post it notes • Individual white boards, fans • Help sheets or prompt cards • Writing frames • Different fonts, sizes, layouts, • Colour coding , flash cards, highlighting • Maximizing Use of TA or LSA – team teach, recording, assessing, rotating responsibility

18. Explore alternative ways of recording. Visual- flow charts, mind maps,pictures, diagrams (drawing or labeling) create cartoons or fill in speech bubbles Written- cloze procedure, matching Q and A, hi-lighting answers on texts, T/F, multiple choice, putting answers in order topic folders for key words/ concepts Creative- create wall hangings, posters, displays write songs (lyrics), presentations, videos photography, write and illustrate a book role playing Using Technology- computers, word processing, cut and paste – word recognition dictaphone, tape recorder

19. Differentiation:A Framework for Action Consider individual pupils • Identify pupil strengths and needs • Identify pupil’s preferred learning style • Set learning priorities (IEPs) • Choose appropriate teaching methods and strategies • Consider grouping or pairing options • Keep track of progress and evaluate intervention Plan, Plan, Plan • What is the aim of the lesson • What prerequisite skills, knowledge and understanding are needed • Identify outcomes – are they relevant, can they be adapted • Consider teaching methods – both for presentation and task

20. Questions • When should student with SEN be included and when is it better to receive an individual lesson/programme? • At which stage should children start learning Chumash textually? Do they need to have mastered Hebrew reading as a prerequisite? • Should a child with difficulties in English reading be taught Hebrew reading? • ???