Do you do this when thinking about the less able in your classes?

Do you do this when thinking about the less able in your classes? This session should help you get your head out of the sand and get you understanding, and enjoying teaching, the less able. Practical teaching strategies included!

Who are the 'less able'? • The less able are defined as pupils whose achievement and progress is significantly below that of the average learner. • perform badly; • restless; • limited concentration; • difficulty in relating one lesson to the next; • limited memories; • often damage things; • present work in an untidy style. • the paperwork says so! How do we know if we are dealing with a 'less able' pupil?

Putting you in the position of a less able learner… Noun Definition please... Please try really hard to follow this next part… Micro Teach

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing or idea. Whatever exists, we assume, can be named, and that name is a noun. A proper noun, which names a specific person, place, or thing (Carlos, Queen Marguerite, Middle East, Jerusalem, Malaysia, Presbyterianism, God, Spanish, Buddhism, the Labour Party), is almost always capitalized. A proper noun used as an addressed person's name is called a noun of address. Common nouns name everything else, things that usually are not capitalized. A group of related words can act as a single noun-like entity within a sentence. A Noun Clause contains a subject and verb and can do anything that a noun can do: What he does for this town is a blessing. A Noun Phrase, frequently a noun accompanied by modifiers, is a group of related words acting as a noun: the oil depletion allowance; the abnormal, hideously enlarged nose. There is a separate section on word combinations that become Compound Nouns — such as daughter-in-law, half-moon, and stick-in-the-mud.

Categories of Nouns Nouns can be classified further as count nouns, which name anything that can be counted (four books, two continents, a few dishes, a dozen buildings); mass nouns (or non-count nouns), which name something that can't be counted (water, air, energy, blood); and collective nouns, which can take a singular form but are composed of more than one individual person or items (jury, team, class, committee, herd). We should note that some words can be either a count noun or a non-count noun depending on how they're being used in a sentence: He got into trouble. (non-count) He had many troubles. (countable) Experience (non-count) is the best teacher. Whether these words are count or non-count will determine whether they can be used with articles and determiners or not. (We would not write "He got into the troubles," but we could write about "The troubles of Ireland." Some texts will include the category of abstract nouns, by which we mean the kind of word that is not tangible, such as warmth, justice, grief, and peace. Abstract nouns are sometimes troublesome for non-native writers because they can appear with determiners or without: "Peace settled over the countryside." "The skirmish disrupted the peace that had settled over the countryside."

The less able learner… (probably) will always give something a chance but when it is abundantly clear understanding and success is out of their reach, they will stop trying. Usually, that is when difficulties for the teacher occur. Huh?

Failure to meet learner needs. Failure to differentiate. Failure to deliver content appropriately. Failure to allow pupils to learn. Failure to engage the learners. Failure to use common sense. Failure to use a variety of delivery styles. Failure to include images. Failure to do anything worthwhile at all really!

Split into two groups – learners (micro teach but no voice needed!) and observers (analysis of the micro teach from multiple choice options!) Whilst the ‘learners’ complete the tasks, I would like the ‘observers’ to identify, by choosing the relevant sign and sticking it in the playdough.

Let’s try it another way… Observers… • In the bag are signs. • Take them out and lay them out in front of you. • Read what they say. • As I progress through the next 5 slides with the ‘learners’, please try to identify what teaching strategies I am using to help the learners to understand the topic. • Choose the relevant sign from those given to you and place them in the play dough (which you will have in front of you). • Please keep silent during the next 5 slides.

Let’s try it another way… Learners… Divide your whiteboard into 4. Put the words ‘step 1’ in one quarter, ‘step 2’ in the next quarter, ‘step 3’ in the next quarter, and ‘step 4’ in the next quarter. Look at the picture in front of you.

On your whiteboard, write down 8 things you can see or touch if you could physically enter the painting. Name only the ‘singular’ items.

On your whiteboard, write down 8 things you can see or touch if you could physically enter the painting. Name only the ‘plural’ items.

On your whiteboard, write down 4 things that you can’t really see or touch but that are in the painting.

On your whiteboard, write down any groups, or collections, of things.

+ Concrete nouns Abstract nouns Collective nouns

The next slides are summaries of the training points from this evening’s session. Please peruse at your own leisure. Any questions, please come and see me! Good luck!

Aspects of Learning • Learning needs to relate to the way our brain works. • The four aspects of brain based learning are: • Context – factors surrounding the learning helping to carry the ideas to the learner • Input – the content, concepts and language of the learning • Processing – research and manipulation of data & information • Response – metacognition and knowledge of how we learn.

Learning Styles “A style is a preferred way of using one's abilities. It is not in itself an ability but rather a preference.” “Most teachers are best at teaching children who match their own styles of thinking and learning.” “….matching students’ learning styles with appropriate learning strategies improves the ability of the pupil to concentrate and learn independently.”

Planning learning situations to cater for less able pupils • Create a learning environment that is consistently interesting and promotes curiosity. • Combine text with pictorial, visual and other interactive experiences such as computer and video programmes with groups engaged in discussions to help pupils create and develop mental models and generalize their experiences. • Know the needs of your pupils. • Every pupil must be aware of their goals/objectives for lesson. • The initial part of the lesson should be targeted at the lower end to make sure that everyone understands the topic at its most basic level. • Flexible differentiation with negotiation – let them choose the level. • Interesting themes for activities leading to identifiable success for all pupils -not always the same goal. • Non-threatening tasks – continually build up self-confidence. • Focused assessment with constructive feedback.

Characteristics of a good lesson for a less able learner • Relating the work to the real world – something the less able learner can identify with. • Providing variety in your approach (VAK) with short, highly structured tasks. • Organising the learning into small steps with frequent repetition. • Keeping written instructions to a minimum. Bullet points with clear visual directions given. • Frequent contact with teachers or CTAs to gain confidence, encouragement and reassurance. • The inclusion of ICT as a motivational tool and so as to be able to produce high quality work. • Use of drama. • Opportunities for checks on understanding of vocabulary. • And many more!!

Do you do this when thinking about the less able in your classes?