Check out: Experiencing a learning difficulty

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Check out: Experiencing a learning difficulty

Check out unit 1

Orientation:

You are going to do a number of experiments so you can experience different learning difficulties. You will also watch a few teenagers talk about the disorder or read up on the symptoms. Afterwards, you will write a short text in which you reflect on these tasks.

Preparation:

• Go through the LessonUp and follow the instructions (next slides).
  
• Before you do an experiment, read up some more by clicking on the links in the slides titled:
• Try at least 1 experiment of each learning difficulty.
  
• Take keynotes in the grid.

Hand in your preparation when this task is due.

More info on:

Check out unit 1

Action:

• Go to your folder English 6DUF Temmerman on Smartschool > Oefeningen > Unit 1 > Unit 1 check out
  
• Write a text in which you describe at least 3 of the 5 experiments you did. Discuss:
  
• What did you have to do in the experiment?
  

1. How did it feel? What was the most frustrating part? Why?
2. How might repeated exposure to this difficulty affect motivation and self-esteem?
3. What classroom adjustments would help these students? What should schools and teachers do to help these students?

• Use adjectives and adverbs, comparatives and superlatives in your text!
• Use the writing grid, if necessary.

ADHD

What is it like to live with ADHD?

Click on this link and watch Hannah's, Pedro’s or Jackson's story.

More info on:

1. ADHD

Now, experience ADHD and see through Pedro’s eyes.

2. AD(H)D

2. Reading with distractions

The ability to focus on a reading assignment and understand its content is critical to successful independent reading. But busy classrooms are seldom optimal for a student's concentration.

The following activity simulates what a child with an attention problem might experience during a classroom reading assignment.

Install 'Ruffle' before doing this activity.

DYSLEXIA

What is it like to live with dyslexia?

Click on this link and watch Caris', Daejon's or Evelyn's story.

More info on:

3. DYSLEXIA

Now, experience dyslexia and see through Caris' eyes.

4. DYSLEXIA

Study the phonemes and how you should pronounce them.

Phonemes are the building blocks of language. Represented by letters of the alphabet, they are the component sounds of spoken words. Most people automatically hear, for example, that the word "goat" is made up of three sounds: "guh," "oh," and "tuh."

Reading requires the ability to map the phonemes we hear to letters on a page, and vice versa. But what happens when this basic skill, called decoding, doesn't come automatically? Imagine struggling to sound out every word because you can't distinguish among phonemes.

4. DYSLEXIA

Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with this phoneme translation key. Then use it to read the passage on the next slide. Use the timer! Phoneme translation key:

 

4. DYSLEXIA

Passage:

We pegin our qrib eq a faziliar blace, a poqy like yours enq zine.

Iq conqains a hunqraq qrillion calls qheq work qogaqhys py qasign.

Enq wiqhin each one of qhese zany calls, each one qheq hes QNA,

Qhe QNA coqe is axecqly qhe saze, a zess-broquceq rasuze.

So qhe coqe in each call is iqanqical, a razarkaple puq veliq claiz.

Qhis zeans qheq qhe calls are nearly alike, puq noq axecqly qhe saze.

Qake, for insqence, qhe calls of qhe inqasqines; qheq qhey're viqal is cysqainly blain.

Now qhink apouq qhe way you woulq qhink if qhose calls wyse qhe calls in your prain.

(Excerpt from "Journey into DNA" on the "Cracking the Code" Web site, NOVA Online.)

4. DYSLEXIA

Here is the translation:

We begin our trip at a familiar place, a body like yours and mine. It contains a hundred trillion cells that work together by design. And within each one of these many cells, each one that has DNA, The DNA code is exactly the same, a mass-produced resume. So the code in each cell is identical, a remarkable but valid claim. This means that the cells are nearly alike, but not exactly the same. Take, for instance, the cells of the intestines; that they're vital is certainly plain.

Now think about the way you would think if those cells were the cells in your brain.

So how did you do? Assuming you found the exercise difficult (that was our intention), consider that we disguised only eight of the forty-four known phonemes in the English language. And imagine if this weren't a game.

5. DYSLEXIA

Swedish web developer Victor Widell found a way to show just how much of a struggle it can be for some people to have to cope with dyslexia. He used computer code to scramble the letters in a passage of text based on how his friend described her experience with dyslexia.Try to read through his simulation on this webpage. 

6. DYSLEXIA

Go to the next slide.

Read the text on the left. Use the graph on the right to decipher what it says.

You have 1 minute.

6. DYSLEXIA

DYSCALCULIA

What is it like to live with dyscalculia?

Click on this link and watch Francesca's, Oliver's or Anastasia's story.

Afterwards, experience dyscalculia and see through Francesca's eyes.

More info on:

7. DYSCALCULIA

Now, experience dyscalculia and see through Francesca's eyes.

8. DYSCALCULIA

Many students with math disabilities find complex, multistep math problems difficult. Even children who did well in their early school years – easily learning basic arithmetic and math facts – may reach fourth grade and suddenly find math practically impossible.

The ability to perform multiple operations in the proper sequence (for instance, adding as well as multiplying in a long multiplication problem) or to hold on to one piece of information while remembering another is critical to a child's success in mathematics. --> Continue reading on next slide.

Click on this link and watch Francesca's, Oliver's or Anastasia's story.

Afterwards, experience dyscalculia and see through Francesca's eyes.

8. DYSCALCULIA

The problem you will experience on this webpage is designed to evoke in you the intimidation and frustration a young student with a math disability might feel working out a problem that requires the integration of mathematics skills. Give yourself 1 minute to solve three problems. Click "Begin" to take the quiz.

Install 'Ruffle' before doing this activity.

The answers are in the next slides.

8. DYSCALCULIA

Solutions:

Problem 1:

Multiply the third number in the first row (8) by the seventh number in the third row (3).

Add this result to the fifth number in the second row (5).

Add to this total ten times the fourth number in the third row (7).

Subtract the eighth number in the first row (8) from the result.

Answer: 8

8. DYSCALCULIA

Problem 2:

Multiply the third number in the first row (4) by the seventh number in the third row (6).

Add this result to the fifth number in the second row (8).

Add to this total ten times the fourth number in the third row (7).

Subtract the eighth number in the first row (4) from the result.

Answer: 3

Multiply the third number in the first row (3) by the seventh number in the third row (5).

Add this result to the fifth number in the second row (1).

Add to this total ten times the fourth number in the third row (8).

Subtract the eighth number in the first row (3) from the result.

Answer:

Problem 1: 8

Problem 2: 3

Problem 3: 5

8. DYSCALCULIA

Problem 3:

Multiply the third number in the first row (3) by the seventh number in the third row (5).

Add this result to the fifth number in the second row (1).

Add to this total ten times the fourth number in the third row (8).

Subtract the eighth number in the first row (3) from the result.

Answer: 5

DYSPRAXIA

Go to this website to find out more about dyspraxia.

More info on:

9. DYSPRAXIA

Now, experience dyspraxia yourself.

 Needed: scissors, handout with figure, gloves

Work per 2.

One puts on the gloves and cuts out the figure 

on the hand-out, using your non-dominant hand, 

WHILE the other student is holding the paper!

DYSGRAPHIA

Visit https://www.understood.org and learn more about:

- What is dysgraphia? > Scroll to 'Dig deeper' > Signs of dysgraphia

- Classroom accommodations for dysgraphia

More info on:

10. DYSGRAPHIA

Time to experience it yourself. 

Team up. 

Student A listens to the dictation recording A. 

Student B does the same with recording B. 

Write the paragraph with your non-dominant hand. You get two minutes. 

Compare your writing with that of your partner. Can they read what you wrote?

A

B