May 2015 – ¡Vámonos!
 

Month: May 2015

@simonehaughey

@simonehaughey

On May 6th I made the trip across Birmingham in rush hour traffic to attend TeachMeetWM organised by the irrepressible and absolutely bonkers Simone Haughey at her school Robin Hood Primary. I sadly missed the choir singing and the start of proceedings thanks to a staff meeting and the traffic, but I arrived in the end to be greeted by delicious Chinese food saved for me by Sim and lots of friendly faces including John Rolfe and AnaPaula Booth from the British Council, and the staff of Robin Hood who are obviously well used to Simone as they didn’t bat an eyelid when I asked if they had a couple of hula hoops I could borrow!

There were many great presentations on the night including a couple via video, and you can see what you missed by looking at the Storify of the tweets at the end of the post. However, my presentation is below as promised for those who were there. How I managed to explain it all in 7 minutes I do not know but I avoided being attacked with a cuddly toy! Do leave a comment if you have questions!

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

I’ve just completed the final week of the FutureLearn MOOC, Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching. A little early but I wanted to get it done as I need to concentrate on report writing 🙁

This week focussed on phonological and orthographic awareness, skills that are needed for successful spelling, reading and comprehension. It underlined the need to move from word level to text level, and the value of shared reading, pre-reading/pre-teaching, and of constant checking of comprehension to avoid gaps in understanding being left unplugged.

Below are my sketch notes. I hope they’re useful!

4.3 - Developing phonological and phonemic awareness (Professor Joanna Nijawska)

4.3 – Developing phonological and phonemic awareness (Professor Joanna Nijawska)

4.6 - Multisensory tasks to teach spelling

4.6 – Multisensory tasks to teach spelling

4.8 - Helping children with reading comprehension difficulties (Professor Kate Cain)

4.8 – Helping children with reading comprehension difficulties (Professor Kate Cain)

4.10 - Developing dyslexic learners' reading skills (Dr Anne Margaret Smith)

4.10 – Developing dyslexic learners’ reading skills (Dr Anne Margaret Smith)

4.11 - Final advice

4.11 – Final advice

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

I’ve just completed Week 3 of the Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning course. This week focussed on teaching grammar and vocabulary to learners with dyslexia. Some dyslexic learners explained the techniques that did and didn’t work for them and how their learning environment affects their learning, some language teachers explained how they might teach grammar and vocabulary to dyslexic learners and we were challenged to mind map out learning and also design a task based on our learning so far.

Below are my sketch notes once more. I hope you find them helpful. I shared them in the comments section of the task on mind mapping as I think that sketch notes could be seen as mind maps with pictures. I certainly find them very helpful!

3.2 Dyslexic learners talk about learning strategies.

3.2 Dyslexic learners talk about learning strategies.

3.5 Teaching vocabulary and grammar (Dr Anne Margaret Smith)

3.5 Teaching vocabulary and grammar (Dr Anne Margaret Smith)

3.7 Multi sensory tasks for teaching grammar

3.7 Multi sensory tasks for teaching grammar

3.8 Multi sensory tasks for teaching vocabulary

3.8 Multi sensory tasks for teaching vocabulary

 

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

Week 2 of the course focussed on understanding what aspects of language learning dyslexic students might find difficult and how we can assist in making language learning more enjoyable and less challenging for these students by making accommodations.

Below are my sketch notes of the videos; I’m enjoying sketch noting and finding that my own ‘style’ is starting to develop. (Still not happy with my drawings but I’m getting better!)

2.2 - Dyslexic students talk about their experiences

2.2 – Dyslexic students talk about their experiences

2.3 - Foreign language learning and dyslexia (Margaret Crombie)

2.3 – Foreign language learning and dyslexia (Dr Margaret Crombie)

2.6 - Accommodating dyslexic learners in the classroom (Dr Anne Margaret Smith)

2.6 – Accommodating dyslexic learners in the classroom (Dr Anne Margaret Smith)

2.10 - Using IT to teach students with dyslexia (Dr Margaret Crombie)

2.10 – Using IT to teach students with dyslexia (Dr Margaret Crombie)

 

I’ve now caught up with posts from the last two weeks so the next post will be a few days on coming whilst I finish week 3!

If you follow me on Twitter, you can get a sneak preview as I post each sketch note as I complete it. Otherwise, ¡hasta pronto!

 

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

Image from www.dyslexialincs.co.uk

I’m currently doing a MOOC (massive open online course) with FutureLearn called Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching. It’s a four week course and is free to do. I know that quite a few people from my PLN, whether on Twitter or Facebook, are doing it too, and the participants represent a range of languages as well as phases.

It’s proving very interesting and I’m discovering that, whilst I do many of the things that are suggested as being helpful, I also do some unhelpful things that I thought would help.

To help me internalise things, I am sketch noting each video I watch and, whilst I have shared them on Twitter and in the Language in Primary Schools Facebook group, I thought at the end of each week I should share them here too.

So, here’s week 1 which started by considering some common assumptions and beliefs before looking at the theoretical concepts and issues related to dyslexia and other specific learning differences (SLD); I prefer differences (UK) instead of difficulties or disorders (US).

1.5 - Students with dyslexia talk about some difficulties that they face

1.5 – Students with dyslexia talk about some difficulties that they face

1.8 - The effect of dyslexia on language learning (Dr Judit Kormos)

1.8 – The effect of dyslexia on language learning (Dr Judit Kormos)

1.10 - The nature of reading difficulties (Professor Kate Cain)

1.10 – The nature of reading difficulties (Professor Kate Cain)

During one of the modules for this week we were asked to use our non dominant hand to copy out a text in 3 minutes, with the lined paper on its side and substituting certain vowels for symbols in order to discover what it might be like for a dyslexic student to write under pressure. Oh, and to stand up too whilst we did it. Below is my attempt. It was very hard and very frustrating!

IMG_4250

 

Week 2 follows soon!

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