I have often come across the need for different materials when working with children with special needs. Many of the children have skills below their age, but often going to the prep unit to borrow materials just isn’t the right thing. The level might be right, but especially for the children I have worked with in mainstream primary schools in year 5 and 6, there’s a need for different materials. Not only because of the looks they sometimes get from their classmates and the teasing that sometimes happen when a pile of books clearly for young kids gets put in front of them, but also because they are 10-12 years old and the materials from prep, despite being their academic level, are made for 5 year olds. And really, by the time those children get to year 6 and still struggle with reading, they have often read the books from the lower grades so many times they know them by heart!
But what else is there to do? If you have a kid in your year 6 class, who still reads on a prep or year 1 level, you can’t very well give him the same materials as the rest of the class. That just doesn’t work, no matter how great the integration aide is (if you are one of the lucky ones to have one at all…) The easiest thing often seems to ask the prep teacher for help with resources and then work your way from that. And to be fair, often the resources and ideas are good – at least to get you started.
I have found that materials for math activities can sometimes be a great help even if you have to go down several levels to find some suitable for your student. Sometimes they can be used as they are, whether it’s worksheets, games or other materials, but often a little adjustment is needed. Having a kid in year 5 do different work than the rest of the grade might not be a big problem, but if the work shouts out “I am not as good in maths as the others!” you might want to re-think your use in materials. It’s hard enough for a kid to be behind the grade. And believe me, they know! But to have everyone else in the class stare at them while they try to do their worksheet which with big letters at the top says “Welcome to grade 1” is neither fair nor constructive. Getting the students to improve and get better academically is only one of our jobs as a teacher, the students’ self-esteem, happiness and quality of life are just as important!
But what else can you do, then? If you have a child in your grade 5 who needs to be on the floor moving big magnetic letters around to spell words, then that’s just what he needs to do. (We could start a long discussion on whether or not this child really belonged in mainstream school, but for now that doesn’t really matter as he is there, in your classroom, and you need to teach him). Hopefully you have an integration aide and the opportunity to take that particular child out of the classroom for individual work a certain amount of time each week. But maybe you don’t? And even if you do, that will still leave the child in your classroom for long periods every day where he also needs work to do.
As mentioned before, the teacher in the lower grades of the school can often be a good help and their materials might be a place to start. Where I often run into the biggest problems is when it comes to materials for reading and writing. Just looking at a book from prep makes it clear that this is meant for a 5-year-old and not a 12-year-old – both to you, the child and the rest of the children in your class. There are some great materials to be bought, especially when it comes to books with “low ability, high interest” levels, but it’s not many schools who can afford buying them. Especially not if not many of the students need those materials, which often is the case when mainstream schools have students with moderate to severe learning difficulties.
To be honest I have often used materials made for younger children – because the level was right. I have borrowed resources from the lower grades, but to a much greater extend I have found materials online. There are some really great online sites with materials which are also suitable for older children with learning difficulties. (Some offer their resources for free, but other pages you’ll need to pay to sign up for). I have especially used online maths resources, for example to collect worksheets for the times when there is no integration aide in the classroom (or she is working with another child), and the lesson simply gets too difficult for the child to cope with. Doing different work from the rest of the grade can sometimes be a solution, but by carefully selecting the materials, at least I can make sure that not only the level is appropriate, but also the age, layout, pictures, text etc.
However, even with online materials and resources borrowed from lower grades, I have often fallen into a hole. Sometimes there just have not been what I have needed for a certain child anywhere! As mentioned earlier I have found it especially hard to find literacy resources for older children with moderate to severe learning difficulties. They know they are not 5 years old anymore, so why drag them through books about little kids starting school or learning to dress?? It just doesn’t make sense. There are a few online resources, but often the skill level matches the age level, so for older children the appeal is still missing.
What I have ended up doing a few times is making my own materials. It takes time, but sometimes I have found it necessary to do so. I’m neither a professional children’s author, nor an illustrator, so logically my results have been less pretty and interesting-looking, but in those few cases that didn’t matter as much. It was a positive change for those children to suddenly have something to read, and to work with, which was neither too hard nor too childish for them, and at the same time it was about topics they were interested in. You can’t do it for every single child in your grade, but sometimes the lack of appropriate resources just drives you to desperate measures, I suppose 😉
Here’s a few online sites with great resources, which I have found helpful:
http://www.worksheetworks.com/ – (A free site with a few good and different generators for math worksheet, really quick and easy to use)
http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/– (Has great flash cards and Dolch Sight Words resources, some resources you’ll need to sign up for)
http://www.smartkiddies.com.au/ – (Has really great math resources – worksheets as well online games and tests – you need to sign up, though)
http://www.teachthis.com.au/ – (Has great math and literacy resources – games, flash cards, posters etc., you need to sign up, though)
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