Sometimes, all we have to do is look into our students. It's amazing what we'll see!
Last semester, I was attending a grade seven, to do some observation and conduct an action research. The teacher I was working with, Mrs. Hanan, is very caring. She would try her best to match the needs of every student of hers; I am talking more of psychological and physiological ones here, more than linguistic needs.
One special student was a physically challenged one. She had one leg shorter than the other, with a slow pace in moving around, talking, reading, or writing.
If you focus, you can discover an implicit feature about this girl’s behavior. The girl seems to have some kind of slowness in her ability to express herself, whether verbally or nonverbally, rather than slowness in processing info. With careful observation, the girl seemed to be able to directly understand discussions, instructions, explanations, and questions. However, when she came to the phase of expressing her points, which seem to be clearly formulated and structured in her mind, she would go slow.
This was highly respected and adapted to by Mrs. Hanan. She was given enough time to prepare and present, and even to answer.
A simple answer would take her double or triple the time, but Mrs. Hanan was all time motivating her, mainly nonverbally. The girl was really relaxed, and seemed comfortable and normally participating like all classmates.
The girl’s achievement is good, much better than many of her classmates. Even in the cooperative learning activity I did in their class, she was interacting all the time, although calmly.
What Mrs. Hanan has initiated, the mood of patience and caring, was reflected in the other students’ interaction with the girl. They would wait for her to finis and like to engage her in the group task they did.
Last semester, I was attending a grade seven, to do some observation and conduct an action research. The teacher I was working with, Mrs. Hanan, is very caring. She would try her best to match the needs of every student of hers; I am talking more of psychological and physiological ones here, more than linguistic needs.
One special student was a physically challenged one. She had one leg shorter than the other, with a slow pace in moving around, talking, reading, or writing.
If you focus, you can discover an implicit feature about this girl’s behavior. The girl seems to have some kind of slowness in her ability to express herself, whether verbally or nonverbally, rather than slowness in processing info. With careful observation, the girl seemed to be able to directly understand discussions, instructions, explanations, and questions. However, when she came to the phase of expressing her points, which seem to be clearly formulated and structured in her mind, she would go slow.
This was highly respected and adapted to by Mrs. Hanan. She was given enough time to prepare and present, and even to answer.
A simple answer would take her double or triple the time, but Mrs. Hanan was all time motivating her, mainly nonverbally. The girl was really relaxed, and seemed comfortable and normally participating like all classmates.
The girl’s achievement is good, much better than many of her classmates. Even in the cooperative learning activity I did in their class, she was interacting all the time, although calmly.
What Mrs. Hanan has initiated, the mood of patience and caring, was reflected in the other students’ interaction with the girl. They would wait for her to finis and like to engage her in the group task they did.
I have been in such a situation before, but unfortunately the teacher made of the little boy a complete loser! Rarely have I seen teachers that really want to make a change and want to perceive success reflected from their students’ performance. It is a shame that in a world where human rights are claimed to be practiced we still have those who mostly need our care, patience, commitment, attention, and encouragement left behind. I hope that what Hanan is accomplishing becomes contagious among all, because after all it is our responsibility and our job as teachers to enable the appropriate setting that encourages and embraces ALL the students no matter their learning style, disabilities, and differences to share, participate, and learn.
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