Comentario

Comentario de Eduardo Lina el diciembre 4, 2013 a las 5:45pm

Note: I have noticed that there are a number of English teachers who work with pupils with Special Needs, so I will try to share my experience as an English teacher with them. When dealing with English, i will post in English because doing otherwise would mean to miss the point.

Pupils with Special Needs should not be discriminated in any way. In the high school where I teach, there are Special Education classes whose pupils are fully integrated in school life. There are 15 pupils in each of these classes. They study a few subjects, mostly at a slower pace than in regular classes. As far as English is concerned, the policy of the school is that each pupil should be encouraged to advance as much as he / she can. The idea is to try to cater to each pupil according to his / her needs, possibilities, even"potential" (if the word is appropriate here).

Moodle cetainly helps me try to do that. While Special Education pupils are encouraged to speak and listen to English as much as possible, I make it a point to try to help kids improve their reading and writing as well. It should be noted that while some pupils can read and write, others cannot decode, so there are differences that haveto be taken into account when preparing lessons.

I integrate he use of new Technologies, too. Moodle allows me to do that, and pupils are not passive learners. Equally important, I have asked my Special Education pupils to sign in to google, so that they learn to share using Google Drive, Translate while listening to text using Google Translator, and so on. I think that helping kids learn skills needed in the 21st century will do much for them. At least, I hope so...

Regards from Holon, Israel.