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Dec
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Helping kids with learning disabilities change negative habits of mind
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Special Education
The other day in my senior class we were talking about what it feels like to have a learning disability. Many of the kids who are identified as having a learning disability said they felt retarded when they were told about their disability. Some of them laughed about being in my class and called it the “retard” class. I’ve heard their peers also call it the “retard” too class and laugh and comment about it. No wonder some of them want the door closed so that no one can see them sitting in the class. When I think about it, it’s a wonder any of them talk to me in the halls when they see me given that I ‘m the person who teaches that class. But, they do. Although, I must say that recently I had a grade 11 student cover his face with his hands when he saw that I was coming to talk to him. One of the students who has been identified as being gifted and having a learning disability told the class “One year they told me I was gifted; the next year they told me I was retarded.” How does a kid deal with that? This kid wasn’t dealing with it very well, unfortunately.
What do you tell kids who feel retarded because they have to live with the label of LD? I’ve told them everything I can think of. I’ve told them that they are not retarded. I’ve told them they have average or above average intelligence. I’ve told them they have interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, musical intelligences, etc that they could be proud of. But of course their daily experience in the classrooms doesn’t support pride. Now, I’m going to stop telling them things, and I’m going to have them start doing things that I believe will help them become more proud of who they are.
This is my plan. From now until the end of January, the end of the semester(I know that’s not a very long time, but I just thought of doing this now), I’m going to help them become philanthropists giving of their time, talents and money to help other people. This is my thinking behind my plan. At our school it’s really cool to be involved in various fund raising drives. The gifted kids do it all the time. The students helped raise eight thousand dollars to build a school in one of the developing countries. Students have raised thousands and thousands of dollars for charity. Every week there is some kind of fund raising going on. I’ve heard my students say that they’re never part of anything like that because other people think that they’re not good enough. It doesn’t matter what I say, they continue to feel that way. So, I’m going to use my class time to first teach them about philanthropy and then give them the opportunity to practice philanthropy and social action so that with each philanthropic act they do giving of their time, talents or money they’ll themselves in a more positive light adding to the common good and not see themselves as “retards” with nothing to offer the world.
Given that most of the students in the class are strong visual learners and extremely weak auditory learners and dislike reading, I decided that I would use a video or a movie of some sort to anchor the philanthropy unit. The question was what should I show them. I had no clue. So, I do what I normally do when I don’t have a clue. I googled and to my delight, I found a site that was most helpful. The site is called Finding Inspiration In Literature and Movies or F.I.L.M. for short. It is perfect because it has lots of suggestions for movies as well as questions kids could reflect upon. I showed them The Ultimate Gift, and they absolutely loved it and were more than willing to compete the assignments based on it. We’re at the point where the kids are going to interview an adult and create a video montage much like the one they saw in the movie. I can’t tell you how excited I was that they were excited about doing the assignments, even the kids who hate to write a word were willing to do this.
Now, I have to tell you something about showing videos or films to my class. Many of the kids in the class have short term memory problems and can’t do two things at the same time. I have found that if I show a movie over two consecutive days , many of the kids have forgotten much of the content. I’ve tried having them answer questions as they watched the movie, but that didn’t work well because they got so interested in the movie they couldn’t stop to answer questions .
So this is what I do now. I get the kids interested in the movie by asking a question about life related to the topic of the movie. Before I showed the movie The Ultimate Gift, I ask questions like: have you ever inherited anything; what would it feel like to inherit a million dollars; what would you do if somehow you got a million dollars? We talk about it for a while and then I told them that a character in the movie is facing those questions. Then I invited them to watch the film with me to see what happens. I showed the movie in it’s entirety, had a graphic organizer to help support memory and then I show the movie again in sections so that the kids could answer the questions. I find that showing the movie that way helps make sure that everyone get to see it at least once in class. If a kid wants to, I lend them the movie to take home and cross my fingers that they remember to bring it back the next day. Sometimes they do and sometimes don’t, but that’s life. I don’t remember everything either.
This semester I am teaching one Advance Learning Strategies class. Next semester, I teach two Advanced Learning Strategies classes so I’m going to spend some time before then, and see how I can incorporate more films to achieve the desired outcomes for this course.
I want my students to change the negative habits of mind they have about themselves, and I think I have found a way to help them to start do this. I think that when they start giving their time, energy, and talents to projects for the common good they’ll feel that they have done something valuable, that they are valuable and not a “retard”.
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11 Responses to “Helping kids with learning disabilities change negative habits of mind”
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I love the F.I.L.M. site you mentioned. I didn’t know about it before and will spread the word. I have another site I read about somewhere but haven’t used. It’s not nearly as cool (because I’m a little biased towards movies) but it does help students connect with other students on service learning projects or find other ideas. It seems more appropriate to your grade levels than mine… the site is http://www.dosomething.org
P.S. The new color scheme on your blog is a lot cheerier than before. I like.
Mathew,
Thanks for the link to http:/www.dosomething.org. I like the way the site tries to link kids with projects. As for the new colour scheme, it’s interesting that you should mention its cheerness. Thank you. I think that the cheerier colour reflects my optimism about the new approach I’m taking with my students using the F.I.L.M. resources. I truly believe that my students will come to see themselves as winners because of what they do for others. That is definitely something to be cheerful about.
Hi Elona
I just discovered your blog, and will check back often, thanks. I am a special ed consultant in BC Canada. I thought you might like to check out this New York Times story. Here is the opening:
“Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia
By BRENT BOWERS
Published: December 6, 2007
New York Times
It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.” The whole story is at the URL below.
Your students who are suffering low self esteem because of their learning disabilities might like to know that many adult sufferers go on to be extremely successful.
Here is the url: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/business/06dyslexia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I have taught students with LD for 20 plus years too. I imagine like me, you have seen the system go through a lot of changes. If you have a moment, visit my Blant… (blog and rant!) about special education.
Kathy
Kathy,
Thanks for taking the time to comment and provide us with the links. While it is true that some people will go on to be entrepreneurs, many kids will drop out of “life” before that because they are so discouraged and do not have families that can give them the support they need. Schools need to give them support by changing the programs they offer these kids. I’m in the process of trying to do this and have the war of some people who can help make these changes. Let’s cross our fingers!
By the way, I visited your blog and am encouraged to see that you are challenging the status quo. Keep it up!
Hi Elona – it’s been a long time! This post is an inspiration to me. I have been feeling down about my teaching for the past couple of months. I haven’t been feeling like I am accomplishing anything and have let myself slide. I need to keep reminding myself that it is my first year at a new school and that I work with a challenging group of students (13 students, 12-19 years old, all together in a self-contained classroom, ability ranging from preK to gifted at the extremes!)
I like the ideas you presented here and am on my way now to FILM to explore some more.
Wishing you a wonderful 08,
Tracy
Tracy,
It’s so nice to hear from you again. I’m glad that you find my ideas useful. My students love the first F.I.L.M. project we did. They are going to do the interview of an adult and film it. They were so excited when I told them that was next. Of course everything takes much longer with my spec. ed. class- about 3 times longer. I have to get over wanting them to do a the same volume of work as kids who don’t have learning disabilities. They are so strong orally, I forget that the written stuff takes them so long. I’m looking for other ways that they can demonstrate their learning. I have a rubric for classroom discussions so they take them seriously. I’ll look for it when I get back to work and then post it. Maybe someone will find it useful.
Good luck with the F.I.L.M. site.
I would definitely find that rubric useful, Elona! Thanks!
[...] read Elona’s post Helping Kids with Learning Disabilities Change Negative Habits of Mind and I am witness to the balance of reflection and action as a result of discomfort that led to [...]
I am an adjunct Associate Professor of Mathematics at Rider University, active as a substitute teacher and mentor in high schools, and a retired professor of physics from Rutgers University. I have taken extensive notes from my experiences and given them to my protégés. Recently I collected them into a book. I suggest that your library purchase the book for the benefit of students, parents, and teachers.
I just wrote a book, “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better”. This is available on amazon.com, ISBN 978-1-4196-7435-8. May I suggest that you order a copy for the library? The readers will be very pleased!
The reviews are superb. Students, teachers, and professors who have looked at the book give it the highest rating.
Typical comments that I hear are things like this: “Hi, Dr. Aranoff!” said a girl, “I got a 100 on the test! I am so happy! Thank you so much!”
I also wrote a paper in Gifted Education Press Quarterly:
http://www.GiftedEdPress.com/GEPQWINTER2008.pdf
Here are some comments:
“We really enjoyed the latest GEPQ and especially liked the article by Sanford Aranoff. He took a very practical approach on an eyeball to eyeball level. A lot of this really needed saying. He showed a keen awareness of the trends towards anti-scientific education that are out there. We made a hard copy of this article and will send it on to the heads of the science and math departments at Loyola Academy with the intention of their distributing it to department chairs in the Jesuit Secondary Education Association.”
Sandford,
Good for you to think big- see my new years resolution in my latest post and to do something about it. I’m pleased that you found my post of use to you.
[...] read Elona’s post Helping Kids with Learning Disabilities Change Negative Habits of Mind and I am witness to the balance of reflection and action as a result of discomfort that led to [...]