How to Organize Students With Learning Difficulties
While most of us think of mental disabilities when we hear "learners with Difficulties" there are many other kinds of difficulties that our students may be faced with. Some of these difficulties are to some extent, within a teacher's control however most are completely out of the teacher's control.
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Karissa Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Attention Request
Seeking attention or feeling incompetent are difficulties that we may be able to help control. These things may cause students to misbehave or act inappropriately to get the attention they seek or get out of doing anything they don't feel confident about. When we are faced with difficulties such as this, or any difficulty for that matter, we should try to help our students. Those seeking attention can often be helped by giving them a special role in the class, such as a team leader or teacher assistant during certain activities. If a student is feeling incompetent and does not want to do the work assigned to him, we may need to give him extra time to practice or let him practice with just one or two students in a team activity, before doing anything in front the entire class. Incompetence is usually a genuine concern, and as teachers, we need to realize this and be sympathetic to our student's needs.
Also Read: Which are the best Spanish speaking countries for teaching English abroad?
Challenges at Home
Other difficulties are not so straight forward, a student who has a troublesome home life may act out at school, because of the stresses and difficulties he faces at home. This sort of problem is likely to be completely out of the control of the teacher. However, most children in difficult home situations will act out in much the same way as students who are seeking attention or feel incompetent. Therefore, teachers often find that these children's problems can be dealt with in much the same way. In some cases, you may also need to take further action, such as reporting the child's family to your school's office, as in the case of abuse.
Also Read: "The Unpredictable Side of Punishing a Student"
Psychological Issues
Some different problems that students may have that are mostly out of the control of their teachers are mental disabilities. Things like Autism, ADHD, and dyslexia are big difficulties that may affect any student's ability to learn, but in most cases, they can't be changed. Although these problems are not reversible, both students and teachers can learn to work around them. There are countless resources available to teachers addressing these problems. Both online resources and books are available to help teachers with all kinds of problems and difficulties that may arise in the classroom.
Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course!
In summary, there are many different issues that a teacher may face in the classroom. No teacher will ever know exactly how to handle everything. However, teachers do need to do their best to help the classroom run smoothly. We should try to make sure the needs of every student are as nearly met at is possible. Even while it may not always be possible to do everything you want to do to help a student, we should always do our best to help every student, simply because they deserve it.
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