SPOTLIGHT ON SEND
Imperfect recall In her regular bi-monthly
column for Education Today, independent Specialist Teacher and Assessor JOANNE GLADDERS this month looks at supporting learners who have difficulty retrieving information from memory.
One of the key areas of concern when talking to pupils and teachers
is the ability to retrieve information from their memory. For many pupils, it becomes a source of great anxiety when they know that they know something but cannot retrieve it from their memory. This can be heightened when they know the word or words that they want to say, they are ‘on the tip of their tongue’ but they just cannot retrieve them.
The Oxford dictionary gives the definition of retrieval as: •
1.the process of getting something back from somewhere: “the investigation was completed after the retrieval of plane wreckage”
•
2.the action of obtaining or consulting material stored in a computer system: “online information retrieval”
The first part is linked to us retrieving information from our memory, i.e. being able to recall something that we have learnt. This is a skill that many find particularly difficult so what can we do to support this?
Firstly, knowledge organisers are a summary of the key facts and essential knowledge that pupils need about a unit of work or a curriculum subject. They should be no more than one side of A4 with all the information broken down into easily digestible chunks. The single side of A4 is important in order to focus the minds of the teachers creating them so they only include what’s absolutely crucial. It is easy for knowledge organisers to become overwhelmingly full of information which then renders them useless. For me, the key element of these is how we use them. To embed learning and to aid retrieval it is important for the pupils to interact with them in some way. One of the key elements of the knowledge organiser is that it should contain the vocabulary that is to be covered in the topic. This should be interacted with, for example, by giving a matching activity of the word with the definition. In addition, the use of a word map to interact with the word might also be tried.
Secondly, we should make use of quizzes. There are many online tools out there to support the interaction of key learning in fun ways for pupils followed by opportunities to embed their learning.
The second part of the definition is about obtaining and retrieving information from something. In education, a key element of the comprehension test is the retrieval of information from a text. This is particularly difficult for a pupil who has difficulty with reading and understanding. One of the most important things for me when teaching these skills is the need for multi-sensory learning – using colours to highlight the key information, interacting with the key words and enabling the pupil to understand what we are asking them to do. Never take for granted that they understand the language of the questions or instructions.
One word ‘retrieval’ has so many different connotations attached to it and has been shown to create anxiety and confusion. How can you help your pupils to ‘retrieve’ information in different situations?
November 2022
SEND children in a technological age
In her column this month regular contributor HANNAH RIX, SEND English teacher and co-founder of Readingmate Ltd, reflects on the positives and negatives of technology for SEND learners.
Technology is a powerful tool. It’s also becoming more and more ubiquitous across schools and learners’ lives. When used intentionally and with purpose it can transform a learner’s experience of school. However, our lives are growing more and more reliant on, and saturated by, technology. As a result, our learners are having to navigate a landscape where the world around them is becoming increasingly automated. As educators, we must ask
ourselves: what impact is this going to have on our SEND learners’ social and communication skills in later life?
As an English teacher, my role revolved around developing and supporting the communication skills of my learners. The school felt these skills were fundamental in supporting not only their learning but also their independence, personal safety and wellbeing. Every individual I taught had unique methods of communication. Some were as subtle as the speed or pitch of their voice, or as obvious as throwing an object across the room. The way in which they chose to demonstrate their thoughts and feelings was entirely up to them. It was my job as their teacher to try and harness these in a way that would keep them safe and make them feel heard. There are many communication technologies available and for some of my learners, these were transformative, eye-gaze technology being a prime example enabling learners to engage with peers, staff, family, and strangers completely independently. BIGmack switches allowed learners with limited mobility to demonstrate preferences. Without these tools, some of our learners would have had very limited interactions with the world around them.
The technologies I feel could inhibit social and communicative progress of learners are phones, online games, and chat rooms. A lot of our older learners all had mobile phones and games consoles, and would count down the minutes of the school day until they could be reunited with them. Although these technologies enabled the learners to socialise with their friends without needing the support or presence of an adult, it also made them vulnerable to people who recognised a vulnerability that could be preyed upon. As time went on, many staff began to recognise that most of these learners’ time outside of school was spent playing Fortnite, scrolling TikTok or sending Snapchats. The ‘social’ element of these technologies was being used less and less. As a result of these habits, many of the learners were choosing not to participate with in-person events and in some cases becoming withdrawn in school too. It became increasingly clear that the line between empowering and damaging technology was very blurred. Moving forward it would be naïve to think we can withdraw these technologies from our learners’ everyday lives. Perhaps we should consider more dutifully how to incorporate them in and out of the classroom. Should they only be used to enhance social interactions as opposed to being an alternative all together?
www.education-today.co.uk 19
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