My classroom experiment
I was happily teaching yearbook, newspaper and photography classes at a medium-sized high school. Then my principal asked me to teach a special English class that had been mandated by the state. It was a high-stakes class for seniors who had twice failed the state graduation test and now had to pass this class or not graduate. I would be teaching grammar.
Teaching grammar…to seniors that hated English class and English Language Learners! All young adults in the last semester of high school who, despite whatever grades they got in other classes, or their GPA, would not graduate if they flunked my class. Not my idea of a classroom experiment.
Would you think there might be some interesting behavioral issues in the group? Any teenage hostility? Ya think?
A “Fully Developed Curriculum”
When I resisted, the principal said he had no choice. None of the English teachers had room in their schedule and I was the only other teacher in the building with an English certification. Besides, he told me, there was a fully developed curriculum that had been piloted at another school.
The “curriculum” turned out to be one sheet of paper with a list of about a dozen terms that included: verbs, subjects, adjectives, etc. And, after numerous phone calls throughout the district, I discovered there were no grammar books, kits, etc. available to me. So, as many teachers do, I started writing and developing my own grammar curriculum.
Two very fortunate things happened.
Freedom!
First, instead of being frustrated, I realized that I had full freedom to develop the course exactly the way I wanted. Freedom that most teachers don’t have today with so many testing demands. These students did not have to take the state test ever again. This meant that I could start from their skill level and proceed from there rather than “getting them ready for the test.” I decided to do my own classroom experiment.
Two kinds of learners
Second, it didn’t take long for me to recognize that the ELL students were eager, motivated and willing to work. The other students were angry and frustrated. Why? They were bright, intelligent, people who were unmotivated in prior English classes, didn’t turn in work, had behavioral problems, skipped classes…the potential signs for dyslexia.
I grew up with these students. My brothers all had varying degrees of dyslexia. They exhibited the same behaviors as they struggled and stumbled through English classes despite their exceptional skills in mechanics, computers, and art. They too would have been angry to be assigned to such a high-stakes class their senior year.
The classroom experiment begins
This was my chance to experiment with methods to help these dyslexic students. I started identifying who was dyslexic. First, I pulled out the IEP’s and 504’s. I looked at the drop-down menus on the attendance list and visited with the counselors. Anger, resistance, and sullen behavior in class became signals for me to show patience, speak softly but confidently, and treat them with respect. These were struggling people who needed my guidance.
But where was that guidance coming from?
Using the book, Dyslexia Tool Kit, What to do when phonics is not enough and multiple phone calls to the author, Yvonna Graham, I began adapting her methods for parents and tutors to support high school dyslexic students.
The classroom experiment worked!
I discovered a number of things.
Not wanting to embarrass the dyslexic students or make the other students think the methods were only for dyslexics, I presented the methods to the whole class as strategies we were all going to use. As a result, everyone in the class benefited, especially the ELL students.
Methods I adapted from Dyslexia Tool Kit included Speech-to-text and Text-to-speech, as well as audio-assisted reading.
Rather than just presenting the methods, then telling them to “go do it.” I taught the methods. We practiced. And, surprisingly, it didn’t take long before we were off and running on learning grammar while they used the methods with little prompting from me.
Explaining dyslexia
After we started using the methods as a normal part of the class, I did explain what dyslexia was and how the methods were helping. The most heart-warming moments came as students visited with me quietly after class to reveal they knew or suspected they were dyslexic.
They said that the methods helped them quickly and correctly fill out job applications (a real must for a high school senior!) One young man was so excited about the methods that he brought in his old, battered laptop and pleaded with me to help him get the apps loaded onto the machine. A few days later, he boasted about turning in an English paper that week. For the first time ever he was proud to turn in a paper! He beamed when he said it only took two hours to write it!
You have dyslexic students in your high school classroom. Most of them still read poorly or not at all. Tools such as audio-assisted reading and speech-to-text are needed to dramatically improve these students’ lives. These techniques are useful for every student, so there’s no need to single out the non-readers. Once put into practice, these techniques will save you time and energy rather than adding to your workload. This is a minimum investment with a monster pay-off for you and your students!