In this article, I will explore how we can engage reluctant writers to write their essays in school. When dyslexia is in the mix, we need a different approach as advocated by ‘Dyslexic Friendly Schools’ advocate and consultant, Neil Mackay.
What’s the challenge?
“Dyslexia occurs independently of intelligence.”
In the seven years that I have been progressing along my dyslexia learning curve, increasingly I have found Helen Boden’s comments to be true.
Children with dyslexia can so often be labelled as though they are not intelligent when the reality is that in many cases they are struggling with the rate of processing information but NOT how they process that information. So often I meet very articulate young people with dyslexia who have strong verbal reasoning skills but whom struggle with communicating their knowledge on paper or quickly enough for the educational environment that they are forced to engage in.
It is no surprise then that some children with dyslexia may try to avoid engaging with writing for fear of judgement, being thought of as struggling or many other equally demoralising reasons.
Equally
The challenge for teachers is to understand these challenges and ‘protect’ our kids through education. In that I mean that teachers should seek to make learning feel safe for a dyslexic student. If a student feels safe in their educational environment then they can start to engage and unlock potential.
“We need to ‘protect’ our children through education.’”
To bring about that feeling of safety, the environment needs to change, the dyslexic child needs to be able to play to their strengths and not be forced to play to their weaknesses.
Since I started this blog, I have been in contact with many story tellers who struggled at school because they were forced to write in the way that the education system dictated. Once out of education they started to communicate their stories through illustration or other ways of communicating stories.
When a child is faced to write in a way that they are naturally struggling to get their head round, they will disengage. The teacher may be able to get the child to write eventually but they will get the minimum required output. The child is trying to comply, but that shouldn’t be mistaken for engagement. Compliance is not inspirational and in my opinion hinders learning.
Thinking positively about dyslexia in the classroom.
I have quoted many times statistics about the amount of training that teachers get in Special Educational Needs lets alone specifically on dyslexia. With 10% of our classroom population experiencing dyslexia in a range of ways, any tips that teachers can get to support their knowledge and development regarding dyslexia can only lead to positive outcomes.
I recently attended the Positive Dyslexia National Conference in Liverpool in November and one of the plenary speakers was Neil Mackay, Special Educational Needs Trainer & Consultant. Neil is known for his impact on training teaching professionals in making their approach to teaching more accessible for children with Special Educational Needs especially dyslexia. The term ‘Dyslexia Friendly Classrooms’ is often associated with Neil.
As you will know, I am not a teacher, but as I listened to Neil it was clear that he was advocating a strategy for teaching that is based on research and then seeks to meet the needs of the students where they are at rather than trying to ‘shoe-horn’ the students into matching the teaching strategies of the teacher.
My poorly drawn sketch of the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.
He talked a lot about the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve and how it tells us that the rate of forgetting information for a child decreases over time provided that they are reminded regularly of the content. The point being that young people (generally) don’t remember information completely i.e absorb it, on the first exposure. Regular reviews of that content, helps the process of retention. In the poorly drawn version of the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve we can see that a child’s retention of information will drop to 80% over a period of a day. If then reminded (On day 2) of that content then rate of forgetting starts to reduce and then if reminded again a few days later the rate of forgetting reduces further.
It is insights into education such as this that informs teachers of how they should be teaching. When we through dyslexia into the mix, I can’t tell you how much the above curve maybe affected but I do believe that it would be important to take extra care to remind children of content.
So if we then consider the need to write essays, there is nothing more overwhelming and anxiety laden for a dyslexic child who thinks that they have done their best to listen to the teacher but the process of being taught to has made it difficult for them to remember content and now they are being asked to write essays about the content that they may have forgotten. This is one aspect of how behaviourally we can view the child as being reluctant and not engaged but in reality they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Whilst I absolutely believe that assistive technology has a place in helping learning, equally, an informed teaching practise could make a huge difference to the 10% of the kids in class who face challenges as soon as they walk in the door.
As I listened to Neil as someone who struggled to retain information all of the time and who had felt that overwhelm and anxiety, I felt myself yearning to have had a teacher like that as I grew up. Some of my teachers engaged my attention and that was great, but some, had very definite expectations on how every member of my class should be able to learn in exactly the same way, which of course, in my opinion, is a poorly conceived way of teaching.
Stop Press - Neil Mackay is speaking at the Dyslexia Show, Birmingham in March 2020.
If you would like to find out more about Neil and his work in advising schools on dyslexia friendly strategies for teaching then he will be speaking at the Dyslexia Show in March 2020. Scroll down to the banner below , click and find out more.
