Documentary: How Hard Can This Be? Page 1 of 3 Health 10 Instructor: Jennifer K. Link to watch again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UNdbxk3xs If your school blocks Youtube, you will need to ask a teacher for permission to log in, or ask a teacher to log in for you. You are going to listen to a teacher of dyslexic children. He is presenting to parents, teachers, counsellors in order to help them understand how hard it is for these children to learn in a typical classroom. Your job is to reflect on that means sharing your own opinion of his ideas. Do you agree or disagree with him? Use your life experiences to explain why you disagree or agree. Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects many children, and it can be mild or more severe. 1a. What are his thoughts around using sarcasm with children? b) Do you agree or disagree? Explain why. 2a. What are his thoughts about saying this to children? “Look at me when I talk to you?” Why does he feel this way? (You had approximately 4 min. in class to respond to this question.) b) What do you think? 3a. What are his comments about the speed of learning in a regular classroom (for dyslexic children)? b) What are his suggestions about helping dyslexic children who can’t keep up with the pace? c) Have you ever personally experienced not having enough time, or observed children who don’t have enough time? How did that feel? Documentary: How Hard Can This Be? Page 2 of 3 Health 10 Instructor: Jennifer K. 4. He commented that after only a few minutes of creating an atmosphere that made learning difficult or frustrating for them, many of the participants were not willing to take risks, because of the risk of embarrassment or humiliation. Write about a time when you are fearful or unwilling to take risks. (You received approximately 4 min. in class to do this.) 5. Describe briefly (3 sentences should be enough) 4 things teachers do to try to help students, but the strategies are not helpful. a) b) c) d) 6. “93% of teachers believe vocabulary = reading comprehension.” In simpler words, teachers believe that if students understand the words, they will understand the sentence or story. Complete this sentence: But reading comprehension is MOST dependent on __________________________. Effect of Perception on Behaviour 7. Learning disabled children are often perceived (seen as) doing something wrong or bad. But they often don’t even know why this is. What effect does this have on the child, to have repeated experiences where their behavior is seen as wrong or bad? (You received 4 min. in class for this.) 8. One very common behavior from LD children to draw attention away from themselves (to avoid getting in trouble) is to call out ________________. Documentary: How Hard Can This Be? Page 3 of 3 Health 10 Instructor: Jennifer K. 9. Reading and Decoding: Write a 7 word sentence. To simulate the experience of LD children, use the following rules: a) Use spaces between words incorrectly. b) Whenever you wish to use d, b, p, g, or q, use any of the others in this group instead. c) Do not write in a straight line. Make some words higher or lower. 10. Auditory and Visual Capabilities: Children learn in different ways, and a good teacher is flexible. Write about 1 or more times in your own life when a teacher was flexible (or not) with you, and it helped you learn. And yes, you can be the teacher or learner in this example. Also, remember that learning extends way beyond school and your “teacher” could be your parents, a German school teacher, an older sibling, an aunt, a grandparent, work leader, farm boss, head cook, etc. 11. Fairness means giving everyone what they need. Again, give an example from your own life when what you (or someone else) needed was different, and they therefore received “more” of something, but you understood that it was fair. 12. The last 5 min. of the documentary are the commentary or reactions of the participants to being in the workshop. What are the most important points they make? What can we learn from their experiences, that we can connect to learning disabled children? In a paragraph, summarize the 5 that seem the most important to you.
