That 'other' feeling

I attended a workshop yesterday afternoon with Lulu, who happened to be sent to attend it as well. The facilitator was an ex colleague who brilliantly shared her research on "Learning Difficulties". It's an eye-opener as she recognised rather several causes of low ability learners among children in school. The most crucial disability that they are having in common is their inability to sound letters thus resulting to their difficulty in reading. When they can't read, so they can't make sense of what's being delivered in school.

Nevertheless, there are scientific definitions and theories of children with low level ability in education. This is very much related to their IQ level. Autism and Dyslexic are among the most popular cases. These less able groups are observed to be dependent on relatives and teachers, especially for a very serious case, where they can't seem to make sense of social reactions or consequences by other party.

Modeling and copying others' actions help these low level groups to be more presentive in the society. The facilitator's experience with her subject (I think who is an autistic) has made me realise that showing actions is better than instructing for actions.

She had an autistic student who kept repeating what she was saying in class. To show the kid that echoing what another is saying is inappropriate, she called her daughter into the class and modeled out some actions:

Teacher: You cannot do this ..
Daughter: You cannot do this ..
Teacher: This is wrong ..
Daughter: This is wrong ..
Teacher: Do not repeat what I say ..
Daughter: *zips her mouth*

When the autistic child saw this repetitiously, it proved that he learnt to stop repeating what his teacher was saying soon after she instructed, "Do not repeat what I say." The audience laughed when she added that the kid followed HOW her daughter shut her mouth: wide eyed and closed lips :)

This and many more lessons were learnt in yesterday's workshop. It's a great concern when there's an increase number of Menengah Vokasional students in schools. With very small number of expert teachers teaching in this area, it's about time the MOE gives workshops such as this. I thanked R from the Curriculum Department for organising the workshop. I had always asked for such workshops every time we met in meetings or projects.

Too bad that some attendees were NOT paying attention, even playing with mobile phones! Didn't they realise that they were not actually wasting the facilitator's time (cause others were listening, including me and Lulu) but actually wasting THEIR time for coming?? C'mon lah! Find it boring, LEAVE!! Don't make a fuss and show it to the rest.

The next workshop is next Saturday. This time is the sharing on HOW to tackle the less ability groups in class. Alhamdulillah .. Finally a lesson for the lesson!


PS: Just sharing .. I relieved an MV class last week. All boys, naughty and of course, weak. They don't speak English but when they were told to sit down, they listened. I took out the "ORT The Magic Key" book set (the ones I have been using with my Form 3). I read the first few pages of the story to them and I was amazed to see how attentive they were! With clear fonts, colourful pictures and simple story line, these kids enjoyed reading! I was pleased when they could relate feeling of characters with their face expressions (as shown on pictures) with intonations of dialogues like "Oh no!" and "Oh help!". Of course it's a relief when the group requested for the continuation of the story. When I told them that I didn't have the next book, they requested me to come to their class again, next time with more books! Now, isn't that an achievement? Yes, indeed! :)

Now I miss my ex MVs .. I wonder how they are doing now .. *sigh*