What strategies will you use to engage with students who may be hard to reach? by Christine https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq What have you tried in the past? Did they work or not? Why? en-us 2017-08-13 00:17:52 UTC 2019-09-12 03:27:46 UTC hello@padlet.com Write when it's hard to talk https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/182973553 I forgot if I've shared on this before. I came across a reading on social media where a student shared how it was easier for him/her to write rather than put her thoughts into words in person to her rather intimidating and impatient Harvard-trained professor.

It inspired me to try this method to the quieter students in my classes. As students are graded based on their in-class participation, many quieter students often cannot score well and they have  resigned themselves to this fact, which seemed unfair and sad to me (that anyone could be put in a position to feel they are worth less than what they are truly capable of).

I reached out to these students to email me their thoughts in between the learning phases. I would consider them as in-class evidence for grading purposes. The students really lit up after that. And I started receiving emails (I check them on my phone) during these breaks and how wonderful it was for me to be able to hear their thoughts! Interestingly, their responses usually reflect strong critical thinking- something I rarely sees in the classroom discussions. I think this is strongly related to how safe or 'judged' the students feel in an openly collaborative learning environment.

]]> 2017-08-27 12:57:11 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/182973553 Feely-Touchy Me https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/182973807 J was six years old when he attended the enrichment programme I was conducting. It was a relatively small class of 10 children, all aged either 5 or 6.

J's teachers did not warn me of his behavioural issues in class. J started touching everything he could in the classroom. He especially got excited with anything with numbers.He literally pulled a hand-made puppet stage apart as it was made out of carton box and there were serial numbers on the side of the box! His peers were used to his 'strange' manners and would not hesitate to call out to him to stop, impatiently.

I realised J seemed to be tactile-seeking. I also soon realised he had a penchant for numbers and was linguistically strong too. He was easily distracted because he found the content too easy for him and felt bored.

It was only a 4-day programe. By the second day, I introduced different activities for him to complete with the help of a support teacher I had to call in urgently. While the other children worked on drawing, J worked on number and word puzzles. As others talked about their drawing for Show and Tell, J shared with us how he decoded those puzzles.

I also used visual aids to communicate the lesson plan (2-hours programme) with J. I divided the activities into smaller checkpoints to help with his attention issues. J was also given the autonomy to choose his 'relax' activities after he managed to complete 3 checkpoints, including group singing and games. He refused to participate in group activities on the first day but with the help of the reduced milsetones and visual aids, J was happy to join in the group as I think it helped manage his expectations better. The 'relax activities' were things he could enjoy on the side in the same room as us, with the teacher aide. That time away from the group seemed critical for him to regulate before regrouping with us again.

I also brought sensory tools on the second day to suss out what tactile materials he was seeking. Turned out he liked soft toys and fleece. I gave him small pieces of fabrics which helped on a social level (did not stand out so much as with a blanket!) and I involved J in demonstrating hand puppetry so he had a chance to 'legitimately' fiddle with the material.

On hindsight, some of those strategies seemed clumsy in terms of implementation and leaned towards segregation methods at times - but they definitely helped J regulate when he needed and also be included within the enrichment programme.]]> 2017-08-27 13:05:00 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/182973807 Secondary/Tertiary Level engagement https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/182974404 Firstly, always human touch. I would engage with the students in person. I'd like to think the tone we take and our attitudes towards 'problem kids' would matter greatly in this chat.

Once the student trusts us and understands we are on their side, and we do not have a 'horn' effect on them, they will be more willing to engage. They need to believe in our minds, they still have that clean slate to start off with. Then they would think it is worthwhile for them to try engaging with us.

Next, this generation and age group seems to function better behind a safety wall. Google Doc, and Padlet as we are using here, are all useful collaboration tools we can engage with in an online mode. I'm actually hoping to learn more ICT tools we can use for collaborative learning!

Establishing a class what's app chat has helped as well. This is where I share extra resources we all come by. Anyone and everyone should share. Content has to be related to the module. Students feel empowered to lead discussions or less intimidated to engage with these informal resources as they are often platforms they are comfortable with - Facebook, Instagram posts or simply videos we take ourselves in real life on egs we have seen in reality.

The lesser engaged students often like to PM (private message) me their queries - again emotional safety issue.

As this group of learners are teenagers, being relevant with their vocabulary helps break down the barriers. One of our "class rules" is that I teach them something, they've gotta teach me something back in return. So I won't end up feeling like a dinosaur at the end of the day :) My kids usually smile at this and they really love teaching me stuff - I've learnt so much from them over the years quite honestly. It really proves the fact that no man is an island and no one is a Wikipedia. "Let's not do something Wiki already can do" I like to say in class. That makes everyone in class feels better and this sorts of creates a sense of equity in learning as well :)]]> 2017-08-27 13:23:43 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/182974404 https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/183408208 Children love who understand them and provide to them a safe atmosphere to feel comfortable after that; they will follow all teacher instructions in class.

I will use some of these strategies to children who have ADHD. Firstly, I can place him near me and ask him questions related to lesson to attract his attention rather than distracts children when he moves. Secondly, I can use touch for instance, if I see him start moving I touch his head, say his name and say some nice words to encourage him to stay quiet. Finally, I can provide something he likes it. For example, images of animals after that, I will say to children who stay quiet I will pass to him or her image of animals to see it. I think these a good strategies teacher can use for children who have ADHD.

]]> 2017-08-29 14:43:04 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/183408208 https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/275355654 When I first started teaching I had a student in my class who had ADHD, He had never liked school, never had a positive relationship with a teacher and thought that almost all the other children in the school hated him. From day 1 I made sure that I told him every day how much I liked him, how much he made me laugh and how helpful he was. I did not really ask him to do any work and anything I did give to him was easy for him to achieve so that I could praise him for his hard work. It took about 6 months of working in this way before the student trusted me enough to try some harder work that he would not just get right but once he realised that I genuinely enjoyed his company I really never had any behavioural issues, he made friends with his peers in the class and made good academic progress. 
Relationships are so important to our students and they know if you are genuine or not so you cannot pretend! 
I still spend the first term really getting to know my students so that when they do struggle I can help them because I know them and I know what makes them feel better.]]> 2018-08-26 06:58:32 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/275355654 I used to have a class with a very difficult behaviour. They were not easy to engage with the class. They were 9 to 11 years old and easily distracted. What I did at that time was tried to get their attention by observing their hobbies and interests. I found that they are interested in funny stories. So, I made up some funny stories for them to get, at first, their attention. The second step was finding out the students who had big influences to their peers on negative behaviour. I paid attention to them, but without leaving behind the other students. The third step was paying personal attention to each student, that made to give them caring impression. It worked but for sure I need more time. https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/281334389 2018-09-14 14:33:35 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/281334389 PBS https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/379354869 I work in a PBS school. The support system in this setting is researched based and multi tiered. We will use task boards, social stories, 1:1 adult support, peer tutoring and many more multi layered intervention strategies to try to engage the student in their learning . First we will collect the data to see if we can isolate the factors that led to the disengagement of a student. Next we will brainstorm how to solve this. Such system as check in check out, time with a teacher, adapting the activity to cater for a child's specific learning needs will all be tried. The school and teachers are continually reviewing the interventions provided. We have the support of an OT and speech therapist within the school. This helps even when setting up classrooms we can have the OT input to cater for ADHD and autism to ensure the environment provides the best learning environment possible.]]> 2019-09-03 09:06:59 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/379354869 SW cpry0001 https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/382519990 2019-09-11 04:53:16 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/382519990 SWP cpry0001 https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/382519992 2019-09-11 04:53:17 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/382519992 SWPBS cpry0001 https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/382519996 In my current context we have school wide positive behaviour support strategies. We are a special education setting with high needs students. 
We have school specific instant behaviour reinforces for behaviours selected for increase in addition to weekly tangible rewards. I have implemented many strategies to engage hard to reach students. The vital part of any intervention is built on the rapport between staff and student. The better you know a child the better you can tailor strategies suited o student interest. Eg, making a reward chart with spider-man pictures- get 10 webs and choose your agreed upon reward - 10minutes playing with cars. This has always worked well for me. ]]> 2019-09-11 04:53:18 UTC https://padlet.com/christine_grove1/ctrbyyj8fbbq/wish/382519996