Practicum Post #2
So the past couple of weeks have been quite interesting. Students have been instructed to ask each other questions (via worksheets) regarding what interests them. The worksheets go on to ask what they will want to do after high school, such as go to college, etc.
The students still seem to have a hard time remaining on task (which is normal from the autism). Some of the students are very on task and others don’t know how to sit there and write out answers right off. I did catch a few spelling errors as I was checking students work, and they were happy about me asking them why they “possibly” spelled something the wrong way. Morphemes don’t really seem to be a problem, but the writing level of the sentences is pretty simple, so I would have to put most of the students at an elementary level dealing with spelling, reading, and writing. Pragmatics seems to be more of the aim for these students, rather than the structure. The students have been working on music projects using the computers as well with a curriculum wanting the students to have a song, have pictures incorporated into the video, as well and a few ideas that bring it together. The students last week were not able to finish the project due to the computer lab being occupied by others.
Something interesting is the update on the student Jim, who doesn’t talk to anyone, has recently started to talk to classmates in a whisper voice, and for the first time seemed to open up to me the last day I saw him (starting whispering to me.) He is very, very intelligent and showed me he has a few charts with 1 to 10 and some graphs of his progression for him coming out of his shell. Some of the things he has written down seem to be math based, and I have no clue what they mean. He has written two hundred and fifty pages or so in a journal since November I believe, coming out to roughly 1.5 pages each day. I almost wanted to see if I could make a copy dealing with his charts and stage progression, as each number has a definition to it. He has yet to make a graph chart from when he started to come out of his shell. One of the charts if I remember deals with how loud his voice gets, and his comfort level around 1 vs 1, all the way to groups of people and interviews, etc. There is a lot of potential, but if he can’t come out of his shell, he might have to wait to attend UAA for another year or so.
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I guess I didn't post my blog in the right spot during spring break...dang it!
ReplyDeleteI think that this shows promise with your students your working with. Its neat to see them slowly come out of the woodwork with their creativity and writing. Writing can be so therapeutic as a tool for expression.
ReplyDeleteI like how you ask the students if they "possibly" spelled something the wrong way, rather than telling them. It helps them think about and critique their own work. I'd like to hear more about the specifics on that technique!
ReplyDeleteSo Jim is graduating this year? It's great that he's started to talk, and I agree with rhavyn about the therapeutic qualities of writing - if he can't speak his mind to other individuals, at least he was writing his mind to the journal, if that makes sense.
I agree it is nice to see the students progress, and it seems the more you are around and help them out, the better their attitudes become. I also think that they are more motivated to do the work, once they get settled in from passing period. It is interesting not work related, how students get ready and announce to the teacher that there are only a couple of minutes left. My teacher handles it pretty well and keeps them on task until the lecture or work has met the wind down point for the day. This week sometime I am going to have the students write about a "memorable experience," something that can give me a writing sample. I'm thinking Jim will do great and have a lot more to day than the rest of the students.
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