Work station ideas.

Thanks for your suggestion saz0908 - I think that is something that could be put together quite quickly too!

Who else is looking for a specific collection?

Speech and language

 First of all, the new SEN resources look great, I second the workstations and maybe a Dyslexia section.

Thanks

 

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions - all really useful. Some of these are already in the pipeline.

Happyday

Speech and language

I'm up to 206 resources I think in this sphere for primary age group - they're all on TES but easier to trace via my blog http://languageisheartosay.com

I use Bev's own things too.  And some of other teachers' resources too, but many have to be broken into smaller steps for language impaired children.

Trouble with language in particular is that it underpins absolutely everything in school!   For example, this week I received the vocabulary list for a child I'm supporting.   It isn't just the words - there are all the concepts that make the words meaningful.  'Variation' is not much use as a word if you don't have the concept of matching, grouping, spotting difference etc.   'Components' is a word, and you can learn to label all the components of a circuit - but the key concept is that everything that is constructed has components and each list of them will be different depending on what you are making.  'Quarters' sounds easy until you see a child flummoxed by the symbol for 'whole' which is a red circle which he labels as an apple.   But of course it could just as easily be a fraction square and the quarters would be little squares.   The concept is that I've chopped it into four - whatever shape it is, or however many there are in a group of marbles.

It's amazing really that so many of the kids seem to get it all with little problem...

 

 

Thanks for your comments! Speech and Language resources are so wide ranging but we'll give it a go! The idea of the new SEN collections is that they are small and concise to save you searching through loads for what you need. We might break big areas down into more focused, smaller collections. Thanks for all you ideas so far!

In our SEN school we concentrate on the 130 First Spoken Words list. Depending upon ability we teach the pupils to understand, read, write and use these words through PECS or their own voices.

I would really appreciate a set of resources and ideas for activities around these.

nicfernie

In our SEN school we concentrate on the 130 First Spoken Words list. Depending upon ability we teach the pupils to understand, read, write and use these words through PECS or their own voices.

You have mail!

 

I'd like to see collections of teaching resources tied both to particular SEN conditions AND to particular school subjects. The problem with "SEN teaching resources" is that you will often end up with a motley collection of literacy, numeracy and lifeskills materials which will be of little use to mainstream secondary school subject teachers when differentiating their lessons to include students with SEN. Why not collections of subject-specific SEN teaching materials covering all the National Curriculum core and foundation subjects from Art and Design through Modern Foreign Languages to Science?

Hi

Firstly I would like to say well done on the work you are doing as it has helped me a lot in my job. Secondly my hat goes off to all those who have contribute and organised this website, once again thank you and well done on an excellent job.

Now I've just a few things to comment or suggest in regards to the resources. First thing is could the resources perhaps be categories like others have suggested into various sections. Lastly I teach students in the age range of 15-18years of age with a mixture of various difficulties in a special needs school in a disadvantaged area. Finding resources that one, is interesting to their age and two challenges them at their academic level is difficult to find on this website, often the resources for older students tend to be for mainstream students that are still functioning at an GCSE . That's my lot of suggestions. But once again thank you for the excellent work.

Fiveright 

Thanks for all the additional suggestions and comments - it is really appreciated. Regarding the subject specific resources: we have started doing this with the money and maths collection - trying to get items focused on a subject rather than a condition or area of SEN. We are trying to strike a balance though - keeping some collections for things like Autism etc but trying to make them smaller and more focused. Again, all your assistance creating meaningful and useful collections is greatly appreciated

I'm new on here (but not new to teaching) and new to SEN. Science teacher 'by trade' but taking a new post in a PRU having never worked in the SEN field before. How about focusing on a 'special person' in Science rather than on a Topic? Take an empathetic journey through the life of the person and let the Science they did be part of the sideline info. Look at Gallileo for example and focus on his life and thought processes. His inspiration from Nicolai Copernicus theory of the Sun being the centre of it all, making his observations of the movement of the planets, living in a world where thinking anything other than the churches teachings was a crime and punishable in the severest terms, writing his dualist (dialogue) story to avoid a death sentence yet still feeling compelled to write the truth despite a very real threat of being killed as a heretic, life imprisonment, study of the Sun to the point of blindness. Brave? Possibly the bravest Scientist who ever lived? Along the way you can incorporate lots of practical science.... sundials, moon photos at the same time of day each day to map moon movement, planetarium visit?, in school inflatable planetarium session, gallileo's famous leaning tower of Pisa "2 objects fall at the same speed" experiment. It's also OK to make mistyakes :) for the defensive low self esteem kids. Gallileo refused to believe Johannes Kepler's idea that the moon caused tides! Dismissing it as nonsense very publicly. I'm starting a new job in a PRU next Tuesday and one of the first things we'll do is to learn about the work of Michael Faraday, without whom we'd be living a darker and drier life!

Dodros

I'd like to see collections of teaching resources tied both to particular SEN conditions AND to particular school subjects. The problem with "SEN teaching resources" is that you will often end up with a motley collection of literacy, numeracy and lifeskills materials which will be of little use to mainstream secondary school subject teachers when differentiating their lessons to include students with SEN

I work with preschool and primary but can try and point up some difficulties. If a child is in a special school or class, then the teacher can look to resources which are okay for all. When an outside agency is involved, or a TA is asked to carry out a programme to improve speech and language skills (in my case), the school can be very reluctant to allow time for back-up unless there is an apparent connection to the curriculum. My underlying target has to be worked into that - hence the motley collection you refer to! Without the literacy, numeracy and lifeskills, curriculum topics can be built on sand. I do try in my own blog index of my TES resources to list the topics I have done something for. And Bev's site has heaps of topics covered with vocabulary, power points etc. Widgit does lots of topics now with extra symbols and both free and priced resources. There are websites with additional materials but they take hunting for and are not all free. Maybe secondary work is not as well supported. Don't some of these youngsters still need the basics? I see children with e.g. Down's Syndrome leaving Primary with extremely low attainments in spoken language and comprehension, literacy, and number and really they do seem to need all work still to be underpinned by efforts to further their basic skills even when they get interest and new experiences from curriculum topics. (And probably 'by law' have to do them!)

Perhaps all publishers of the basic texts should be encouraged to add graded materials at no extra charge...

 

I work with Autistic spectrum teens, but is getting harder to deal with the dual diagnosis of ADHD, ODD, etc. Where one strategy will work for one, but not the other. Any ideas?

 

Louise

I work with preschool and primary but can try and point up some difficulties. If a child is in a special school or class, then the teacher can look to resources which are okay for all. When an outside agency is involved, or a TA is asked to carry out a programme to improve speech and language skills (in my case), the school can be very reluctant to allow time for back-up unless there is an apparent connection to the curriculum. My underlying target has to be worked into that - hence the motley collection you refer to! Without the literacy, numeracy and lifeskills, curriculum topics can be built on sand. I do try in my own blog index of my TES resources to list the topics I have done something for. And Bev's site has heaps of topics covered with vocabulary, power points etc. Widgit does lots of topics now with extra symbols and both free and priced resources. There are websites with additional materials but they take hunting for and are not all free. Maybe secondary work is not as well supported. Don't some of these youngsters still need the basics? I see children with e.g. Down's Syndrome leaving Primary with extremely low attainments in spoken language and comprehension, literacy, and number and really they do seem to need all work still to be underpinned by efforts to further their basic skills even when they get interest and new experiences from curriculum topics. (And probably 'by law' have to do them!)

Perhaps all publishers of the basic texts should be encouraged to add graded materials at no extra charge...

It's not an "either-or" situation. There is a case for BOTH the basic skills - literacy, numeracy and lifeskills - AND differentiated subject-specific materials and that's the position I would strongly defend. As I have written, it's hard enough reinforcing the message that every subject teacher in a mainstream secondary school is also responsible for students with SEN if there's little or no appropriately-pitched subject-specific material about. I've done my bit over the years to add to the TES teaching material collection by submitting some of my own resources, but much more subject-specific material is still required! SEN teaching materials aren't only for SEN teachers, they're also, or should be, for subject teachers who have students with SEN in their classes!

[edited by: Dodros at 17:39 (GMT 0) on 17-5-2012]

A postscript. First, I wish to pay full tribute to the work that has been already done in making the TES SEN collection more accessible to teachers so that those teachers can make what they teach more accessible to all of their students.

Secondly, on the matter of the range of students targeted by general subject course materials, my experience leads me to the conclusion that textbook writers tend to pitch their delivery at students at the middle of the range, often failing not only to challenge the "gifted and talented" enough but also to reach those least able to access the curriculum. Educational publishers are, with the best will in the world, still commercial companies with the need to turn a profit, meaning that minority learners will never have their needs fully addressed by commercial courses. This is where dedicated subject teachers come in,willing to complement textbooks with materials of their own and sharing what they create.

It's great to hear all your feedback and suggestions: it is truly helpful. The plan for developing collections falls into 3 different areas. Firstly, there is definitely a need to have subject specific resources for SEN mapped to the different P scale stages. It can be very difficult to find age appropriate resources at the right educational level (up to G&T- this is something I hope the collections moving forward will address. Secondly, we're going to introduce small 'toolkit' style resource collections: focused on specific SEN conditions or areas and mainly for new teachers or mainstream teachers who need to have some assistance with strategies and ideas. Included within these toolkits will be collections based around different interventions too - this should also assist people locate the correct resources quickly. Thirdly, any requests for specific collections will be added to a list and I will endeavour to get these sorted when I can. Asking you for suggestions, both here and on Twitter, gives us an opportunity to respond to your needs whenever possible. Motor Skills and Workstation Ideas collections are already in the pipeline. Both collections were suggested by TES contributors. Of course if there is anything else you think could help you within your classroom or setting, whether collection based or not, you can always drop me a message via the TES Inbox system and I will get back to you. I hope that helps explain things a little further. Thanks again for the support Bev