End of year reflections

 

For my inquiry I did my research on:

How can we overcome barriers to collaborative practice in a special school setting to help improve learner outcomes.

• I began doing research on collaboration in a special school setting.

• I couldn’t find any New Zealand research on collaboration in special schools.

• All the research I found was done overseas and was centred around Mainstream and Special needs teachers working together.

About Sommerville

• I am going to share some stats to explain how complex our set up is at Sommerville.

• We support students with their learning between the ages of 5 and 21. 

• We have a staff of around 250

• Our base school in Panmure is our ‘Mothership’. 

• At our Bhengazi and Tripoli road sites, we have over twenty classes. 

• We have around 18 satellite classes in local primary, intermediate and secondary schools from Glendowie through to Owairoa in Howick.

• Sommerville has a specialist service comprising of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapist, Behaviour Specialists, Vision and hearing advisors and a personal development councillor.

• We also have an amazing team of outreach teachers who support around 45 students in 28 different schools in the Eastern suburb of Auckland.

• At the beginning of the year, I collected data from staff around their collaboration when planning, teaching, working with other teachers, specialists and their support staff. 

• Staff had a fairly good understanding of what collaboration is and was in agreement that it is beneficial.

• At Sommerville, we work across many different sites, so collaboration across sites and in pathways can look different. 

• One thing we were able to gauge from the feedback is that most staff are keen on collaborating and willing to work as a team. 

• Many welcomed the opportunity to learn from others.

We were fortunate to have Chris Bradbeer from Stonefields share some insight into collaboration, here are some take-home points 

• Teachers often think they are collaborating, when they are not.

• Collaboration is a more intense and sophisticated approach than what we can achieve by ourselves.

• If we want to achieve effective team teaching, we need to be using the same language.

• We need to pre-empt what the little stresses will be and make arrangements and allowances.

• It's beneficial to learn from colleagues and recognise their strengths and skills. 

• There is no point trying to collaborate if people aren't interested in developing these skills.

Data Collection

While Covid restrictions hindered the work I planned on doing around improving teacher collaboration, I did manage to visit a few classes, set up jam board, arrange google meets during the lockdown and I was also able to send out surveys. As much as I would have liked to collect qualitative data that didn’t happen as planned.

I did collect some quantitative data around the barriers that staff face. 

I summed this up as :

• Time

• Travel

• Transport

• Traffic

• Timetable

• Trust

Collaborating with other special schools.

I work very closely with a range of teachers from all the other special schools in Auckland. I was able to organise a few online meetings with staff and send out surveys to them as well.

It was very interesting to see that they faced the exact same barriers that we did.

• Rogers  4 Stages of diffusion of innovation theory says that in every society like every school, there are those that are willing to try new things.  Early adopters are quick to try something new before anyone else while laggards are the last to try something and may not try it at all. 

• When it comes to collaboration, think about where you fit on this chart?

• Are you an Early adopter where you want to work with others and learn

• Or are you a laggard and will continue doing things the way you always did and not want to extend your knowledge?

In conclusion

Collaboration improves the way we work together and problem solve. This leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication. Through listening to and learning from each other, we can help each other reach our goals.

 

Summary evidence of key shifts

Evaluation of student shifts

Just to recap

The target group of students I am focused on, are at all different levels. They have many different challenges that I considered. I will used the developmental writing scale for beginner writers developed (Sturm, cali, Nelson and Staskowski, 2012) adapted by Jane Farrall (see previous blog post) to see how my students progressed.

Meet my target students  

• Student 1 (DH) - Is six years old and has Down Syndrome. He has also been diagnosed with moderate ASD, Global developmental delay, conductive hearing loss, hearing aid in both ears, Hypermetropia-wears glasses and dysphasia. Student1 is in a Year one class and has significant language delays.  He is mostly non verbal, in a one on one sessions he may share an experience about his weekend. He is not motivated to write due to his delayed language and  poor fine motor skills. He is just beginning to learn how to use a device. 

• Student 2 (SH) - Is eight years old. He also has Down Syndrome and moderate ASD. He has hearing loss in one ear, he has one hearing aid and wear glasses. He is in a Year 4 class and has significant language delays. He will sometimes attempt to write a recount about his weekend. He requires lots of prompting and motivation to get started with his writing. A reward system and a range of targeted resources is needed in order for him to complete a writing task. His lacks of motivation is due to his poor fine motor control and his language delays.

• Student 3 (RY)- Is eight years old and he has Autism, English is second language and he has Global developmental delays. He is in a Year four class. He has significant language delays and is not motivated to write. With support and targeted resources he will attempt a simple sentence about an experience he had. He still misses out the little words and always starts his sentence with 'His name'. He is confident on a device, but due to language delays, he needs constant reassurance before he can record a word.

• Student 4 (EP)- Is 11 years old and has Down Syndrome, Global developmental delay, conductive hearing loss,  and dysphasia. She has significant language delays and is in a Year six class. She needs lots of  motivated to write and she will only write if she had an experience. Due to her poor motor control and language delays, she finds writing difficult. She is only starting to learn how to write on a device.

• Student 5 (LL)- Is in a year eight class and has intellectual disability. She has extremely low adaptive functioning, serious Receptive and Expressive Language disorder and probable Neurological Disorder. Due to poor motor control and language delays, she finds writing difficult and is not motivated to write. She is aware of the fact the she is working at a much lower level than her peers. Even though she is very confident on a device, she requires a range of prompts and supports in order to construct a simple sentence.

My students struggle to focus for extended periods of time. They are not very motivated to write and require lots of motivation to get started and stay on task. 

Kindly click on the title link below to view my summary

Click here- Evaluation of interventions

Expanding sentences

Due to the complex needs of the students I work with, mastering a skill takes longer than other neuro typical students. We have been working on forming simple sentences for most of the year. It is great to see that the students are finally beginning to achieve this.
This student is able to form simple sentence and I am now working on expanding his sentence by adding adjectives . This is some of the work he produced. He felt very proud of his work.

Using Visual supports for writing

Last Friday we held a workshop here at Sommerville and invited SENCO's teacher's and teacher aides to participate.  My colleague Donna and I presented on teaching reading and writing to Children with Special Educational needs. This was well received by all who attended.

As part of my presentation I reiterated to importance of using visuals with our students.  I also demonstrated  how to use Colourful Semantics and showed the progress students have made using this programme. In my previous blog posts, I shared more information on Colourful Semantics, so please have a look.

In this post, I would like to share a WOW moment we had with one of my students who would not engage in writing. We have been using 'Who, doing what , where". Here are some visuals that we used.

This student , who has very complex needs, was not engaging is any form of writing, but after many attempts at using 'Draw and talk', as explained in my previous blogs and engaging the student with real experiences, the students attempted to write ' I want to go to the beach hotel". This was a huge moment for the student and celebrated by all.

He had gone on holiday and we used the 'real life experience' to encourage him to write about his holiday. He was not motivated to write independently, so we used the photos from his holiday and asked him what was happening in each photo. We also used , 'Who, doing what" This is what he said. I added it to clicker sentences and the student was able to put the sentence in the correct order. He felt really proud of his work and wanted to share it with his teachers and family.

Draw and talk

Draw and Talk

Uses drawing to ‘Sketching’ enhances the meaning as children draw.

Drawing is a complex sensory motor action requiring the selection, organisation and communication of visual material.

Drawing establishes a relationship between the child and the world.

‘My drawing is about______, because______’

This student has Down Syndrome and significant language delays. He is at the drawing stage, sometimes he attempts to write individual letters. Currently he is not motivated to use a device. 

He has some amazing ideas and even though his language is very delayed, he uses a combination of NZ sign language  and speech to convey his message. in the pictures below, the class was asked to create an invention. He decided to invent a self cleaning food bowl for his cat. He wanted to call it 'Doolalee machine'. He did all the designing and I recorded what he said. Due to the complexities of writing, this student wouldn't attempt it. He has the ideas.....by using draw and talk, the adult is able to record what he say.

Thereafter he made his invention. He often requires lots of motivation to get started with his writing, but because this was of interest, he got started immediately with the drawing. I wrote what he said. he was able to then make the invention. He was so excited to show everyone what he drew and made.

Evidence Sharing

Students writing sample.

In my previous blogs post , I began testing my hypothesis around writing for authentic/real reasons. I found that some students were more motivated to write and stayed on task for longer periods if they had an experience to write about. They could relate to their experience. I got the whanau involved and they are sharing photos. As student are not always able to give the details of what took place, whanau are providing the details. 

This student is usually not motivated to write. She will take a long time before getting started and would need lots of motivation. 

She went to Fiji for the school holidays. she really enjoyed the trip with her family and was very exited to write about it. Even though her sentences are not grammatically correct, I am able to get the gist of what took place. I have then modeled the sentence back to her.

Even though we have done explicit teaching using Who, doing what, this student still has difficulties in constructing a sentence. 

She is very excited to share her story with her class mates and whanau and wants to use this for her speech as well. 

Monitoring change

Achievement Challenge 5	Theory of action/ chain of events	Implementation of change	Monitoring the effects
Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/key competency using language symbols and texts	If students are able to manage themselves, will this help them improve their writing outcomes? The areas of focus has been: Will students be motivated to write and manage themselves if They are asked to write for real/authentic reasons and if They have the correct writing tool.	After looking at the research by Dr Sally Clendon, I encouraged whanau to be involved. Each week they sent in a range of photos from the weekend. These are the events that the student can relate to, they have had the experience and are more eager to share some information.  It is authentic and students are more motivated.  Photos are also used from daily school activities. I also used the research that Jane farrall did on finding the correct writing tool. I investigated  a range of alternative writing tools and trialled it with students. Once they had a tool that they were successful using, students were more motivated to write.  Daily opportunities to write and explicit teaching had to occur.	I have noticed improved attitudes in students. Students have a better understanding of what writing means. They are more motivated to write. Students are working on a task for longer periods and not giving up. They are wanting to share their work both at school and at home. They feel more confident in attempting writing. The evidence is in the writing sample.

Investigating writing tools

Using clicker sentences as 'A' writing tool 

“Students can start exploring and experimenting with alternate pencils/ writing tools 
BEFORE they know letter names or sounds,and well before they have control of 
the choice making required to choose specific letters.
Over time, you begin to see evidence that students are learning letters.”
–The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies

What is an alternative pencil/writing tool?
In order to develop literacy skills, all students need a way to write using the full alphabet no
 matter what level of understanding they appear to have about print.
(In my previous blog posts, I discussed a range of alternative writing tools).
Developed by Hanser (2009) at the Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS), 
an alternative pencil is defined as anything that provides a student with access to all 
26 letters of the alphabet.

How can students benefit from using an alternative pencil/writing tool?

Writing is an essential component of literacy instruction for students without disabilities and a part of their daily instruction. In order for students with significant disabilities to develop as readers and writers, daily writing is equally, if not, more important. However, this becomes a challenge when most students with significant disabilities are unable to hold a pencil.

Which students would benefit from using an alternative pencil/writing tool?

For students with physical, cognitive or linguistic challenges, an alternative pencil can offer a way to write and/or explore the alphabet while focusing the majority of their cognitive energy on text production.

Alternative “pencils” /writing tools were created for students unable to hold a traditional pencil or physically manipulate a standard keyboard. As well, if a student can hold a pen or a pencil but struggles to form letters with it, especially if they have already been practicing for years, then we need to look at an alternative pencil for the majority of their writing.

Alternative pencils can be used with writers of varying abilities and ages including students who are emerging writers and those who are able to write more conventionally (Browder & Spooner, 2011).

This student is unable to form any letters independently and is at the scribbling stage.
Even though his language is limited, when something of interest happens, he does have ideas and attempts to say what is happening. Here I introduced him to clicker sentences. The student gave the sentence. I added the words and he was able to put that in a sentence. He was really exited when it read back to him. This was definitely a good motivator.

This student is able to string a few words together, she is very keen on adding her thoughts and wants to attempt spelling the words, she is still learning to use the predictive text. This is her independent work.

This student has had a few opportunities to work on clicker sentences and is able to form a simple sentence. He is very motivated to use this as his writing tool as he is successful and feels a sense of accomplishment. This student has autism and will only write for real reasons. He has to experience something to write about it. 

My teaching as inquiry

My blog is based on improving writing of students with special needs. 
Enjoy the journey....

All of the students I work with have Neuorodevelopmental disorders, some of whom have complex communication needs and/or relatively limited experiences of generating language, writing presents many challenges. To develop writing skills they need to learn to generate an idea, to think about language, think about the words, the spelling, controlling their writing tool ,etc.