Sunday, December 6, 2009

Four LD Simulations

A.) Overall, I thought the simutalions were very difficult and I could not imagine completing these activities in a classroom setting being an LD student. A lot of them were very confusing and there were so many directions to follow. When completing the attention activities, it was extremely difficult to focus and complete the tasks becuase there were distractions. I was able to put myself in the shoes of an LD student while completing each one of the activities and just imagine how hard it would be for them to do this. You wonder why so many of them give up, throw tantrums, etc. because of the task which probably seems impossible for them. The reading activities, I thought were especially difficult becuase in the one, you had to look at each word in the passage, decode it, and at the same time remember what you were reading. In the second activity,the passage went by so fast you could hardly comprehend what you were reading. If an LD student looked at this, he/she would probably read half the paragraph or not even, and have trouble remembering what he/she read. You don't realize what it is like until you actually experience it first hand and that is what I like about these simulations. For the writing activities, they were really complex and it was difficult to follow all the rules and the sequence that they wanted. When looking at the railroad picture, it was almost impossible to think of what you wanted to say, type it out, and at the same time follow the rules that were given. It really made me think of an LD student and how they process/sequence information. The math activities were also extremely complex. It took me awhile just to figure out what was being asked of me in the activity. I could see how students with learning disabilities would get frustrated, breakdown, and not want to complete the activity because there were so many steps, and the adding chart was hard/difficult to follow.
B.) For teachers, doing these simulations would tell/teach you that you need to be very patient while working with students who have learning disabilities. They need a quiet area to work with little distraction, and it would probably be a good idea to give the students headphones to block out sounds while reading and/or writing. Learning disabled students learn better with lots of examples, using manipulatives, giving simple directions and talking slowly so they can understand everything. As a teacher, it is important to walk them through the activity and make sure they understand what is being asked of them before moving on to another.

3 comments:

  1. You wrote a book!!!! But, I agree with you on the tantrums and how hard it is for LD students to complete these assigned tasks. This gave you first hand on how frustrating and complex the work is for an LD student. You are also correct on the patience and helpfullness of the teacehrs. Great Job!!!

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  2. Katie, I agree with you on all of this! I like that you realize that patience is key to working with these students. It is so important to keep them motivated and not wanting to give up. You have some great ideas!

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  3. When you said, "You don't realize what it is like until you actually experience it first hand and that is what I like about these simulations." You GOT IT!! This is exactly the point of this activity! Bravo!

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