So, the presentation is tomorrow!
I have done so much research, know a lot about dyslexia, and are struggling to say everything I want to say in 5 mins.
Our group has decided I will be talking as an expert on dyslexia, rather than a teacher. Hopefully this will help our presentation to be more entertaining, as for other students in the class 20 minutes is a long time! I hope that we can capture everyones attention and teach them something new and help them to become better teachers.
It's interesting thinking about what I have learnt about dyslexia and thinking about this information in relation to Don. When we first interviewed Don the only thing that I knew about dyslexia was that it influences reading and writing, I wasn't aware of how else it effects its sufferers and its interesting considering the way that Don meets/challenges some of dyslexia's associated traits.

I really enjoyed watching Steve's presentation today. It helped me to gain a better understanding of what we are expected to do. I really liked the idea of teachers placing themselves in students shoes every now and then. I can still remeber a teacher who I had in years eleven and twelve who attempted to complete all of the work he expected us to do. I think this allows teachers to better relate with their students, and allows students to feel a connection with their students. I think this also allows teachers to help their students more with their work as they have a better understanding of what the students are doing. I guess this comes down to relevance and the ability to understand and relate to others. I think with relevance and these abilities our ability to learn and understand is expanded.
In relation to relating to others, I found an interesting clip on youtube that allows the viewer to get an idea of what reading is like for dyslexia sufferers. This clip helped to understand my understanding of dyslexia, and think more critically about tactics that teachers can use in the classroom to help dyslexic students. In saying this, the more I learn about dyslexia the more I understand the diversity of the condition and the importance of carefully considering all students individual needs, especially those with learning difficulties.
Considering Don in relation to my dyslexia research, I have found Don suffers some of the symptoms of dyslexia but not others. Don does not have motor problems or co- ordination problems which is evident in his sporting achievements. However, Don does ahve problems with his reading and weiting.

Today I continued my research on dyslexia for our presentation. I found learning about dyslexia to be both interesting and informative. While researching I discovered the diverse nature of dyslexia. Not all sufferers experience the same difficulties, different sufferers experience different degrees of difficulty and different sufferers experience difficulties at varying times depending on the situation and environment. I found it interesting that even the exact cause of dyslexia isn’t concrete. This got me thinking to our interview with Don and Don’s belief that dyslexia is simply a label. I don’t think the term dyslexia does any justice to individual sufferers and the uniqueness of their condition. I think by categorizing all dyslexic sufferers into the one dyslexic category this is creating the notion that all dyslexics suffer the same symptoms.
Dyslexia sufferers’ brains process information in different ways resulting in dyslexia sufferers experiencing difficulties reading and writing. While I was aware of dyslexia’s association with reading and writing I was not aware of other possible associated weaknesses, including co- ordination, memory and motor skills. I hope that through our presentation I can help my peers to understand the diversity and nature of dyslexia and hopefully they will remember this information and take it into consideration if, and more than likely when, they teach students with dyslexia.
In my research, I read about the importance of creating meaning while reading, the same idea explored in Mondays tut. Until Monday I had never thought of reading finding and creating meaning. In relation to this courses question, this tutorial made the importance of literacy to all KLA teachers even more obvious. Reading is no doubt an important aspect of literacy that is required in all subjects. The importance of being able to read for meaning is obvious, if students aren’t reading and finding meaning they are not learning what the teacher wants them to learn. Unfortunately, some dyslexia sufferers are not capable of creating and finding meaning while reading. I think it is teacher’s responsibility to try and find an effective way to create meaning for all of their students, including those who are dyslexic, perhaps through visuals or conversations.
I really enjoyed the tutorials exercises and found they really helped me to understand the way that I read and write. I think being competent in English, it is difficult to even begin to comprehend how difficult reading and writing can be for others. I think these activities helped me to understand how difficult reading and writing is for some individuals.

I have just been reading the Geography syllabus and found that literacy has its own subheading! The syllabus discusses the importance of literacy to studies of geography, emphasizing that literacy is every teacher’s responsibility. I think the syllabus’s discussion of literacy hits the nail on the head; ‘Literacy skills in reading, writing, talking, listening and viewing’. I think this definition effectively demonstrates the extent of the term ‘literacy’ and all that the term encapsulates and describes. Given the broadness of the term and the essential skills associated with literacy, the importance of literacy to all students and their education is evident. I don’t think anyone could succeed in or out of the classroom without these essential skills. The syllabus continues to state literacy skills ‘are essential to the acquisition of geographical skills and knowledge’, again reinforcing the importance of literacy within the KLA’s.

I just read an interesting case study on a year six boy, Ben, who was diagnosed as ‘legally illiterate’ illeterate in year six. Ben read at the same level as the average student entering primary school.
An ILP (individual learning plan) was developed to help Ben improve his reading skills. Methods used within the ILP benefited and influenced not only Ben, but other class members as well. The main techniques used to improve his skills were peer tutoring within the classroom (where more advanced readers helped their less advanced reading peers, this benefited not only those being tutored, but also those tutoring), ability based reading groups (established reading groups of readers at the same literacy level, suitable texts were then chosen for each group, these groups prevented students from feeling excluded from their peers and from feeling stupid), adapted learning tasks (for example, choice was often given in assessment tasks allowing poor writers to present their findings and work using visual images, drama, etc) and visual timetables and prompts and consistent routines (allowing Ben to feel comfortable in his environment and easily adjust to any changes). Ben also received individual coaching to help him with his literacy skills. In just six months, Bens reading skills had risen to those of an average year three student!
I found this case study not only interesting, but also inspirational. Bens reading skills improved a great deal over a short period of time and the measures used by his teacher where not exceptionally hard to administer. I think the strategies used would have not only helped to improve Ben’s literacy skills, but also other skills, such as communication and social. I think the social nature of these strategies also allows information to be placed into a communicative situation, allowing different ideas to be discussed and explored allowing for deeper learning to occur. I think case studies like this can not only provide inspiration for teachers, but also give teachers ideas for ways they can help struggling students within their own classrooms.
I wonder if these strategies, if implemented in his classrooms, would have helped Don to improve his literacy skills?

thursday!

Yesterday’s interview with Don was incredibly interesting. We discussed a whole lot of information over a period of an hour and a half. We discovered Don is dyslexic, yet at present I don’t really know much about dyslexia and are looking forward to researching it with the books I borrowed today. I was quite surprised with the large number of books on dyslexia in the universities library. One thing that was prevalent throughout our interview was Don’s ability to effectively change the subject away from his dyslexia. Don told us of how he does not feel dyslexia has influenced his life, and his successes and experiences proved this to me. Despite Don saying that dyslexia had not influenced his life, he believed and told children that if they can read and write they can do anything. Another thing that got me thinking after the interview was how schools had changed since the days Don was at school. His primary school offered subjects such as tech drawing, metal work and wood work. In my experience I haven’t found subjects like this to be offered in primary schools, and not to play a big part in high schools.
While I firmly believe in the importance of literacy skills, I also believe schools need to cater more for students who are not so academically focused. Some students are not meant for school, they don’t get good grades and often misbehave. I think this leads to them getting labeled negatively which often influences students in and out of school. My fiancé works as a motorbike mechanic and his company had a student on a sort of work experience for the ‘naughty’ kids. Apparently he was an amazing, polite, obedient worker who learnt quickly and was incredibly interested in what he was doing. The companies manager received a phone call from the school at the end of the work and the school initially thought the boss was lying when told how smoothly the week had went. Apparently the boy behaved incredibly badly at school and achieved incredibly poor results. I really think not all students are academic and schools need to offer students opportunities to develop practical skills in areas they are interested in.
Another interesting thing I learnt from the interview is that the PCYC offer a tutoring service to students who struggle with their literacy who find themselves in trouble with the law. Don has a lot of experience with children and has found that a lot of children who can’t read and write are often trouble makers. While I think the service the PCYC offers is an awesome idea and apparently effective, I think it’s sad that struggling students get to the stage where they are in trouble with the law before they get the help they need. Yet another argument that literacy is important to all teachers!

I think that I am really going to enjoy this course. As an English teacher I believe that literacy should be valid not only within every English classroom, but within every school classroom.
Literacy, to me, encapsulates not only the basic skills of reading and writing, but individuals’ ability to make their own understandings of the world and to communicate with others. As a literate individual, I can not even begin to understand what life would be like if I was illiterate. I remember watching a documentary in English last semester that looked at the lives of a few individuals who could not read. Until I seen his doco I had never considered the extent of the impact of being unable to read had on people’s lives. These people had been affected in several aspects of their lives, from their ability to do tasks most people consider to be basic such as shopping and driving, to their own self esteem and feelings of value and self worth that had influenced many of their relationships, job opportunities, interactions with other people, etc, etc.
When I started thinking about who I could interview for our first assessment, Michelle came up with a great idea of a man we could interview as a group, Don. We met this man while doing our PCD’s, and while he has achieved a lot in his life, he has poor literacy skills. We have organized to interview him this afternoon which I am really looking forward to. I am incredibly interested to learn more about Don and his poor literacy skills and the effect of this on his life.
My initial response to this courses underlying question is that literacy is all teachers responsibility. I firmly believe strong literacy skills are essential for individuals throughout their lives. I think literacy skills give individuals opportunities, allow them to branch out in the world, allow them to create understandings for themselves of the world in which they live in. Perhaps my interview with Don this afternoon will challenge my beliefs?
Within the context of school, the basic literacy skills of reading and writing are critical to every subject. Most subjects are based around textbooks, the majority of HSC subjects (even PE) requires students to sit an exam that students need to be able to read and understand and write to answer the questions.
The diagram used in the lecture to demonstrate the way different individuals learn really got me thinking. The two learning methods that individuals learn the least from, lectures and reading are how studies have found we learn the least, sort of ironic given this is often what university courses revolve around! I think this idea neatly coincides with the diagram of the bird flying for the first time, if we want our learning to fly, we need to jump out and expand our minds, we need to develop ways to take what we learn and consider it outside of where we learn it. Perhaps this blog will help us to take what we learn through this course, and apply it to ourselves and our own lives.