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Children’s School Lives Study: Report 7

Children’s School Lives Study: Report 7

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Reflection on learning

Learning is approached in a very broad and personal manner. The IEP is central to devising a learning plan for the student. The broad nature of the Level 1 programme lends itself very well to this type of learning and indeed planning for same. Ciarán is a non-reader and non-writer so the fact that the new Level 1 programme provides so much scope really opened up a new world of learning to him. Ciarán was able to help identify his strengths and needs and focus on them this year rather than trying to pigeonhole him into a more constrained curriculum. Ciarán loved file folder activities as they provide a definite beginning, middle and end to each task and they can be tailored and tweaked to each individual so that they are working independently at their level. Ciarán began with matching letters of his name, then moving on to tracing, copying and writing his name.

There were opportunities for student self-assessment as part of Ciarán’s learning programme.Ciarán is very aware of when he is progressing and when he is not. We were very careful to present tasks and lessons at an appropriate pitch as to not discourage him but keep him engaged also. He thrived on verbal and physical praise.

Self-assessment depends on the cognitive level of the student but choices can be presented in any number of ways to enable the student to give their voice to their learning, from eye gaze technology; assistive technology aiding choice-making on an iPad; or choosing a picture or verbally.

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