During the remainder of this term, I have been working with two dyslexic girls in year 11 supporting them with their GCSE revision. I have created packages for the girls using as much visual information as possible. I also found that quizzes worked well to help them retain information. Quite often I repeated the same quiz to see how much they had remembered. This was a good way to see what areas they forgot more easily and helped me find an alternative way for them to learn the information needed for their exam. I was hoping to get through more material but their learning process is quite slow. I then gave them revision material to do over the Easter holidays. I have also helped one of the same students with her composition work which she was very behind on.
At the start of term, I was helping other year 11 dyslexic students with music revision, although this only lasted for a few weeks due to other school commitments they had.
One dyslexic student in year 11 had been off school for a few weeks and needed help catching up with the lessons she had missed, I was working with her to help her catch up, again providing her with visual material where I could.
I have also been working with a group of dyslexic year 10 students helping them understand music theory, but also to explain how to answer a particular question in an exam paper. The girls didn’t seem to understand what to write about if a question asked them to comment on the texture of a piece or the structure of a piece. They would base their answer on a completely different area of music, like dynamics or instrumentation. I went over the different areas of music with them and gave them visual ways of remembering what these terms actually mean and explain what they should be commenting on to answer the question.
It would be useful to do a joint project with year 10 and 11 students with the art mentor as a visual aid to these terms would have helped them remember. Unfortunately they now have exams and will be on study leave, but his would be something to consider doing early next September.
For the summer term, Hollie and I will be organising a club together for year 7 and 8 students making clay instruments.