Hi
does anyone have any ideas ??
I look after a small group of 6 children with in my class, they all have some learning difficulties and are all the lower end of ability. Our class is of mixed years ( year 1 & 2 ) and 2 0f my group of children are year 2 and the other 4 are year 1
They all struggle with concentration and by the time i have got them settled in one place ! its almost time to pack away for lunch or playtime.
I would really appreciate any ideas.
Also the whole class work rather noisily so any ideas on getting them quiet would be great.

small random rewards, not set ones, so they will try to please you all the time rather than when they know there is something in it for them

so for instance you might catch one of them sitting quietly so you say 'well done x for sitting so quietly you can have a sticker' that way the others will know what she has been rewarded for and try to do the same

lots of games and short sessions, they are probably more kinesthetic learners so make the activities 'doable' rather than visual and oral if poss

do you get much chance to see the plan for the lesson in advance and do you get to plan with the teacher? is the SENCO actively involved?

Thanks for reply..

I get to know monday morning a vague idea of what we will be doing for the rest of the week,I do not get any planning time with the teacher, i am sure she would listen to my concerns, but i would like to have some sort of solution before i say anything,as the whole class is very loud and very busy and we have talked about getting the whole class to quieten and settle, but as yet no luck!
my problem is really that the group i work with are expected to do the same work as the rest of the class..
e.g. literacy was to write a set of instructions to make a map.

which is good for them but by the time we had got the 1st & 2nd one down on paper they had had enough.
But there were 9 instructions to write altogether.
I give it my all as i love working with them and we all managed to do at least 6 of the instructions, but they all with the exception of 2 of them really need one to one guidance, and i have to spread myself around the 6 of them.
I feel that i should do better for them....i already praise them when they do anything remotely good, giving stickers , house points, notes home etc...

I just cant think of anything else at the moment to help them.

xxx thank you xxx

You might find these Listening skills books of interest. Basically you give the children an instruction they have to follow by colouring in a photocopied sheet from the book. You start with a 1 part instruction and as you progress this is extended to 2 or more. The aim of the books is to help the children improve their concentration and attention span.

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Your teacher should be differentiating the work for all abilities, we have taken pictures before ie of making a cup of tea, printing the photos off and the kids put them in the correct order and writing short instructions underneath.

This would be far easier for the kids and keep their interest if they have been involved in the photo taking.

Any chance of you working in a quieter area, even if just for the input, ie outside the classroom.

Dot
xxx

Thank for all the advice
i will deffinately be looking over the books, and also suggesting that we let the children be involved in taking the photos we use i am sure they would really enjoy that.

I agree with Dorothy your teacher isn't doing her job, as she should be aware of the different learning needs and levels and should be differentiating accordingly. This is a problem with some teachers as they don't know how to differentiate correctly. [/i]A Toolkit for the Effective Teaching Assistant by Tyrer, Gunn, Lee, Parker, Pittman and Townsend has a section on differentiation that may help.

Have you tried using the good old egg timer to keep them on task, this does work for the more able who just need a visual reminder of time.

Good Luck

Yes thanks i have tried this,
it worked well for the first few days as everything does...
i have spoken to teachers involved and hopefuly something will be sorted out very soon,as things can't go on as they are.
xx