Have you ever wondered how to use a student's
strengths and affinities to help them in school? Meet a group
of students who have things they are good at doing and things
they love to learn about and do. We've offered some ideas of how
these strengths and affinities can be used to help them succeed
as well as links to more strategies that can help them work on
their weaknesses.
Sam struggles with his writing assignments. He
can't remember what he wants to say and even forgets what he has
already written. Sam has begun to not turn in his writing assignments.
When he sits down to write, he can't organize his ideas and keeps
forgetting what he wants to say. Often he focuses so intently
on spelling, grammar, and punctuation, that he forgets his great
ideas and concepts.
Sam loves the zoo and anything to do with the
ocean. He is looking forward to an upcoming field trip to the
local aquarium and has even studied the map to the aquarium so
he can see as much as possible. Sam gets along well with everyone
and loves to work on group projects with his friends.
- Pair Sam with a classmate who has strong
writing skills for collaborative projects. For example,
the team may write a report on oceanography or another
scientific topic in which Sam has some expertise. Sam
can provide the information while his partner transcribes
the report.
- Encourage Sam to keep an Idea Journal.
He could take notes while at the aquarium or zoo and write
down interesting things he hears, sees, or talks about
with other people. Sam could then use these ideas to write
a report for the school newspaper or story for class.
- Sam's strong social abilities may be
put to use in improving his writing by having him collaborate
with others to create a play or a dramatic story that
is then presented to the class, and by working with classmates
on writing projects and peer editing activities.
Read
more about how to help students who have difficulty getting
their thoughts on paper |
Leroy is constantly losing things. The first
thing he asks in every class is, "Do you have a pencil I
can borrow?" He knew he had one when he left for school,
but somehow it disappeared. This seems to happen with most of
the things he needs for school-even his homework!
Leroy loves baseball and can remember the players
and their statistics from all of his favorite teams. He is a great
mechanical problem solver and loves to take apart appliances to
figure out how they work. Leroy also likes to create new inventions
by combining pieces from different machines.
- Have Leroy use his great problem solving
skills in the creation of an organizational system for
the parts from the appliances he takes apart.
- Make use of Leroy 's excellent memory
by helping him develop a 'personal stats record' for materials
that he will need to consistently remember each day.
- Encourage Leroy to consider, perhaps
even explore the comprehensive organizational agendas
kept by professional athletes and their teams. Even those
who play for a living need to be organized and have many
deadlines and schedules.
- Provide an opportunity for Leroy to
review organizational hardware and or software that he
may use at home and/or at school to keep up with his work.
Numerous electronic devices and software are designed
explicitly for planning and organization and are becoming
less expensive.
- Encourage Leroy to review the various
web-based homework management services that exist. Many
schools use these sites to provide students, parents,
and teachers with a central location for school-based
information. Even better, Leroy might be able to play
a role in the development and design of such a system
at his school.
Read
more about how to help students who have difficulty getting
organized |
Elise panics during class discussions. When the
teacher asks a question, Elise sits at her desk hoping she doesn't
get called on. She has a hard time saying what she is thinking
and wishes she could disappear when everyone is looking at her
as she tries to get out what she's trying to say.
Elise does very well in art class and has begun
to take an interest in graphic design. Recently, she saw a graphic
designer highlighted on a community news show and thought it looked
pretty cool. Elise also loves to write and spends hours each week
writing her thoughts and ideas in her journal.
- Elise should use her love for writing
in order to prepare her answers for class discussions
ahead of time. Elise's teacher could give her a question
that will be asked the next day and give Elise 24 hours
to prepare how she would like to answer the question.
- Elise could also create posters, art
projects, and engage in a variety of activities that would
help her receive recognition for her strengths and affinities
as an artist.
- Arrange a career mentoring situation
in which Elise is matched with a professional graphic
artist in the community.
Read
more about how to help students who have difficulty communicating
ideas |
Jake has always had a hard time relating to his
classmates. When other students were speaking, Jake would interrupt
them and try to do funny things that no one but Jake found amusing.
Jake still struggles to find the right thing to say and does not
have any close friends.
Jake loves to read and is an excellent reader.
He also listens to a variety of music and has a great memory for
trivia, though he struggles to talk to his peers about any of
these things. When he does try to speak to them, Jake talks about
television shows other students don't watch, books they haven't
read, or activities they've never experienced. Jake is not bossy
during these attempts at interaction. Rather, the topics he brings
up just don't interest his peers, causing them to move away, and
increasingly, to avoid him altogether.
- Use Jake's excellent reading ability
by helping him locate a book or two with topics on social
skill building. Such an approach will allow Jake to investigate
this area at his own pace without feeling embarrassed
or overly self-conscious.
- Encourage Jake to take supported risks
to seek out new relationships in more promising situations,
for example, by exploiting his existing affinities (e.g.,
reading, trivia, and music).
- Jake may be much more successful establishing
relationships with others who have similar interests,
e.g., trivia, books/literature, music.
- Help create a positive role for
Jake in the classroom. Arrange for structured situations
in which he contributes to classroom activities through
his special areas of knowledge.
Read
more about how to help students who have difficulty relating
to others |
Nikki has begun to dislike school. The only reason
she wants to go is to see her friends and to play on the school
basketball team. Nikki has always had a hard time with reading.
While she can decode the words on the page, she does poorly on
reading comprehension tests and has difficulty remembering what
she has read. She used to read things over and over, but now she
doesn't even try and she is feeling overwhelmed by the demands
in school.
Luckily Nikki is a great listener and has been
able to get good enough grades to stay on the basketball team,
though she is worried that this won't last much longer. Basketball
is her love, and her skills are so promising that she dreams of
playing professionally one day.
- Use Nikki's strengths and love of basketball
as a motivating factor for reading. Encourage Nikki to
read a subscription to a sports magazine and go on regular
trips to the bookstore or library to browse novels about
sports figures.
- Allow Nikki to use her great listening
skills to use books on tape when possible for reading
assignments. Nikki could make her own tapes by reading
the text aloud and then listening to her own recording
of the tape. As she listens to her recording, she could
write down the key pieces of information from the text.
After she has written down the key points, Nikki could
reconstruct and paraphrase the text in her own words.
- Nikki should think about subjects she
would really like to learn about or that interest her.
Her whole class could work on making lists of things they
would like to know more about-whether it is a place, occupation,
or other content area. A teacher or parent could provide
the students with lists of what they are interested in
and all of the ways that they pursue that interest-things
they read, do, or find on the Internet related to their
affinity.
- Nikki should be encouraged to become
an expert in an additional area of interest beyond basketball.
This area could be the focus of her reading assignments,
written reports, oral presentations, and other projects.
Read
more about how to help students who have difficulty with reading
comprehension
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