Student Population
Our special education learning disabilities classroom is apart of the Toronto District School Board. Our class consists of a diverse community of learners with a variety of learning needs. There are a total of eight (8) students (Grade 5: five 2G:3B; Grade 6: three 2G:1B) with learning disabilities in literacy, including some students with multiple exceptionalities (Gifted, ADHD) and one who is an ELL. The student population contains more boys than girls, simply because LDs are more common in boys, and they are in Stages one, two and three of their literacy development (Integra, 2009).
JACK: Male, 10 years old
Jack is a very passionate and caring student. He is twice exceptional both globally Gifted and with an LD (Dysgraphia). Jack loves to read but when writing has difficulty organizing his ideas and struggles when writing independently. When spelling words he often relies on the phonetic spelling of words. He struggles with handwriting often reversing letters, inaccurate letter formation and mixing up capitals and lowercase. Jack is very good at hands on math problems. He is very creative and loves engaging in the arts, the sciences, and social studies. Jack is also an English Language Learner. His first language is Spanish and began learning English two years ago when his family moved to Canada from the Dominican Republic. He enjoys French and is now speaking much more in class this years. He is beginning to develop relationships with students has but has problems with executive function and thus gets distracted or misses cues in social situations. He sometimes has emotional meltdowns and hits other students, or becomes destructive of property eg. drawing or putting gum on things.
Reading Level: Late Stage 2
Oral Language: Early Stage 3
Written Language: Late Stage 1
Interests: Video Games especially Minecraft, Lego, Super Heroes, Reading, all things science & technology
Academic Strengths: Math, Visual Arts, Music, Drama, French, Science
GRADE 5
SUPINDER: Female, 11 years old
Supinder is a very playful and passionate member of our class. Supinder was in a car accident when she was 3 years old which she incurred some brain injuries which affected her language development and entry into school. Supinder has difficulty with language processing struggling with syntax, semantics, prosody and pragmatics. She struggles with understanding spoken and written language and thus needs extra support with reading comprehension and her ability expressing information using words. Supinder has difficulty expressing information using words orally or written and needs support to ensure she stays engaged and motivated writing or group activities. She has delayed fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination requiring additional accommodations and supports with strengthening and handwriting. Supinder is tutored at home twice a week, and participates in the school choir and a community lego club. She is very friendly with the other students, but is prone to temper tantrums when she gets frustrated often related to misunderstandings and her inability to understand or communicate her needs or ideas.
Reading Level: Late Stage 1
Oral Language: Early Stage 1
Written Language: Early Stage 1
Interests: Videos, anything to do with technology, Legos,chess, music, singing, fashion or dancing
Academic Strengths: Music, Dance
EMMETT: Male, 10 years old
Emmet is an enthusiastic member of the class who loves physical activities and interacting with his classmates. He is a very diligent worker and aims to always do his best. Emmett is comfortable asking questions and will not stop till he feels he understands. Emmett has auditory processing difficulties which result in challenges hearing the difference between sounds. He needs extra support with phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Emmett is beginning to use decoding strategies more automatically but has problems encoding words thus uses a lot of inventive spelling. He requires more time to process information but once he gets it is capable of very deep thinking and with facilitation is able to produce very insightful and creative outputs. Emmett has delayed hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. He prefers writing on and doing art activities on a computer than by hand where he gets easily frustrated and works towards finishing quickly rather than doing a good job.
Reading Level: Early Stage 2
Oral Language: Early Stage 2
Written Language: Early Stage 2
Interests: anything related to sports or technology, competitions, superheroes
Academic Strengths: Math, Social Studies, Science, Drama, Phys Ed
SAMUEL: Male, 10 years old
Samuel is a jovial and well liked member of our class. He has a slower processing speed particularly when it comes to oral and written language. He enjoys being read to and reading but shows poor understanding of the deeper (implicit and explicit) meaning of what he hears or reads. He often gets confused by written instructions, and math word problems. He needs extra supports with writing activities including extra reinforcement with spelling patterns, sight words, vocabulary, punctuation, and grammar. He still reverses similar letters and his writing is slow and laborious. Samuel struggles to organize his thoughts when responding orally or in writing thus needs supports organizing his thinking. Samuel enjoys group activities over independent work. He is beginning to understand that he sometimes needs a quiet space to avoid distractions when doing independent work and is beginning to ask for it. Samuel is a very resilient and committed learner and happily accepts more time to complete activities. As the youngest in the class he is sometimes pushed around by other students resulting in Samuel being in tears and unable to express himself.
Dysgraphia – Difficulty with writing: Problems with handwriting, spelling, organizing ideas
Processing speed (speed of taking in, using or pulling out information)
Language processing (understanding and expressing information using words)
Reading Level: Late Stage 2
Oral Language: Late Stage 2
Written Language: Late Stage 1
Interests: Anything related to sports or music, video games, comics, graphic novels
Academic Strengths: Social Studies, Music, Dance, Phys Ed
RAINBOW: Female, 11 years old
Rainbow is a very creative, social, and vocal member of our class. Rainbow was recently diagnosed with ADHD with high hyperactivity and impulsivity. Rainbow also has poor working memory and slower processing speed. She is easily distracted during whole group activities, is prone to engage in off-task activities and start off-task conversation with classmates during whole group, group and independent tasks. She often loses track of time and has difficulty staying on task - except during independent reading and Arts activities. Rainbow has difficulty organizing her thoughts during writing and oral activities. When writing she needs to improve her written vocabulary and automaticity with spelling conventions so she can move beyond the inventive spelling stage. She likes practicing her printing which manifests as her taking a long time during writing activities as she tries to make sure her writing is neat. When she writes quickly she misuses capitals and lowercase letters and reverses similar letters. She needs extra supports increasing her sight words and automaticity with decoding strategies to move her to greater fluency and expression while reading. She is outspoken and puts on the impression of confidence but actually lacks it. She freezes and has difficulty during oral presentations. She becomes angry and aggressive when challenged or confused.
Reading Level: Early Stage 2
Oral Language: Early Stage 2
Written Language: Early Stage 1
Interests: Anything related to music, video games, reading, or fashion
Academic Strengths: Visual Art, Music
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
- Albert Einstein
(had Area 1 Difficulties
and possibly ASD)
GRADE 6
CHRISTINE: Female, 11 years old
Christine is an amiable and confident member of the class. She likes working on her own or with the girls in the class. She has auditory processing and general processing difficulties. She had difficulty differentiating sounds which affected her decoding and encoding abilities delaying her development of reading automaticity. She is a voracious and committed reader who is always reading a book in and out of class. This has facilitated her improving her fluency and expression through tireless rereading and building up a large inventory of sight words. She has difficulty decoding new words she reads or repeating new words she hears and struggles with mispronunciation. She is reluctant to speak during whole class activities requiring more time to process and organize her thoughts. She requires extra supports during writing activities particularly when starting and revising. She enjoys doing research, and is very competent navigating technology and the internet. She plays on the girls’ basketball team and school softball, cross country and hockey teams. She is a very talented artist and along with her sports abilities she is admired by both boys and girls.
Reading Level: Early Stage 3
Oral Language: Late Stage 2
Written Language: Late Stage 2
Interests: anything related to sports, dance, science or technology; video games, reading
Academic Strengths: Visual Art, Dance, Phys Ed & Health, Social Studies, Science
Liang: Female, 12 years old
Liang is very outgoing and the oldest girl in the class. She has difficulties reading and writing. Her greatest strength is her oral communication. She loves being the centre of attention, actively participates in whole class activities, and aims to take the lead in small group activities. Liang has difficulty identifying and manipulating speech sounds, and needs extra support with identifying, and working with phonemes and spelling patterns. Her lack of automaticity with decoding and limited reading vocabulary affects her fluency and comprehension while reading. She avoids activities which involve reading or writing and prefers working with students who know more than her who can help her or do the work for her. She does not readily engage in deep reflection on what she has just read, heard, or experienced, nor does she readily predict what is or may come ahead. Instead she is focussed on the current moment. She sometimes has difficulty in social and group work situations often misunderstanding the full context of the situation and sometimes alienating herself or others. She has difficulty organizing her time, and staying on task and requires supports completing tasks and doing her best work. She enjoys the AIMS method used during French instruction and generally enjoys dramatic activities.
Reading Level: Early Stage 2
Oral Language: Late Stage 2
Written Language: Late Stage 1
Interests: Anything related to music, dance, fashion or comics
Academic Strengths: Visual Art, Dance, Drama, Oral French
DANIEL: Male, 12 years old
Daniel is a quiet and very sensitive member of our class. Daniel is the oldest boy in the class, and the newest member to the school. He entered this school mid-Grade 4 after alreading transferring schools once before in Grade 1. He has a twin brother in the mainstream Grade 6 who is very bright and popular. Daniel’s files show he and his brother have a history with Children’s Aid due to extensive domestic violence and child abuse within his immediate family. Daniel suffered brain injuries between ages 2 and 7 which medical records indicate led to his missing a great deal of school and subsequent learning disabilities which include visual processing disorder, poor working memory, processing speed language, and phonological processing. Daniel has also been diagnosed with ADHD hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive. He and his brother now live with their Aunt and her family whose children also go to this school. Daniel has difficulty processing and analysing information heard, read or presented graphically. He struggles to interpret meaning from visual information so needs extra support connecting meaning to symbols and illustrations. He often forgets numbers and letters-sound associations. He is reluctant to participate in independent, group, or whole class activities. He is easily discouraged by failure and is resistant to reading and writing activities. He is still developing phonological and phonemic awareness and has very little understanding of conventions of print, grammar, or spelling conventions. He has a limited oral vocabulary and even smaller reading and writing vocabulary. He spells most words using inconsistent inventive spelling which usually only includes consonants with few vowels. His reading and writing are laborious. When reading out loud he lacks fluency, correct expression, and often skips or mispronounces words. Daniel is very solitary in the classroom, spending most of his time engaged in technology or manipulating legos. He has difficulty starting activities, organizing himself, and his thoughts and staying on task till the end. Daniel enjoys independent physical activities such as yoga, target sports, swimming and running. He enjoys listening to music, games with lots of sound effects and spending time with his brother on the playground.
Reading Level: Late Stage 1
Oral Language: Early Stage 2
Written Language: Early Stage 1
Interests: Anything related to sports, music or video games including Minecraft; superheroes, Lego
Academic Strengths: Technology, Music, Phys Ed & Health