From My Novice Perspective --
Teacher Challenging Students

Synopsis of article--new teacher's experience with program for weak and learning disabled high school students including the following areas:

1. What is the Problem?
1. The non-existent world of assessments-- four categories of students who fall through the cracks of the assessment process
2. The heterogeneity of homogeneous classes --despite the variety of problems that students present, some general findings about weak/LD classes and one teacher's solutions
1. Higher number of learning disabilities in weak classes
2. Weaker and LD students have little or no experience with group work
3. Weaker and LD students often have inappropriate behavior and poor study skills
4. Weaker and LD students have very little knowledge of how the English language is constructed
5. Weaker and LD students have little or no independent working skills
1. Dictionary work
2. Alternative assessment and taking control of learning
3. Building an independent learning center
2. Additional Areas
1. Choosing Material
2. Disabilities: Use them or lost them?
3. Reading for Pleasure?
3. Food For Thought--Ideas for Future Collective Action

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I have always had a problem with labels--perhaps because I have suffered so many myself; or maybe because I fail to keep up with what is "PC" and therefore use outdated tags; or just possibly, labels in the education business, unlike pharmaceutical, are sometimes hastily applied with a sigh of relief, and often no more than an ill-fitting band-aid that conceals untreated problems.

However, when you're starting with no information, even a pencil-scratched category will do. And that's how I felt eight months ago when I faced four classes of the "weakest" levels of English students in our high school. As a second year English teacher, I had been recruited to our local high school most likely because I became challenged by, endured, and in some cases flourished teaching special education, learning disabled and other problematic students in a Jerusalem elementary school. Pisgat Zeev High School likewise had a problem--it manifested itself with a "difficult" behavior-wise/ "weak" achievement-wise upcoming 12th grade class. In my observations of the group, before starting to teach this year, I definitely noticed the behavior--wise-cracking, teacher-torturing large adolescents who had short attention spans, few work skills and the air of visiting rich relatives who condescend to alight on a poor teacher's English-speaking tea party. But I also noticed some REAL problems--an obviously speech-impaired student whose attention was generally good, but literally fell apart when required to listen to numbers and answer comprehension questions; another whose determination barely overcame his inability to find the right strategy to make inferences in simple texts; a student who consistently left out vowels in every word he copied from the board; and a few who appeared to be listening, but whose eyes were millimeters off the target activity. 

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I. What Is the Problem?

I tend to be a very organized person--and so approached my new assignment in the same vein. I diligently searched for the best texts, developed an overall curriculum for the 10th, 11th and 12th grade classes I would teach and began the frustrating process of trying to find out what kinds of problems my new students were exhibiting.

A. The non-existent world of assessments

Knowing I would receive students with learning disabilities and other educational problems, I mistakenly assumed that their problems would be well-documented. I soon entered the arena of--Where is Avi's assessment?

To be brief: There seem to be four areas where the assessment/evaluation process broke down:

1. Entering students with assessment information:

   Entering tenth graders may have an assessment but the lack of cooperation between middle and high schools for transferring documentation resulted in a long wait for the most obviously learning disabled students. And even when evaluations were available, I was surprised at the lack of practical advice for developing special techniques to assist the student to deal with the problem.

2. Entering students with problems that have not been documented:

   There is a "pool" of students who are simply labeled as weak--in our present terminology, many include the infamous "non-readers". However, during my first weeks of teaching 40 "weak" tenth graders in two classes (one mabar and one "regular") I was overwhelmed with the number of people who exhibited a wide range of disabling problems. If these students had been evaluated, it had most likely occurred in elementary school, and the information was out-of-date. Likewise, parents complained of long waiting lists or lack of financial resources for assessments. But the truly amazing finding was that many students who appeared to have significant dyslexia, dysgraphia, attention problems, speech obstacles and severe test anxiety came to my class with no "suspicions", labels or remedial programs.

3. 11th and 12th graders with no assessments or identification of problems:

   The 11th and 12th grade students were placed in my class, for the most part, simply because they don't perform well in English. With the exception of a few documented cases of learning disabilities, no assessments existed for other students, and problem areas were generally left unprobed. In fact, several students felt that being placed in my class, rather than being an opportunity, was a punishment and stigma, with an unclear or erroneous label for the cause. I soon learned that the main purpose of assessments at this stage was to secure permission to receive some type of assistance with Bagrut examinations--with a tape recorder or with an examiner. And there was a very slight chance that at this late stage, an assessment could be secured. One of the most dramatic problems in this group are students whose reading and writing problems appear to be the result of a lack of basic language awareness--the aggravation and frustration that these students suffer is immeasurable, and sometimes causes a student to be placed in a lower "point" class than necessary, since their verbal and/or listening skills are quite good.

4. Lack of documentation of learning problems by teachers, counselors and families:

   Despite the obvious problems of getting official assessments, the lack of documentation of student problems in English classes (and I am sure other subjects) seems startling. Not only is there an absence of any guidelines for teachers to document behavior, I found no process where this history is mandated or recommended. Incoming proficiency test scores and English placement tests were about the only information that I was able to rely on. Conversations with most teachers were somewhat disappointing--I was rarely able to get beyond problematic behavior problems in class or to gather any writing or other work samples.

B. The heterogeneity of "homogeneous" weak classes

During my first few weeks of teaching the weak classes at the high school, I often felt overwhelmed with the variety of problems student exhibited, the demanding teaching styles that were most likely to result in success and trying to accommodate it all while creating a "class" learning atmosphere.

There are some general "rules", however, that do seem to apply to a class that is convened on the simple basis of poor performance and the key to success seems to be in solving these problems.

1. Higher number of learning disabilities

   I have found that the "weaker" the grouping, the more obvious and serious disabilities the students will suffer. In one of my classes, I have estimated that 90% (of an initial 20 total) students suffer from one or more disabilities that I was able to determine. (Caveat--I do not have any training in LD identification and treatment--but neither do many people in the system. I do the best that I can.) Although this is my highest incidence in the four classes that I teach, the other groups are not far behind.

   When confronted with all these problems, I felt that I didn't have the time to wait the weeks or months that would be necessary to collect observations and work samples in order to determine how to meet the needs of each student--and was given little hope that official assessments would be forthcoming in the near future. I wanted to start building an individual plan right away.

   I decided to do some very short and simple group assessments at the beginning of each semester (although I transfer students during the year as they reach the point of being able to make it in a regular class, there seems to be a big shift of students at semester break--it is also a good time to start "fresh"). I recommend some type of learning styles inventory--to get students thinking about what they like and do best, and what they find difficult. I was quite surprised to learn that many of my students had never thought about this before. I also have them rate themselves on several communicative skills areas on a 1-5 scale--and then share the information with a partner, and eventually build a class profile. And finally, a very basic assessment test that includes requiring students to write out the a,b,c (they balk at this, but most of them were unable to do it; and I gained lots of valuable information on how they write, use of lower and upper case letters, and how they organize their work); alphabetization skills; producing whole words by heart within a chose category (colors or numbers, usually); checking beginning and ending sound recognition; listening to individuals words, and then in the context of a sentence, and recognizing the written word.

   These simple tools feed into the first stage of the student's individual "profile" or plan, whatever you would like to call it. All of the students are individually assessed according to items--then I can take an overall look to determine directions for teaching styles, groups for tackling 'clusters' of disabling problems, and curriculum direction. (Note: I also do these profiles after each major "test" or project).

   After this initial 'glance', I assess some individual problems during the time that students work are engaged in individual or group work, or in sessions that I set up with students.

2. Weaker and LD students have little or no experience in group work

   I found that many of my initial plans for the year were foiled because students had not learned how to work effectively in pairs or groups. Games and other activities requiring movement were out of the question--disruption of "game plans" seems to become the modus operandi for weaker students unless intervention occurs.

   I now spend alot of time discussing the purpose and benefits of group work, what type of behavior is acceptable, laying out expectations, setting up procedures, practicing slowly layered steps from quiet independent work, to sharing in pairs, to solving problems, to working with small groups, etc. And I need to spend lots of time revisiting these principles and reinforcing good behavior with praise. I also learned that all pair and group work requires some type of written or other manipulative task--even oral activities. And the tasks have to be broken down into small components, written very clearly on uncrowded pages, preferably in chart form. Prior to beginning any activities of this kind, we need to spend time as a class (and this requires that ALL members are attentive) setting up expectations for the activity, including:

   • predicting and brainstorming about the general topic and vocabulary, preferably using pictures that accompany text--I only write a few words on the board from this discussion--I find that these students write alot of vocabulary in their notebooks but never have the time or simply are unwilling or unable to learn them--so writing down lots of words at this stage is usually meaningless.
   • dealing with any language awareness problems that the students haven't encountered yet--see discussion later
   • clearly stating an overall definition of the activity, and then breaking down the definition into numbered steps on the board-- this is best accomplished by writing the material beforehand on a separate board, in a clearly numbered sequence with different types of information in different colors. An interesting phenomena in weak classes is that students get very anxious if they cannot start copying right away--so I have learned to let them. I know that we often prefer writing down the steps as we elicit them from the students, with much discussion, and taking copying for granted. This simply does not work with my classes. Board copying used to take SO much time that I often gave them hand-out sheets with instructions that they could staple into their notebooks. However, students have told me that hand-out sheets don't work very well for them--they learn better by copying information and reading something in their own handwriting. I finally got a white board and this activity has improved dramatically. I try to give very short, clear, simple descriptions--and I walk around to remind students to leave spaces in between steps so that they can add their own notes as we discuss them.
   • discussing the particular strategy that we are learning or practicing. Although there are many stages to instruction of material in these classes, I would have to say that the most important is teaching students strategies for doing the various communicative tasks that they must accomplish. I find that my students have very little (or no) knowledge of why they are doing activities, and how to apply what they have learned from task to task. Many report that in middle school, they concentrated on vocabulary and grammar--and feel that they understood and retained very little. I also tried in all classes to build vocabulary and grammar, and failed miserably. However, when I changed the emphasis to reading and listening strategies, they became more engaged, performed better in class and in tests and seem to enjoy themselves much more. By mid-year, I had changed the focus of the entire program based upon these findings. Some of the strategies that really seem to help in the early stages are identifying text type, scanning questions before reading, focusing on key words, asking and answering "wh" questions, when and how to use their dictionary, skimming, etc.
   • going over the steps but in the context of using a very simple example-- asking for an example from one of the students proves much more meaningful than my providing one for them--this is the first important stage of making sure they understand the definition of the concept we are studying and applying it to their everyday life. In mabar classes, as recommended by Feuerstein's methods, this is essential.
   • applying the steps to the handouts, or materials the students will manipulate during the exercise. If these are story strips, I think it is important to do the first, or at least one of the strips with the students, moving around the class and watching them manipulate the material; if it is a chart filling out one of the items with them using a board model in colors once again.
   • a general rule--I always try to keep MOST of the material at or slightly below their current level, with only one or two items to challenge them at a higher level. This gives them the practice that they need, helps them succeed, and brings them along at the right pace.
   A couple of caveats

   (a) Constituting pairs and groups --I rarely let students work with whomever they want. I experimented with this and found that students in weak classes usually want to work with a friend and have a good chance of ending up 'off-task'. It is only after a few months that they relearn the value of working with someone that they can work with effectively, learn a new skill from, gain an advantage, or eventually share skills. I set up my pairs and groups while I'm doing the lesson plan, with different goals in mind each time--having an insecure student work with one that has recently felt some success; having a good verbal but dyslexic student work with a (comparatively) good reader and writer, but poor speaker; and sometimes pooling strong students together to make new progress, while spending more of my time with a section of weaker pairs, focusing on one particular skill. I still have to deal with some complaints about this--but I stand firm and always willing to explain my reasoning. Every few weeks, however, I reward good behavior in class (students who have worked well independently to complete an exercise in class) by asking good performers if they would like to work with a friend, then asking the "chosen" friend if he or she would also like to work in a pair. Kids who fool around get the message very fast.

   (b) Hand-out materials--At times, I get frustrated at the slow pace of accomplishment in my classes--but these times occur less often as I watch how the students are indeed learning. I am reconciled, and think I am correct in having concluded, that it is not the QUANTITY of work that we cover, but the QUALITY. Trite, but true. There are a very limited number of tasks that students will be required to perform on the bagrut examination, and they are repeated ad infinitum in tasks using different subjects and vocabulary and text types and genres--but they ARE repeats. By focusing on strategy practice, I believe that we will cover sufficient material to have made the year worth it--even if we only managed to finish two chapters of an 11 chapter book. ( I keep reminding myself that most of these students finished at least six texts before arriving on my doorstep, and managed to learn very little throughout the process.)

   Therefore, I pick several different types of tasks or the same basic learning point presented in several different ways or with different texts. Each of these tasks or activities has only 2-4 examples. The advantage is that MOST of the students can complete ALL of the activities within the allotted time. But more importantly, if they are keeping focused, they change activities and methods every 5-15 minutes--so their concentration and interest are more engaged.

3. Weak and LD students have inappropriate behavior and poor study skills which they must learn to improve

   I have no doubts about this one. The weak classes are MOSTLY filled with students who don't know how to learn English, have very poor motivation, don't concentrate very well, are very disruptive and can make a teacher's and other students' lives miserable. My students tell me that this is a result of being unable to function in class--in previous years some were allowed to do what they wanted as long as they didn't disrupt class too much.

   I spent the first few months carefully documenting the different types of behavior--this helped me in two ways. I was able to identify different behavior/work habits that I felt were essential to their learning and that were often lacking (to different degrees) in all the students. And instead of letting them drive me nuts, I forced myself to DOCUMENT instead of discipline and react.

   Once I had identified the major areas of problem behavior, I found that I needed some mechanism to record student progress from day to day--in order to praise improvements and focus on problems. I eventually came up with a modification of a behavior log that a colleague uses successfully in elementary school. Advising students that 30% of their grade in my class depends on their daily progress, I now provide them with a monthly log, where EACH day they log in the date, and grade themselves on the following:

   1. On time--being on time for class
   2. bring all books and supplies
   3. ready to work--arriving in class, taking out books, notebook and pencil, and being ready to start, not talking with friends
   4. homework--based upon the system that I have developed for them students are graded on WHETHER they do homework every day, PLUS the quality of their work, after they have finished correcting it.
   5. paying attention--
   6. participation
   7. behavior--a catch-all category that includes cooperating with me and others and not disrupting other students
   8. worked in class
   9. other--a bonus category for doing well with independent, pair or group work, or doing something special for someone else in class, including me; or in some cases, a special skill that they are trying to improve
   I give the logs to a student to hand out at the beginning of each class. Each student has to enter the date (which is always in the same place on the board), checking off behavior as class progresses and completing the log for the day at the end. If someone breaks a rule, I warn, then make a point of putting an X on their log. If someone does well, I likewise praise and check. Homework is usually checked off by me by making a quick round of the class and glancing at homework, using one or two items for scanning. At the end of class, someone collects the logs for me, and puts them with the student portfolios--all of which STAY in our class cupboard.

   At the end of the month, we spend some quiet time looking over the previous month's log, and identifying areas where the students have improved, or need improvement. The new month's log includes a circle around one, or at the most, two items that the student has chosen to work on during the next month.

   After using the system for awhile, one interesting thing occurred--several (and always different) students tried to find legitimate excuses to move around class, or were suddenly struck with an emergency need or illness--leaving their coat in another classroom, needing to go to the bathroom or get a drink. Once I caught on, I decided to discuss this problem with all the students. We finally figured out that now that they are "mostly" engaged, it is hard to do so for very long or for every class. I simply tell them to be honest--if they need to get up and walk around, they can go outside for a few moments until they can get control. It's amazing how this phenomenon has been reduced as well.

   Needless, to say, the logs make my life easy when I'm trying to explain to a student and parents what behavior is contributing to his/her failure or success in class. ý

4. Weak and LD students have very little knowledge of how the English language is constructed.

   For lack of a better term, I'll call this language awareness. My students and I have a joke--"where were you when the teacher talked about..." and the list is endless. It includes most ambiguous consonants (e.g.when to say k or s for c; g or j for g; x; consonants that look similar, such as h and n; plus all kinds of individual combinations); silent letter; just about anything having to do with vowels; just about all consonant and consonant/vowel blends......need I go on? And none of them every heard of prefixes, roots and suffixes, but surprisingly, find it interesting and fun. I quickly learned that language awareness out of context from text is virtually useless. And language awareness IN context of the text WITHOUT strategy instruction takes too much time. So the layers of my lessons, that I mentioned previously take the form of not only some "social" principles, but include new and review language awareness elements, pulled out from the text we will work on, and taught through prediction and comprehension activities. However, the main focus of the lesson still needs to be teaching strategies for dealing with different listening and reading texts, oral work or the writing work that we do.

   I have found some "raw" material relating to language awareness. Starting over --A literacy program by Joan Knight, Educators Publishing Service, 1990. By the way, EPS books were recommended during a training session sponsored by the Ministry of Ed., Jerusalem, on LD and Attention Deficit Disorders, and I am using several of their publications--adapted to my needs--but with great success. Starting Over

   • contains several pre-tests that are useful for initial assessments, checking progress and review; as well as some useful interviewing guidelines
   • the instruction model is multi-sensory, as well as concentrating on all communicative areas.
   • there are explicit guidelines for teacher's as well as students work sheets
   • it is very comprehensive, providing units for the alphabet and multi-sensory strategy instructions, short vowels, alphabetization, consonant units (that include various vowel and consonant combinations) and several useful appendixes including breakdown of the 44 sounds of the English language, guides for spelling and pronunciation, sound of letter connected/unconnected to name, dictionary skills, silent letters and syllabication.

   The additional benefit is that it is geared for the adult learner--words and texts are more sophisticated. The disadvantage (and areas where this raw material needs to be reworked) are that it is targeted for native speaker literacy problems, including ESL, although it is advertised as being useful for false beginners learning EFL.

   Another excellent series, although targeted for younger students is the multi-booklet series Explode the Code, by Nancy Hall & Rena Price also published by Educators Publishing Service, 1993. This series breaks down all of the major basic elements of English language into units which gradually build up the rules for the unit through matching pictures with words, writing words in beginning consonant, root or middle and ending sequences, word building through syllables, matching words within the contexts of sentences with pictures, and eventually stories with comprehension questions. The disadvantage of this material is that the vocabulary is clearly that designed for English speakers or at best, ESL, but once again, it is excellent raw material. I was able to use several examples from each unit, adding more focused vocabulary, and exercises, plus some listening and oral work. However, the stories need to be reworked. The students really enjoy this work.

   On a higher level Riding the Wave, by Ronald Green, University Publishing 1996, has sections on language awareness at the right content level for Israeli students, which derive from the texts that he uses. However, the texts are quite difficult--lots of groundwork needs to be laid to work with the texts, especially since my students are also have text anxiety--the prediction work needs to be extensive, and the language awareness material and even some exercises and grammar have to be introduced prior to tackling the texts in order to keep student anxiety low. I have found it helpful to add material to these sections and do lots of review work when using them. On the other hand, the subject matter is at the right level of sophistication and the students seem to genuinely enjoy the topics, listening texts and reading/writing interactive work.

5. Weak and LD students have little or no independent working skills.

   This problem requires considerable effort on at least three different levels: dictionary work; using alternative assessment; and building an independent learning center.

   (a) Dictionary work

   I was surprised to learn that most students don't know the alphabet--so small wonder that they're not too happy using a dictionary. Some have rudimentary knowledge of alphabetization, but the 'lost' letters often make looking up words frustrating and time-consuming. And even where this is not a problem, NONE of the students had skills for working with dictionaries.

   So dictionary work is an essential part of these classes. Even visually disabled students are encouraged to learn some rudimentary skills. The first task is mastering the alphabet--and I can't insult them by singing the ABC song. Instead, I found some great work sheets in Starting Over

   The worksheets feature the alphabet song broken into three parts, with boxes for each letter according to the pace of the song. Each worksheet leaves more and more blanks. I substituted an a,b,c chant to a reggae beat, asking the students to beat with their hand loudly on their desks as they chanted. And told them that whoever dances in their seats the most, will learn the fastest. One day of chanting and a couple of surprise reviews, and we had the a,b,c, down. ( I gradually teach them to replace beating their desk with their hands, to silently tapping with one finger; and only moving their lips and visualizing the letter.)

   Once we've mastered the a,b,c, we move on to alphabetization rules--again, Starting Over has some great worksheets--they're a little complicated, but if you can reign in your class and get them to concentrate, and use lots of examples, it works well. It works best when I break the students into groups of 5-6.

   I have developed lots of dictionary worksheets and exercises--starting with different ways of alphabetizing, categories, moving into scanning and skimming, learning where everything is in the dictionary, then basic towards more complex definition work.

   However, I had to set a policy about IF and WHEN students would bring their own dictionaries. Students have asked advice about which dictionary to use, and we have tried to order several types in the English Center and let them use different ones. Although I monitor their purchasing and bringing their own dictionary, we are starting to build up our own collection since individual storage space for students is limited and the dictionaries ARE heavy. Generally, very weak or LD students seem to like to use the new Passport Dictionarywhen starting out. But even in tenth grade, it has limitations. However, the Oxford and Longman have drawbacks because of the size of the print and lack of Hebrew-English.

   Since this is one area that is crucial for students, and in which I lack knowledge, I am starting to investigate choice and uses of dictionaries--there's alot of information out there.

   And the students are required to practice their new skills every week when we work on workcards and other work in class. No matter how often I articulate my expectations, I still find myself telling students that I am not their dictionary--being firm about students continually practicing looking up words will pay off in speed and efficiency!

   Even though I encourage visually disabled and dyslexic students to get an electronic dictionary, I still make sure that they have available and use regular dictionaries--I adjust the amount of work and time limits.

   (b) Alternative assessment and taking control of learning

   Dictionary work is not the only "black hole" that contributes to their inability to work on their own--they often do not know how to approach their homework, have little stamina or practice in reviewing material every night to improve retention and don't know how to study for tests. At the beginning of the year, the students were quite surprised when I refused to accept "I didn't understand" or "It was too hard" as an excuse for not doing homework. Although I adjust my expectations for each student, and am quite flexible at HOW they are required to produce, I am firm in requiring that they try. An important feature of this special program is taking chances, expecting mistakes and learning how to correct them.

   With these problems in mind, another major emphasis of the program has become the importance placed on collecting and evaluating all work in a portfolio format, and accumulating points over a period of time on homework and other assignments. At this point, I should clarify that although our English Department has determined that 40% of student grades are based upon tests, this does not apply for my group. The percentages are dropped to 20% for tenth grade, and raised to 25% in eleventh grade, and 30% in the first half of twelfth grade (the final grade for 12th is based on different computations in line with other classes taking the Bagrut). This takes alot of pressure off of the students since most of them perform poorly on tests, as a result of test anxiety or lack of ability. However, homework and certain classwork is raised to 40%. The practice sheets that I use in class are often expanded for homework with a certain amount of points designated for acceptable completion. The assignments are titled so that students can keep track of them. Although I give bonus points for finishing and turning work in on time, I do not penalize students who take longer to work. There are many individual differences in how students complete this work. Some spend more time doing the complete assignment, turn it in for my notations of where corrections need to be made, make corrections, and then turn it in again for more points. Some hand the work in smaller chunks, adding corrections to their next batch.

   Last semester I gave students until the week before grades to finish all of their work. This semester I decided to finish several assignments and ask for the work earlier so we could spend more time reflecting on all of our work and putting together the portfolio, including some writing about their progress. I introduced this "reflective" work right after Pesach--with a very detailed worksheet of questions that they had to think about, how to decorate and organize their work, and how to pick which work to 'highlight'. I also plan to give them some time in class before the due date to work on their portfolios, so that I can assist them, or they can discuss their choices with me. The success of this system differs with each student--those who begin to understand that they can get any grade they choose if they want to keep working hard have produced some outstanding work. There is a small group who simply are not interested in the work that I assign or find it impossible to approach--this requires negotiating for substitute work. And a very small group have a great deal of difficulty producing at all.

   Included in this 40% is a grade of 1-10 points on their workbooks which are collected twice a semester; and HAVING, USING and KEEPING IN ORDER the notebook that we use in our learning center--there is a front page chart that has to be filled out for all work.

   Finally, there is 5-10% that I use for more creative work--last semester students were required to turn in a cassette--they could choose ANY text from our book (Radio Feverfor tenth grade; Riding the Wave for 11th) regardless of genre or length. According to the recommendations of Avi Tzur in his training on "weak" students, they were asked to state their name and the page they were reading from; they handed in the tape and I listened and recorded my comments, in English or Hebrew or both, depending on the proficiency of the student. While I carefully record/check-off a list of problems and proficiencies, I follow Avi's advice--select only a few items to comment on, be clear in your corrections, but most importantly, say something positive about every effort. I found alot of resistance in my 11th graders, but a few performed on cassettes several times, with some opting to do oral assignments on cassette, rather than in class. Most tenth graders, after getting used to the idea and my being firm , enjoyed the assignment and came up with an interesting array of selections. ALL students in the tenth grade performed the task, albeit several at the last minute. And very few tapes were unintelligible.

   In addition, last semester, students were asked to pick any topic in the book to write about independently. I spent alot of time reviewing how to pick a topic they were interested in (using the table of contents and activities; pictures that were interesting; whether they preferred longer or shorter stories, poems, songs, letters, etc.)and target questions that they had to answer when they turned their choice in (e.g. why does the topic interest you; why do you like that type of text; what do you hope to learn; how to you think you can find out more; how do you hope to improve your English). I also developed a checklist for progressing on their project. I had mixed results with this work. Most students had never done a project in English before, although many were capable of transferring their knowledge of how they had completed their "Personal subjects" in Hebrew. Some had difficulties selecting material and I would have to enter into a dialogue with them to focus on their interests. Especially for LD students, I had to be very sensitive to their anxiety about written work--I spent time talking to several students about how to read and listen to a story, how to outline issues for discussion of the story, and then record them in lieu of written work. In each tenth and eleventh grade class, a few students became very enthusiastic--interestingly enough, they were not just my most capable or least disabled students. And some of the work was outstanding. One student read several stories, letters and fact sheets about AIDS in the book, and then asked for additional resources and material in the community. Another student became very interested in the story and information on children with special needs. Two students asked to do a topic unrelated to the book work (and both of them, a boy and girl wanted to write about their animals!). And several students astounded me by going beyond my recommendations for outlining and organizing their work and producing masterpieces for Tables of Contents. A large group in each class picked the stories, songs and information about Elvis. In each class, some students took the lazy way out and copied information from the book--one was interested in working on his spelling and typed out half a chapter on his word processor. They didn't receive many points, or my highest praise, but they got credit for putting forth some effort--this is an important point, since some of these students NEVER produce project or other long-term work. I also found that students in the Mabar tenth grade took the project more seriously, although some of the work in the regular class was more creative. Many attached some lovely art work. Although I expected all of the students to write a draft in Hebrew and translate, I was pleasantly surprised to see some creative writing efforts in English. And some had even incorporated what they learned about using a dictionary. I should mention that after assigning this project, and reminding them of it every week, I also scheduled in time during "learning center" hours when I could work with them, or they could work on the projects in my presence in case they had questions. In summary, I hoped to find out what the students could do on their own, spending time mostly on process and organization and choices, and they exceeded my expectations.

   During the second semester, I dropped the requirement of the cassette since I wanted to introduce "choosing" work to go into their portfolio, and following up their interests on topics related to what we are actually studying. In one class, we are studying "Predicting the Future" and several students got very excited about doing research on their horoscope sign, or finding out more about some of the parapsychological topics that we used--their work and decorations were not only turned in before I "finalized" the assignment, but are truly outstanding--and these from students who have been labeled as non-producers. Since the textbook for tenth grade is built on the premise that teachers and students will use some form of portfolio assessment, and even suggests several ideas to students throughout the chapter, some of the "idea" work was already done.

   The final element in the grading system was introducing the idea of keeping work in order in a portfolio/file, and assessing students at regular intervals by reviewing that work. As a new teacher, I knew that I didn't like traditional testing very much--however, I was anxious about how much alternative evaluation I would be able to introduce. I decided to set an easy goal for the first semester--and I recommend this to other teachers when I conduct training. My goal was simply to teach students the value of keeping and organizing their work. Since I had insisted on using one room for all classes, and finally found a solution to storage problems, I decided that I did not even want to struggle with students about taking responsibility for bringing the portfolio back and forth--this is an issue of much discussion among teachers who use this method. I simply require that the files be kept on their class's shelf in our room, and have included organizational work on the portfolio into our schedule at least once a week. As the time approached for parent-teacher conferences, I developed a checklist of questions and met with ever student, using the portfolio work as our base, for reviewing the work to date.

   During this last semester, I stressed this interactive aspect even more--I prepared a worksheet for students to review their daily logs and all the work in their portfolio in preparation of my giving them their grades--they did this assessment on their own, then I reviewed their work and their self-evaluation, and discussed their status with them. Now that I've introduced "selecting" work, and writing comments about what they learned and how they felt about their production, I hope to talk to the students about their reflections in conferences, and continue to build toward next year.

   However, "portfolio" is not the main point of this solution to students who generally perform poorly. I think the key lies in "alternative assessment" measures as a whole. By reducing the value of tests, students begin to understand that last minute cramming and periodic checks on a small portion of material are not so important to our learning process. Rather, by consistently trying to improve on a day-to-day basis, and diligently doing and correcting homework and other assignments, they will take control of their own learning and the grades that they "earn". Another important message that applies primarily to learning disabled students--they are given alot of flexibility to produce in the manner that is easiest for them, or to try to do more difficult tasks, but at a lower level of proficiency. Some of these students never had this choice before, and have flourished in a more open environment. And finally, all students begin to understand that everyone can succeed in class, if they are willing to put in the effort.

   (c) Building an Independent Learning Center

   Although I had high hopes for making more progress in building an Independent English Learning Center this year, the realities of lack of budget and time won out. However, some progress has been made and we have great hopes for the future. The subject of learning centers is an article in itself, of course. To put it simply, students need time at least once a week to work on different types of task--workcards for reading, oral practice with a partner based on workcard assignments, listening comprehension, reading stories and books (usually while listening to a tape), simply writing activities, and where possible, computer use. The tasks need to be leveled for ability, cover a wide range of subjects and be do-able independently. And the student must be able to make some choices what type of work he/she would like to perform.

II. Additional Areas

There are a few additional areas that I would like to briefly mention that are important considerations when working with this special student population.

A. Choosing material

After reviewing and using lots of different texts and materials, I have come to the conclusion that less, but better material, is the best approach. And the most important considerations are:

• the material must be sufficiently sophisticated to cater to the emotional needs of teenagers as young adults, not children. Although presentation and vocabulary must be kept simple, it is better to pick harder material and spend time mediating it so that the students can work with it. I feel very strongly that easier material, either geared in content or presentation for younger children is insulting and can cause greater damage than good.
• the material must be presented in an interesting manner but in a more simplified format. I have found that it is better to select exciting, interesting topics, accompanied by good graphics and pictures, as long as there are not too many activities on the page and the text type if big enough. Since we spend alot of time building up, in very small bites, to the material, it now makes very little difference to me whether all of the instructions are clear or the tasks can be accomplished without adjusting or redoing them. It would be nice to pick up a text that is almost completely suitable for this population of students, and it looks like publishers are becoming more sensitive to the needs of 1 and 2 point students. However, I now have more faith in my skills at negotiating material for the students and presenting it in a manner that covers the skills and strategies that they need. This year, in the tenth grade we selected a text graded for eighth heterogeneous classes--Radio Fever. Even teachers using this book in more capable classes (eventually high 3 and 4 point students) found that there is too much material. But what my colleagues and I liked wide range of topics and. texts and activities that we could use that were entirely suitable for this age range. And the overall theme of community radio stations and coverage of an exciting historical era--the 60's in the US--made it enjoyable for us as well as the students. And we especially enjoy the opportunities to work with such wonderful music. Although some students questioned why we were using an eighth grade text, many understood our reasons for finding it suitable and useful. And the students build alot of enthusiasm for the topics that we discuss. Despite our status as "weaker" classes, we do most of our discussion work in English, and even some of our instruction.

Although choice of texts for 11th and 12th grade were more limited and more difficult, I chose Riding the Wave because it presented all communicative activities in subject units that would likely appear on the Bagrut examinations. One of the most tedious but necessary tasks I had to perform prior to beginning this new program was reviewing Bagrut exams for the 1 and 3 point level, as well as the new format, for the last 15 years, and categorizing the activities by topic and tasks. I thus determined the frequency with which certain subjects appeared. I decided to select several units in the text to introduce a subject heading, then supplement text with actual Bagrut test material. This was based on my early finding that one of the weakest aspects of the "weak" student population is their lack of prior knowledge about the subjects on which they are tested. In addition to building strategies, I think it is essential to cover some of this knowledge in a systematic and useful way.

B. Disabilities: Use them or Lose them?

Prior to tenth graders entering high school, they were giving a test that required considerable reading skills and grammar knowledge. There was no allowance for learning disabled students. Therefore, some excellent "speakers" and "listeners" ended up in my classes. After speaking with these students about their problems, I learned that they had performed poorly in previously classes, despite their talents. We decided to work on specific areas--e.g. writing, more efficient reading--and all of these students needed help getting their homework done, doing projects and planning. Now, several are in the position of being able to enter a "higher" class, using their disability to receive exams orally, or getting other special assistance. But some are choosing to stay at the "weaker" level because they are overcoming the interference of their disabilities with their work in English. It is especially gratifying for a student who is almost a "native speaker" to produce written work for the first time--it is an incentive to keep on working on these skills at a level that is slower-paced. Special counseling is necessary to help these students and parents make decisions for their future learning.

C. Reading for Pleasure?

A word {or several) about 'reading for pleasure' and literature. In the beginning, we all agreed that we don't--that is, read English for 'pleasure'. It was simply too hard. But we have found ways to enjoy stories. We do not really 'read', as in open up our books, sit down and read--we 'experience'. The most important thing is that the students have an opportunity to express their opinion about the type of stories we read--I have found (with my limited experience) that they prefer stories about friendship, sports, some suspense and mystery, but definitely characters that they can relate to. We spend lots of time talking about what we will read, what we expect to happen, and vocabulary that we encounter. And we often use cassettes while we are reading. Sometimes, I read for the students. Sometimes, the students 'share' the reading and discuss the stories together. And we always have some type of written 'guide' or story map to help us keep connected to the events in the story.

I hope that the tenth graders will one day, 'read' for pleasure, in the ordinary sense of the word. We are in the process of ordering easier books (with cassettes, of course)--it is impossible to tell how much progress we can make with this program over the next few years.

IV. Food for Thought--Conclusions and Recommendations:

And now, the point of why I am writing this article. Not only did I want the opportunity to share some of my concerns with (I hope) a sympathetic audience, I think the time has come to take our assorted findings and outline a plan of action. I would like to recommend the following areas for action by ETNI or a group of interested English teachers:

A. Resource page--I think that many of us interested in working with learning disabled and weaker students spend alot of time researching our own solutions. I have asked David Lloyd if I can create a web page for learning disabled and weak students and connect it to ETNI. I would really appreciate some suggestions and resources that could be included in this page.

B. Call to action on documentation of learning problems--In the past two years I have seen incredible talent and tenacity brought to bear on problems that we all face as English teachers. I would like to know if anyone out there is interested in developing a simple protocol that English teachers would be required to use, update and transmit with their students as they leave their classes and go on to a new teacher. I hesitate to recommend that this be done only for students with problems, because I think all students need this type of "history" sheet. I know that many teachers prefer not to have this information--and I think there should be allowances for not requiring the use of such information. I suppose I am asking for a mini--"IEP" process similar to that used in the US and other countries. And I think it would be an excellent idea if this "history" were developed in conjunction with students and parents. But something must be done. Since English is a mandatory subject, and (hopefully) all students will take Bagrut examinations that are extremely important in terms of their future, but are usually geared to students who succeed, it is time to help each other help our students by building language learning plans that go with the student as they progress and aid new teachers in picking up where other teachers left off. This also will reduce the need for new teachers to duplicate inventory and in-class assessment exercises, and would probably alleviate untold suffering (on the part of students and teachers alike).

C. Making the official assessment process accessible to our students: In simple terms, the present lack of resources to obtain an assessment discriminates against economically disadvantaged students, and adds to the already unfair importance placed on Bagrut test outcomes. Perhaps my school is the only place where we suffer from this problem, but I doubt it. I find it unconscionable that students with obvious problems continue to suffer while the bureaucracy bats around the problem of student evaluations. Yes, I know that many of these families might be able to afford evaluations if they changed priorities, but I don't think that is the point. Our students suffer immediate and long range damage and suffer a great deal from this phenomena. And as teachers, we certainly suffer sufficiently to raise a temporary cry. And yes, I have been told the history of why the rules were changed to require official assessments--and truthfully, as Rhett Butler would say.....

D. Special Training for teachers who teach 'teacher challenging' students--I know I'm just starting out, and tend to be a tad impatient, but I find myself sitting in training sessions and meetings that are geared for far more capable students than mine, and I try to 'sift' out what will work for me and my students, or translate it to the level that I work on. I really need more intensive training for weaker and learning disabled students, and have had problems finding it. (I emphasize intensive because some sessions for these type of students merely gloss over some of the problems in a too-short session--and I am always left wanting more). Are there more teachers out there that would like the Ministry, ETAI and other training organizations to provide more and better in this area?

Ellen Hoffenberg-Serfaty
(for additional information, worksheets, or suggestions and resources--please contact me at:
serf@inter.net.il)