Teachers' Questions: Special Needs

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Q: I've just started teaching at Junior High school and so far it has been really great. However I have a Special Needs class and there are 7 (students). They are all around 13 years old. This is where I get stuck. I don't know what to do with them? Any suggestions please, any help at all?? - Carlos, Japan

Hi Carlos,

With special needs classes it really is on a case-by-case basis as the kids needs vary considerably. First of all find out what the school wants taught, do they want the JHS curriculum taught? Or do you have a free rein? If you are free to choose, then some of the simpler Genki English themes would be good.

Activities wise, most of the games on the site do work well with Special Needs classes. But just start of with some simple things and then build up from there to see how high a level the kids can go to. For example ones that worked well in my JHS classes were Karuta , Tower Game and things like Island Hopping or Leap frog game . Songs also tend to work well, or colouring in activities also worked well if the kids got a bit out of control!

If might also be worthwhile having a look on google for tips on how to teach kids with the specific disabilities that your students have, there are a lot of resources out there!

If you have a question then please send it in! Or if you have any comments or additions to the above messages, then please send those in as well!

Or for more questions, have a look at the main Teachers' Questions Page.

Be genki,

Richard

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