Creating Engaging Resources for Students

Working with students with special educational needs inspires me to want to be a better teacher. Simply preparing an engaging lesson for them is not enough. To me, resources play an important part in helping my students learn. When preparing resources, I will always consider the following: individualised and personalised.

Each child is unique and has a different learning preference, style and rate of processing information. When planning a task, the more we teachers understand and know more about the child, the more we will know what interests him/her or things that work. If the child is a kinesthetic learner, provide choices of activities that allow him/her to move as he/she learns.

It is not ‘one-size-fits-all’. When we know a child is colour-blind, we will not use green and red side-by-side for colour coding of resources. Instead, we will find another method/colour or substitute it by labelling it with shapes instead. Instructions filled with text will not work for dyslexic children to do self-directed learning. Verbal or graphical instructions which are given in small bite size have greater chance in helping students learn better and attaining positive outcomes.

Being open-minded to possibilities and the ability to demonstrate resilience are important attitudes for teachers to adapt. Some resources might not work for a similar profile of students, or even worse sometimes it works for only a lesson and not for the subsequent. In such instances, do not feel disheartened but reflect and improvise. Putting the child at the centre of everything will change the way we teach and prepare our lessons.