Support participation and build confidence
Support years 9-13 students to be confident, active participants in the classroom and community.
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Design the day to meet diverse needs
Design the day to meet diverse needs
Careful programme design can help all students, including those with FASD, to be successful, whether they are in a single classroom, an open plan space or other environment.
Each student will have different needs so collaborate with the ākonga, whānau and the school team.
- Schedule regular check-ins with ākonga.
- Assign peer support and supervision for all parts of the school day.
- Design a timetable to suit the learner with regular quiet or low sensory times. For example, reduce the number of subjects taken and replace with breakout times and spaces.
- Reduce daily choices and decisions by creating a predictable personalised timetable.
- Limit the number of different people the student needs to interact with and the time spent with larger or noisy groups of students.
- Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to provide flexible learning options to suit students.
- Design transition signals and consider personalised systems. For example timers, music, traffic light systems.
Recognise strengths and interests
Recognise strengths and interests
Gisborne Boys’ High School’s Whakairo course lifted the performance of students from all cultures by delivering a culturally engaging curriculum.
Closed Captions
Foster confidence
Foster confidence
- Ask students how they like to learn.
- Use students’ interests and strengths as a basis for supporting them to choose successful learning pathways.
- Recognise and eliminate situations that students may find difficult or embarrassing because of their physical, behavioural, or cognitive differences.
- Communicate success to the student, their parents or caregivers, and whānau.
- Recognise avoidance strategies and provide support and encouragement.
- Give students extra time to complete work.
- Make learning supports, such as text-to-speech and word prediction available to all students.
- Enable students to show their strengths and contribute their ideas in collaborative work, without the challenge of lengthy reading and writing tasks.
- Give prompt and specific feedback frequently.
Build peer supports
Build peer supports
Identify when students with FASD might benefit from the support or companionship of a peer. For example, this could be:
- a transition buddy who walks with the student from class to class
- a homework buddy to call when they have questions about an assignment
- a member of the sports team who will provide informal coaching and feedback in new situations, such as travelling on a bus for out-of-town games.
Help the student identify peers that they can ask for help. Make a diagram that illustrates who these people are in the student’s circle of support.
Foster inter-dependence
Foster inter-dependence
Psychologist Dan Dubovsky explains the importance of providing a student with a "go-to" person to foster interdependence, rather than striving for complete independence.
Closed Captions
Foster collaboration and group work
Foster collaboration and group work
Provide opportunities for ākonga to work with others. Carefully design group or pair based activities to maximise productive interactions and learning.
- Assign a peer to support students during group work.
- Plan turn-taking games and circle games to encourage appropriate social interaction.
- Provide physical items such as a desk area to define personal space or a talking stick or stone for ākonga to hold when it is their turn to talk.
- Encourage tuakana-teina relationships and create a culture where students role model and provide support for each other.
- Create social stories that break down a task or social situation into small and easy-to-understand steps, accompanied by descriptive pictures.
- Teach specific speaking and conversation skills. For example, rehearse ways to start and close a conversation and to read body language.
- Assign group roles such as speaker, listener, and note-taker to the group members.
- Monitor the discussions to ensure that all students understand the task and have opportunities to participate.
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13”:
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How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: FASD and learning
Understand:
- Understanding FASD
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Teach students about alcohol harm during pregnancyShow suggestions for Teach students about alcohol harm during pregnancy
Strategies for action:
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Identify needs and how to provide supportShow suggestions for Identify needs and how to provide support
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Key areas to supportShow suggestions for Key areas to support
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Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
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Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13
- Create structure
- Support participation and build confidence
- Support understanding
- Support processing and organisation
- Provide options to create, learn and share
- Manage successful transitions
