SEN practice examples: Lesson planning for pupils with SEN

The problem: improving motivation and achievement for students in English

A strategy used to address this

Angelika Hickey of Sedgefield Community College makes use of visual lesson plans and work booklets.

Pupils with SEN can often develop low self-esteem and challenging behaviour, especially if they cannot grasp the objectives of a lesson or if they feel that they are likely to fail at a task.

Angelika has developed a system for ensuring her pupils know exactly what they will be expected to achieve in each lesson and how long each activity will last. Even the most challenging tasks within a lesson are time-limited, and each is followed by a task that the student will enjoy.

Each work booklet has a visual timetable of the lesson on the front sheet, which reduces anxiety and the need for students to remember lots of verbal instructions.

Angelika has found that the students’ behaviour in lessons has greatly improved since using this system. Moreover, the students are focusing much more on the learning objectives and attainment is improving.

Access examples of the workbooks here:

Lesson plan One (PDF, 154kb)

Lesson plan Two (PDF, 78kb)

Lesson plan Three (PDF, 82kb)

Why this works

Pupils are not required to remember a list of instructions and can therefore focus on the learning tasks. They gain a sense of success by completing the tasks within the time set. Every lesson ends with a meeting where pupils are given rewards.

The teacher faces fewer low level disruptions and can concentrate on teaching the lesson.

The problem: preparing autistic children for off-site activities

A strategy used to address this

Debbie Amato uses task analysis: a ‘small steps’ approach to achieving success.

Children at Danecourt School participate in horse riding. In order to make this activity enjoyable and accessible for her class of autistic children, Debbie has broken down the activity into requisite components.

She begins with the children getting used to their riding hats. The hats are available in class and children can earn time to wear them by completing work tasks.

Why this works

This approach uses the principles of task analysis (see below) to address difficulties that autistic children have with adapting to the unfamiliar.  Autistic children can be very sensitive to new sensations and experiences. They can find unfamiliar clothing very frightening. Debbie is helping to remove the children’s anxiety and creating a safe atmosphere for the children to experience the hats.

What is task analysis?

Task analysis simply means breaking down a complex task into its component parts and then teaching each part as a discrete step until they all build into a familiar routine.

Try it for yourself: write a task analysis for brushing your teeth and then ask someone to brush their teeth just following your instructions. Was there anything you left out? What if you got the component tasks in the wrong order? How can this approach help you in your teaching?

The problem: bringing Shakespeare alive for students with SEN

A strategy used to address this

This approach uses ‘desktop theatre’ because visits to live theatre are not a viable option.

Many teachers take students to the theatre to help them with their Shakespeare related work. But what do you do if you can’t take your students to a theatre production?

Angelika Hickey decided to bring the theatre to the classroom. She created a lesson for students with SEN which required them to make a desktop theatre and use their characters to act out the scene from Macbeth that they were studying.

Access Angelika’s resources for this lesson here:

Macbeth task (PDF, 48kb)

Macbeth task feedback sheet (PDF, 46kb)

Why this works

Too often children with SEN are set unchallenging tasks because teachers focus on what they cannot do. This task challenged the students but was designed to ensure they could succeed by focusing on what the students could do.

The students were involved in a range of learning modes (visual, kinaesthetic, verbal) and were challenged to perform through their cut-out characters.

Angelika also involved the students in formative assessment through the feedback sheets.