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Support Materials for Students with Special Education Needs
English K–6
Case Studies
Case study 3
Learning experiences, assessment opportunities and adjustments
(cont)
Learning experiences and assessment opportunities Adjustments for Daniel
Students rehearse the structure of a formal debate by
• the teacher reminds Daniel that the purpose
adapting the jointly constructed written discussion to an
of a debate is to argue for or against an issue
oral class debate.
rather than his own point of view
The teacher reviews the structure of debates and the roles
• Daniel is provided with a scaffold to structure
of speakers, adjudicator and time-keeper.
his arguments and supporting points
• Daniel acts as first speaker
Students work in teams of ‘Affirmative’ (For) and
‘Negative’ (Against). Team members select arguments
to use and then develop supporting points and elaborations.
• with support, Daniel identifies on the notes for
the debate, the voice projection, body language
and pacing of material and their effectiveness
The teacher facilitates debates. After each debate, the
• Daniel uses a checklist to identify how students
teacher provides students with opportunities to provide
on each team disagreed with what the other
feedback on features of oral discussions, eg spontaneity
team said
which allows for rebuttal; role of voice, gesture, humour,
dramatic elements; potential to appeal directly to an
audience. Students identify any information excluded
by any group or any arguments ignored by either side.
Feedback
Students
The students provide feedback on each team’s presentation of arguments. Specifically, they
provide feedback on features that strengthened the team’s arguments and/or distracted
students from the other team’s argument.
The teacher may support students to give feedback by providing focus questions, eg ‘What
did you like?’, ‘What could have been done differently?’ or ‘How could the argument be
strengthened/made more convincing?’
Teacher
The teacher monitors students during the learning experiences and assessment opportunities
through:
• observation
• discussion and questioning
• analysis of the students’ work samples
• the use of a checklist during the debate.
The teacher provides specific feedback, such as:
• ‘Daniel, I like the way you acknowledged what the person before you said.’
• ‘Daniel, next time remember, sometimes people believe things that are not supported
by evidence.’
• ‘The way you slowed your speech, increased your volume and repeated your point
added emphasis to what you were saying.’
• ‘You could have added numerical data to strengthen your argument.’
