Students in My Class.pdf - Central Okanagan School District No. 23

• Rarely finishes or hands in assignments
• Frequent careless, repetitive errors
• Writing shows a serious shortage of facts and ideas
and lacks structure sequence and organization
• Often has a poor active working memory
• Often has a slow recall of basic math facts and spelling
patterns
• Has difficulty putting ideas into words when writing (but
may demonstrate no difficulty when speaking)
• Has difficulty thinking up topics and deciding what to
write
• Has trouble 'getting started'
• Finds writing tasks mentally exhausting
Behavioural Issues
• Poor self-esteem due to their learning disability and
they need a lot of reassurance and emotional support
• Experience emotional turmoil due to a long history of
being chastised for poor written work
• Easily discouraged or embarrassed and feel dumb,
especially when others look at their written work
• Have chronic 'writer's block'
• Necessary to understand the function of their many
avoidance tactics
• May appear to be engaged
• Learning environment where it is safe to take risks and
make mistakes
• Need the teacher to know they are capable, intelligent
learners
Kathy is a grade 9 aged student who, for the second year in a
row, has failed almost all of the subjects in which she was
enrolled. Assignments have been consistently very poorly done
or not handed in. Kathy came to this school with an