Many a happy hour of my childhood was spent spotting the differences between the two pictures in those puzzle magazines, the ones you only seemed to get when going on a long train journey. I was great at it and would always turn to these puzzles first. The girl’s necklace was blue, not green; the bucket had two shells instead of one… When I first started teaching I would often get my class to identify the differences between species of animal or habitat. They could go for ever listing even the smallest difference, challenging each other to beat their total! It was only when I started asking the children to list things that were the same that I started to hone in on what they actually understood about that animal, habitat or function of that particular body part.
A few years back I asked my Year 5/6 class to list similarities between two things. We started easy, a cat and dog. Upped the challenge with an aeroplane and eagle and then finally to consolidate our body topic, a heart and lungs. It was a fantastic communication activity, the more vocal children trying to ‘outdo’ the others with the most obscure similarities. When it came to recording their ideas most children were happy to write but those with special educational needs (SEN) lost the momentum of the lesson and their wonderful talk would have been lost by the challenge writing posed. The children were confident using sound buttons, so instead of writing they chose models of the items and linked them with lolly sticks. They then added sound buttons to these links, where they recorded their ideas. Without being asked, the children then extended their joins and brought in alternative body organs. They had time to do this as they were unhindered by the challenge of the writing process. The children then took photos of their ‘web’ and later I scribed their responses. They not only showed their deep understanding of the concept but were able to demonstrate how they could extend their thinking, whilst unsupported by any adult.
Following on from linking ideas, I still remember the lesson where we had been constructing food webs and one child, who presented with Asperger’s, arguing with me that not all food chains started with a producer. His argument was: if a baby gazelle had just been born, then was eaten by a lion it had not eaten any plants! He would not write this down as writing was ‘boring’ but luckily I had recorded the discussion using the class camera. I therefore had evidence that he was thinking clearly about the topic and didn’t simply take what he was told but questioned the idea! It was such an amazing idea that I would have remembered it anyway, but what a wonderful piece of evidence to show thinking in action!
Technology is such an amazing tool. We often think of the Apps we can use to support children learning and of course these have their place, but simple recording tools can make a huge difference to children in the class. They allow them to engage with recording and reporting in ways that don’t hinder them but allow them the freedom to show real understanding and not be challenged by more traditional methods.
If you are wondering how to support your children with SEN in science and would like some ideas for use in the classroom why not think about joining our course - supporting SEN pupils in the primary STEM subjects.