One of your students have been diagnosed with dyslexia.

He/she shows difficulties in

written skills and lack of interest in English lessons. How would you deal with him in the
English lessons? Specify techniques and activities adapted to his needs.

INDEX
1. Introduction and relevance of the case study
2. Theoretical framework
2.1 Having a student with dyslexia in the English class
2.2 How to engage pupils with dyslexia in the English lessons?
3. Practical resolution
3.1 Context involved: 3rd grade
3.2 Previous considerations
3.3 Attention to diversity following the Universal Design for Learning
3.4 Methodological guidelines based on the Andalusian legislation
3.5 Didactic proposal: a lesson around a role-play
3.6 Evaluation of the practice
4. Curricular relationship
5. Final comments
6. References
6.1 Bibliographic references
6.2 Legislative references

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 1. INTRODUCTION AND RELEVANCE OF THE CASE STUDY

“The beauty of this world lies in the diversity of its people”

Verna Myers.

This quote is a great way to introduce this case study since it expresses masterfully
one of the most enriching conditions present in the classroom: diversity. Homogeneity in
a classroom does not exist. Each student is different from each other and not for that less
capable.

Thereby, how can we design a curriculum that works for all students? Regarding
Rapp (2015), including the principles of the Universal Design for Learning can make
English lessons more welcoming and accessible for all students, especially for those who
present special educational needs, as it is the case of students with dyslexia.

As we all know, the main finality of our area is to foster meaningful

communication at all levels in order to develop our students’ communicative
competence, as it is stated in the art. 7, section f) of the Royal Decree 126/2014, of
February 28th. In this sense, it is our mission to provide high quality education by making
English lessons amusing and motivating bearing in mind our students’ interests and
needs.

Overall, throughout the following pages we will design a lesson for the 3rd grade of
Primary Education where a boy with dyslexia can be found. This lesson includes some
adaptations to guarantee the academic success and full development of the student with
dyslexia.

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 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In this section it will be provided a theoretical background in order to justify the

didactic proposal.

2.1 Having a student with dyslexia in the English class

Regarding the Instruction of March 8th, 2017, students with dyslexia are considered
students with special needs of educational support. Some of the most predominant
obstacles that students with dyslexia face in the class are:

- Poor reading, spelling and writing skills, despite having normal intelligence.
- Difficulty in remembering the right name for things.
- Trouble memorizing written passages.
- Emotional problems such as fatigue, headaches, frustration and low self-esteem.

2.2 How to engage pupils with dyslexia in the English lessons?

According to Moriña (2020), even though dyslexia represents a complex challenge to

language teachers, there are many simple adaptations we can carry out in order to make
our lessons more accessible for them, such as:

- Give them maximum visual and auditory support to the activities.

- Find materials with a large font (write in large font on the board).
- Integrate ICT’s and audiovisual resources.
- Do not ask them to memorize long written passages.
- Read out loud everything which is written in worksheets and in the blackboard.
- Make lessons enjoyable in order to increase his level of motivation towards the
English area.

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 3. PRACTICAL RESOLUTION

Now, it is time to go deeper into the resolution of the case by pointing out all the
factors that might influence the didactic proposal.

3.1 Context involved: 3rd grade

The classroom situation is going to be solved considering a mixed-ability 3rd grade

classroom composed of 24 pupils in a school located in an urban area of Cádiz. This group
of pupils is participative, creative, they have a good knowledge of ICT’s and they love
playing games and working in cooperative groups. Regarding the English area, the general
level of linguistic competence is adequate to their age. However, we have noticed that
most of pupils are a bit demotivated towards our area due to previous demotivating
experiences.

It is remarkable to mention that a student with dyslexia can be found in this group. I
will pay special attention to him to guarantee that he is fully integrated within the class.
More details about him will be deeply explained in section 3.3 “Attention to diversity”.

3.2 Previous considerations

Since the beginning of the school year we have noticed that some students were a bit
demotivated towards out area due to demotivating experiences. Therefore, in order to
increase our students’ engagement, we have created a gamified environment in the
English lessons in order to teach English in an amusing way. The didactic proposal of this
case study consists on a lesson located in the middle of a didactic unit called
“Mediterranean food looks delicious” whose Final Task consists on designing a healthy
menu about the healthy gastronomy of Andalucía for a restaurant of the neighbourhood.
This lesson will be focused on practicing the content studied along the unit in a
communicative way.

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 3.3 Attention to diversity following the Universal Design for Learning

Attention to diversity is regulated by the Order of January 15th, 2021, Chapter III
and by the Instruction of March 8th, 2017. As the Order recommends in its art. 4.5, we
have incorporated the principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in our
teaching practice, whose main aim is to guarantee inclusion and give all students equal
opportunities to success by:
- Providing multiple forms of representation (flashcards, songs, realia, online…).
- Providing multiple forms of action (auditory, visual, kinesthetic…).
- Providing multiple forms of motivation (badges, ClassDojo, positive feedback…).

Furthermore, in order to address to the different levels found in the class, I have
designed some reinforcement worksheets and some online tasks of higher complexity.
Besides, since in our classroom there is a boy who presents dyslexia, we will develop a
Learning reinforcement programme for him, as the Order of January 15th suggests in its
art. 12. Important information about him will be analyzed below:

· Strengths and difficulties:

- He loves playing games and enjoys digital platforms.
- He is really intelligent, presenting a fabulous visual memory.
- He finds difficult to stay in a task.
- He suffers headaches frequently what make him feel uncomfortable.
- He finds written communication challenging.

· Measures:
- Give them more time to complete written tasks or activities.
- Present exercises step by step and establish breaks between activities.
- Present information in different forms, including pictures, authentic material,
realia, videos, songs, and so on.
- Give frequent positive feedback to help him feel secure and valued.
- Create a calm-down box for him for those moments in which he feels fatigue.
- Simplify language, it is essential to be specific.

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 3.4 Methodological guidelines based on the Andalusian legislation

The methodological principles implemented along this case study will be based
on the recommendation gathered in the art.4 of the Order of January 15th, 2021, and on
the art. 8 of the Decree 97/2015, of March 3rd. In brief, they are the following:

- Meaningful techniques such as gamification will be the cornerstone of this

proposal, what provides excellent opportunities to practice language and
encourages children’s participation through the use of games, rewards and
challenges (Flores, 2015).

- This lesson follows a Students-Centred Approach, where pupils assume an

active role and where their needs and interests count, engine of any learning
(Bona, 2018).

- Activities will be based on the Communicative Approach, where pupils will

always find a reason for using the language as a vehicle of communication
(Nunan, 2005).

- Several cooperative techniques will be fostered in order to maximize students’

language practice and to forge strong interpersonal relationships where pupils
have to respect turns and reach agreements (Pujolás, 2012).

- The use of the ICT’s will be implemented through learning platforms such as
“Liveworksheet” , “ClassDojo”, “Voki” and the use of tablets and “QR codes”.

3.5 Didactic proposal: a gamified lesson

For the development of this lesson the class will be sub-divided in their cooperative
teams, which are mixed-ability groups of 6 members. The activities that shape this lesson
of 1 hour are the following:

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- Warm-up: “First challenge: pass the tablet!”
- Timing: 10 minutes.
- Didactic resources: 1 tablet per team, “Liveworksheet” online platform.
- Description: each team will scan a QR code given by the teacher with the
tablet. This code will give each group access to an online task previously
created by the teacher for this concrete group of pupils using the website
“Liveworksheets”. The task consists on labelling 10 images related to healthy
food of the Mediterranean diet and record the pronunciation of each one. For
the realization of the task, students will follow the cooperative technique
“Rotatory sheet”, so the tablet will be rotation among the members of the
group. The activity will conclude with a whole class correction.
- Attention to diversity: the website will provide some letters of the words to
help students to recall the spelling, this option can be used by the dyslexic
student at all times.

- Session development: “Let’s rotate around the classroom!”

- Timing: 35 minutes.
- Didactic resources: material for each game.
- Description: the classroom will be organised in 4 stations. In each one pupils
will find a game to be played, each one related to the written skills. Students
will devote around 8 minutes in each station, then, the whole class will rotate
to the next, following the technique “Rotatory learning stations”. In all the
games, pupils will carry out the cooperative technique “Rally coach”, which
consists on helping each other at all times. The games to be played are:
- “Fill-in!”: pupils will scan a QRcode with tablets which will give them
access to the website “Lyricstraining”. Pupils will listen to the song
“Healthy mealtime!” and will fill in some gaps with written words.
- “Detectives in action!”: pupils, individually, will complete a food
crossword. The words found should be classified in healthy or unhealthy
categories.
- “What a mess!”: pupils will order some sentences given to make up a
correct dialogue of a situation in a restaurant.

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 - “Running dictation”: the teacher will paste in the blackboard a text
about the gastronomy of Andalucía. One member of the team run to the
blackboard, memorise one sentence and read it aloud to the group. They
swift roles until the dialogue have been successfully transcribed.
- Attention to diversity: the teacher will be monitoring the whole lesson to
check that each team knows what to do, especially, the station number 1.
Extra visual support will be provided and written texts will be provided in
large font in order to meet the needs of the student with dyslexia.

- Closing part: “Last challenge: Baamboozle contest!”

- Timing: 15 minutes.
- Didactic resources: interactive whiteboard and “Baamboozle” platform.
- Description: pupils will find a dashboard in the interactive whiteboard with
10 squares numbered, each one hides a task to do, for example, “Order some
words to create some useful expressions to be used in a restaurant”. For the
realization of the task, students will follow the cooperative technique “1-2-
4”, so students’ individual answers will be compared in pairs and with the
whole cooperative group in order to find out the most suitable answer which
will represent the group. The teacher will select a group to answer randomly.
- Attention to diversity: the use of the online platform, due to its multimedia
capabilities, will meet the needs of the different learning styles found in the
class. When needed, pupils can consult the different wallchart of the unit to
recall the spelling of words.

3.5 Evaluation of the practice

Regarding the art. 23 of the Order of January 15th, 2021, Chapter IV, the
evaluation process should be objective, global, criterial, formative and continuous.
During the didactic unit where the lesson developed takes place, we will evaluate 4
assessment criteria, each one related to one linguistic skill. Each assessment criteria will
weigh the 25% of the global qualification. During this lesson, we will evaluate the
assessment criteria 2.9, related to the writing skill. For that, we will use the Seneca

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notebook to associate the assessment criteria 2.9 to the assessable activity “Detectives
in action!”. This activity will be evaluated by using the following assessment and
qualification techniques and instruments:

- Analysis of the assessable activity: the teacher will evaluate the worksheets of
pupils by using a checklist as an instrument.
- Peer-assessment: pupils will evaluate their peers’ performance by using a co-
evaluation sheet as an instrument.
- Self-assessment: pupils will evaluate their own performance by using the
European Portfolio of Languages as an instrument. This instrument is highly
recommended by the Council of Europe (2020), since it allows pupils to reflect
on what they have learnt.

It is also relevant to mention that flexibility measures will be established in the

assessment of students with special needs, as it is the case of our student with dyslexia.
We will give this student extra time and visual and audio support will be always provided
in tests. The relevance of this is gathered in the art. 6.3 of the Royal Decree 984/2021,
of November 16th. This same law also highlights in its art. 8.4 the importance of not only
evaluate our students’ work, but also our practice as teachers. Thus, we will evaluate our
own practice by using some checklists.

4. CURRICULAR RELATIONSHIP

With all the above in mind, now we will analyse the contribution of the activity
“Make the monster speak!” to the curricular elements found in the Annex II of the
Order of January 15th, 2021:
- Assessment criteria: we contribute directly to the assessment criteria 2.9
related to the writing skill.
- English area objectives: there are 9 objectives to be attain by our students
during the Primary Education stage. The already mentioned assessment criteria
is linked to the objective number 3, related to the writing skill. Additionally, we

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 will work on the objective number 9, related to the acquisition of some lexical,
grammatical and spelling aspects.
- Key competences: we pay special attention to the Competence in Linguistic
Communication, but also to the following:
- Social and Civic Competence, through the use of cooperative
techniques.
- Digital Competence, through the use of digital devices.
- Contents: the activity previously mentioned contribute to the block of contents
4: “Production of written texts: expression and interaction”. Besides, this
activity works on lexis related to food and some basic grammar structures about
ordering at a restaurant. Last but not least, this activity deals with some
transversal contents, which are “Health education” and “Education for the
culture of Andalucía”.

5. FINAL COMMENTS
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is not educating at all”.
Fred Rogers.
Having analyzed this case study, it has been proved that working with students
with special educational support is possible if we as teachers propose it. It is our mission
to show students that everyone is different, everyone has strengths and everyone has
needs. This assumption will help students to understand that being different is not a bad
thing, on the contrary, being unique is one of the most special conditions of human
beings.

Concluding and going back to Rogers’ quote, we cannot forget that this education
should be done heart by heart, in a supportive atmosphere where pupils feel happy,
motivated and capable of developing their skills in order to achieve their maximun
personal, intellectual, social and emotional development to become competent citizens,
which should be our main mission as teacher according to the art. 16 of the Organic law
3/2020, of December 29th.
“Diversity is the mix, inclusion is making the mix work”.
Andrés Tapia.

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 6. REFERENCES
The present case study has taken into account the standing legislation and the reliable
bibliography that is presented below.

6.1 Bibliographic references

- Bona, C. (2018). La emoción de aprender: Historias inspiradoras de escuela,

familia y vida. Plaza Janés.
- Council of Europe (2020). Common European Framework of Reference for
languages: Learning, teaching and assessment. Companion volume.
- Moriña, A. (2020). Inclusive education: challenges and opportunities”.
European Journal of special needs.
- Nunan, D. (2005). Communicative Approach. Cambridge University Press.
- Pujolás, P. (2012). Aulas inclusivas y aprendizaje cooperativo. Educación del
siglo XXI.
- Rapp, W. (2015). Universal Design for Learning: 100 ways to teach learners.
Baltimore.

6.2 Legislative references

- Organic Law 3/2020, of December 29th, which modifies the Organic Law
2/2006, of May 3rd, on Education.
- Royal Decree 126/2014, of February 28th, which establishes the basic
curriculum for Primary Education nationwide in Spain.
- Royal Decree 984/2021, of November 16th, which regulates the evaluation and
promotion in Primary Education, Secondary Education and Bachelors.
- Decree 97/2015, of March 3rd, modified by the Decree 181/2020, of
November 10th, which establishes the ordination and curriculum of Primary
Education in Andalucía.
- Order of January 15th, 2021, which develops the curriculum for the Primary
Education Stage, regulates attention to diversity, establishes the ordination of
the evaluation process and determines the transit process between the
different educative stages in Andalucía.
- Instruction of 8th March, 2017, modified by the Instruction of March 8th, 2021,
which updates the protocol of detection of students with special needs and
establishes the educational response.

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