HELPFUL HOT SPOTS:For mixed-ability classrooms and

teaching students with dyslexia

www.macmillanenglish.com/hotspot

The Hot Spot Teacher’s Books provide additional support for teachers of students with dyslexia and for thoseteaching mixed-ability classes.

Teacher’s Book

Includes:

Student’s Book pages

Test CD

Photocopiable classroom activities

HOTHOT

spot

Magdalena Kondro

Teacher’s Book

Photocopiable classroom activities

Magdalena Kondro

Teacher’s BookIncludes:Student’s Book pagesTest CD

Photocopiable classroom activities

HOTHOTspot

Magdalena Kondro

2HOT

Helpful tips precede activities which students withdyslexia may fi nd more challenging. Suggestions are also given on how to modify many activities for mixed-ability classes. These tips and hints provide teachers with support and ideas on how to further encourage and motivate all students.

These pages provide just a small taster of the strategies found in the Hot Spot Teacher’s Books.

Mixed-ability classes

Characteristics of students with dyslexia

Students tend to behave badly when they are not challenged enough, or when the activity is too long or too diffi cult for them. Set time limits to keep the pace, give fast fi nishers extra tasks that will stretch their abilities and off er extra support to those students who are fi nding the task diffi cult. Also, be prepared to fi nish an activity early if it is not work-ing for your class.

Dyslexic students may have some or all of these characteristics:• Short attention span• Poor short-term memory• Weak reading comprehension skills• Poor spelling and/or handwriting• Diffi culty in remembering sequences, including instructions• Delay in completing tasks• Slow and often inaccurate copying (e.g. from the board)

students with dyslexia

Mixed-ability Hot Spot 1

When learning numbers and their word equiva-lents, encourage less confi dent or weaker students to substitute the words with digits fi rst, before writing the number word. Meanwhile fast fi nishers can write their own gapped equations, using the number words. They can then exchange notebooks with other fast fi nishers and solve each other’s maths problems.

Hot Spot 1

7 = ___ + 3

Eight + ___ = 10

Eight + 2 = Ten

Six + Three = Nine

___ + One = Eleven

Dyslexia Hot Spot 1

Missing words: Completing a missing words activity will be easier if you give students some more clues. Help by pointing to the pictures and adding one or two more letters to each word on the board. For example: app__ for a___, cho__ for c___ etc. Make sure you also give students more time to fi nish the activity.

Hot Spot 1

a____app__

c____cho______

p____p__za

Mixed-ability Hot Spot 2

For less confi dent students, write the sentence beginnings on the board. Fast fi nishers can add more information to the sentence including more complex adjectives. Fast fi nishers could also work on memory activities such as closing their books to recall information and quizzing other fast fi nishers on their sentences.

Hot Spot 2

My name is _____ I am __ years oldI live ___________My favourite____________

106

6 ’sIs she Della’s sister? Toby is Ben’s dog.

’s:

Is she Della’s sister? Toby is Ben’s dog.

’s and the short form of is – ’s:

Possessive ’s ’s (short form of is)

Is she Della’s sister?She’s Della’s sister. = She is Della’s sister.

’s

Danny KenIt’s Danny’s pen.

Dina Susie

Molly Craig

7

in on under next to

It’s in the bag. It’s on the table.

It’s under the chair. It’s next to the bag.

in, on, under, next to.

1 The socks are under the book

1 The socks are the book.

2 The poster is the wall.

3 The pen is the book.

4 The sweets are the bag.

2

3 4

5 6

1

9780230533707_text.indb 106 12/8/08 09:18:43

Dyslexia Hot Spot 2

Checking answers: Students with dyslexia may not be able to copy answers from the board accurately. It will also take them longer. Give them the answers on a sheet of paper instead.

Hot Spot 2

the book.

the wall.

the book.

the bag.

106

6

’sIs she Della’s sister? Toby is Ben’s dog.

’s:

Is she Della’s sister? Toby is Ben’s dog. ’s and

the short form of is – ’s:

Possessive ’s

’s (short form of is)

Is she Della’s sister? She’s Della’s sister. =

She is Della’s sister.

’s

Danny

Ken

It’s Danny’s pen.

Dina

Susie

Molly

Craig

7in on under next to

It’s in the bag. It’s on the table.

It’s under the chair. It’s next to the bag.in, on, under, next to.

1 The socks are under the book

1 The socks are the book.

2 The poster is the wall.

3 The pen is the book.

4 The sweets are the bag.

2

3

4

5

6

1

9780230533707_text.indb 106

12/8/08 09:18:43

1 The socks are under the book.

2 The poster is on the wall.

3 The pen is next to the book.

4 The sweets are in the bag.

Have you got a book?

Mixed-ability Hot Spot 3

Encourage less confi dent students to look for and underline the ending of nouns in questions as this will remind them that they need to use ‘a’ or ‘any’ before these words. Fast fi nishers can create more questions from other nouns in the activity.

Have you got any books?

Do you have any pens?

Hot Spot 3

Have you got ...Sweet(s)Cup(s)Ruler(s)

Do you have a pen?

Dyslexia Hot Spot 3

Correcting sentences: Students with dyslexia fi nd reading very diffi cult so they need help with correcting written sentences. Read the sentences aloud and then ask the class to correct each one. Students can in this way focus on correcting the mistakes by ear. It is also helpful to do pair work in which a student without dyslexia reads out the sentences and the student with dyslexia corrects them.

Hot Spot 3

Have you got ...Sweet(s)Cup(s)Ruler(s)

Teacher reads aloud:

Student corrects:

Teacher reads aloud:

I am a pen

I have a pen

I have a pen

Mixed-ability Hot Spot 4

Encourage stronger students to create their own dictionary of new vocabulary and to add to it byincluding synonyms and/or antonyms for each word. Ask students to write their own defi nitions for new vocabulary and/or use a monolingual dictionary to fi nd defi nitions. Weaker students might want to add illustrations.

Hot Spot 4

illustrati ons

Map

A drawing of an area that shows the positi ons of things such as countries, rivers, citi es, and streets.

monolingual dicti onary defi niti on

own defi niti on

A picture of all the diff erent countries in the world.

Dyslexia Hot Spot 4

Reading diffi cult words: Encourage students with dyslexia to make index cards or bookmarks with common words they have problems reading out. On the front of each card they should write or print one word and on the back they should draw anillustration, stick a picture or write a defi nition of the word. These cards can then be used for practice at home or reference in class.

Hot Spot 4

history

Time of year that is warm and

sunny

Mixed-ability Hot Spot 5 Hot Spot 5

30

1 1.44

beach castle church cinema

park river

shop railway station supermarket swimming pool bus station house

2 1.45

1.45

7 My dream town

Talking about

places in a town or city

3

1 There is a river.

2 There isn’t a beach.

3 There are a lot of shops.

4 There is a bus station.

5 There aren’t any cinemas.

In Dream Town there is an old

castle and a river. And there

are a lot of fun things to do.

There isn’t a beach but there

is a big swimming pool with a

fantastic water slide. And there

are two cinemas and a big park.

There isn’t a bus station but

there is a railway station.

There is a church and there

are a lot of nice houses. There

aren’t any supermarkets but

there are a lot of shops.

Dream Town

places in a town or cityLesson objective

9780230533707_text.indb 30

12/8/08 09:09:38

31

2

6

7

There is a/an … There are two/three/a lot of …

1 There is a big swimming pool with a water

slide.

2 There are a lot of ...

8 1.46

1 There is a … 2 There isn’t a …

3 There are a lot of … 4 There aren’t any …

4

Grammar spot

anyGrammar spot

any

Negatives

There aren’t any cinemas.

(BUT There isn’t a beach.)

Questions

Are there any shops?

(BUT Is there a river?)

Grammar pages 107, 108

How can you remember new words?

Draw a picture and write the initial letters.

h r

Study tip

5

There is/There isn’t/There are/

There aren’t.

1 There is a church

1 a church.

2 a beach.

3 any supermarkets.

4 a lot of houses.

5 a railway station.

6 a lot of shops.

7 a bus station.

Is there/

Are there

8 a castle?

9 any cinemas?

10 any supermarkets?

11 a park?

Yes, there is./Yes, there are.

No, there isn’t./No, there aren’t.

9780230533707_text.indb 31

12/8/08 09:09:41

+-++

+-- +

Positives Negatives

When creating a comparison chart (positives/negatives) from a reading text, let fast fi nishers add their own points to the list. Less confi dent students can mark the text and mark them with plus and minus symbols to show the good and bad points. This way they will not take a long time writing down the answers or worrying about spelling.

There isn’t a beach.

There are two cinemas.

Dyslexia Hot Spot 5

Editing written work: Students with dyslexia may struggle with editing their work. Help them tocreate a checklist for editing, e.g. spelling, grammar, organisation of ideas etc. Allow them to make corrections to their work and accept that as a fi nal draft in order to reduce the amount of copying they need to do.

Hot Spot 5

Checklist

abc = spelling

a catan cat x = grammar

point 1 point 2

= organisati on of ideas

My dream town = heading

How can teachers help?

• Be understanding and sympathetic towards students’ diffi culties and praise achievement

• Show that you are willing to help

• Accept and respect all their eff orts

• Bear in mind that students with learning diffi culties are often highly intelligent

• Keep instructions as short as possible

• Use examples or demonstrate the task with a student

• Split long instructions into stages

• Introduce necessary language before beginning each activity

• Develop a set of routine activities to allow students to settle and get ready for the lesson

• Discuss mistakes made with the whole class without revealing who made each one

For more information on mixed-ability teaching or teaching students with dyslexia visit: For more information on mixed-ability teaching or teaching students with dyslexia visit:

www.onestopenglish.com off ering a range ofmethodology articles, tips, lesson plans andresources for teachers with mixed-ability classes.

Dyslexia Internationalwww.dyslexia-international.org/

World Dyslexia Forum 2010www.worlddyslexiaforum.org/

British Dyslexia Associationwww.bdadyslexia.org.uk/

Dyslexia Action www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/

Being Dyslexic - Information, Inspiration, Advice and Support www.beingdyslexic.co.uk/

British Dyslexics - Registered charitywww.dyslexia.uk.com/

Waterstones Bookshop and Dyslexia Action Informationwww.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=100000021

Waterstones Bookshop guide for young dyslexic readerswww3.waterstones.com/wat/images/special/mag/waterstones_dyslexia_action_guide.pdf

Blog: Helping English Language students with learning disabilities eltnotebook.blogspot.com/2007/01/helping-students-with-learning.html

Report in BBC news website on new programme of training for school teachers in UK (22 June 2009):http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8109554.stm

9 780230 408975

ComponentsStudent’s Book and CD-ROM pack

Teacher’s Book and Test CD pack

Activity Book

Class Audio CDs

Level 19780230723740

Level 29780230723757

Level 3 9780230723764

Level 49780230723771

Level 19780230717886

Level 29780230717909

Level 3 9780230717923

Level 49780230717947

Level 19780230533714

Level 29780230533752

Level 3 9780230533790

Level 49780230533837

Level 19780230533738

Level 29780230533776

Level 3 9780230533813

Level 49780230533851