Engaging students with additional support needs

Course Rep Training: Facilitator’s notes

Engaging students with additional support needs: Course Rep Trainingsparqs 2012

Background

The issue of supporting students with additional support needs to become engaged in the quality of their learning and teaching was raised with sparqs by several colleges. This led to a year long project exploring how this could be effectively achieved.

One of the main issues raised was the accessibility of course rep training. The sparqs Introductory Course Rep Training is available to all colleges, either to deliver themselves or to be delivered by a sparqs Associate Trainer. Students with additional support needs do attend the training but some find the language and concepts difficult to understand.

In many colleges, students with learning difficulties, multiple impairments and complex impairments receive separate education provision in Inclusion or Supported Education Departments. These classes will have course reps who take part in meetings and quality processes.

This training has been designed in conjunction with staff and students from several colleges. It and the supporting materials are aiming to convey the same information as in the Introductory Course Rep Training, but at a pace and in a manner that is more accessible to students with additional support needs.

This training forms part of a suite of materials that support college staff and students’ associations in their work engaging students with additional support needs.

Overview of the training

The training takes two hours, with a break around mid-way. It consists mainly of facilitated group activities. A trainer will oversee the session and a facilitator will be part of each group, maximum 5 students. There is a full session plan with trainer notes available. These notes are to support you as facilitator of the group work and will cover the sorts of things to draw out in the discussion and how to manage the session.

Your role is to prompt and encourage discussion using the notes below. The groups need to record their ideas on flip chart paper and if they feel comfortable to do this themselves it should be encouraged, otherwise you should write for them.

These notes are broken into the following columns:

Sectionexplains the aim and objectives of each section of the training to give you an understanding of what is trying to be achieved.

Descriptionoutlines what will be happening in each section: what the trainer will ask and what will happen in the groups.

Discussion is a suggestion of points you might want to cover and draw out during the group work.

Timeis a suggested time each section should take, but this will be controlled by the trainer.

Other materials support the development and training of the course reps in supported education, and offer guidance to staff working to engage these students. They are available from

Engaging students with additional support needs: Course Rep Trainingsparqs 2012

Section / Directions / Discussion / Time
Welcome / The trainer will present to whole group and will move people into groups of a maximum 5 students + facilitator. / 10mins
Name + THING
Aim
Everyone will feel more comfortable with their group and to provide an example of communication to refer to later.
Objectives
  • To know each other’s names;
  • To know one interesting fact about everyone.
/ In the separate groups each person should take it in turns to tell everyone their name and one thing about them they think is interesting that other people might like.
Each person then feeds back to the whole group about another person’s interesting thing. / Start by introducing yourself and saying one interesting thing about yourself.
Keep the conversation going, prompting if necessary until they’ve all shared something. / 10mins
What is a course rep and what do they do?
Aim
To begin thinking about CRs and their job.
Objectives
  • To understand how important CRs are.
  • To know that CRs pass on views of students to the college.
/ There are two elements to this.
1.In their groups they will finish the sentence “a course rep is …” / Some discussion prompts:
A course rep is…
  • a student.
  • the “voice” of the class – they say what the class thinks about a course.
  • a representative of the class.
  • chosen by the class, sometimes in an election.
  • important – the college gets reviewed and how involved students are is one thing that gets looked at.
/ 15mins
2.As a full group, they’ll brainstorm the question “What does a course rep do?”
(This can also be done in small groups with feedback to the whole group if the trainer thinks this will be more effective.) / Make sure the following points are discussed:
  • CRs talk to the class about what is good and bad about their course.
  • CRs tell the college what the class thinks, this is either by telling the tutor or in a meeting.
  • Attend meetings.
  • Sometimes takes notes to help them tell the class.
  • They then tell the class what happened in the meeting.
  • Highlight good communication – listening, clear talking.

Draw the ideal course rep
Aim
Fun way to consolidate learning from previous exercise to understand role/function of a course rep.
Objectives
  • To draw image of ideal course rep.
  • To be able to explain why their CR looks like this.
/ The trainer will ask them to draw the ‘perfect’ course rep on flip paper and will use the examplethat course reps need to listen to the class so this might mean a course rep needs big ears.
They can choose to draw this in any way: some groups draw a person and exaggerate its features; some draw a person with words around it to highlight key ideas; some draw elements that make up a course rep i.e. a watch for time keeping. / Encourage them to think about the previous session and what a rep does. How would they draw something like listening or taking notes?
Things to draw out/discuss for example:
  • Listening to all students – big ears.
  • Thinking about the issues- light bulb above head.
  • Being the voice of their class – megaphone/microphone.
  • Time management – watch.
  • Planning - diary/calendar.
  • Polite – smiley face.
  • Organised – briefcase/notebook and pen.
  • Problem solving–utility belt/magic wand.
  • Talking to tutors and meetings –make them big so they stand tall.
For example:
/ 20mins
Like/dislike exercise
Aim
To begin thinking around what they should be talking to class about.
Objectives
  • To identify one thing they like about their course, one thing they dislike.
/ The trainer will ask them each to come up with one thing they like about their course and one thing they dislike about it.
These should be noted on flip chart paper.
They don’t need to share this information, it stays in the group. / They’re more likely to find things they like rather than things they don’t, so gently push to find some dislikes if possible. Try to keep the likes and dislikes related to their learning experience and what happens in the classroom so things like:
  • Their subjects:
  • How they’re taught;
  • Do they have enough time to do everything?
  • Do they have all the equipment they need?
  • Do they find it easy/difficult?
/ 15mins
Talk to your class
Aim
To begin thinking around what they should be talking to class about.
Objectives
  • To identify what they should be talking to their class about and how.
  • Using previous exercise to practice what they might say to their class.
/ They will do this exercise in their small groups. They take it in turns to tell the rest of their group (the “class”) what they think about their course and to ask what the class thinks.
They keep this within their small groups as it’s only a tool to help them with the next tasks. / They need to be able to say something like:
”I like being able to do my work on the computer. Do you like being able to do this? What else do you like about our class?”
This bit can be difficult as it’s moving their thinking from what they think to what others might think. They might need encouragement to identify a question they can use to ask the class what it thinks, and ways of doing this. / 10mins
Practice telling a meeting
There are two tasks here – the trainer should decide which one will work best for the group as a whole at this point. One involves more practice while the other is more practical and looks at things they will need to do before/during the meeting.
Aim
To begin thinking around what happens in meetings.
Objectives
  • To practice talking at meetings.
  • To identify what they need to do to tell the meeting.
/ What to do before and during a meeting
In their small groups they need to identify at least three things they could do that would help them tell the meeting what the class think.
Is there anything during the meeting they could do? / This goes back to the drawing of the course rep.
They might want to:
  • Talk to their class;
  • Do a quick “hands up” of the class – “Do you like…?”
  • Note this down;
  • Talk to the students’ association;
  • Find out when and where the meeting is;
  • Read the papers of the meeting so they know when it’s their turn to speak;
  • Tell their tutor they want to speak during the meeting;
  • Take notes during the meeting;
  • Go to the meeting with a buddy;
  • Be on time!
  • Ask questions if they don’t understand something.
/ 10mins
Practicing telling a meeting what the class thinks
They will do this exercise in their small groups. They take it in turns to tell the rest of their group (the “meeting”) what the class thinks about its course. / Similar to the previous practice exercise. They might need prompting to use “we” rather than “I”. They’re now speaking on behalf of their class – remind them of the drawing they made earlier.
Prompt them to talk about the likes and dislikes discussed earlier.
They should be saying something like:
“The class likes being able to use computers to do our work but sometimes we can’t all get on them.”
Conclusion / Whole group discussion.
Presentation to whole group. / 5mins

Engaging students with additional support needs: Course Rep Trainingsparqs 2012