2. What topic and why?

Hi Ian and fellow students. At my school with children with severe autism and challenging behaviours we do not follow national curriculum but follow PLLUSS - personalised learning for life using supportive strategies. This has come into place since I have been at the school. Each year we hold a Christmas celebration concert which highlights the individual achievements of each child through creative mediums.

My topic is to explore how/if the PLLUSS approach has enabled an increase in participation and development of skills to enable the sharing of their achievements.

I think its still a bit wordy. Please could you give me some feedback on how to focus it a bit more. My real passion is in creating individualised creative programmes that develop children and linking them together so that they can be included in things and have individual success.

I think people would be interested in these methodologies as they are transferable to different contexts.

I would like to look at individual case studies and how they fit together to form a cohesive performance

Thanks Morag

You can evaluate PLLUSS. It has aims, success criteria etc. There are certain strategies and intentions, and their are planned outcomes.

Your research may collct data on what staff (and othesr say are their perception of the aims, what processes really can be observed, and what learning outcomes follow.

This is stakes matrix.

Alternatively, you could compile a series of case accounts (in this example of individual childen going through PLLUSS programmes. The data might be several observations, asking questions, a research journal, several critical incident analyses etc for each "case record".

Your account needs to analyse the case records.

Do thes eideas help?

Which one suits your own research?

Hi Ian

I think the series of case accounts is more suitable. This way a greater emphasis can be placed on the creative approaches to learning. As creative communication is my interest area, I would like that to be at the heart of my study.

\so the title might read something like:

A critical enquiry into how children with autism and challenging behaviours are supported to communicate creatively by using PLLUSS.

I like the range of research methods in theis model. Thanks for the tips.

Hi Ian

Just about getting my head around the site now.

Did you get my note last week asking what time the meetings at Trent Park are. I'd like to come next wednesday if its in the evening.

I feel like I'm missing something. I'm following and reading the links for AE09 and hotseats etc. I'm talking to my workplace mentor. I'm also confused when documents say dissertation. I am in yr 2 so think this is not me. But then some things seem relevant. Please advise.

Thanks

Morag

Meeting are at 4.30 for 4.45 start on some wednesdays (see modulefront page link) for those doing the face to face programme. Its all online for those that are not able to travel to Trent Park.


You can see dissertation materails but if you are on Action Enquiry then follow the action enquiry guide. (But keep in mind that next year you will need to work towards the dissertation). If this is complicated then... well its an MA!

Good luck and don't hesitate to use this for clarification.

I am going to focus my research on using video to teach my class of autistic children social skills. I will show pre-recorded videos and then ask the children to re-enact scenes and video them. Each session will have a different focus and will build on previous work. I hope that the visual/kinaesthetic nature of the social skills lessons will help to improve the social skills of children in my class. It is influenced by research on using video modelling, but takes it to a different dimension by getting the children involved in role-play and featuring in their own 'social skills' video. What do you think?

Sounds good. I have an ex studnet that did something like this. I forget his name. I shall look it up

hi Ian and fellow students, i have decided to focus my research on the benefits of an integrated curriculum on children with SpLD. I will focus my research on two schools, one which is follwoing an integrated curriculum and another which has a simple surriculm, i would like to find out the benefits and drawback each type of curriculm has on students with learning difficulties

Hi Aliya,
Your research project into the benefits of an intergrated curriculum brought thoughts of my own school situation. We now have an intergrated curriculum (from this september) and it is now very difficult to take children out of class for intervention. With no set literacy session there is always something going on that the children can't miss related to a project. I am conscious that children shouldn't just be supported in class but developed like others. Consequently I have had to rethink how to deliver intervention through the class lessons and parents. This I hope will be my project. Marion

hi marion
i hope we can work together and share our experienes.

Hi Aliya,

Yes I course. Having commented to others (including yourself) online discussions I focused my project on the atitiudes of becoming a partner (child/parent/teacher) in intervention for children with SEN/SpLD.

The children I work with have missed so many intervention sessions this term that it is becoming a joke. Then this week I have had parents evening with them on my back about their child's reading or writing. I can't win at the moment; or the children themselves. Do they go out and have their needs met but miss the fun and learning in classroom. Surely this isn't helping inclusion either way. Some of the teachers are saying that I should work in the classroom. But can it be specific enough to help them develop?
Marion

Dear all
I would like to focus upon a Year 9 Maths class that I teach. All the stduents are on the SEN register and there is a great variety of needs in the class. There are several students who have speech and language difficulties. There is an autistic stduent in the class, a stduent eho is a selective mute, a student with mental health issues and students who has anger management issues. I would like to use some teaching strategies that imapct upon the speech and language difficulties and enhance their speaking and listening skills. There are some students who will need to be ancouraged to speak and others who need to work on their listening skills. I would like to assess how this impacts upon the learning in Maths.

I am jgetting organised so hope I can meet the dealine. Have found it difficult to find the relevant info on the website but getting there I think

Peta ( SEN teacher in large comprehensive school in North London)

Hi everyone

I would like to focus my enquiry on selecting strategies for improving learning of students with dyslexia through the set up of a resource room, providing training for teachers during SDP session, and other strategies. I also thought of gathering information from dyslexic students and their parents about what help they would like more from school. Then later on evaluating the impact of this enquiry from their views too.

I feel that currently the school is not catering well for the needs of these children and I believe that if everyone makes a little effort we can make a big change for the benefit of children with dyslexia and ultimately all children.

I would like to know what others think about this project. Thanks

Hello,
I would like to focus my research on writing and spelling. In particular, I would like to examine if and how pupils with writing and spelling difficulties can get better through pair work and collaborative spelling activities, creative writing activities or games. I am interested in finding effective ways of how to help pupils improve their skills when they are learning English as a foreign language. I am interested in this topic as writing is essential in language learning and also an important skill required in every language certificate exam.

Hi I work in a FS/KS1 class and want to look at the importance of structured talk for writing and how the 'Big Talk' for 'Big Writing' approach can help children with low level literacy skills make progress in their writing.

Hello everyone!

You all have really interesting projects. Last year my enquiry showed that there was a need for greater parental involvement as simple matters such as PTAs or even parent day events do not exist in Yemen, albeit parents seem really eager to be involved. So this year my enquiry will focus on assisting the resource room teacher on getting parents involved with their SEN children with basic literacy. We will try and get the LEA involved through technical assistance e.g. supporting us on training some of the parents and if we are lucky we may get our project replicated in other schools.

Dear Diena,
Your project is similar to one for my dissertation. I would like to get a improve intervention for SEN through the triangular partnership. Intervention currently is carried out in isolation with separate targets. We are far behind in terms of the UK but we have just been given money from the government to make our practice more inclusive. Hopefully my project will receive some of this funding! I am thinking about training teachers/parents and children on ACE spelling dictionaires for use in class and at home, which is a spin off from the intervention I already give these children i.e. phonological awareness and spelling choices/rules. And see whether it makes it more effective and other outcomes. Marion

I am going to focus my study on boys with specific learning difficulties and find out how developing emotional intelligence impacts them. I want to find out if it helps with self esteem, behaviour and attitude to learning. How does being able to identify your emotions help?

Hi Aliya, I have copied this down because I wasn't sure if you look back at converstations.
Your research project into the benefits of an intergrated curriculum brought thoughts of my own school situation. We now have an intergrated curriculum (from this september) and it is now very difficult to take children out of class for intervention. With no set literacy session there is always something going on that the children can't miss related to a project. I am conscious that children shouldn't just be supported in class but developed like others. Consequently I have had to rethink how to deliver intervention through the class lessons and parents. This I hope will be my project. Marion

Peta,
Currently I use cuisenaire rods with year 6 and have found they are making children talk about their maths. Professor Sharma who is head of Berkshire Maths has CDs on how to use them in class with Juniors. Marion

Hi Ian

I tried replying to an e-mail from you this week to let you know my topic ideas but got a failed delivery notification. Have checked the e-mail and its correct but forsome reason its not getting through. In reply to your e-mail I am on my second year of a master in inclusion -specific learning difficulties. So this year is the PDT 4091 action research module. My title is going to be along the lines of:


A critical analysis of the ‘Big Writing’ philosophy and the impact it has on children’s writing at Key Stage 1.

Hello Ian,
I have been having a similar problem emailing you with delivery notification failure.
Hello Ian,
 
I am meeting Sandra this week, but just so you know.
 
I want to look at how do we know when children are developmentally ready for writing. Children start at reception at much lower level than they used to. I am still trying to refine my focus. I feel that physically writing is a skill that will become harder, because computers are used so much more these days. Do children at a young age observe writing, or is the computer taking away that skill. We used to practise handwriting, but even that is not taught like it used to be in schools.
 
The need is that our year 1 and year 2 teachers feel the children do not have the skills for writing anymore, physically, ideas, styles etc. I feel that the profile and EYFS have steered us away from formally teaching writing. Are the end of keystage 1 expectations too high with the lower baseline of children starting in Reception? Why do children have to write everything down, is there another format to do this? These are my thoughts.
 
I am still thinking about exactly which angle I will approach this idea from. I hope to get a better perspective when I speak with Sandra next week.
 
Lorna

You certainly need to look at the two primary reviews about readiness to write.

I've also had a problem with mail and delivery. I sent it to Christine and asked her to forward it to you. Did that work?
Ruth

On Thursday I was warned my box was full with the 50 e mails arriving each day. By evening they closed my e mail box! I was out Friday at the SEN show. On Saturday I saved and deleted all recived, sent and spam. This seems to have corrected it. Normal service continues.

What a nightmare for you!
Is it possible to have some feedback on my topic? I want to get the plan done and just wondered what your initial thoughts were?
Thank you

I have put a comment further up.

Marion

I am just getting used to learning online and wonder if anyone knows how to make notes on a document on thecomputer without having to print it off first. Hope someone can help

Thanks Morag

Dear Marion,

Sorry for getting back to you so late. I am glad that our projects are similar. It's interesting how our focus improves as we get more involved with the study. I feel that my research is rather vague. I like the way your project hones in on spelling. I am thinking about literacy which maybe too wide? Then again I do want my research to focus on 'parental involvement'; perhaps the medium for their involvement can be reading, which is narrower than just literacy?

Hi Diena,
I have narrowed mine down further to look at the attitudes that might encourage or limit progress towards a triangular partnership in intervention. I will use the training of ACE dictionaries / spelling as a vehicle to explore this. My school partnership, inclusion and SEN provision is weak and thus I will attempt to make change occur and see what happens.
I know that someone did the effect of parental involvement on reading and children's self esteem. There is a lot of research on reading and parental involvement so you would probably have to narrow it down even more. I think 'partnership' is more powerful than parental involvement.
Keep writing because your thinking helps my thinking, and hopefully vice er versa. Marion

You might read material like this to identify the key concpets and issues. Notice how partnership is problematic and dynamic and not just from one perspective: http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/katzsym/keyes.html

Thank you Ian for the article - it is certainly representative of my situation. Marion

Hi Aliya,

I think you have the same tutor as me - Sarah Rosen Webb. Would you like to join a small support group using email. If yes is the answer to both questions can you give Sarah permission to give me your email address. Marion

Hi Marion

May I please ask you how did you get to know who your tutor is, as I do not know who will be my tutor yet and so I cannot make any contacts with students in the same group.

Thanks
Jacqueline

Hi Jacqueline,

Ian gave me the information - however he did say that he needs all the plans in before he can sort out the tutors.

Marion

Hi Marion
yes i belive we have the same tutor, i shall email sarah and allow her to send u my email address. looking forward to work with you.
Aliya

Thanks a lot Marion.

Jacqueline