Puzzle English

Compensation activities and tools for SLD students

Puzzle English offers a guided learning programme for the construction of English sentences designed for middle school students with specific learning disabilities.

It is known that specific learning disabilities, in particular dyslexia, cause difficulties when learning foreign languages, especially when it comes to so-called opaque languages (such as English) that do not present a systematic correspondence between phonemes and graphemes. This book is aimed not only at pupils with disorders related to reading and writing skills, but also at students with special education needs, foreign students or those with attention deficit disorders.

In the context of inclusive teaching, the activities can also be done with the whole class by working in small groups of maximum 4 students.

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STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

The book is divided into two sections:

The first, theoretical, part proposes a general framework regarding specific learning disorders with reference to the English language.
The second, working, part, offers preparatory and educational activities in which the student will construct simple sentences following a series of instructions.

BOOK CONTENTS

The guided programmes are organized into 8 areas which correspond to the verb tenses covered:

Present simple
Present continuous
Past simple
Past continuous
Present perfect
Future continuous
Future with Will
Future with Going to

THE MATERIALS

When completing the activities, the students will use the following materials provided:

3 spinners for verb tenses

Subject spinner and subject cards (with a black border)

“wh- words” spinner and pink cards

Pyramids

Action cards (with a blue, red, or purple border or without border)

Agreement cards (with yellow, orange, or green borders)

Help sheet

Help cards (indicated with a star)

Using the materials and following the indications provided, the student is guided in the construction of affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences, and can “see” how the elements move within the different types of sentences.
These activities are useful not only when the student learns the morphosyntax of the sentence but also during the revision and consolidation phases, in fact:

The constant association between visual and linguistic elements facilitates the understanding of the sentence structure and favors its visualization;
The hands-on manipulation of the materials helps maintain student concentration on the topic of the lesson;
Using QR codes, the student also has the opportunity to listen to the correct pronunciation of the words or groups of words used in the construction of sentences.

The playful approach and the facilitation of procedures allow the student to learn while having fun, thereby encouraging learning and increasing motivation.

THE AUTHOR

Chiara Soldi graduated in Languages and specialized in teaching English in secondary school. She is the author of school texts and resources for learning aimed at pupils with special educational needs and SLD’s.