How to help dyslexic DSD through French GCSE?

Hi Zenphos

Does he understand what he has written? By that I mean, has he produced the material he needs to learn himself, from his own knowledge/school book/resources, or has he written a text in English and fed it into Google translate? The latter strategy is hopeless as it will produce gobbledygook and he won't be able to remember it.

Get him to draft something simple in his own words. Then go through it with a highlighter and choose the 'prompt' words. (My school's board allows 40 of these; his school's board may differ but he should check with teacher). He should choose words that will prompt him to remember the whole sentence, so if chooses 'semana pasada' he will think oh yes, that's the sentence about what I did last week.

Then it's a case of learning a bit at a time. Sit with him and get him to learn half a sentence, then the other half, and so on. Don't try to learn more than a paragraph at a time, then take a break and come back to it next day. He could write it out triple-spaced and draw little pictures to illustrate the text. That way he may develop a visual memory of the text on the page.

My son is taking a Spanish GCSE and he's really struggling to memorise long passages for the 4 controlled assessments he has to do (2 speaking and 2 listening) he has already done the first on and his teacher thinks he got an E with a target grade of and A or A* in every other subject including spanish, are there any methods or is there any help he can get in spanish?

You are spot on about playing to your strengths Bruffin. And well done to your DS for taking a language for GCSE.

"By the way, DD got offers from all the Universities she applied to including Russell Group without having a language GCSE (unless you count the short course E grad"

That's good to know

My DCs had to do 2 languages from year 7 too. Where we are one language is compulsory until 16 but they can take just a short course GCSE in it which is what DD did (and got an E).

They both missed many language classes in years 7-9 as that is when they got additional support and that made it difficult to catch up. OTOH both hated languages and I'd rather they missed something they didn't like than be forced to miss classes in a subject they loved (Art in DD's case, History in DS's).

By the way, DD got offers from all the Universities she applied to including Russell Group without having a language GCSE (unless you count the short course E grade)

It's not about letting it "fester" whatever that may mean. It's about playing to your strengths. DS has managed to stay in top set for everything except english (2nd set)
DS had to do 2 languages from year 7, he chose to take a language for gcse even though he knew he would struggle and has done so compared to most of his other subjects.
DS strengths are in science, maths and humanities. Yes the dyslexia does affect those to a certain extent but no where near as much as it does the MFL and part of the problem is the style of exam. he has never been discouraged from taken an MFL infact it was school's advice that he took an MFL for gcse.

MindtheGapp - could you explain what you mean by letting dyslexia fester?

MindtheGapp, I appreciate that ther term 'dyslexia' covers a wide range of difficulties (and degree of difficulty) but how on earth do you deal with dyslexia and not let it fester (as you put it)?

Living with dyslexia is an on-going thing for people though MTG.
I'm not sure it can be "dealt with" in such a once and for all sort of way.
Understanding ourselves, whatever our make-up, can take a life-time too.
I don't think it's about looking for excuses.

I don't get why dyslexic students are discouraged (at best) from doing a MFL. We don't have that problem in our school. But, then, we don't let dyslexia fester. We deal with it. We don't use it as an excuse.

'I find it quite sad that many schools do not allow dyslexic children to access the full curriculum, and to give them such low expectations that they are relieved at this.'

MindtheGapp, I don't think anyone is saying this - all children have access to the full curriculum, and up to the end of KS3 they all do the same subjects (although not all pupils have access to a 2nd MFL). It's about providing a variety of options for them at KS4 - some of which are more suitable than a language, if they are struggling to master it. We do not put children into sets according to their special needs but rather on how well they are doing in our subject. If they are in set 4, it is because they find French very difficult and are unlikely to get a grade C or above.

I think I'd have been helped by doing slightly more vocational things at a slightly earlier stage. For example a 4 year teaching degree might have been better for me than an academic subject degree followed by a PGCE - but good luck with yours PastGrace

I'd like to squeeze in cookery or domestic science, or whatever it's called, for dd if we can as I feel it's such an important life skill and something she enjoys so much

Is it generally agreed that people with dyslexia find it hard to remember lots of facts ?
I'm interested both for myself and for dd.
Can anyone on here recommend any good books for understanding dyslexia better, especially regarding typical strengths and weaknesses and how to work with/ around them ?
I'm interested in attention deficit too, and how it might be related/ co-exist with dyslexia in some people too.
I've read "The gift of dyslexia" but it didn't entirely answer my questions.
Any other good ones ?

I don't think the gcse is so much essay writing, there are longer questions in the exam. DS is quite good a being precise and to the point, but he blanched when they mentioned 3000 word essays for Alevel and won't be taking any of the humanities because of that, whichi is a shame because he is very good at history/re/philosphy etc
The history he has covered has been more 20th century such as the russian revolution and the great depression.

DS is doing history and i don't think it involves much date learning nowadays.

I would strongly recommend geography over history. I avoided history GCSE because it pretty much involved learning a giant list of dates before you could actually do any independent thinking and that made me panic so much. Geography I found less interesting than history, but I know I couldn't have coped in the history exam and so my decision was made.

Where in the country are you? If your parents' lodger leaves/is too shy I'm happy to help out if I can (for free - I'm applying for a PCGE so just happy for experience). I'm in London if that's any use. One of the things my school did was to make a "verb card" which they laminated. It had all the key verbs conjugated on it so that for written work you could use it as a reference tool. You have to be careful not to rely on it too much (I think the theory was we'd absorb the verbs without realising, but that didn't work for everyone) but it's a really reassuring thing to have throughout the year.

A great website to have up your sleeve is Verb2Verbe where you can enter any English or French verb and it shows you all the conjugations and if you hover over it then you get the translation. I found it invaluable for A level French coursework, and had I known about it my GCSE revision would have been a lot more watertight, as I was constantly worrying if I was right or not.

Unfortunately with all the A and A around nowadays they look at gcses as well to differenciate. He is year 11 so early days but some of the courses call for 7 A/A at gcse etc
DS will be taking maths, chemistry physics and biology for A level so hopefully these will be strong enough for him to go down the route he wants.

I still got to a good University even though I failed my French. (Was years ago though, when no-one was expected to speak anything but English )

Good luck to your DS bruffin - hopefully A levels will be more important ?

DS (dyslexic type SLD) has taken german for gcse, what he really struggles with is the style of exam. Basically nowadays it's about learning passages then regurgitating it either orally or on paper. DS just can't memorise long passages like that.

He is taking his mocks this week and has finally got extra time for exams but not sure how this is going to help with german. He will be lucky if he gets a C even though his target is A.

He took a language because he thought he needed it for university, but it might be the very thing that may stop him getting in the university he wants.

But dyslexic children will have a different set of strengths and weaknesses compared to a group of NT children. So a good curriculum for them (though worked out individually) may well look different to what is recommended/ advisable without the complications of dyslexic tendencies.

I'm sure I have some dyslexic or attention deficit tendencies myself (ie. am NNT) and I certainly found languages much harder than any other subject. It's crazy with hindsight that I did two language O levels (out of 8) and failed French (really confused in final year by having to try and learn grammar tables compared to the more natural approach we'd taken up to then) - when I could have really enjoyed another subject such as history instead.

I find it quite sad that many schools do not allow dyslexic children to access the full curriculum, and to give them such low expectations that they are relieved at this.

Thanks Kez

Indeed. Clever with SEN are all different so one can't say for them if ebac is advisable or essential. It will be on an individual student basis.

However, clever with no SEN, ebac is likely to be advisable or even essential (bit early to tell at moment).

Being picky here with Kez - You said "the clever ones with no SEN" well my dd is a clever one with SEN. And I don't just mean she's "gifted and talented" I mean she has mild (in her case) dyslexia. Many other children can be bright with special educational needs ! Everyone's different !