One-on-one classes with a physically impaired student
 

Hello,

I teach a one-on-one class with an intermediate/advanced intermediate student, who is also a wheelchair user and is unable to control her physical actions.

I need to think of some warm up games, or general activity templates, I can use in the class to keep the lessons fresh. I try to keep it more verbal than physical, and I will move things or write for my student when required.

So far, we have played a board game, started a pen pal friendship with a friend of mine, and discussed Small Talk. I'm thinking about doing a memory game (she calls out battleship locations and I turn over the cards) or lyric ordering (each line has a number, she calls it and I move it) next.

If you have any extra ideas, I'd be very grateful. She loves english, music, reading and healthy food. (maybe it helps to know, she is Japanese??) You can post here, or email me: morgan.sensei@hotmail.com

Cheers,

Morgan

Re: One-on-one classes with a physically impaired student
 

Hi Morgan,

There are loads of listening and speaking activities you can do that don't require physical activity.
You might try playing her songs, as she likes music, and talking about the lyrics. Let her decipher how much she can understand then maybe go through the lyrics with her and chat about it. The same can be done with short films. I am not a big fan of Mr Bean but, I have to admit, that his little skits are really good for practising tenses and for general discussion.

Board games are good too. When you say she has trouble controlling physical actions, does this mean that she has limited control or none at all? Would board games with cards pose a problem? I find Trivial Pursuit a great game to play if you use the mother tongue version of your student because they have to read it in their language, translate it into english and then ask the question and understand the answer in English. Difficult, but she should be able to handle it if she is an intermediate student. There are online versions of Trivial Pursuit, so she wouldn't have to handle the cards but you could click on the buttons for her.

A lesson I really like for revising tenses, and which is completely oral, is the "Sad Harry/Happy Harry" lesson. It comes from Jamie Keddie's internet site. Actually, try and visit his site because, come to think of it now, he uses a lot of videos and his lessons are varied and fun. There is a particluar one with "going to" and "will" and Kermit the frog that you can adapt to your student, that is good. But, I digress, "Sad/Happy Harry" is a lesson where you draw a sad face on the board and write "Harry is sad because..." underneath it with today's date. Your student must come up with 10 reasons why Harry is sad, which you write on the board. Once that's done, you change Harry's down-turned, sad mouth to an up-turned, smiling mouth and you change the date to a year from now. Your student must then change the 10 sentences, and the tenses, to the right tense. For ex: you might have had a sentence in the original 10 that said "Harry is sad because he has broken his leg". That sentence must then be changed to "Harry was sad because he had broken his leg but now it is better". There are lots of ways to play around with tenses in this activity.

I'm not sure if I can but here's a link to Jamie Keddie's site. It's called Lessonstream. I've just had another quick look and there are lots of media lessons that should be useful to you if you adapt them to your student.
Hope this helps!

Re: One-on-one classes with a physically impaired student
 

Thank you for this information eslHQ team! I and my student appreciate the ideas. My student has limited control of her movements. She can use a joystick and a specialised keyboard but she can perform basic fuctions such as writing with a pen, using cutlery, getting dressed, etc. But she is a clever bunny so my new challenge is keeping her challenged!

I can also use the Kermit activity with my other lower-levelled students at the same school (they can write but at a slower speed). It's hard getting them to participate. I think I can use lessonstream in my next classes.

Once again, thank you!

Morgan