Understanding what dyslexia means helps educators to identify the signs and symptoms earlier and make ways to better assist students in the classroom setting. Multisensory teaching approaches are used to help both elementary and high school students in learning, but additional methods should be taken when it comes to teaching high school students with dyslexia.

In this article, we will provide some tips that will work effectively when teaching high school students with dyslexia or other learning difficulties.

Distribute your course syllabus for the class in advance. Providing your students with the course outline earlier gives them and their parents the chance to plan, study ahead, and prepare for big projects.

Students with dyslexia usually find it hard to multitask during class. It may be difficult for them to jot down notes while listening to the teacher’s lecture. This might cause them to miss some essential information from your lessons. Teachers can assist students in managing such problems in different ways.

Suggest tape recording lessons to the students. Recordings will allow them to listen to the lessons again while they are home. They can also pause from time to time to take down notes that are covered during the lecture. Most students with dyslexia can only focus on one task at a time, and while they focus on writing notes, they may miss listening to important details discussed by the teacher.

Provide students with handouts for the lecture discussed. If the notes are already provided, the students can focus better on listening to the lectures. They can use the written notes later to review the information learned.

Choose partners for your students to compare and exchange notes. Pairing your students so they can share notes later will decrease their worries of missing the important points in class.

Create a list of assignments and projects. High school students are usually tasked with completing research papers and other huge projects, and they often come with due dates. Students with dyslexia might find it hard to keep up with multiple assignments and manage their time properly. As a teacher, you can help the students create an organized checklist of all the tasks they need to do, creating benchmarks, and reviewing their progress every time they accomplish something.

Provide audio forms of books for reading assignments. A lot of books have their audio forms available online and from your school or nearest library. Make sure to obtain copies of the books that you will assign for your students to read, especially for those with learning difficulties. This will give them the chance to read the book and listen to the audio at the same time.

Have a recap of the previous lessons before starting a new one, and summarize the information that will be discussed for the day. This helps students with dyslexia link the information learned previously and the information that will be tackled later on. It helps them understand the whole idea and organize what they learned. Offer some extra help before or after class: they may not tell you directly that they need extra time for more questions. Let them know that you are available to answer their questions.

Define new words first when starting a new lesson. This should work for all subjects, as there are words that are new to students, and they may have a hard time following the lectures if they don’t understand the words used. A list of vocabulary words compiled in a notebook is helpful for students with dyslexia.

Allow your students to take down notes using laptops. Often, students with dyslexia write poorly that they can’t even understand their own notes once they read them at home. With the use of laptops, it eliminates such problems.

Give some study points before the test. Schedule a review with the students a few days before their exams. Provide them the information that will be included, as well as study guides that can help them prepare.

Most students with dyslexia have difficulties with information organization, and they may miss some important information during the review. Study guides help them understand which specific topics they should focus on.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. High school students with dyslexia may not be comfortable in expressing themselves and voicing what they feel. As a teacher, you should show them your support. Find time to talk to your students to determine their needs and weaknesses. It would help if you also communicated with the students’ special education teachers regarding upcoming exams so they can help them better prepare.

Provide opportunities for students with dyslexia. They may have difficulties in some areas, but students with dyslexia can be excellent in other fields, like oral reports and digital presentations. Figure out which method your students would be comfortable with when it comes to presentation and let them express themselves using whatever skills they are excellent on. 

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