Briefing notes for facilitators



Engaging students with additional support needs

Course Rep Training: Facilitator’s notes

Background

The issue of supporting students with additional support needs to become engaged in the quality of their learning and teaching was raised with sparqs by several colleges. This led to a year long project exploring how this could be effectively achieved.

One of the main issues raised was the accessibility of course rep training. The sparqs Introductory Course Rep Training is available to all colleges, either to deliver themselves or to be delivered by a sparqs Associate Trainer. Students with additional support needs do attend the training but some find the language and concepts difficult to understand.

In many colleges, students with learning difficulties, multiple impairments and complex impairments receive separate education provision in Inclusion or Supported Education Departments. These classes will have course reps who take part in meetings and quality processes.

This training has been designed in conjunction with staff and students from several colleges. It and the supporting materials are aiming to convey the same information as in the Introductory Course Rep Training, but at a pace and in a manner that is more accessible to students with additional support needs.

This training forms part of a suite of materials that support college staff and students’ associations in their work engaging students with additional support needs.

Overview of the training

The training takes two hours, with a break around mid-way. It consists mainly of facilitated group activities. A trainer will oversee the session and a facilitator will be part of each group, maximum 5 students. There is a full session plan with trainer notes available. These notes are to support you as facilitator of the group work and will cover the sorts of things to draw out in the discussion and how to manage the session.

Your role is to prompt and encourage discussion using the notes below. The groups need to record their ideas on flip chart paper and if they feel comfortable to do this themselves it should be encouraged, otherwise you should write for them.

These notes are broken into the following columns:

Section explains the aim and objectives of each section of the training to give you an understanding of what is trying to be achieved.

Description outlines what will be happening in each section: what the trainer will ask and what will happen in the groups.

Discussion is a suggestion of points you might want to cover and draw out during the group work.

Time is a suggested time each section should take, but this will be controlled by the trainer.

Other materials support the development and training of the course reps in supported education, and offer guidance to staff working to engage these students. They are available from sparqs.ac.uk/training

|Section |Directions |Discussion |Time |

|Welcome |The trainer will present to whole group and will move people into | |10mins |

| |groups of a maximum 5 students + facilitator. | | |

|Name + THING |In the separate groups each person should take it in turns to tell |Start by introducing yourself and saying one interesting thing about yourself. |10mins |

|Aim |everyone their name and one thing about them they think is |Keep the conversation going, prompting if necessary until they’ve all shared | |

|Everyone will feel more comfortable with their group|interesting that other people might like. |something. | |

|and to provide an example of communication to refer |Each person then feeds back to the whole group about another person’s| | |

|to later. |interesting thing. | | |

|Objectives | | | |

|To know each other’s names; | | | |

|To know one interesting fact about everyone. | | | |

|What is a course rep and what do they do? |There are two elements to this. |Some discussion prompts: |15mins |

|Aim |1. In their groups they will finish the sentence “a course rep is …” |A course rep is… | |

|To begin thinking about CRs and their job. | |a student. | |

|Objectives | |the “voice” of the class – they say what the class thinks about a course. | |

|To understand how important CRs are. | |a representative of the class. | |

|To know that CRs pass on views of students to the | |chosen by the class, sometimes in an election. | |

|college. | |important – the college gets reviewed and how involved students are is one thing | |

| | |that gets looked at. | |

| |2. As a full group, they’ll brainstorm the question “What does a |Make sure the following points are discussed: | |

| |course rep do?” |CRs talk to the class about what is good and bad about their course. | |

| |(This can also be done in small groups with feedback to the whole |CRs tell the college what the class thinks, this is either by telling the tutor or| |

| |group if the trainer thinks this will be more effective.) |in a meeting. | |

| | |Attend meetings. | |

| | |Sometimes takes notes to help them tell the class. | |

| | |They then tell the class what happened in the meeting. | |

| | |Highlight good communication – listening, clear talking. | |

|Draw the ideal course rep |The trainer will ask them to draw the ‘perfect’ course rep on flip |Encourage them to think about the previous session and what a rep does. How would |20mins |

|Aim |paper and will use the example that course reps need to listen to the|they draw something like listening or taking notes? | |

|Fun way to consolidate learning from previous |class so this might mean a course rep needs big ears. |Things to draw out/discuss for example: | |

|exercise to understand role/function of a course |They can choose to draw this in any way: some groups draw a person |Listening to all students – big ears. | |

|rep. |and exaggerate its features; some draw a person with words around it |Thinking about the issues- light bulb above head. | |

|Objectives |to highlight key ideas; some draw elements that make up a course rep |Being the voice of their class – megaphone/microphone. | |

|To draw image of ideal course rep. |i.e. a watch for time keeping. |Time management – watch. | |

|To be able to explain why their CR looks like this. | |Planning - diary/calendar. | |

| | |Polite – smiley face. | |

| | |Organised – briefcase/notebook and pen. | |

| | |Problem solving – utility belt/magic wand. | |

| | |Talking to tutors and meetings – make them big so they stand tall. | |

| | |For example: | |

| | |[pic] | |

|Like/dislike exercise |The trainer will ask them each to come up with one thing they like |They’re more likely to find things they like rather than things they don’t, so |15mins |

|Aim |about their course and one thing they dislike about it. |gently push to find some dislikes if possible. Try to keep the likes and dislikes | |

|To begin thinking around what they should be talking|These should be noted on flip chart paper. |related to their learning experience and what happens in the classroom so things | |

|to class about. |They don’t need to share this information, it stays in the group. |like: | |

|Objectives | |Their subjects: | |

|To identify one thing they like about their course, | |How they’re taught; | |

|one thing they dislike. | |Do they have enough time to do everything? | |

| | |Do they have all the equipment they need? | |

| | |Do they find it easy/difficult? | |

|Talk to your class |They will do this exercise in their small groups. They take it in |They need to be able to say something like: |10mins |

|Aim |turns to tell the rest of their group (the “class”) what they think |”I like being able to do my work on the computer. Do you like being able to do | |

|To begin thinking around what they should be talking|about their course and to ask what the class thinks. |this? What else do you like about our class?” | |

|to class about. |They keep this within their small groups as it’s only a tool to help |This bit can be difficult as it’s moving their thinking from what they think to | |

|Objectives |them with the next tasks. |what others might think. They might need encouragement to identify a question they| |

|To identify what they should be talking to their | |can use to ask the class what it thinks, and ways of doing this. | |

|class about and how. | | | |

|Using previous exercise to practice what they might | | | |

|say to their class. | | | |

|Practice telling a meeting |What to do before and during a meeting |This goes back to the drawing of the course rep. |10mins |

|There are two tasks here – the trainer should decide|In their small groups they need to identify at least three things |They might want to: | |

|which one will work best for the group as a whole at|they could do that would help them tell the meeting what the class |Talk to their class; | |

|this point. One involves more practice while the |think. |Do a quick “hands up” of the class – “Do you like…?” | |

|other is more practical and looks at things they |Is there anything during the meeting they could do? |Note this down; | |

|will need to do before/during the meeting. | |Talk to the students’ association; | |

|Aim | |Find out when and where the meeting is; | |

|To begin thinking around what happens in meetings. | |Read the papers of the meeting so they know when it’s their turn to speak; | |

|Objectives | |Tell their tutor they want to speak during the meeting; | |

|To practice talking at meetings. | |Take notes during the meeting; | |

|To identify what they need to do to tell the | |Go to the meeting with a buddy; | |

|meeting. | |Be on time! | |

| | |Ask questions if they don’t understand something. | |

| |Practicing telling a meeting what the class thinks |Similar to the previous practice exercise. They might need prompting to use “we” | |

| |They will do this exercise in their small groups. They take it in |rather than “I”. They’re now speaking on behalf of their class – remind them of | |

| |turns to tell the rest of their group (the “meeting”) what the class |the drawing they made earlier. | |

| |thinks about its course. |Prompt them to talk about the likes and dislikes discussed earlier. | |

| | |They should be saying something like: | |

| | |“The class likes being able to use computers to do our work but sometimes we can’t| |

| | |all get on them.” | |

|Conclusion |Whole group discussion. | |5mins |

| |Presentation to whole group. | | |

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