[nobe-l] Writing complaints

Wed Feb 1 16:20:01 UTC 2017

Good Morning,
My name is Marianne and I am a retired Teacher.  I can tell you that I had a sheet called: Excuses students use.  The best I heard, was a six year old boy who said he could not do his braille homework as his four year old Brother buried the braille writer in the backyard.

If I had a student who talked about his hand hurting, I would tell the student I would call the parent to find out if there was any medical condition I needed to be aware of.  Most students using excuses do not want their parents called.

Other excuses:
My homework was blown out of the window on the freeway.
My dog ate the homework.

Anyone on this list can add what they have heard for excuses.  I would like to have a good laugh.

Marianne

-----Original Message-----
From: NOBE-L [mailto:nobe-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arthur Jacobs via NOBE-L
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 7:08 AM
To: National Organization of Blind Educators Mailing List
Cc: Arthur Jacobs
Subject: Re: [nobe-l] Writing complaints

In addition, the reason a student would say this during writing is because they know that writing a lot makes your hand hurt. Whether it is truly sore or just an excuse, I would respond as if it is the caae. Be empathetic sand tel the student to stretch out their hand by by repeatedly squeezing it into a fist then straightening it out. This should only take a minute or two, and then they are good to go. If this happens to the often, then they are probably holding their pencil too tightly and/or pressing too hard. Perhaps they need one of those pencil grip aids (triangular shaped piece of rubber that slips over the bottom of the pencil).

-- Arthur

> On Feb 1, 2017, at 6:48 AM, Kathy via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Never worry about being a curious and proactive teacher! This is rarely going to be the case, that there is something wrong with a hand. I would follow it up with questions. Where does it hurt? What did you do? Can you put my fingers on the part of your hand that hurts? Things like that will push most students who are prevaricating to back off. If indeed there is an issue with the hand, you would probably feel it in a big bandage or a bump or something like that. Again, this is going to happen rarely. If there is an injury, you can ask the student to dictate writing to you and you can type it on your device.
> 
> Kathy Nimmer
> Even in the valleys, keep believing in the mountains.
> 
>> On Feb 1, 2017, at 12:33 AM, Valerie Gibson via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> For those who don’t know, I am almost finished with my classes to become an elementary school teacher. I seek to teach in the mainstream classroom.  I’ve got one more year of field placement classes, and then a semester of student teaching. The field placement classes is a way to sort of get your feet wet in regards to teaching by observing and doing a little teaching in another teacher’s classroom. It’s sort of a midway point between student teaching and regular class lecture.  
>> 
>> I am in a “teaching writing for grades K-6” class. It’s an add-on to my field placement classes.  
>> 
>> We are reading a book called, A QUICK GUIDE TO Reaching Struggling Writers. 
>> 
>> The book talks about how to teach struggling writers. It lists complaints or comments that students might say to avoid writing.
>> 
>> One of these questions is, “My hand hurts”. The book tells us that we should first make sure that nothing is truly wrong.
>> 
>> Have any of you come across this sort of complaint, and if so, how did you handle it?  I know the obvious answer is to check to see if the child’s hand really is hurting, and maybe I’m just way overthinking it, and if so, I apologize. I guess what I’m asking is how did you check?
>> 
>> I haven’t started field placement yet. They’re still trying to find me a school, so it’s got me a bit anxious of doing something wrong when it could have been avoided.
>> 
>> I’m sure this semester, I’ll be pestering you all with questions as something is brought up that I did not think of, so I’m going to apologize in advance. :)
>> 
>> 
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