All of the students I teach have a learning disability. A HUGE misconception, sometimes even in the realm of education, is that people with learning disabilities are not as smart as a person without a learning disability. In actuality it means "A person's learning disability affects their ability to perceive or process verbal or non-verbal information" (Sagonaskaschool.blogspot.ca 12/12/14). Lately I have been giving my students more think time.
Think time is exactly that, time for a student to think. I ask a question to students and then immediately start counting backwards from 5 on my hands without using my voice. This allows students to organize their thoughts prior to explaining.
Through this process I have seen two huge successes. First, I've seen an increase in the fluency in which students verbally express their ideas. Second I've seen a great boost in student confidence. Some of the students I have, used to be, children who would "hide" in the back of the class and hope that they would just be passed over. Now my students have taken a lead role in their own education.
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