What About Me?: Strategies for Teaching Misunderstood Learners

With Faking It, Christopher Lee and Rosemary Jackson changed the way we view special learners, offering a moving account of Lee's struggle and ultimate triumph over dyslexia. Now, with What About Me?, Lee combines his special insight with Jackson's expertise as a special education trainer to offer specific help to teachers and parents of other misunderstood learners.

What About Me? is a practical yet personal book on how to help special learners grow into self-sufficient, responsible adults who can recognize their strengths and manage their weaknesses. To that end, Lee and Jackson offer specific guidance on:

• what you can do and where you can go if your student has a learning disability
• what it's like to perceive words and numbers differently
• how to help students with learning disabilities become creative writers
• how to maximize memory skills
• how to encourage kinesthetic and tactile learners to thrive in the classroom
• how to recognize, deal with, and honor personal survival skills
• how to help students develop self-advocacy skills
• how assistive technology can help
• where to find more information on learning disabilities and assistive technology.

Cheryl Karp Ward - VOYA

Writing from experiential and personal knowledge, Lee and Jackson delve into the world of educating the student with learning disabilities. Their work explores, often through case studies, teaching strategies for some of the most misunderstood learners. Insight into how the brain does or does not retain information is examined. Many useful approaches are described to help today's teacher deal with students who have learning disabilities, especially dyslexia. Teaching tips to foster achievement and help build self-esteem range from simply taping letters on a desk, listening to books on tape, and color coding to more collaborative efforts such as mentoring to develop student investment, developing through analogies, and role playing. Although personal survival techniques for students with special needs provides valuable information to help them succeed, any mainstream teacher or teacher with an inclusion classroom environment will gain useful acuity. An appendix of resources lists both advocacy and vendor information. An especially helpful table, Assistive Technology Solution Charts, details modification of task expectations with both standard tools (pen, print dictionary, large print, number line) and assistive technology solutions (screen enlargement, talking spell checker, Braille input, touchscreen) for several critical instructional areas: writing, spelling, reading, math, study skills, and oral communication. This book provides a realistic glimpse into the world of the struggling learner who perceives words and numbers differently. Its unique perspective not only assists teachers but also encourages the learner to recognize his or her strengths and adapt and manage weaknesses. With 35percent of students that have been identified with learning disabilities dropping out of high school, this book is a sensible purchase for anyone working with students, especially first-year teachers. Charts. Appendix. 2001, Heinemann, 176p,

In 1992, he published Faking It: A Look into the Mind of a Creative Learner, and in 2001, What About Me? Strategies for Teaching Misunderstood Learners (Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, Boynton and Cook). These books draw on Christopher's developmental experiences and his challenges attending the University of Georgia (UGA) in order to help teachers and parents optimize learning disabled students' performance. Christopher has published a one of a kind on-line guide, Learning Disabilities and Technology, an Emerging Way to Touch the Future. He has published articles, chapters and several journals, and has been selected to chair many collaborative projects that relate to disability issues. In 2003, Christopher was highlighted in a Microsoft video and publication, Microsoft Accessible Technology for Everyone (http://www.microsoft.com/enable/casestudy/videos.aspx). That year he was awarded the W.F. Faulkes Award by The National Rehabilitation Association for his contributions to the increase of knowledge in the fields of rehabilitation. He graduated from UGA with a major in Speech Communication in June 1990. He served as Director of Georgia's Assistive Technology Project: Tools for Life, a project operated under the aegis of the Department of Labor, Division of Rehabilitation Services/Vocational Rehabilitation. Christopher is working on national systems change with the Georgia Department of Labor, Department of Education, Department of Technical and Adult Education, Division of Rehabilitation Services and technology assistance projects throughout the country. Christopher has served as Executive Director of the Learning Disabilities Association of Georgia and President to both this organization and the Atlanta chapter of the Learning Disabilities Adults of Georgia. Currently he serves as Director of the Alternative Media Access Center house at the University of Georgia, Department of Psychology.

Rosemary Jackson, Ed.D., is a teacher educator in the Department of Special Education and Administration at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. She serves as a mentor leader for undergraduate students majoring in special education and also teaches graduate classes in learning disabilities.