Irish, Dyspraxia and University

bluecatmorgana

Hi there teachers,

I am wondering if you could help me. I live with my parents and my 12 year old niece who is starting first year in September. For her summer tests she got a D in Irish. To honestly say, she is very poor at Irish. She was diagnosed with moderate dyspraxia about two years ago. Her English was not great but she got a B+ in summer and works hard at it.

My mam has a hunch that when she gets into secondary school they (who ever they may be, ie resource teachers etc) may say she should drop Irish altogether. Although this would be a relief for my niece who strongly dislikes Irish, I am afraid it will have consequences when it comes to going to university, if she does chose to go. She doesnt strike me as the kind of person who will go on to any third level education but I would like her to have all the options.

To be honest we ( my parents and partly me) should have been on the ball about this long before now, so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks you.

dambarude

She can't drop Irish if she doesn't have an official exemption from it. And if she does have an official exemption, she won't be expected to have done it for college matriculation.

As it stands you need a pass in Irish for entry into the NUI colleges, but if you've an exemption that's not required.

I'm not exactly sure what criteria need you need to meet to get an exemption, and whether or not dyspraxia would qualify. EDIT: Have a look at this.

gaeilgebeo

OP, I am an Irish teacher and teach Irish to students with dyspraxia as well as dyslexia. Your niece will not be entitled to an exemption.
Your niece will be catered for at second level and will be able to take a level of Irish that suits her ability.
I have a lovely JCSP class, some of whom have learning difficulties such as dyspraxia. They love Irish because I cater for their needs, use loads of colourful visual resources as well as games. The class have come on in leaps and bounds and will be well able to sit a Junior Cert paper, despite being considered "weak".
You may be surprised but your niece could have a very positive experience of Irish in second level.

bluecatmorgana

If she was studying Irish I was hoping to do some tutoring with her this summer. I was thinking of covering verbs starting with past, present, then the 11 irregular. Then on to some vocab such as describing yourself, where you live, your family, etc.

I'd love to hear Gaeilgebeo if you have any recommendations on how to make it more interesting and fun as I'm a little boring when it comes to teaching.

Thanks

gaeilgebeo

bluecatmorgana wrote: »

If she was studying Irish I was hoping to do some tutoring with her this summer. I was thinking of covering verbs starting with past, present, then the 11 irregular. Then on to some vocab such as describing yourself, where you live, your family, etc.

I'd love to hear Gaeilgebeo if you have any recommendations on how to make it more interesting and fun as I'm a little boring when it comes to teaching.

Thanks

Depending on her level, verbs can be tricky. If you are going to cover verbs, maybe stick to past tense and cover 7 or 8 of the most important ones.
Believe me, she is better knowing 5 or 6 verbs really well as opposed to every verb in every tense. You can teach verbs by topic, will give you examples of this. I stuck to past tense in first year with a limited amount of verbs. It was more than enough and they could structure a basic sentence.

Vocabulary is extremely important in 1rst year. I like to build up vocabulary by topic. If you have a look at the topics for 1rst year, you could do the same.

Practice plenty of oral work with her too. If you could do some Aural work too, be sure to prepare the vocabulary beforehand.

A few examples of how I make it interesting : when teaching them how to count people in Irish, I made a powerpoint with famous families, ie, The Simpsons, The Obamas, The Adams family. For every picture, I had the sentence, Tá ________ sa chlann. Very short and simple. They filled in the number.


Is maith liom/Ní maith liom/Is fuath liom/Is aoibhinn liom = powerpoint with lots of different things that interest them, Jedward, Football, Beyoncé, Swimming etc.
When the picture went up, they had to say, Is maith liom Jedward etc...
Great for oral work.


When teaching food vocabulary, I did a powerpoint with the 3 meals of the day and the foods eaten at each as well as drinks. The class then made up menus and I gave prizes for the best menus. We also used "Is maith liom/Ní maith liom" here too. You could do D'ith mé/D'ól mé here.

When they have the vocabulary for "An Teach", I give them a huge blank house which the label and add items of furniture to. Teach some adjectives her, mór/beag/bungaló/dhá stór

I could go on and on but these are just some examples of what I do with my class. I understand you may not be in a position to do up time consuming powerpoints but you can take pictures from magazines etc..

Best of luck.

bluecatmorgana

Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it!!!

gaeilgebeo

bluecatmorgana wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it!!!

You're welcome. Just post if you have any more questions.