October 22, 2025 • 35 mins
We answer Sherry’s two-part question on engaging autistic learners in an ASL classroom and creating a sane, effective plan for frequent absences. We share concrete, low-lift strategies that center detail-focused questioning, visual supports, and input-replacement systems that actually work.
• Detail-first prompts and either-or questions for autistic learners
• Visual status cards and icon-based sentence frames
• Predictable routines for partner work and turn-taking
• Comparison tasks anchored in daily routines
• Input-replacement hours instead of one-off makeup packets
• Duolingo and curated media lists as low-friction tools
• Clear policies and gentle boundaries for chronic absences
• Resources and training recommendations including Linda Hodgdon
• Practical systems to reduce teacher workload
Leave a review if this helped you so that we can reach more educators and let them know that like this is a cool place to hang out on the interwebs
Find out more and join the Practical Proficiency Network here
or go to lalibrelanguagelearning.com/join
Let's connect:
Get the Free World Language Teacher Toolkit
Get the Free Roadmap to Proficiency
Website
TPT
Instagram
Youtube
Facebook
Love this episode? Get access to over 150+ trainings, instructional coaching, and an amazing peer community of proficiency-oriented teachers in the Practical Proficiency Network
Submit your questions about proficiency, grammar, or creating communicative classroom environments through this link: https://airtable.com/appOp9IY7Ah77oYup/pagpRzuEqAVZgBnrk/form
and I'll answer them on the show!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
What's up?
Kelly looked world languageteachers.
Welcome to the practicalproficiency pop on the campus,
where we make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class.
In a way that works for you,your unique context and teaching
style.
And doesn't sacrifice yourwell-being along the way.
(00:23):
I'm your host, Devin Gunning,the teacher, author, conference
host, curriculum creator, andconsultant becoming Lamba
Language Team.
This podcast is for the creativeworld language teacher like you,
who's ready to touch theoverwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
(00:46):
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy instead
of having to leave withpractical, defensive, and down
early strategies that don'trequire reinventing wheels or
more training.
We all work together towards themagic of a community-based
target language-rich classroom,rooted in the power of community
(01:09):
and comprehensible in publiclevels.
Hey y'all, happy October!Welcome back to the Practical
Proficiency Podcast.
It's a nice day out today, butit is the first chilly day in
Charleston.
We're in a it's a lovely area tolive in.
We're in a subtropical climate,so this is my first day wearing
(01:30):
a sweater all day, and I'm kindof excited about it.
Public service announcement.
If you are a Bobsburgers fan,please let me know.
This is my Bob's Burgerssweater.
I'm gonna show you real quickhow awesome this is if you're
watching this.
And if you're not, if you're onthe podcast, fam, just get
really excited and just imaginehow great this is that I've got
my Louise ears on.
It's so cool.
(01:50):
It's my favorite show.
So let me know if it's yourstoo.
Today we have a really specialepisode.
Let me move the mic a littlecloser because this is awesome.
So we have a really greatsubmission from a fellow teacher
like you.
Cheers to Sherry for submittinga question for us to answer
today.
So it's a two-parter, so we'regonna talk about that.
(02:12):
Now, Sherry is asking about whatto do with students with
learning disabilities in herclassroom and how to better
serve them and engage themspecifically with autism.
And the second question thatwe're going to be talking about
here that she asked has to dowith, uh let me oh yeah, how to
(02:35):
deal with frequent absences.
So we're working withdisabilities, learning
differences, as well as frequentabsences today in a world
language classroom.
What can that look like?
So, Sherry, first of all, thankyou very much for submitting
your question.
I'm really excited to addressthis here.
So, this is what Sherry hasasked us.
When I asked her, this is by theway, from the podcast question
(02:57):
submission form, which is Iwould love to answer your
question on air as well.
Just look below if you'rewatching this, or most of you
are probably listening as you'regoing about your teacher biz.
Um, you can find this link tothe forum to also ask your own
question and right at the bottomin the show notes here for the
podcast.
(03:17):
And your question will beanswered on air.
So Sherry did that.
We got a great question.
I'm excited to dive in.
Sherry says, when I asked whatis feeling hard for you about CI
or proficiency, Sherry says,nothing really that confusing.
Great, good for you.
Everything you cover is 100%engaging and relevant.
Oh, thanks, Sherry.
Thanks for your feedback.
To be honest, I'm an outlier.
(03:38):
I teach high school AmericanSign Language in an all-learning
disabilities school.
And I'm really glad that youmentioned that because honestly,
every school context that wework with is very unique and
very different.
And this certainly is.
So let's get into your questionhere for things that you are
working with.
Sherry, also to share some ofthe tips and things that she's
(03:59):
doing is I asked her, what aresome strategies that you're
using right now to move towardsproficiency and how is it going?
So she says circling back andtargeted questions really help
student attention.
Partner practice and brainbreaks every 15 minutes, they
help engagement, but notnecessarily retention.
So that's something that you cankeep in your back pocket.
(04:22):
And for what would you like helpin your classroom with right
now?
Sherry says, my students withautism are reluctant to ask
questions, in addition to notexhibiting facial expressions.
This makes it hard to hone in onthose not comprehending the
target language.
Very true.
So, what techniques do you useto elicit student questions in
(04:44):
the moment?
So, this is a really great oneto start with.
And I would like to start offwith the base statement that
although I tried to find goodresearch for you and find
answers that would work for acertain type of student with
autism, or who in the communitypreferred to say is autistic,
(05:07):
every autistic individual is sooutrageously different.
Autism is in my family.
My son has autism or isautistic, and his presentation
of autistic traits are differentthan what we see with other
families and children withautism.
So I'm gonna give you someperspectives on just this, what
(05:27):
our family life has been like inways that we have found have
really helped because we havethe same thing going on with my
son in class, is that he doesn'task questions either.
And a huge facet that's commonfor autistics is that they have
difficulties more than aneurotypical individual
(05:49):
advocating for themselves orasking questions when they are
not sure of something.
Or they also there are someautistics who present a, I don't
want to say lack of curiosity,but the things that they're
curious about are not in thesame continuum as those who are
neurotypical or have a differenttype of neurodivergence.
(06:11):
So one of the ways that we seethis presented often is that
autistic students do not feelvery concerned with the question
of why.
And they're not really concernedwith as many of the like
describing an overall main ideaor getting to the bottom of the
(06:32):
main idea.
They're more concerned withusually they like to focus in
on, and this may have you mayhelp you elicit more questions
from them, is that they're notgoing to show interest in their
face as often.
That's not true of everyautistic, but it can be that
their facial expressions are alittle bit more, what's a good
(06:54):
word for it?
They they just don't presentemotions as much or often in the
same way.
So what you can do to elicitquestions from them is
understand that questions arereally not their preferred mode
of communication for mostautistic students.
They prefer to give you specificdetails and recall the things
(07:17):
that they are so excellent atmemorizing.
Now, that's not true of everyautistic.
Some autistic students have uhdifficulty with working memory,
but there are lots of autisticstudents who actually have an
excellent working memory andwill remember different things
than your other students will.
Here are some examples.
Uh, I took my son, uh, my sonloves to travel, actually, but
(07:40):
as long as he knows exactlywhere we're going, what time
we're leaving, what the whatthings will look like when he
gets there, and things likethat.
Um, and he loves airplanes.
And one of his favorite thingsabout riding on an airplane is
that the surroundings for himare, even though they're
different, they're alwayspredictable.
Like airports always looksimilar, they always have
(08:01):
similar things going on, andairplanes almost always look
similar.
So he, his favorite way ofdescribing an airplane is
talking about how the seat isoriented to the window and where
it feels like your feet are,even though you're it's a
different chair than what you'reused to.
So these are details that I'venever noticed before, but that
(08:22):
he finds really interesting.
Whenever he tells me about goingto the airport, which is like
one of his favorite experiences,he does not remember at all the
destination or where we wentoften.
Like, oh, we went to New York togo visit some family.
He doesn't really care that muchabout that part of, like, oh
yeah, we went to New York, wewent to this new place.
(08:42):
His favorite thing to tell meabout that trip is always we had
a delayed flight.
So we went to this special foodcourt that was to the right down
the hallway.
And in that hallway, they servedthese three things.
And he would describe to me indetail the menu at the
restaurant that we ate at in theairport and exactly where it is
(09:03):
spatially, orientally to thewhat the airport location was.
And he also remembers everyadvertisement that he saw in the
airport on the way home.
Like those are, this is notsomething that you might expect
from a student, but it's oftensomething that happens with
different versions.
Again, everybody's different,just giving you my experience of
(09:23):
what my son is like.
But the way that autism likes toshow up for him is that he
remembers really interesting,different details about the ways
that things are spatiallyoriented and different
experiences and sensations, butnot in the way that you would
expect.
Like he didn't feel, as far as Iknow, he didn't feel like, whoa,
(09:43):
we're traveling, we're going toa new place.
This is so exciting.
It's more like we get to eat ina new restaurant in the airport
lobby, and we get to sit in thisspecial seat that's one seat
away from the window.
And then the last time that wetraveled, it was three seats
away from the window.
Like those are the things thathe really likes and are and is
interesting to him.
So when you're asking questionsabout your story, you might want
(10:06):
to ask your students, what didthey find interesting about the
story?
Because it's not going to beoftentimes with your autistic
students the things that you'reused to talking about being
interesting about the story.
Like, for example, if you'rereading a story about a student
who is doing an exchangeprogram, they go to a new place,
(10:27):
they land in China and they'regoing to their first outdoor
market in China and they'reexploring everything.
They're going to rememberinteresting details that are
very, very detail-orientedrather than like, where were
you?
What was the sights and thesounds of the market?
Like, if you let them go intothat like specific space that
(10:49):
they like of the details and thethings that are interesting to
them, you may have an easiertime asking them about those
things.
So you're not going to get a lotof responses for things like why
or how or what did you feel inthis moment?
But if you ask specificquestions about where was this?
What did it look like?
(11:10):
What did this person say in thismoment?
Um, what time did they leave?
Like those questions mightactually get you some more
answers.
And if you can, in English, it'snot a bad idea to beforehand, or
I know you're saying you'reworking with ASL students.
So maybe however this works bestin an ASL classroom, if maybe
(11:32):
you could write out the answersor just talk about the pictures
first and ask not an open-endedquestion, but uh a question with
a few concrete, finite answersthat allows you to explore and
see what your student rememberabout these things and what do
they find interesting about it?
Because again, just like yousaid, relying on facial
(11:52):
expressions or relying on thetypical questions for things
that you might find interestingis not gonna apply in the same
way.
So if you are reading a storyabout somebody who went to a new
place and is exploring anoutdoor market, I would ask them
how this is different from theirregular routine, like compare
and contrast between like whenyou go to the market with your
(12:14):
family members and you goshopping, what are the things
that you do and what are thethings that this person did
that's different?
The autistic folks in my familyabsolutely love talking about
the differences in routines.
So it's just a suggestion and anidea for maybe thinking about
how could this be a way that youcould interact with them.
(12:35):
Also, part of the deal withautistic students is that
verbalization in any form isdifferent for them.
The way that they prefer tocommunicate is definitely
different.
So can you formulate questionsthat are more along the lines of
(12:56):
getting a yes or no answer fromthem or an either-or?
Because a one-word answer ismuch more comfortable for all of
your students, regardless ofneurodivergence or not.
One-word answers are way morecomfortable for students.
So I'm thinking things likeinstead of saying, what did you
notice at the market?
What do you see in this pictureat the market?
(13:17):
You should give them a menu ofoptions and a menu of choices.
Like this is really the best wayor the only way that I can get
good, accurate information frommy son about anything that he's
doing that day.
When you ask him, like, how wasschool?
He just says good every singletime.
What did you do at recess?
Played every single time becausethere's too many options for him
(13:38):
to choose from.
And he would much prefer choosefrom a menu of options that you
gave him.
He really loves either orquestions.
And honestly, your languagelearners love this too.
So try this out.
When you're working withstudents that are autistic, they
appreciate often, again,everybody's different, but try
giving them a menu of options.
Things like does the market havefood or does it have movies?
(14:04):
Does the market usually havesellers or does it have hotel
workers, like vendors, I guessyou would say, vendors or hotel
workers?
Does the market usually havefresh fruit and veggies or
things in a freezer?
And you can use whatever wordsthat you want to, whatever
choices you want to about thislocation that you're trying to
explore and experience.
(14:26):
But those types of questions,when they're either or and
you're giving them a quick menuof options, will get you better
responses.
And I would also encourage, ontop of that, that you give
students the option to choose ayes or no deal or to show you
that they understand rather thanasking for a verbal
(14:48):
presentation, even though you'redoing ASL, it's still a verbal
presentation of their responses.
You can also do, if this workswith the lesson that you're
doing, autistics are oftenextremely visual and appreciate
having visual cues of some kind.
So that could be something assimple as giving them a large
(15:09):
printed list of what the five toten main vocabulary words are in
large text, where they couldpoint to the choice or the
option.
And for you with ASL, that canalso be a picture or symbol or
clip art version of theresponses that you're looking
for that day.
So if it's a common phrase likelike or dislike, that could be a
(15:31):
gif or a graphic or a clip artpresentation of that phrase so
that maybe they can select itand point to it instead of
actually using the sign forthat.
So those are some options that Ihave for you.
Um, and I would say if they'renot exhibiting facial
expressions, that one of themany things that you can do for
this as well, because likethere's nothing wrong with not
(15:52):
having facial expressions by anymeans.
It just means that we aseducators have to be a little
bit more creative about howwe're evaluating how our
students are doing and howthey're feeling about what's
going on in class and whetherthey understand or not.
Try having some printedmanipulatives on their desk that
have that allow them to express,again, without saying anything
(16:14):
or without showing uh their ownfacial expressions, pictures of
expressions that they'll be ableto select between and with a
label, I would say, if you canin the target language, but
something like understanding,mostly understanding, confusion.
I don't understand.
Like having those phrasesavailable on their desk is a
(16:36):
big, big game changer.
And it's something that manyautistic students would
appreciate instead of having toverbalize how they are feeling,
which is something that isstressful often for them.
Now, that again is what I havefor you.
To get more information abouthow to better serve your
(16:56):
autistic students, I wouldhighly recommend the author
Linda Hodgton.
I'm gonna put her name in thenotes below.
This is an expert on autism whoknows far more than I do about
it because my experience as aparent is, of course, going to
be limited to my own familyexperience, but I'm sure that
you're working with a myriad inyour school that serves students
(17:18):
with varying neurodivergence anddisabilities.
So I would love to direct you inthat um frame of reference so
that you have some more to workwith from there.
I would also hope that since youwork in that kind of school
environment that they'reproviding training for you.
If you know that that's not thecase, then reach out.
(17:38):
Let's talk about it.
Now, here's your next, here'sthe next question that Sherry
has here.
And that is how to deal withfrequent absences or students
out ill for extended times.
Ooh, that's a good one, Sherry,for sure.
Now, I would like to prefacethis with saying that there is,
I have a full YouTube video foryou on this that will have even
(18:00):
more ideas for this.
And we also have some trainingsin the Practical Proficiency
Network that directly addressthis issue in ways that you can
make it easier for teachers.
But the and I will leave some ofthose links in the show notes
below if you want to dive moreinto this topic, if this also
applies to you.
But I would say one of thenumber one things for this for
frequent absences is first takea deep breath.
(18:28):
This is out of your control.
That's why we needed to take adeep breath beforehand, because
it's hard to get down with that,is that this is out of your
control.
That you cannot control orinfluence how often students
show up to class and recognizingthat this is a much larger
systemic issue that comes fromall kinds of places.
(18:50):
It might be coming from, ifwe're honest with ourselves as
North Americans, that there aremany demographics that school is
not currently serving well andgenerationally has not been
serving well.
So they might be growing up inan environment where absenteeism
is just not a big deal becauseof the fact that attending
(19:12):
school hasn't actually been apositive influence in their
family history.
So let's recognize andacknowledge that.
That is very, very real and verytrue for some of our students.
It's also very real and verytrue that absenteeism is
currently affecting theirability to perform academically
(19:32):
and to adjust socially and forall kinds of things.
And it's gonna set them up for amuch more difficult work-life
experience, no matter whatprofession they're in, because
chronic absenteeism is, ofcourse, going to affect any type
of work that you have.
But know that this is leading toa and really signaling some
(19:53):
deeper things at work here thata classroom instructor is not
gonna have as much influence asis necessary to change this
behavior.
So we need to come at this fromthe perspective of a little bit
of damage control and triage forchronic absenteeism.
And that is okay.
So, especially if you're runninga proficiency-oriented
(20:16):
classroom, it's extremelydifficult to hand students work
that corresponds with what theymissed in school that day.
That's a good thing.
It doesn't sound like a goodthing because it can really feel
like it's more work for you, butthink about it.
If it was easy for you to justhand out makeup work from your
(20:37):
class because your studentwasn't there, then couldn't they
technically do a lot of thisstuff at home on their own?
If you're running the type ofclassroom where it's easy for
you to say, it's okay, hon, youmissed three days in a row, but
you can just go to page 21through 24 of the textbook.
(20:57):
That's what we covered here, orthe practice things that we did.
Then what are you really doing?
I mean, is that really alanguage classroom?
If you're they can follow thetextbook on their own easily and
it doesn't take any work for youto give them any makeup or
absentee work.
That is how I would like toreframe this very difficult
(21:18):
problem that we have is that,yeah, it's a lot of work and I
feel you.
I have been there.
I have been dealing, I'm nolonger in the classroom, but my
entire career, I dealt withtruancy, long extensive absences
from lots of students.
Like that was always a realityfor my teaching climate as well.
But I took a little bit ofsolace in knowing that when
(21:40):
students missed my class, theyreally missed a lot because we
do things in my class that youabsolutely cannot replicate at
home.
We do things like lots ofinterpersonal interactions, we
do a lot of speaking practice,we do a lot of listening
practice, and we do a lot ofgames and special person
(22:03):
interviews, and we did a lot ofthings that, like, if you
weren't there, you're juststraight up missing out.
So, one of the things that Iused to do with my students was
I would, of course, we also didlots of note-taking and notes
and things like that.
And mainly that was because,well, as much as I wanted to run
a 100% proficiency classroom,when you have chronic
(22:23):
absenteeism as a part of yourteaching experience, it's very
difficult to do that and nothave a lot of work be placed on
the teacher to try and recreateor replicate the things that
students are missing in class.
So, depending on your school'spolicies, what I would do is we
would have deliberatenote-taking moments in class and
handouts in class so thatstudents could at least replace
(22:48):
the input time that we had inclass with something that's not
nearly as good, but at leastsomething that they could do
outside of class so that theycould get some grades for things
that they were missing.
And it would be stuff like, hey,here's a list of vocabulary
terms, here's this authenticreading that we did, go read
this at home, answer thequestions, things like that.
Um, I also, though, the numberone thing that I used to do with
(23:09):
students that were out more than10 times in two quarters.
So, like if they were, you know,missing on average, like five
classes every um three months orso, which for a block class is
like deadly.
You're really, really missing alot of time.
So for my high school blockclasses, I would simply assign
(23:30):
them a book to read at home.
I would let them take home oneof my classroom libraries, um,
one of my classroom libraries'books of comprehensible novels.
I didn't have a lot, so I wouldjust assign them one that, you
know, of the um depending onwhich classroom I was in, I had
access to like 30.
And one year I had 10, justtotal, just 10 books.
And I would give them one toeither take home or I would make
(23:53):
a quick photocopy for just thatone student.
The other thing that I would dois I would have a whole library
of authentic videos andauthentic podcast episodes and
readings that I would just pullfrom and I would give them
different videos and readingsand things for all of the days
(24:18):
that they miss, to be like, hey,my goal for you is you need to
make you miss three hours ofclass, so you need three hours
of input.
So I need you to watch thisvideo, this video, and this
video.
And instead of doing all thatwork of making up different
questions for each video thatwas specific to each video, I
would ask them things like, hey,write two sentences in English
describing what the person inthis video was like
(24:41):
personality-wise, and what younoticed they were talking about
the most, and some things thatyou found either funny,
surprising, silly, annoying, orboring about this video.
And then I would also ask themthings like, where is this
video?
What is this video about?
Give me 10 vocabulary words thatyou notice from listening to
this video.
And it's, you know, just thosesimple checkup things that you
(25:03):
can literally give them a blankslate for each day that and each
hour that you want them to knockout of input.
I would also, like crazy, assigna lot of Duolingo.
Duolingo is an easy thing thatyour students can do at home.
It's still completely free forteachers.
It's also really easy for you tocheck up on and PS, they can
Google translate any of that.
(25:23):
Like it's in the moment, it'squick.
They have to be able to use thetools within Duolingo to do
that.
Like there's a lot ofpronunciation checks and there's
a lot of stories and listeningchallenges and things.
Like it's Duolingo has reallyimpressed me in the past three
years with all the improvementsthat they've made.
So I would use those tools.
Now, if you're looking for moretools on this, we have a lot of
(25:44):
materials to support this in thePractical Proficiency Network.
That exact tool of having agiant list of videos and podcast
episodes to assign students forthem to do their absentee work
at home.
I give that to each PracticalProficiency Network member.
For Spanish teachers, it's 20pages long.
(26:05):
For French teachers, it's like13 pages long of just video
after video after video aftervideo of things that they can
you can give to students andjust say, hey, pick five, and
these are the questions that Iwant you to use with each of
them.
So in conclusion, recognize thatwhen it comes to absentee work,
this is not something that wehave that much control over.
(26:26):
And a huge thing that we can doto make these expectations clear
is just to say, hey, if you'remissing more than three seat
time hours of class per quarter,you're really gonna fall behind.
And there it's not really easyfor you to get students caught
up on exactly what they missedthe day before.
So I would suggest if you couldgive them more generic
(26:50):
assignments that allow them tomake up some input time.
I get this idea from this onetime, I forget what happened
when I was in high school.
I think I was like had the fluor something.
I was sick for a week.
And it was that one quarter thatI had gym class.
And you can't make up gym class.
Like, what are you supposed todo?
Like go back and like relearnthe rules of dodgeball?
No.
I had a really smart gym teacherin high school who said, Hey,
(27:11):
the whole point of gym class isphysical activity.
So here's what I want you to do.
You need to come in during yourlunch periods, which at that
time was, I think it was 30minutes or an hour or something
like that.
Um, or maybe my study hall.
You need to come in duringwhatever free period you have
for high schoolers.
And I need you to get 30 minutesa day for a week on the
elliptical and just get somecardio work in.
(27:32):
So sweet, that's easy for me.
And I'm still meeting the mainobjective of your course, which
is to be physically active andto sweat, right?
That's the whole point.
So she didn't waste her timelike giving me some complicated,
hey, go out and go play tennison your own and like here are
the things I want you to answerfor me about tennis or anything
like that.
Cause I think it was a tennis, Idon't even remember.
It was a long time ago.
(27:53):
But this is such a greatprinciple that we can all enact
as well.
Is that she gave me, she madereplacement grades for all of
those things that I missed thatweek that I was sick by just
saying, Oh, you know, you didyour 30 minutes of activity
time, and she asked me to justum instead of you know sitting
there watching me sweat on theelliptical, she said, just take
(28:14):
a picture of your ellipticalafter you're done and show it to
me the next time that you're inclass and I'll give you the
logged hours for it.
It was great.
It was easy for me, easy forher, and still getting the same
objective.
When you think about it, if youforget about all of the
trappings of being a schoolteacher, of like, well, they're
not gonna remember all the wordsand the things that we learned
(28:36):
the day before.
Yeah, that's true, but isn't ita nice reminder of a little bit
of the discomfort that, and it'snot like we don't want to set
them up for success, but like ifyour student isn't feeling the
discomfort of like, crap, I'mmissing things in here, then
it's gonna be really easy forthem to say, like, oh, I don't
need to come to class today.
(28:57):
Um, so I would keep in mind thata little bit of discomfort when
your students come back fromclass is not really your
responsibility to fix.
Like, that's part of life whenyou miss class.
You're going to miss things andyou're going to be behind.
And I would talk to them aboutadvocating for themselves by
like, can you get some notesfrom a friend?
As we're doing the activity, Iwould be happy to fill you in on
(29:19):
like this, that, or the other ofthe things that you weren't here
to remember.
And of course, like if there's aquiz that day and they missed
all the review for the quiz,like, give them an extra day to
review for the quiz.
Like, we're not going to beunreasonable, but that we're
going to find a way that yourabsentee solution should be easy
for you and easy for them andstill get to that main goal of
(29:39):
like burning calories, like inthat gym class.
For us, it's language input.
If they're getting input in adifferent way, that's fine.
And just know that they can'treally replicate what's going on
outside of your class.
And that's a good thing.
It means that you're moving inthe right direction.
So I hope that gives you someideas to help.
If you know that you are alreadytoo busy.
(30:00):
With a too long to-do list,there are direct things that I
have for you already in thePractical Proficiency Network to
help make your absentee life alot easier that are very much in
this frame and in this style.
We, one of the big processesthat we do in the first
milestone stages of the PPN istalking about getting yourself
(30:20):
an emergency subbinder set upand a bank of ready-to-use
absentee-friendly activities sothat you don't have to be
thinking about that on the flyduring the year.
So, Sherry, thank you so muchfor your question.
We talked a lot today aboutdifferent ways that we can help
with autistic students in yourclass, as well as anybody in
(30:42):
your class who's not presentingas much desire to be verbal.
You have a lot of options forthat and different ways to
elicit student questions in themoment.
And I hope that we're alsoaddressing your frequent
absences question to get thatmoving in a way that makes a
little bit more sense for youbecause based on the prep
schedule that you have, which isASL one, two, and three, you
(31:05):
already have too much on yourplate to be doing additional,
like, oh, here's the absenteework and things.
So thank you so much for thisquestion.
And I'm really excited to diveinto some more questions with
from listeners.
We have a few more that I willbe answering over the air as
well.
If you have a question, yo, hitme up.
(31:25):
It would be so great to answeryour question because I'm sure a
lot of other people are workingwith that same question or idea
too.
So again, check below this.
If you're listening, check theshow notes to see where you can
submit that question so that wecan answer it on the air.
Thank you so, so, so much forspending time with me today to
improve your practice and makeyour whole proficiency journey a
(31:46):
little bit more practical.
Leave a review if this helpedyou so that we can reach more
educators and let them know thatlike this is a cool place to
hang out on the interwebs.
Okay, y'all.
Thank you so much, and I willsee you in the next episode.
Bye for now.
What's up?
Kelly looked world languageteachers.
Welcome to the practicalproficiency pop on the campus,
where we make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class.
In a way that works for you,your unique context and teaching
style.
And doesn't sacrifice yourwell-being along the way.
(00:23):
I'm your host, Devin Gunning,the teacher, author, conference
host, curriculum creator, andconsultant becoming Lamba
Language Team.
This podcast is for the creativeworld language teacher like you,
who's ready to touch theoverwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
(00:46):
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy instead
of having to leave withpractical, defensive, and down
early strategies that don'trequire reinventing wheels or
more training.
We all work together towards themagic of a community-based
target language-rich classroom,rooted in the power of community
(01:09):
and comprehensible in publiclevels.
Hey y'all, happy October!Welcome back to the Practical
Proficiency Podcast.
It's a nice day out today, butit is the first chilly day in
Charleston.
We're in a it's a lovely area tolive in.
We're in a subtropical climate,so this is my first day wearing
(01:30):
a sweater all day, and I'm kindof excited about it.
Public service announcement.
If you are a Bobsburgers fan,please let me know.
This is my Bob's Burgerssweater.
I'm gonna show you real quickhow awesome this is if you're
watching this.
And if you're not, if you're onthe podcast, fam, just get
really excited and just imaginehow great this is that I've got
my Louise ears on.
It's so cool.
(01:50):
It's my favorite show.
So let me know if it's yourstoo.
Today we have a really specialepisode.
Let me move the mic a littlecloser because this is awesome.
So we have a really greatsubmission from a fellow teacher
like you.
Cheers to Sherry for submittinga question for us to answer
today.
So it's a two-parter, so we'regonna talk about that.
(02:12):
Now, Sherry is asking about whatto do with students with
learning disabilities in herclassroom and how to better
serve them and engage themspecifically with autism.
And the second question thatwe're going to be talking about
here that she asked has to dowith, uh let me oh yeah, how to
(02:35):
deal with frequent absences.
So we're working withdisabilities, learning
differences, as well as frequentabsences today in a world
language classroom.
What can that look like?
So, Sherry, first of all, thankyou very much for submitting
your question.
I'm really excited to addressthis here.
So, this is what Sherry hasasked us.
When I asked her, this is by theway, from the podcast question
(02:57):
submission form, which is Iwould love to answer your
question on air as well.
Just look below if you'rewatching this, or most of you
are probably listening as you'regoing about your teacher biz.
Um, you can find this link tothe forum to also ask your own
question and right at the bottomin the show notes here for the
podcast.
(03:17):
And your question will beanswered on air.
So Sherry did that.
We got a great question.
I'm excited to dive in.
Sherry says, when I asked whatis feeling hard for you about CI
or proficiency, Sherry says,nothing really that confusing.
Great, good for you.
Everything you cover is 100%engaging and relevant.
Oh, thanks, Sherry.
Thanks for your feedback.
To be honest, I'm an outlier.
(03:38):
I teach high school AmericanSign Language in an all-learning
disabilities school.
And I'm really glad that youmentioned that because honestly,
every school context that wework with is very unique and
very different.
And this certainly is.
So let's get into your questionhere for things that you are
working with.
Sherry, also to share some ofthe tips and things that she's
(03:59):
doing is I asked her, what aresome strategies that you're
using right now to move towardsproficiency and how is it going?
So she says circling back andtargeted questions really help
student attention.
Partner practice and brainbreaks every 15 minutes, they
help engagement, but notnecessarily retention.
So that's something that you cankeep in your back pocket.
(04:22):
And for what would you like helpin your classroom with right
now?
Sherry says, my students withautism are reluctant to ask
questions, in addition to notexhibiting facial expressions.
This makes it hard to hone in onthose not comprehending the
target language.
Very true.
So, what techniques do you useto elicit student questions in
(04:44):
the moment?
So, this is a really great oneto start with.
And I would like to start offwith the base statement that
although I tried to find goodresearch for you and find
answers that would work for acertain type of student with
autism, or who in the communitypreferred to say is autistic,
(05:07):
every autistic individual is sooutrageously different.
Autism is in my family.
My son has autism or isautistic, and his presentation
of autistic traits are differentthan what we see with other
families and children withautism.
So I'm gonna give you someperspectives on just this, what
(05:27):
our family life has been like inways that we have found have
really helped because we havethe same thing going on with my
son in class, is that he doesn'task questions either.
And a huge facet that's commonfor autistics is that they have
difficulties more than aneurotypical individual
(05:49):
advocating for themselves orasking questions when they are
not sure of something.
Or they also there are someautistics who present a, I don't
want to say lack of curiosity,but the things that they're
curious about are not in thesame continuum as those who are
neurotypical or have a differenttype of neurodivergence.
(06:11):
So one of the ways that we seethis presented often is that
autistic students do not feelvery concerned with the question
of why.
And they're not really concernedwith as many of the like
describing an overall main ideaor getting to the bottom of the
(06:32):
main idea.
They're more concerned withusually they like to focus in
on, and this may have you mayhelp you elicit more questions
from them, is that they're notgoing to show interest in their
face as often.
That's not true of everyautistic, but it can be that
their facial expressions are alittle bit more, what's a good
(06:54):
word for it?
They they just don't presentemotions as much or often in the
same way.
So what you can do to elicitquestions from them is
understand that questions arereally not their preferred mode
of communication for mostautistic students.
They prefer to give you specificdetails and recall the things
(07:17):
that they are so excellent atmemorizing.
Now, that's not true of everyautistic.
Some autistic students have uhdifficulty with working memory,
but there are lots of autisticstudents who actually have an
excellent working memory andwill remember different things
than your other students will.
Here are some examples.
Uh, I took my son, uh, my sonloves to travel, actually, but
(07:40):
as long as he knows exactlywhere we're going, what time
we're leaving, what the whatthings will look like when he
gets there, and things likethat.
Um, and he loves airplanes.
And one of his favorite thingsabout riding on an airplane is
that the surroundings for himare, even though they're
different, they're alwayspredictable.
Like airports always looksimilar, they always have
(08:01):
similar things going on, andairplanes almost always look
similar.
So he, his favorite way ofdescribing an airplane is
talking about how the seat isoriented to the window and where
it feels like your feet are,even though you're it's a
different chair than what you'reused to.
So these are details that I'venever noticed before, but that
(08:22):
he finds really interesting.
Whenever he tells me about goingto the airport, which is like
one of his favorite experiences,he does not remember at all the
destination or where we wentoften.
Like, oh, we went to New York togo visit some family.
He doesn't really care that muchabout that part of, like, oh
yeah, we went to New York, wewent to this new place.
(08:42):
His favorite thing to tell meabout that trip is always we had
a delayed flight.
So we went to this special foodcourt that was to the right down
the hallway.
And in that hallway, they servedthese three things.
And he would describe to me indetail the menu at the
restaurant that we ate at in theairport and exactly where it is
(09:03):
spatially, orientally to thewhat the airport location was.
And he also remembers everyadvertisement that he saw in the
airport on the way home.
Like those are, this is notsomething that you might expect
from a student, but it's oftensomething that happens with
different versions.
Again, everybody's different,just giving you my experience of
(09:23):
what my son is like.
But the way that autism likes toshow up for him is that he
remembers really interesting,different details about the ways
that things are spatiallyoriented and different
experiences and sensations, butnot in the way that you would
expect.
Like he didn't feel, as far as Iknow, he didn't feel like, whoa,
(09:43):
we're traveling, we're going toa new place.
This is so exciting.
It's more like we get to eat ina new restaurant in the airport
lobby, and we get to sit in thisspecial seat that's one seat
away from the window.
And then the last time that wetraveled, it was three seats
away from the window.
Like those are the things thathe really likes and are and is
interesting to him.
So when you're asking questionsabout your story, you might want
(10:06):
to ask your students, what didthey find interesting about the
story?
Because it's not going to beoftentimes with your autistic
students the things that you'reused to talking about being
interesting about the story.
Like, for example, if you'rereading a story about a student
who is doing an exchangeprogram, they go to a new place,
(10:27):
they land in China and they'regoing to their first outdoor
market in China and they'reexploring everything.
They're going to rememberinteresting details that are
very, very detail-orientedrather than like, where were
you?
What was the sights and thesounds of the market?
Like, if you let them go intothat like specific space that
(10:49):
they like of the details and thethings that are interesting to
them, you may have an easiertime asking them about those
things.
So you're not going to get a lotof responses for things like why
or how or what did you feel inthis moment?
But if you ask specificquestions about where was this?
What did it look like?
(11:10):
What did this person say in thismoment?
Um, what time did they leave?
Like those questions mightactually get you some more
answers.
And if you can, in English, it'snot a bad idea to beforehand, or
I know you're saying you'reworking with ASL students.
So maybe however this works bestin an ASL classroom, if maybe
(11:32):
you could write out the answersor just talk about the pictures
first and ask not an open-endedquestion, but uh a question with
a few concrete, finite answersthat allows you to explore and
see what your student rememberabout these things and what do
they find interesting about it?
Because again, just like yousaid, relying on facial
(11:52):
expressions or relying on thetypical questions for things
that you might find interestingis not gonna apply in the same
way.
So if you are reading a storyabout somebody who went to a new
place and is exploring anoutdoor market, I would ask them
how this is different from theirregular routine, like compare
and contrast between like whenyou go to the market with your
(12:14):
family members and you goshopping, what are the things
that you do and what are thethings that this person did
that's different?
The autistic folks in my familyabsolutely love talking about
the differences in routines.
So it's just a suggestion and anidea for maybe thinking about
how could this be a way that youcould interact with them.
(12:35):
Also, part of the deal withautistic students is that
verbalization in any form isdifferent for them.
The way that they prefer tocommunicate is definitely
different.
So can you formulate questionsthat are more along the lines of
(12:56):
getting a yes or no answer fromthem or an either-or?
Because a one-word answer ismuch more comfortable for all of
your students, regardless ofneurodivergence or not.
One-word answers are way morecomfortable for students.
So I'm thinking things likeinstead of saying, what did you
notice at the market?
What do you see in this pictureat the market?
(13:17):
You should give them a menu ofoptions and a menu of choices.
Like this is really the best wayor the only way that I can get
good, accurate information frommy son about anything that he's
doing that day.
When you ask him, like, how wasschool?
He just says good every singletime.
What did you do at recess?
Played every single time becausethere's too many options for him
(13:38):
to choose from.
And he would much prefer choosefrom a menu of options that you
gave him.
He really loves either orquestions.
And honestly, your languagelearners love this too.
So try this out.
When you're working withstudents that are autistic, they
appreciate often, again,everybody's different, but try
giving them a menu of options.
Things like does the market havefood or does it have movies?
(14:04):
Does the market usually havesellers or does it have hotel
workers, like vendors, I guessyou would say, vendors or hotel
workers?
Does the market usually havefresh fruit and veggies or
things in a freezer?
And you can use whatever wordsthat you want to, whatever
choices you want to about thislocation that you're trying to
explore and experience.
(14:26):
But those types of questions,when they're either or and
you're giving them a quick menuof options, will get you better
responses.
And I would also encourage, ontop of that, that you give
students the option to choose ayes or no deal or to show you
that they understand rather thanasking for a verbal
(14:48):
presentation, even though you'redoing ASL, it's still a verbal
presentation of their responses.
You can also do, if this workswith the lesson that you're
doing, autistics are oftenextremely visual and appreciate
having visual cues of some kind.
So that could be something assimple as giving them a large
(15:09):
printed list of what the five toten main vocabulary words are in
large text, where they couldpoint to the choice or the
option.
And for you with ASL, that canalso be a picture or symbol or
clip art version of theresponses that you're looking
for that day.
So if it's a common phrase likelike or dislike, that could be a
(15:31):
gif or a graphic or a clip artpresentation of that phrase so
that maybe they can select itand point to it instead of
actually using the sign forthat.
So those are some options that Ihave for you.
Um, and I would say if they'renot exhibiting facial
expressions, that one of themany things that you can do for
this as well, because likethere's nothing wrong with not
(15:52):
having facial expressions by anymeans.
It just means that we aseducators have to be a little
bit more creative about howwe're evaluating how our
students are doing and howthey're feeling about what's
going on in class and whetherthey understand or not.
Try having some printedmanipulatives on their desk that
have that allow them to express,again, without saying anything
(16:14):
or without showing uh their ownfacial expressions, pictures of
expressions that they'll be ableto select between and with a
label, I would say, if you canin the target language, but
something like understanding,mostly understanding, confusion.
I don't understand.
Like having those phrasesavailable on their desk is a
(16:36):
big, big game changer.
And it's something that manyautistic students would
appreciate instead of having toverbalize how they are feeling,
which is something that isstressful often for them.
Now, that again is what I havefor you.
To get more information abouthow to better serve your
(16:56):
autistic students, I wouldhighly recommend the author
Linda Hodgton.
I'm gonna put her name in thenotes below.
This is an expert on autism whoknows far more than I do about
it because my experience as aparent is, of course, going to
be limited to my own familyexperience, but I'm sure that
you're working with a myriad inyour school that serves students
(17:18):
with varying neurodivergence anddisabilities.
So I would love to direct you inthat um frame of reference so
that you have some more to workwith from there.
I would also hope that since youwork in that kind of school
environment that they'reproviding training for you.
If you know that that's not thecase, then reach out.
(17:38):
Let's talk about it.
Now, here's your next, here'sthe next question that Sherry
has here.
And that is how to deal withfrequent absences or students
out ill for extended times.
Ooh, that's a good one, Sherry,for sure.
Now, I would like to prefacethis with saying that there is,
I have a full YouTube video foryou on this that will have even
(18:00):
more ideas for this.
And we also have some trainingsin the Practical Proficiency
Network that directly addressthis issue in ways that you can
make it easier for teachers.
But the and I will leave some ofthose links in the show notes
below if you want to dive moreinto this topic, if this also
applies to you.
But I would say one of thenumber one things for this for
frequent absences is first takea deep breath.
(18:28):
This is out of your control.
That's why we needed to take adeep breath beforehand, because
it's hard to get down with that,is that this is out of your
control.
That you cannot control orinfluence how often students
show up to class and recognizingthat this is a much larger
systemic issue that comes fromall kinds of places.
(18:50):
It might be coming from, ifwe're honest with ourselves as
North Americans, that there aremany demographics that school is
not currently serving well andgenerationally has not been
serving well.
So they might be growing up inan environment where absenteeism
is just not a big deal becauseof the fact that attending
(19:12):
school hasn't actually been apositive influence in their
family history.
So let's recognize andacknowledge that.
That is very, very real and verytrue for some of our students.
It's also very real and verytrue that absenteeism is
currently affecting theirability to perform academically
(19:32):
and to adjust socially and forall kinds of things.
And it's gonna set them up for amuch more difficult work-life
experience, no matter whatprofession they're in, because
chronic absenteeism is, ofcourse, going to affect any type
of work that you have.
But know that this is leading toa and really signaling some
(19:53):
deeper things at work here thata classroom instructor is not
gonna have as much influence asis necessary to change this
behavior.
So we need to come at this fromthe perspective of a little bit
of damage control and triage forchronic absenteeism.
And that is okay.
So, especially if you're runninga proficiency-oriented
(20:16):
classroom, it's extremelydifficult to hand students work
that corresponds with what theymissed in school that day.
That's a good thing.
It doesn't sound like a goodthing because it can really feel
like it's more work for you, butthink about it.
If it was easy for you to justhand out makeup work from your
(20:37):
class because your studentwasn't there, then couldn't they
technically do a lot of thisstuff at home on their own?
If you're running the type ofclassroom where it's easy for
you to say, it's okay, hon, youmissed three days in a row, but
you can just go to page 21through 24 of the textbook.
(20:57):
That's what we covered here, orthe practice things that we did.
Then what are you really doing?
I mean, is that really alanguage classroom?
If you're they can follow thetextbook on their own easily and
it doesn't take any work for youto give them any makeup or
absentee work.
That is how I would like toreframe this very difficult
(21:18):
problem that we have is that,yeah, it's a lot of work and I
feel you.
I have been there.
I have been dealing, I'm nolonger in the classroom, but my
entire career, I dealt withtruancy, long extensive absences
from lots of students.
Like that was always a realityfor my teaching climate as well.
But I took a little bit ofsolace in knowing that when
(21:40):
students missed my class, theyreally missed a lot because we
do things in my class that youabsolutely cannot replicate at
home.
We do things like lots ofinterpersonal interactions, we
do a lot of speaking practice,we do a lot of listening
practice, and we do a lot ofgames and special person
(22:03):
interviews, and we did a lot ofthings that, like, if you
weren't there, you're juststraight up missing out.
So, one of the things that Iused to do with my students was
I would, of course, we also didlots of note-taking and notes
and things like that.
And mainly that was because,well, as much as I wanted to run
a 100% proficiency classroom,when you have chronic
(22:23):
absenteeism as a part of yourteaching experience, it's very
difficult to do that and nothave a lot of work be placed on
the teacher to try and recreateor replicate the things that
students are missing in class.
So, depending on your school'spolicies, what I would do is we
would have deliberatenote-taking moments in class and
handouts in class so thatstudents could at least replace
(22:48):
the input time that we had inclass with something that's not
nearly as good, but at leastsomething that they could do
outside of class so that theycould get some grades for things
that they were missing.
And it would be stuff like, hey,here's a list of vocabulary
terms, here's this authenticreading that we did, go read
this at home, answer thequestions, things like that.
Um, I also, though, the numberone thing that I used to do with
(23:09):
students that were out more than10 times in two quarters.
So, like if they were, you know,missing on average, like five
classes every um three months orso, which for a block class is
like deadly.
You're really, really missing alot of time.
So for my high school blockclasses, I would simply assign
(23:30):
them a book to read at home.
I would let them take home oneof my classroom libraries, um,
one of my classroom libraries'books of comprehensible novels.
I didn't have a lot, so I wouldjust assign them one that, you
know, of the um depending onwhich classroom I was in, I had
access to like 30.
And one year I had 10, justtotal, just 10 books.
And I would give them one toeither take home or I would make
(23:53):
a quick photocopy for just thatone student.
The other thing that I would dois I would have a whole library
of authentic videos andauthentic podcast episodes and
readings that I would just pullfrom and I would give them
different videos and readingsand things for all of the days
(24:18):
that they miss, to be like, hey,my goal for you is you need to
make you miss three hours ofclass, so you need three hours
of input.
So I need you to watch thisvideo, this video, and this
video.
And instead of doing all thatwork of making up different
questions for each video thatwas specific to each video, I
would ask them things like, hey,write two sentences in English
describing what the person inthis video was like
(24:41):
personality-wise, and what younoticed they were talking about
the most, and some things thatyou found either funny,
surprising, silly, annoying, orboring about this video.
And then I would also ask themthings like, where is this
video?
What is this video about?
Give me 10 vocabulary words thatyou notice from listening to
this video.
And it's, you know, just thosesimple checkup things that you
(25:03):
can literally give them a blankslate for each day that and each
hour that you want them to knockout of input.
I would also, like crazy, assigna lot of Duolingo.
Duolingo is an easy thing thatyour students can do at home.
It's still completely free forteachers.
It's also really easy for you tocheck up on and PS, they can
Google translate any of that.
(25:23):
Like it's in the moment, it'squick.
They have to be able to use thetools within Duolingo to do
that.
Like there's a lot ofpronunciation checks and there's
a lot of stories and listeningchallenges and things.
Like it's Duolingo has reallyimpressed me in the past three
years with all the improvementsthat they've made.
So I would use those tools.
Now, if you're looking for moretools on this, we have a lot of
(25:44):
materials to support this in thePractical Proficiency Network.
That exact tool of having agiant list of videos and podcast
episodes to assign students forthem to do their absentee work
at home.
I give that to each PracticalProficiency Network member.
For Spanish teachers, it's 20pages long.
(26:05):
For French teachers, it's like13 pages long of just video
after video after video aftervideo of things that they can
you can give to students andjust say, hey, pick five, and
these are the questions that Iwant you to use with each of
them.
So in conclusion, recognize thatwhen it comes to absentee work,
this is not something that wehave that much control over.
(26:26):
And a huge thing that we can doto make these expectations clear
is just to say, hey, if you'remissing more than three seat
time hours of class per quarter,you're really gonna fall behind.
And there it's not really easyfor you to get students caught
up on exactly what they missedthe day before.
So I would suggest if you couldgive them more generic
(26:50):
assignments that allow them tomake up some input time.
I get this idea from this onetime, I forget what happened
when I was in high school.
I think I was like had the fluor something.
I was sick for a week.
And it was that one quarter thatI had gym class.
And you can't make up gym class.
Like, what are you supposed todo?
Like go back and like relearnthe rules of dodgeball?
No.
I had a really smart gym teacherin high school who said, Hey,
(27:11):
the whole point of gym class isphysical activity.
So here's what I want you to do.
You need to come in during yourlunch periods, which at that
time was, I think it was 30minutes or an hour or something
like that.
Um, or maybe my study hall.
You need to come in duringwhatever free period you have
for high schoolers.
And I need you to get 30 minutesa day for a week on the
elliptical and just get somecardio work in.
(27:32):
So sweet, that's easy for me.
And I'm still meeting the mainobjective of your course, which
is to be physically active andto sweat, right?
That's the whole point.
So she didn't waste her timelike giving me some complicated,
hey, go out and go play tennison your own and like here are
the things I want you to answerfor me about tennis or anything
like that.
Cause I think it was a tennis, Idon't even remember.
It was a long time ago.
(27:53):
But this is such a greatprinciple that we can all enact
as well.
Is that she gave me, she madereplacement grades for all of
those things that I missed thatweek that I was sick by just
saying, Oh, you know, you didyour 30 minutes of activity
time, and she asked me to justum instead of you know sitting
there watching me sweat on theelliptical, she said, just take
(28:14):
a picture of your ellipticalafter you're done and show it to
me the next time that you're inclass and I'll give you the
logged hours for it.
It was great.
It was easy for me, easy forher, and still getting the same
objective.
When you think about it, if youforget about all of the
trappings of being a schoolteacher, of like, well, they're
not gonna remember all the wordsand the things that we learned
(28:36):
the day before.
Yeah, that's true, but isn't ita nice reminder of a little bit
of the discomfort that, and it'snot like we don't want to set
them up for success, but like ifyour student isn't feeling the
discomfort of like, crap, I'mmissing things in here, then
it's gonna be really easy forthem to say, like, oh, I don't
need to come to class today.
(28:57):
Um, so I would keep in mind thata little bit of discomfort when
your students come back fromclass is not really your
responsibility to fix.
Like, that's part of life whenyou miss class.
You're going to miss things andyou're going to be behind.
And I would talk to them aboutadvocating for themselves by
like, can you get some notesfrom a friend?
As we're doing the activity, Iwould be happy to fill you in on
(29:19):
like this, that, or the other ofthe things that you weren't here
to remember.
And of course, like if there's aquiz that day and they missed
all the review for the quiz,like, give them an extra day to
review for the quiz.
Like, we're not going to beunreasonable, but that we're
going to find a way that yourabsentee solution should be easy
for you and easy for them andstill get to that main goal of
(29:39):
like burning calories, like inthat gym class.
For us, it's language input.
If they're getting input in adifferent way, that's fine.
And just know that they can'treally replicate what's going on
outside of your class.
And that's a good thing.
It means that you're moving inthe right direction.
So I hope that gives you someideas to help.
If you know that you are alreadytoo busy.
(30:00):
With a too long to-do list,there are direct things that I
have for you already in thePractical Proficiency Network to
help make your absentee life alot easier that are very much in
this frame and in this style.
We, one of the big processesthat we do in the first
milestone stages of the PPN istalking about getting yourself
(30:20):
an emergency subbinder set upand a bank of ready-to-use
absentee-friendly activities sothat you don't have to be
thinking about that on the flyduring the year.
So, Sherry, thank you so muchfor your question.
We talked a lot today aboutdifferent ways that we can help
with autistic students in yourclass, as well as anybody in
(30:42):
your class who's not presentingas much desire to be verbal.
You have a lot of options forthat and different ways to
elicit student questions in themoment.
And I hope that we're alsoaddressing your frequent
absences question to get thatmoving in a way that makes a
little bit more sense for youbecause based on the prep
schedule that you have, which isASL one, two, and three, you
(31:05):
already have too much on yourplate to be doing additional,
like, oh, here's the absenteework and things.
So thank you so much for thisquestion.
And I'm really excited to diveinto some more questions with
from listeners.
We have a few more that I willbe answering over the air as
well.
If you have a question, yo, hitme up.
(31:25):
It would be so great to answeryour question because I'm sure a
lot of other people are workingwith that same question or idea
too.
So again, check below this.
If you're listening, check theshow notes to see where you can
submit that question so that wecan answer it on the air.
Thank you so, so, so much forspending time with me today to
improve your practice and makeyour whole proficiency journey a
(31:46):
little bit more practical.
Leave a review if this helpedyou so that we can reach more
educators and let them know thatlike this is a cool place to
hang out on the interwebs.
Okay, y'all.
Thank you so much, and I willsee you in the next episode.
Bye for now.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.