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Greetings, folks. I am a middle/high school teacher working on a specialty license for teaching kids with ASDs. My question to you is this: what kinds of assignments were the most difficult for you, and what could your teachers have done (or, what did they do) to make it better?

Thanks in advance for your input. I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to respond.

I always had trouble with essays. Some of the time it was time constraints or distractions in the classroom, but mostly it was not being able to choose what I had to write about, even if it was between 3 or 4 different teacher-chosen topics.

incorperate my speical intrests into the lesson plans, and basicaly not be an adult bully

My favorite professor knows me well enough to know how I learn and how to make me a better student. He's realized that I learn visually or hands on, so that's how he shows me what I need to know. Sometimes a teacher talking to me sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher so don't be surprised if I don't understand what you're saying, another good reason to show me what we're doing.

Anything that involved standing in front of the class, especially giving speeches.

They could have stopped ridiculing me, stopped telling me that I was lazy and a loser, and simply stopped assigning me to speak in front of the class. They made each such assignment even worse by adding to the anxiety.

If even one of them had cared enough to understand my fear and give me an alternate assignment, I might have cared enough to get better grades.

I actually love essay writting or creative writting. I'm not so good with exams I can't memorise all the work covered in a short period of time. Unless it is pop quizes weekly and its still fresh on my mind. I like having a lot of work to be getting on with and can't stand when the teacher goes on and on about something I'm not interested in and would rather just go through a text book or worksheets whilsts she's chatting. I also hate presentations but the solution around it was to a smaller group of people and shorter time

I think you'll find that it varies from student to student.
My best advice would be to work on a case-by-case basis - understand the specific needs and difficulties of each student.

As the only child with AS in my grade and possibly my whole school, I remember my middle and high school years being quite hard on me. Although I graduated from high school in 2009, I still remember most of the difficulties that it caused me.

Before I describe problems my uniqueness caused in the classroom and ways such problems have been lessened or avoided, I think I should give a basic description of my work conditions during my years in grade school. This is because the environment in which I was in may differ from the one you will be teaching. I was a girl diagnosed with a mild case of AS taking classes in the same environment as the rest of my classmates, accept for when I was in resource room or taking my tests (I needed locations separate from my classmates for tasks that involved the greatest concentration). I went to a small central school, where everyone knew everyone else, at least by sight if not name and family. Graduating classes have about 30-35 students a classroom could have over 25 students at one time.

For me, the hardest part of high school was interacting with my classmates, rather than academics. This would pour over into the classroom environment in multiple ways. Assignments that required me to interact with classmates such as group activities and speaking in front of the class were often the most awkward for me.

Being placed in a group to work often made me nervous and depressed. I was usually the last person to get into a group, when the students were allowed to choose amongst themselves. So by the time I was joined up with my "team" for whatever project we might have been working on or game we were about to play, I already felt they didn’t want me. Then, once we started working on whatever activity we might be doing together, more worries would come up. Does my tone come across as rude? Do I seem like an idiot? Can I speak loud enough to be heard or am I being too loud (as is sometimes the case if excitement temporarily overrides my original fear).

There were a few things that teachers would occasionally do that made things easier for me. The one that helped the most was not letting the students choose their groups. Whether it was by teachers pick, or by drawing sticks, I always found it easier to be assigned a group in by the same standards as everyone else, rather than by the last group who had less than the required number. I do not know if my high school teachers ever did this but I think, if the teacher notices which children seem to be the friendlier, or more accepting ones, it might be best to organize the groups so that the child with an ASD is with them. I know that I always felt more comfortable with people like that and would often finish the activity with a smile on my face (and, if I wasn’t careful or reminded multiple times, my voice carried clearly above my classmates and into the hallway.) As for my personal worries about how I talked to my classmates, I always liked to have anything I was doing wrong pointed out. Sometimes, if I was with the classmates I trusted some, I would even ask if I was being too loud/ coming across as rude/other problem.

Although getting in front of the class was difficult, it wasn’t as big of a problem for me as it would have been under different circumstances. From third grade through twelfth, I was in chorus. This meant that I got experience performing in front of crowds both as part of a group and, rarely, in solo performances. For me, it was always hardest to get in front of my peers. These were the children I avoided in the lunch room and tuned out in the halls every day, in order to feel comfortable in my own skin. Now I had to get up in front of them. There were a few tricks that helped me. The first was to practice my speech before I got up in front of everyone. Although a teacher can’t make the student do this, if the idea is suggested enough, it might get through to the student. Note cards are a good suggestion for the preparation too. My next trick was to focus mainly on the teacher, as they were the people giving the grade and, for me, they had usually been my major source of comfort during the school hours as they were much more understanding than my fellow classmates. If I had to look at the group as a whole, I tried not to focus on individuals. As long as I didn’t do that, I could pretend it was a crowd of strangers that had come to see me perform.

Even though I felt that these interactive activities were the most stressful for me, I also felt they were amongst the most important. For me, they were crucial opportunities which helped me learn how to interact with people my age. As I mentioned, I would do everything during the rest of the day to stay away from them. Although things have become easier for me in college, some kids might be discouraged to the point that they do not make it that far. These times, where I worked with other kids in the classroom, were amongst the only times in grade school that I actually gained any social skills. They were also the main opportunities I had to learn how interact with other people in a work environment. It was also the largest opportunity I had to meet someone I might have actually wanted to be friends with.

There are also ways that the stress of being near my peers affected me in the class room that go beyond the occasional class assignments and into how I behaved in the classroom on a daily basis such as where I sat, and how well I focused. If you would like me to go into detail about this, please let me know.