In our rapidly moving culture, special education students who are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are an ever-increasing challenge for teachers, as they must figure out the best way to keep these students' attention and give them a complete education.
If the learning activities are engaging enough, many of these students can hold attention for long periods of time. Special education students diagnosed with ADD or ADHD often have the ability to focus for long periods when working with computers or video games. Could the problem lie more in the pace of the learning activity?
Emulating the computers and games that hold these students' attentions, one activity that was implemented was excavating fossils. Fossil excavation was a 6-week class, more of a club, in which students excavated a real fish fossil from a soft rock matrix. The outcome of the class was remarkable.
The club/class started with a sort of guessing game involving fossils hidden in velvet bags and moved quickly into individual excavation of the fossils. Within minutes, the teacher's work was done; the students worked independently for the remainder of the two-hour class.
And, a wonderful thing happened. A boy, who had proven to traditionally be a challenging student and who generally had little academic success, began to teach. This boy was enthralled with digging out the fossil, and he was having incredible success. He single-handedly took over explaining the process to his peers.
This is a true story of success. In this six-week project, middle school children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD and receiving special education services enjoyed the same success, if not more than, as the other students because they were involved in an activity that interested them and allowed them to learn while working and doing.