Accessing School Assessments with a Sprinkling of Success

Again, this wasn't the next article I was going to post.

In fact I’ve "authored" in my head at least one article a day, every day for the last few weeks ~ on the way home from the school run ~ but each has been deposited in the “action” tray in my mind.  It's leaving me feeling “disabled” in terms of this blog, due solely to the sheer volume of articles I’m desperate to write, conscious I'm not enabling myself to start ~ finding it "easier" to distract myself with more "urgent" tasks & the never ending family oriented to dos (in other words being an autistic mum in an autism rich family).

Which, ironically, links well to the focus of this article, & shows I have absolute empathy (yes, empathy*) with those of my angel fish facing school assessments after half term & so also the need to revise.

I hope the content resonates & proves helpful to others facing similar situations.

Now, these particular angel fish just about manage with the homework they're set.  It takes effort to pick the moment, approach appropriately, inspire & motivate, but we ~ they ~ get there.  Revision is a whole other ball game.  Unlike homework where they're set tasks, revision can be far too conceptual, random, all encompassing to be easily approached or accessed, especially for the autistic brain.  It’s far too easy to keep putting it off ~ to procrastinate ~ as we ruminate on how, what, where & when ... running the very real risk of avoiding altogether or, at best, leaving to the very last minute.  But the after effects of avoiding altogether are not easily born by us.  We are still perfectionists who hate to get things wrong &, worse still, be told we're wrong!  

My angel fish experienced this pain after a recent set of science assessments (a subject they actually enjoy & show aptitude for) which they approached unprepared.  In contrast, their earlier maths assessments, for which they did prepare, were a relative breeze.

So, whilst painful, this was a lesson effectively learnt with these angel fish acknowledging they’d prefer to feel like they did about their maths assessments rather than how they felt (& still feel) about their science assessments.  In other words, they've properly learnt the value of revision!

Now the coral castle door is open it doesn't mean it's any easier to swim through, especially when there's not just one coral corridor but an array of seemingly never ending coral corridors beckoning these nervous fish.  

Thankfully, for those daring enough to explore, along each corridor there are many nuggets of learning to discover, all thoughtfully & creatively produced by their tutors especially for the task of revision.  Collating all these wonderful materials resulted in a rather full lever arch file for each angel fish.  

Assessment Revision Files by An Affinity with A

You can lead an angel fish to water, but .....

Picking up on what worked with their maths revision before, we agreed on a reward programme (angel fish need motivating, full stop!).  They're collecting Pokemon cards just now so, for each revision task completed they receive one Pokemon card (I prepared a separate schedule of what constitutes tasks for each subject based on what revision materials had been provided, e.g. reading, making notecards, watching videos, completing exercises, etc).  

So the scene was set.  I did worry at one point about the time taken to prepare ~ each extra day preparing was one less day available for revision ~ but having experienced their reaction, enthusiasm & willingness to engage (even unprompted) I'm thinking (as I already knew) that preparation was critical & time invested well!

I know I'm going to have to make revision as fun as possible.  Sitting them down with something to read (that they didn't necessarily want to read) would be a slow, painful &, in truth, pretty pointless process.  So, picking up on one aide memoire ~ to choose different rooms for different subjects ~ I took the already very visual food tech' revision & brought it to life a little more, setting them challenges to label the food processor, name the numbered kitchen tools, complete challenges on the blackboard, group things correctly, etc.  Here are some pics.

Original Materials

Kitchen Tools Revision by An Affinity with A

Flavour & Taste Revision by An Affinity with A

Original Materials

 

Egg Types Revision by An Affinity with A

Egg Age Revision by An Affinity with A

Original Materials

 

Food Processor Revision by An Affinity with A

And I'm so delighted with how they responded.  One angel fish announced "this isn't revision, this is fun" almost as if it couldn't possibly count as real revision if it wasn't "not fun" and another angel fish was beside himself with pride for having completed a task "before school even".  
They're actually looking forward to the next tasks...ish. 

Just one problem ~ they're not the only one who'll be working hard at revising!  I did attempt to "invite" another angel fish (with extreme avoidance tendencies) to help prepare some tasks (in the hope they too would absorb some learning ... & I would lighten my self-imposed load) but this angel fish is far too intelligent to be so easily duped & sussed my intentions immediately.

Well, it just goes to show, you can't win 'em all.

Now, we have some revising to do (no doubt leading to an even fuller article action tray)!

* As an aside about "empathy" : it's a popularly held belief that a key characteristic of being autistic is being devoid of empathy.  However, others ~ including autistics ~ would say autistic people can be extremely empathetic.  We can certainly feel unusually deeply & can experience extreme emotions.  So far, for me, courtesy of The Aspie Coach, this is the best succinct description of autistic empathy I've come across ... although I'm of the opinion it's easier for us to recognise others' feelings & emotions if we've felt them for ourselves:

Empathy Explained courtesy of The Aspie Coach via Pinterest