中英对照 大西洋月刊 How I Failed as the Teacher of an Autistic Student.docx

我辜负了我的自闭症学生How I Failed as the Teacher of an Autistic Student译者： 搬那度By Laura Rullkoetter译文发表时间：2015-11-15NOV 12, 2015 /view/538142/475145 /education/archive/2015/11/teacher-autistic-student-failure/414684/ 每年八月，开学前的那一周，是教师要参加一系列会议的时候。在学生涌进学校之前的五天左右，教师必须做好准备，而这段时间里，尽是跟行政人员和同事的会议。今年，我的学生名单上有了某位学生，我们姑且叫他为H。他是我的秋季新闻学班级的30名学生之一。他的辅导员告诉我，要是他能事先和我见面的话，开学第一天的时候，他会比较安心。Every August, the week before classes begin is a parade of meetings for teachers. Meetings with administrators and colleagues fill the five or so days teachers have to get organized before students flood the school. This year, my roster included a student well call H., one among 30 in my fall journalism class. H. would be more comfortable on the first day of school if he could meet me beforehand, his guidance counselor told me.他走进了和我的第一次会面，而他很热情地向我介绍自己和他最喜欢的课题：漫画书。患有自闭症的学生通常会有一个他极其专注的领域，而他的就是漫威的英雄人物。我希望利用那个课题，为通往H的课程建立一道桥梁。他喜欢读与写故事，而这似乎跟我在我们这所得克萨斯州郊区的公立中学里头教的选修新闻学班是非常相配的。他剪了寸头发型，背着背包，像极了任何一位初中生。He walked into our first meeting eager to introduce himself and his favorite topic: comic books. Students with autism typically have an area of hyper focus, and his was Marvel heros. I hoped to use that topic to build a bridge to our curriculum for H. He liked to read and write stories, a seemingly good fit for the elective journalism class I taught at our public high school in suburban Texas. With his buzz cut and backpack, he looked like any other high-school junior.但他不像我教过的任何学生一样当时不是，现在也不是。H患有自闭症，而我们在一起的两个月里头，尽管我曾教过几位患有各种程度的自闭症的学生，我身为教师还是辜负了他。But he wasntisntlike any other student Ive had before. H. is autistic, and during our two months together, and despite having taught several students with varying degrees of autism, I would fail him as a teacher.从那个八月天，他走进他的辅导员的办公室和我们见面的那一刻开始，H又健谈又愉快。他让我意识到他在课室里能有最好表现的方法他之前用过的哪些策略。From the moment he walked into our meeting in his counselors office that August day, H. was talkative and cheerful. He gave me some insight into the ways he worked best in the classroomwhich strategies hed used in the past.要是资料是以书面形式而非口语形式呈现给他的话，他就会更有可能吸收资料。要他完成一个任务的话，给他的指示，就必须使用简短、分明的步骤。他给了我他的“红卡”，有需要的话，这张卡能让他离开我的课室，到学校的特殊教育室，而他就能在那里平静下来。He was more likely to absorb information if it was presented to him in a written form, not spoken. To complete a task, hed need instructions in short, discrete steps. He gave me his “red card,” a ticket out of my classroom to the schools special education room where he could calm down if necessary.我积极地做了笔记，心里回顾了我计划好要教的入门单元。我很肯定新闻学历史的小知识，对H来说会是易如反掌的，但我决定重新策划新闻写作的部分。我知道我在教室的演示和作业必须为了H而构造得不一样，但是我对此没有异议好的老师应该是灵活的。以各种方式呈现资料，只能对我的班上所有的学生有益。I eagerly took notes and mentally reviewed the introductory unit Id planned to teach. I was sure the smattering of journalism history would be a breeze for H., but decided to rethink the news writing portion. I knew that my classroom presentations and assignments would need to be structured differently for H., but I was comfortable with thatgood teachers are supposed to be flexible. Presenting material in a variety of ways could only benefit all students in my class.我们在一起的第一周里头进行历史课，进展很顺利。在一次关于18世纪记者约翰彼得曾格（John Peter Zenger）和美国新闻自由的PowerPoint演示时，H很频繁地举起了手，不是问了无关的问题，就是在这个诚然平凡的演示中，以不恰当的幽默，说出扰乱课堂的话。但是我都能利用基本的课堂管理技巧来重新让他集中。我们已经有了好的开始。History during our first week together went smoothly. H. dutifully took notes during a PowerPoint on the 18th-century journalist John Peter Zenger and the establishment of a free press in the U.S. H. frequently raised his hand with off-topic questions, or to make disruptive comments and misplaced attempts at humor during an admittedly mundane presentation. But these werent anything I couldnt redirect with basic classroom management. We were off to a promising start.我的课程的所有作业，都会在课堂的90分钟之内完成，而我不会分配家庭作业。教学的最佳做法，往往会涉及有变化的活动，从讲课到两人合作，到写作，又在课堂时间之内回到讲课，以便让学生维持兴趣高，保持专注。然而，这些转换，正是H所挣扎的事。All work for my course is done during the 90-minute class period, with no homework assigned. Best practices in teaching often dictate shifting activities, from a lecture to working in pairs, to writing, back to the lecture during the class period to keep interest high and students on track. But those transitions were precisely what H. struggled with.上课之前，我会在白板上写出当天的日程，以尽量减少所有学生对于当天作业的问题。不知道为什么，这样将时间表呈现出来，却对H并不奏效。上课铃声响起之前，他会在课室后方走来走去，而我会在私底下跟他解释时间表。这通常会有帮助，但并非总是如此。Before class, Id write the daily agenda on the whiteboard to keep questions from all students about the days assignments to a minimum. Somehow this presentation of the itinerary, even in a written format, didnt work for H. Before the bell rang, as he paced in the back of the classroom, I would talk through the schedule with him privately. Usually that helped, but not always.随着学期的进行，H的母亲和我通过电邮开始了稳定的通讯我会在数天之前通知她我们即将进行的单元，以及我预期H可能会面对的障碍，而她会在家里进行角色扮演，以让他为了课堂上将会发生的事而做好准备。As the semester progressed, H.s mother and I developed a steady correspondence via emailI gave her a few days notice on what our upcoming units would be and the potential hurdles I saw for H, and shed role-play at home to prepare him for what would happen during class.有一周，我的班级看了及时的新闻照片，并且考虑有些照片为何会被登出。我们讨论了一张近期的照片，照片上显示了一个被淹死的儿童，而这个震撼人心的影像，突出了难民在这场持续的全球危机中的困境。班上的其他人都严肃地处理这些材料，但H却说出了无礼的话。遗憾的是，这不是第一次班上的其他人和我必须无视他说话不经过滤。One week, our class reviewed timely news photos and considered why some were published. We talked about a recent photo that showed a drowned toddler, a jarring image that underscored the plight of refugees in the ongoing global crisis. While the rest of the class approached the material soberly, H. made off-color comments. Unfortunately, it wasnt the first time the rest of the class and I had had to ignore his nonexistent filter.后来，我以为H能够胜任的一份作业，却超出了他的能力。学生必须阅读校刊，并且回答有关该期校刊里头的故事的五道意见问题。我以为它符合了H的成功作业的标准：让他以自己的速度阅读，并回答小数目的书面问题。Then, an assignment that I thought would be in H.s wheelhouse proved beyond his reach. Students were supposed to read the school paper and answer five opinion questions about stories in the issue. It met what I thought were the criteria for a successful assignment for H., allowing him to read silently at his own pace and answer a small number of written questions.当他交上作业的时候，每一道问题都以“我不知道”作答，令我感到又震惊又懊恼。我把他的作业传给他的母亲的时候，她同样感到愤怒，但她很快地发现了问题所在：H并没有阅读校刊，也没有掌握到，里头的故事说的是有关他的同学。I was stunned and frustrated when he turned in the assignment with “I dunno” in response to each question. His mother was equally exasperated when I sent her his work, but she soon learned what the problem was: H. had never read the school paper, and didnt grasp that its stories were about his peers.新闻写作，也成了我意料中令人害怕的事。为了学到我们班上的基础，即基本的倒金字塔结构，一般的学生会将分发的资料接受为“事实”：一个新闻事件的谁、什么、何地、何地、为何。但对于H来说，那些都不是事实。抽象思维不是他的强项。他所交的作业没有“事实”，没有引句的一个段落跟班上的其他人交上的作业，完全没有关系。News writing also proved to be the bugaboo I had anticipated. In order to learn the basic inverted pyramid style that is the cornerstone of our class, a typical student would accept a handout of information as “fact”: the who, what, where, when, and why of a news item. But to H., those werent facts. Abstract thinking was not his strength. What he turned ina single paragraph without the “facts” and with no quotesbore no relation to the assignment that the rest of the class turned in.其它时候，H理解作业的程度，不足以让他在班上开始写作，即使我使尽了我所有的招数，将指示以简短、清楚的步骤写出来，也是如此。他会变得懊恼，前后摆动，大叹一声作业“太难”了。作业为何会太难，对我来说一直是个谜。由于他的母亲那么积极参与他的学习，我成功地让H在家里有了妈妈的支持之下完成课堂作业。有时候，她能够一丝一丝地将困难从他身上拉出来。Other times, H. didnt understand the assignment well enough to get started in class, even after Id used every trick I had, writing out the instructions in short, clear steps. Hed grow frustrated, rocking back and forth, exclaiming loudly that the assignment was “too hard.” Whatever was too hard about the assignment always remained a mystery to me. Because his mother was so active in his learning, I was able to allow H. to complete his class work at home with Moms support. Sometimes she was able to tease the difficulty out of him a strand at a time.我们的系统在特写课的时候崩溃了。为了这次作业，学生被分配成两人一组，互相访问，然后写一篇关于他们的同学的短篇特写。H和他的搭档奥利维亚坐在一个宁静的角落，轮流充当受访者和访问者。他和他的母亲为了给他准备而已经一起练习，但是H垄断了班上的对话，只写了关于奥利维亚的一点笔记。Our system crumbled during the feature writing lesson. For the assignment, students were paired to interview each other and then write a short feature story about their classmates. H. and his partner Olivia sat in a quiet corner and took turns as subject and interviewer. His mother and he had practiced together to prepare, but H. monopolized the exchange in class and took few notes about Olivia.在下一次课堂上，他必须写一篇关于她的特写。他有了他那有限的笔记，特写结构的课堂导则，以及几篇故事作为例子。但是到了该写作的时候，他又开始前后摇摆，跟往常一样重复说着“这太难了”。At the next class meeting, he was supposed to write about her in a feature story. He had his scant notes, class guidelines on feature story structure, and a few examples of stories. But when it was time to write, he started in on the familiar refrain of “its too hard,” rocking back and forth.我问了他，他需要什么我还没给他的东西；他答不出来。他更猛烈地摇摆，又开始挥动双手。这些迹象，表示他越来越懊恼了。我试图缓和状况，就坐在他身边，静静地将我的手放在他的笔记、导则和例子上，让他看到他已经有了他所有所需的东西。一位同学开了口，试图帮助他；H低声吼着回应：“闭嘴，不然我会杀了你。”I asked what he needed that I hadnt already given him; he couldnt answer. He rocked harder and started to flail, signs that his frustration level was rising. In an effort to de-escalate, I sat with him and quietly put my hands on his notes, his guidelines, and his examples, showing him he had everything he needed. A classmate spoke up, trying to help; H. replied with a low growl, “Shut up or Ill kill you.”在那一刻，我亮出了红卡是时候让H到另一个场合去平静下来了。但是，他却不肯离开。一位同学去了特殊教育办公室，请来了一位老师来协助。她低声和他说话，然后帮了他收拾他的东西。尽管他在抗议着，但是她还是带着他走出教室。这并没能让他平静下来。我后来得知，H因为懊恼到了要爆炸的程度而变得好斗，而他在特殊教育室必须被拉住，以阻止他攻击一位教师。At that point, I played the red cardit was time for H. to go calm down in another setting. But he wouldnt leave. A classmate went to the special education office and brought back a teacher to assist. She