I am currently a trainee teacher of photography and would like to hear from anyone who has any ideas to help with equality and diversity in the classroom. One of my students has dyslexia and another is autistic.
Many thanks
Andrew
As Adrian said, are you on a PCE or PGCE course at present? You must be on something, as most institutions demand it... even if it's PTTLS. If so, they'll cover this issues in depth I would imagine. In practice though, you'll get a great deal of dyslexic students, as art & design seems to have more than it's fair share. Many things can help here. Diversify your teaching resources: Don't just print out stuff (and when you do, print enough out on light green paper as it helps dyslexic students), but also have the resources online if your school has a VLE like Moodle or Blackboard. Also, video resources are great for differentiation. Depending on what the lesson is, structure helps too. For instance, when I teach photoshop and Lightroom, I divide the session up into on screen walk throughs and demonstrations, set a task, and then go around the room giving one to one tuition. This allows the more advanced students to work at their own pace, and allows for me to spend more tie with those that need it.
Setting weekly tasks, and deliver the brief verbally, in print, and online.
Ask open questions, a great deal, and be mindful of drawing those who are quieter and less forthcoming into any discussions by asking them more questions. Don't let the know it all students dominate a session - be firm if necessary, but also reward the know it alls for their input... but instead of letting them answer everything, buddy them up with someone less able to work as a team. This helps the challenged student, and also empowers the know it all with some responsibility.
Don't make it obvious who your favourite students are. You will have them, and that's OK, but it can't be obvious to others, and you'll be surprised how intuitive some students are in this respect - they'll pick up on it if you're not careful.
It goes without saying also, that you leave any prejudices you have (and we all have them) at the door when you go to work.
Crit sessi9ons are crucial, and you need to quickly get them to open up and drive the session rather than them rely on you for all the input. This is a great opportunity to draw out the more shy students by careful and sympathetic feedback on what they say. Crits are hard for a new teacher, as they fear the "silence"... I've often sat for 5 minutes and said nothing once I've laid down the ground rules for crit. It's THEIR crit session, and they're not just there to hear what I have to say.
If you need any more specific advice, just ask: It's a big subject, and I've many years experience at teaching this subject at FE, BA and MA level.
You don't say what level you're teaching at though Andrew. It would be helpful to know this, as strategy changes as you go up through the levels.
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Also... don't think differentiation is just for those with learning difficulties. You have to have to be mindful that you are fully inclusive of everyone: Old, young, male, female, fast, slow, friendly, unpleasant. It's about giving everyone an equal opportunity to learn, and also using diverse methods so that everyone can learn in their own way.
Don't get scuked into the "VAK" debate... all this crap about Visual learners, Auditory learners, and Kinesthetic learners is all nonsense: There's a stack of research to suggest it's all b******s. Just give a range of resources - printed, online, and video is a great teaching tool that helps diversify.
Seminars are great too, as the student just feels like they are engaged in a conversation, but if they take notes, and listen well, seminars can be fantastic differentiation tools once everyone is comfortable speaking.
Oh... and even though I've just fallen into the trap myself above... despite what your superiors tell you, they are NOT l;earners... they are students. Learner is a patronising term for students, and they simply do not like it.
) guitarist. 
I would certainly suggest that explaining verbally, and perhaps finding ways of demonstrating physically the principles you're trying to explain, might really help your dyslexic student.