Guided Reading with Jane Farrall - SideShare

Jane Farrall has a clear, simple and succinct slideshow on guided reading (LINK HERE) up on Slideshare. I recommend teachers, parents, and speech therapists of learners who speak as well as learners that cannot take a look at these practical suggestions for sharing books. 

• Starting with purposes for reading, "Read so that you can..."
• Types of guided reading
• Reading follow-ups
• And 5 parts of guided reading.

She makes a very clear case for providing aided language displays to talk to and with learners, in general as well as in book reading. 

Diagram from Gayle Porter, 2004

Instead of a choice board for identifying nouns from a book, such as the Very Hungry Caterpillar (first image), Farrall provides the following aided language display for books (second image):

For all of you SymbolStix users out there, here is the same board created in TouchChat.

I recommend Jane Farrall's slideshow, Connect2Literacy! (LINK to the slideshow, HERE)

AAC Tip #10 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips! Look back at each Tuesday's tip for all 10.

TIP: Use Post-Its

• When Use Post-It reminders to write down vocabulary items the student can be encouraged to say during an activity (for the student's sake as much as the adults around him or her!).

101+ Ideas - Links

I love it when others do your work for you! Taking a look at the AAC in the Desert line up (Feb 15-17, Phoenix, AZ; early bird registration through Jan 16) I stumbled across a document online - "101 Ways to Use a Step by Step" by Gretchen Hanser, with great ideas for social scripts, literacy, play, and also ideas for the toy/appliance function. 

A borrowed description of Step by Step communicators (aka. sequential message communication devices): These are simple devices that let you record messages in segments and then replay them in that same order. The initial activation of the device speaks the first part of the message aloud and then stops. When you activate the device again, it plays the second part, and so on. Download the 101+ list in PDF, HERE.

Here are more ideas from Carole Zangari at PrAACticalAAC.org on sequential message devices and apps, LINK HERE.

This reminded me of a list of communication ideas I once saw for the Big Mack (single message voice output button). These also apply to the Little Mack, of course. 

Here is one such list from Ablenet. Fantastic! Download PDF, HERE.

Link to Ablenet, HERE

Here's another list from CENMAC. Download PDF, HERE.

Still more ideas gathered by Barbara Solomonson, SLP, HERE.

Looking down the results list a little further, I came across a remarkable collection from TalkSense, also for Big Mack. Take a look at the Ideas, Suggestions and Problem Solving section (starts bottom of pg. 3) and its wealth of uses as a switch, creative locations for various points of access, prompting ideas, as well as communicative ones. Download PDF, HERE. 

And may I add - No naked switches! That is to say that giving the purpose of the switch and defining its meaning using text or symbol is an important element of teaching switch success. Read more ideas as great as this one from Kelly Fonner in this doc, LINK HERE.

Break out the single message VOCAs and try out some of these. Leave a comment with your favorites.

Have you updated lately?

Have you updated to iOS 8? Before you do, take a look at these helpful tips from ablenet.

Read the quick list, HERE.

AAC Tip #9 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: Use an agenda

• Use a visual schedule as an agenda for AAC practice. A small dry erase board and text or line drawings will do!

AAC Tip #8 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: THINK ALOUD 

• When you have trouble locating vocabulary or using the device. Express your frustration by saying something like... "Where is that word?" or "Why isn't this working?"

AAC Tip #7 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: Use the device YOURSELF. 

• Use the device yourself to communicate with the student. Providing a strong language model is important for learning any mode of communication (speech, sign language, picture-based communication). Only if we speak AAC to them, can we expect them to speak AAC to us! 

AAC Tip #6 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: REQUIRE LANGUAGE by NOT meeting the student’s needs and wants before the student makes those wants and needs known. 

• Doing this will create communication opportunities for the student to use their device!

AAC Tip #5 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP:  PAUSE and wait for response to interaction 

• Count to 10 before intervening again.

AAC Tip #4 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: USE TURN TAKING 

• “It’s my turn.” (model using device) 
• “Now you do it. Your turn.”

AAC Tip #3 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: MODEL, MODEL, MODEL using the device — they will learn how to use it by watching you do it first.

AAC Tip #2 from SDUSD

Thanks to the Assistive Technology team at San Diego Unified for sharing their AAC tips!

TIP: EXPECT the student to be a communicator.

AT TIp #1 from SDUSD

Thanks to the AT team at San Diego Unified for sharing their Assistive Tech tips!

TIP:  Always have device CHARGED, TURNED ON and AVAILABLE

• Teach student responsibility for doing this.

• Or, assign peer buddy to assist student if needed.