Electronic Book News From Closing The Gap:

The ABC Project:
A group of volunteers are collaborating with Accessible Book Collection to convert picture books into a switch accessible format for children with low incidence disabilities (children with physical, visual, attention, and cognitive disabilities).

If you are interested in volunteering to convert books to a switch accessible format, email Linda Bastiani (wilson.lindab@gmail.com) or Joe Rickerson (joe@accessiblebookcollection.com) to get started. For more information about this volunteer effort go to: http://accessiblebookcollection.wikispaces.com/

Resources for Electronic Books

1. Accessible Book Collection – www.accessiblebookcollection.org

District 97 has a subscription to this resource. Students who have a print disability (visual impairments and blindness, reading disabilities, and physical impairments that make it difficult or impossible to read printed books) are the only students eligible to use these books. If you would like information about using the ABC subscription, contact me.

2. BOOKSHARE
Bookshare has a new grant to fully support all schools & students (having a print disability) with free access to the Bookshare library, and free software to use the books.

With this grant they plan to add hundreds of textbooks to their library.
Schools will also be able to order textbooks from Bookshare. Here’s how it will work:

• One primary contact will be designated per district.
• Students need to be certified as eligible, due to a print disability.
• Special education teachers can certify a student as eligible.
• Books will be in DAISY format – we’ll use free software to convert the format.

Please contact me if you would like assistance using, or obtaining electronic books for your students!

Knowledge and Accessibility: Promoting Higher Ordered Thinking

This is from a presentation by: Dan Herlihy, Susan DuBuske, Pattie Rea

When we make curriculum modifications for our students, how do we maintain the content integrity and higher ordered thinking process? In other words how do we keep from diluting curriculum too much?
Bloom's Taxonomy is a helpful tool that will answer those questions; it’s a great way for teachers to gauge the type of learning and level of thinking required of students. Benjamin Bloom developed this classification of intellectual behavior related to learning, along with a team of educational psychologists, in 1956! Six levels were identified within the cognitive domain, from simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels to the highest order - creating a new idea (termed Evaluation, by Bloom).
They were originally represented on a pyramid here they are, in top down order:

• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
  
• Comprehension
• Knowledge

How does this help teachers? By using key words and higher-order questioning when planning & modifying lessons we can establish and encourage better critical thinking, especially at the higher levels. As teachers we tend to ask questions in the "knowledge" category 80% to 90% of the time. (That is the lowest level!) These questions are not bad, but using them all the time is. Try to utilize higher order level of questions. These questions require much more "brain power" and a more extensive and elaborate answer.

Bloom’s taxonomy constitutes a continuum of learning characteristics, not a sequentially acquired skill set. Therefore it is NOT necessary for a student to master a level before moving to another level, students need exposure to learning activities at all levels. This merges nicely with differentiated instruction – using a variety of instructional strategies that address diverse student needs and enhance learning for all students.

(check out my Handouts section.)
Next step, Handouts: I posted a Bloom's Taxonomy Planning Guide - use this to support lesson planning, striving for higher order thinking activities.
I also posted a Bloom's Taxonomy Polygon - with a visual overview of the Taxonomy.

I'd love to share more about this; if you are interested, please contact me.

Writing With A Personal Connection

Follow-up to yesterday’s post: here’s a writing project idea for your students. This idea relates to providing a ‘Personal connection with the Curriculum’. Request a picture or item from home that relates to a home event or story about a student, and the story details to go with it. In the “Handouts” section I’ve added something you can send home called “Memories from Home”. This would make a nice long-term (or short term) writing project for students.

In my next post I’ll talk about ways to adjust learning activities to address various levels of the thinking & learning processes, from lower order thinking to higher order thinking.

Closing the Gap - Literacy Supports for Students with Severe Disabilities

Today at Closing the Gap: I spent 8 hours learning strategies to support literacy for students with complex special needs. In addition to the notes / summary below, I have new ideas for writing activities using Classroom Suite, and incorporating AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices as a writing tool.
Teachers – email me your sight words, target vocabulary, &/or spelling words, and I’ll make them into writing activities!

Creative Expression: Supporting Literacy Skills in the Classroom for Students with Severe Disabilities Pattie King-DeBaun, Dan Herlihy October 16, 2007

Six Conditions of Learning
Pattie King-DeBaun related the following 6 conditions as the foundation for learning. I’ve added ideas for how to “Apply” these conditions in the classroom.

1. Knowledgeable Others –
The best way to learn a new skill or idea is to learn from someone who already knows. In addition to learning from knowledgeable “others”, we learn from peers, and for students with a disability that includes successful older students and adults with similar unique qualities.
• Apply – create a story, supported with photos, to illustrate how a person with unique abilities would do a task (such as painting a picture using a head stick); or film the person doing the task and show it as a movie to the student and their classmates. If painting, follow-up with a painting activity – ‘paint without using your hands’.
• This idea could be incorporated into Classroom Suite as an electronic book or movie clip.

2. Means of Communication / Interaction –
All communication, intentional or not, must be encouraged.
• Apply – Provide students with a support system for communication that contains multiple ways of communicating – this is important for students with limited verbal communication who are just learning to use a device, or as a backup to the device. A system might contain all of these and more…
o A Photo album to set topics
o Alphabet board to reinforce use of alphabet
o Word banks with core words – a 3 ring binder with communication pages organized by categories, or file folder boards
o A comment board for social remarks and feelings
o A voice output device (simple low tech to high tech)

3. Cognitive Clarity –
Learners need to know why they are doing what they are asked to do and what it will help them accomplish. Teachers must know what it is they are asking learners to do and why.
• Apply – Communication vocabulary expansion
Provide a purpose for communication. Introduce / expand a student’s use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication through training tasks. For your Open Court lesson or story of the week:

• Find 3 words on your device that describe this character
• Find 3 words that describe how you think the boy felt in the story
• Look at this picture and tell me 3 things that describe what you see

• Apply – Writing
The ultimate purpose for writing is to generate novel thoughts. This is a laborious process for AAC users. Do not expect that students should always use generative-based writing; for emerging, and early writers, provide word banks and phrases.

4. Cognitive Engagement –
Learning requires that the learner be engaged cognitively in the learning process – participation alone is insufficient.
• Apply –

• Every student needs a pencil, the ‘pencil’ will vary depending on the physical abilities of the student; it can be a computer, a word processor, an Intellikeys keyboard, a communication board, a tape recorder, or a communication device. When not using a computer you can use an alphabet board and scribe the letters.
  
• Every student needs opportunities to write – and use their “pencil”.
• Every student needs access to the alphabet - no matter what learning level they are at.
• Print all student work composed on computer – send it home, and include it in a writing portfolio. Printing immediately is highly motivating to the student, and gives them a paper copy the same way a pencil & paper would.

• Student Writing Sample –
An early writer might produce work as follows here. Mary’s assignment was to write a story. She selected a topic and wrote independently using an Intellikeys Keyboard. Her writing (translated in parentheses):
Title: Twkj t b (?)
Mom pd prtd wh m. (Mom played pretend with me.)
Ye hsded fi ed sld. (We had fish and salad.)
It ks et gd. (It was not good.)
N I wt to bd (Then I went to bed.)

5. Repetition with Variety – To learn a skill and generalize it across contexts, instruction must provide repetition of the skill in a variety of ways. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the skills they know, allow them to use their skills/knowledge in a variety of ways.
• Apply - Write for different purposes. Move beyond the same writing assignments or activities. Model and give students the opportunity to understand that writing is meaningful and serves a purpose, do not just write for writing. Use sight words and core vocabulary to:

• Compose a letter
• Re-tell a story – familiar story or own personal experience
• Relate an event
• Make Lists – shopping, things to do, things to wear in winter, etc
• Sign in
• Older students write stories for younger students
• Email & Instant message
• Journal

6. Personal connection with the Curriculum –
Learners must find enough of themselves in the curriculum that they can relate the known to the new.
Research suggests that children often use their names as a basis for their further learning in writing. When children are aware of some letters within their names, they will begin to use these letters in their writing. (Harste, Woodward, & Burke, 1984).
• Apply – Use Photo Albums for writing

• Create a record chronicling the life of the child (school activities, or home)
• Use a photo album to select a topic for writing, relate an event from a picture, or describe the picture.

• Apply – Prompt Children through Telling Stories

Elicit and support storytelling:
Teacher: “Will you tell me the story that goes with your picture?”
Student: [Silence]
T: “What’s happening?”
S: [“me”]
T: “Okay and what are you doing?”
S: [“me …park”]
T: “Oh, so does your story go, ‘One day I was at the park?’”
S: [nod - ‘yes’]
T: “What did you do next?”
S: [“play”]
T: “Oh, so you played at the park, you can write that here. Keep going. How does it end?”
S: [“Fell down, ouch”]
T: “Oh no; you can write that here. I fell down. How did you feel?”
S: [“sad”]
T: “I felt sad.”

Contact me if you would like more information or assistance with these ideas.

Tomorrow’s CTG topic: Knowledge and Accessibility: Promoting Higher Ordered Thinking and Accessible Testing Activities!

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Part 1 - Considerations for Teaching and Learning

(Workshop summary- Autism Spectrum Disorders: Therapies to Consider, by Tina K. Veale, Ph.D. Eastern Illinois University; September 28, 2007)

Let’s start with the question; what is an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? ASD is a spectrum of disorders involving social, communicative, and behavioral symptoms that manifest from neurobiological and/or genetic origins. The communication and social interaction components of ASD have the most notable impact on daily activities and relationships in all environments (school, home, community). Autism Disorder and Asperger Disorder are examples of ASD’s.

Autism Learner Characteristics:
In order to teach a child with Autism, it’s helpful to think the way a person with Autism would think. Individuals with Autism have several unique learner characteristics. These learners:
• Prefer a fast pace - when the flow of information is interrupted, mental engagement or attention is lost.
• Do not like repetition.
• Respond best to Visual Directions, auditory directions are harder to follow. Combine verbal instructions with a visual representation or gesture. For readers, write directions and highlight.
• Attend to one sensory stimulus at a time, and use only one sensory receptor (hearing, vision, touch, etc) at a time (mono channel or mono processing). Classic multi-sensory teaching is confusing to these learners.

• Present visual information first
• Add auditory next
• Demonstrate
• Use a sequential process to present information

• Respond well to encouragement, “Show me”

• Cognitive inferences are very difficult – help the learner make the inference through specific feedback: “you did this one right; this one is wrong. Lets see how you did this one; now do this one the same way”.

• Need sit well supported. Full contact with their seat (seat & back support) gives them good sensory input through their body and feet making them more ready to learn: sitting straight, legs quiet. Rifton chairs are excellent seats to accomplish this. (http://www.rifton.com/products/sitting/seatingsystem/index.html)
Learners can distract themselves with moving body parts, and not sitting up straight.
• Have an intelligence and aptitude for learning new material.
• Are detailed focused – not big picture oriented – and they may not choose the same details that the teacher is interested in.
• Are good sequential learners – doing one step at a time. They are not good simultaneous learners (process many things at same time). Language & social skills are examples of simultaneous functions while dismantling the radio is a sequential function.
• Respond to timing and rhythm
• Have good rote, phonological (sound) memory, and can file words by first sound.
• Are highly motivated to finish tasks – sequential learners.
• Are motivated to be successful – and by successful learning experiences.

Individuals with Autism Disorder experience the following challenges to learning:
• Attention deficit - impulsivity
• Can process only one stimulus at a time
• Cognitive Inflexibility. (“Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt cognitive processing strategies to face new and unexpected conditions in the environment. Cognitive Inflexibility occurs in situations where a person needs to be flexible in order to deal with changes in the environment, but fails to do so. An example of this inflexibility occurs when actions that have shown to be effective in previous situations are insistently carried out in new situations where they are ineffective.”) [Source: José J. Cañas, http://www.ugr.es/~ergocogn/articulos/cognitive_flexibility1.pdf. ]
• Narrow range of interests – ideational perseveration (one thought repeating)
{Strategy – help them interrupt the repeating idea sequentially – say: "you are thinking about cars" > redirect> “I need you to switch”, or > “I played with cars too, first the car zoomed, then beeped, then crashed, and finally went home – good-bye”.}
• Nonverbal messaging
• Executive function disorder – it’s difficult to plan and carry out daily routine activities.
• Emotional regulation

Asperger Disorder (AD) Learner Characteristics
Difficulty with social skills and change (or transitions) are features of AD, and individuals with AD prefer sameness & routine. They may develop obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading nonverbal cues (body language) and the individual with AD may have difficulty estimating personal body space. Individuals with AD may be overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, or may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one else seems to hear or see. It's important to know that the person with AD perceives the world very differently. Therefore, many behaviors that seem odd or unusual are due to those neurological differences and not the result of intentional rudeness or bad behavior. Individuals with Asperger Disorder also have unique learner characteristics.
These learners:
• Do NOT like a fast pace
• Are not good with time, space, amount, timing & rhythm. Awareness of the passage of time, and estimation of time are poor.
• Tend to be Disorganized - Executive function disorder – which affects the ability to complete tasks; individuals with AD may need support throughout life to stay organized.


There are several different types of therapies for children with ASD’s and Associated Conditions. In part 2, I’ll summarize those presented by Tina Veale, in “Autism Spectrum Disorders: Therapies to Consider”.