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!