Reflecting on 2017

I am so incredibly proud of how all my students have improved this year. When i was writing my student reports i realised just how much progress they have made. Especially for those students in my class who had remained on the same reading level for many years. 

At the end of every year we celebrate our students success with an end of year outing. I am looking forward to what 2018 will bring. 

Thank you all for being part of our journey. 

Make a deal ...

As the year winds down so does the structure of many classrooms. The classroom can often be louder and less predictable at the end of the year.

While i try my best to kept the class routine the same my students have begun to notice that the end of year is looming. One of my students has started to become anxious about school finishing and his behavior has escalated over the last two weeks. 

I have planned a class trip this week. To encourage good behavior for the week I have made a reward chart to work towards being allowed to go on the trip. 

Before setting up a reward system I ensure that i follow these guidelines:

- Be clear about what behavior you are trying to change

- Make it achievable and realistic (not too many stickers needed)

- Identify the prize ahead of time

- Be consistent with giving stickers

- Link the sticker with the desired behavior to encourage positive behavior

- Use as a reward NOT a bribe, do not threaten to remove stickers.

Making Words - Update

For the past two terms i have been using a programme called "making words" which was suggested by Dr Sally Clendon. At Sommerville we are fortunate enough to get regular professional development by Sally who focuses on a "balanced literacy curriculum".

I have blogged about this programme previously which you can find here and here.

I have been using this programme with one of my students who struggles with decoding and spelling who is currently reading at level 17/18.

I have noticed huge changes in Evan since using this programme daily. There are mini-lessons which use specific letters and a "special" word that they have to build up to spelling. The lessons start off by spelling small letters like "as". The teacher gives specific instructions to help them to build more complex words, eg; add a letter to the start of the word "at" to spell the word "pat". The student has to use their sound knowledge to word out where the letters have to go. Evan's confidence with spelling has grown so much that now he doesn't need as specific prompts, now we say to him "use three letters to spell the word cat". The managing self skills that Evan has gained has transferred to his writing. Previously he was unable to write a sentence without adult support, this week Evan wrote a story about his cow puppet independently.

Colourful Semantics

I use Colourful semantics in my classroom to help develop students early foundation literacy skills. It is a good programme for developing sentence structure. At Sommerville many of the teachers use colourful semantics as a system to support students with their reading and writing using the colour coding as a prompt. A colleague of mine, Lidia, has always used this programme as part of her reading programme and when i started at Sommerville i adopted a similar approach.

Colourful semantics is an approach created by Alison Bryan. It is aimed at helping to develop their grammer but is rooted in the meaning of words. It works by students reassembling sentenctes by putting them in order by their colour coded stages. There are different levels within the programme.
           - WHO : Orange
           - WHAT DOING : Yellow
           - WHAT : Green
           - WHERE : Blue
Below is a website with more information:
http://integratedtreatmentservices.co.uk/our-approaches/speech-therapy-approaches/colourful-semantics-2/ 

A huge thank you to Lidia who has inspired me to structure my reading activities using colourful semantics. Here are some examples of how i use colourful semantics in my classroom.

Impact Story - Key Competencies and Reading

One of my biggest success stories this year has been James. Up until this year he remained on the same reading level for many years with limited success. I believe that improving his ability to manage himself alongside an individualised reading programme has attributed to his reading success.

Elkonin Boxes

Two of my students currently struggle with decoding words during writing and sounding out words during reading. I saw Anita (http://sfsanitaunka.blogspot.co.nz/) use Elkonin boxes with a group of ESOL students in her classroom. I have yet to visit her in action but i couldn't wait to implement them as part of my reading programme.
After a bit of research online i found a strategy that i thought would be beneficial for James in particular as he has recently moved up to yellow. James is frequently appealing for help as he is overwhelmed with the amount of words in his current books (he was stuck on Magenta for many years).
If he is stuck on a word he uses a red dot to put in each Elkonin box as he sounds out the word slowly. Next he is given some cut up letters and has to put them in the boxes to spell the word out. Already i can see James gaining confidence in his reading again as he is reading with more flow.

Article i used as a guide : http://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/Phonics-Sound-Elkonin-Boxes.pdf

Examples of Visible Learning

Last term i blogged about the importance of visible learning in special education .(http://ssslaurencol.blogspot.co.nz/2017/09/visible-learning-in-special-education.html)
I thought i would share the different ways in which i make the learning visible in my classroom across different activities. My colleague, Donna also blogged about learning intentions recently and shared some wonderful examples of how other teachers at Sommerville Special School are making learning explicit for their students. The link to her blog is below.
http://sssdonnaryan.blogspot.co.nz/2017/10/what-am-i-learning.html

1. Individualised work

2. Morning circle on the smartboard using visuals to convey meaning

3. Sharing Reading (using a colourful semantic colour prompt)

4. Reading log which goes home to parents to share their individual goals for reading

5. Learning boards (shared on a previous post http://ssslaurencol.blogspot.co.nz/2017/07/student-self-assessment.html)

6. Individual daily target (token economy)

Working with Words

Evan is a very competent reader but has limited understanding about grammar. I am working on "filling in the gaps" in his understanding he can  however  get anxious when learning anything new if he doesn't immediately know the answer.

I found a resource in our library with printable games to teach different skills which fits in with his literacy goals this term. They are games that are motivating and engaging, Evan was unaware that he was learning a new skill. Towards the end of the lesson he was able to circle the adjective in each sentence after playing the game. 

Below is a video of how Evan used the adjective cards to make an appropriate sentence with the winter picture scene. 

Developing Social Skills

I am fortunate enough to have a ABA (applied behavior analysis) intern in my classroom this year.  
She is fantastic with the students and implements programmes to help shape behavior or teach new skills.

Behavior analysis focuses on the principles that explain how learning takes place. Positive reinforcement is one such principle. When a behavior is followed by some sort of reward, the behavior is more likely to be repeated. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the use of these techniques and principles to bring about meaningful and positive change in behavior.

https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/treatment/applied-behavior-analysis-aba 

 
Stacey (ABA intern) set up a video modelling programme to show James how to interact appropriately in the playground. He watches this as often as possible, usually before playtime. 

As i also wanted to focus on social skills this term as part of my inquiry i made some resources to work alongside Staceys programme. There are some fantastic resources on the website "http://www.twinkl.co.uk/" which is where i got these from. First he reads a social story on how to be a good friend and then has to sort the scenarios into piles of "good friend" and "bad friend".
James completes these activities as part of his morning work box each day. James can sometimes become obsessed with negative behavior however he appears to be responding well to both the video and the resources. Check out the video of him below...

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

How often should we be reading in our classrooms?

In many special education classrooms it can be challenging to have the same demands as a mainstream classroom would. My students need regular movement breaks which takes time away from the classroom. My students cannot cope with a typical classroom timetable however i try to implement as many literacy opportunities as i can. It has taken 2 years to be able to put this many demands on our timetable and as you can see our day is split into "mini-lessons" to weave literacy throughout the day. Other classrooms at Sommerville have fewer reading opportunities because the needs in their classroom are much higher or they have different reading goals related to concepts about print.
I have included a timetable of all reading based activities (not including other curriculum areas) as one of the many questions i have been asked is how often i read with my students. Below is a brief explanation about what each activities looks like in my classroom.

Time	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8.30 – 9.15 9.30 9.45 – 9.55 9.55 – 10.30	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games	Morning work box Morning Message	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Individual literacy skills	Morning work box Morning Message Word wall games Library
MORNING TEA AND PLAYGROUND
11.20 – 11.35	Shared reading	Shared reading	Shared reading		Shared reading
LUNCH AND PLAYGROUND
1.40 – 1.50 1.50 – 2.10	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading	Self-Selected Reading 1:1 reading

- Morning work box: a TEACCH inspired workstation where children work completely independent with activities they have learnt to master
- Morning message: Each morning i write a message to my students including words from the word wall
- Word Wall games: different whole class games, each student works on different skills
- Individual Literacy skills: a block focusing on making words, grammer etc
- Library : reading to and with the students with books they engage in
- Shared reading: one book a week with a different focus/activity each day eg, "read the book to find the main characters in the story"
- Self-selected reading : completely independent reading, they choose books from the computer, library or i-pad
- 1:1 reading: students read 1x book a week with a different activity/focus each day. I make up reading packs for each student (see previous post)

I try to make sure that students get the opportunity to...
Be read to - morning message, shared reading, library
Read with - 1:1 reading, individual literacy skills
Read independently - SSR, morning work box, library

Where are my students at?

At the beginning of the term i outlined a list of mini-goals that i wanted to focus on for each individual in my inquiry (listed below from a previous blog post). 

• James : attempt to sound out a word he doesn't know. I am going to try Elkonin boxes with him as seen on another colleagues blog. 
• Evan : Attend 2x mainstream classes a week for reading. 
• Toby : implement a programme suggested by my schools SLT to teach Toby comprehension. 

Here is how i have progressed with my inquiry. My students did not have "managing self" goals this term as their behavior in the class has stabilized and they are settled. 

James: I have not yet implemented Elkonin boxes as we focused on inflectional endings instead. Initially James was only reading the root word,  he can now read words with different endings.

Evan: Unfortunately the mainstream teacher left the school and Evan was unable to attend many sessions. I am approaching multiple teachers in the junior syndicate and we will work on integrating him to another classroom. Evan also started on a "making words" programme to assist with his spelling

Toby: Toby completes a reading comprehension programme daily after reading his book. He can now respond to familiar questions by pointing out objects from the book in response to "find one that looks like this". Previously he would repeat your question back rather than responding appropriately by following instructions.

Here are the reading level results from Term 3, i look forward to the final results at the end of the year. I will share my goals for next term in another blog post.  

Student	Reading Level T2	Reading Level T 3
Toby	2 Magenta	Emergent red 2/3
Evan	17 Turquoise	18 Turquoise
James	4 red	5 red

Term 3 Reflection

This term my class have been settled and calm. The current behavior strategies are working and my students are thriving. I have seen growth across all curriculum areas but especially reading. We read 1:1 four afternoons a week; all of my students know the routine therefore reading in my classroom is generally the calmest part of the day. This goes to prove that there is a significant link between managing self and accelerated shift in reading.
Next term i wanted to have a class focus on another key competency which is part of my inquiry. My students struggle with the key competency "relating to others".

The reason i have not addressed this particular key competency is because i wanted the students to be able to manage themselves before focusing on social skills.
In the last year my classroom have integrated into the mainstream playground during playtime. This is a very challenging part of our day as the students can be unpredictable in social situations as they navigate how to interact with their peers. Next term I will be implementing strategies to help my students understand social interactions to be able to build relationships.

Blanks Level of Questioning

Toby is currently reading at Magenta (2) however he has the sight word knowledge to be able to read at a much higher level but he does not yet have the skills to be able to answer questions related to the story. Comprehension for children with disabilities can be very challenging as many of the questions can be abstract.
My students SLT (speech language therapist) suggested that we start getting Toby to respond to simple instructions through varying levels of questioning. She gave me some resources to use in class based on "Marion Blanks Level of Questioning". As i became familiar with her activities that she made i started to make my own that linked with his weekly reader. Below is a video of Toby using the resources i have made. He completes these activities 4x a week and also takes them home. I have written instructions so everyone involved knows how to use them.

For more information see the website below:
http://askaspeechie.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Blank-handout.pdf

Inflectional Endings..

James is currently reading at level 5. Now that the books are becoming more challenging he is noticing the difference in word endings. Sometimes he will read the base word only and skip the ending. I have started to add some inflectional ending activities to teach him the different variations in a word. This was the first session i did with him and i haven't yet touched on past or present tense.

First i pointed out words in his reader and asked him to repeat them, then i asked him to say the sound at the end of the word. We started with the word "looks" which he read correctly after being prompted to pronounce the sound at the end. I asked him to find a word that looks the same on our word wall, he found the word "look". 

Some of the words in his activity are in his reader and some are additional words added to the activity. I was so impressed at how fast he picked it up. 

Reading Success!

Reading has always been a huge challenge for James who remained on level 1/2 for 4 years.
 He struggled to retain sight words he learnt and also struggled with comprehension.
Through repetitive word wall activities, visual based reading activities and behavior strategies in place, James has moved up 3 reading levels which is such a huge achievement.
When my students achieve a milestone i send home a milestone card and I display my students success in the foyer in our classroom.

Reading Packs

Unlike mainstream classrooms where they read a different book every day, in my class they have 1x book for the week however they have a different focus each day that they read. They also take their reading books home as well as the activities. I make up a 'reading pack' with activities that vary depending on the book and level. Another teacher at my school, Lidia, structures her reading programme similarly so we swap our reading packs to share activities and ideas. It is a great way to share the work load and to get ideas. I love having another teacher to bounce ideas off.

Here are some examples of the activities i have made for a Magenta 1/2 book and a Red 3 book.

Making Words - Update

This week i started Evan on a programme called "Making Words" (see previous post). Evan was able to spell most of the 3 letter words but once the words started to increase in size he needed help. I gave him 'hints' to guide him but never gave him the answer. He enjoyed finding rhyming words and commented on how many words he could make with only 5 letters!

I thought that he may get upset once he couldn't spell a word on his own as this is what generally happens during writing tasks but because the programme is very specific he felt confident that he would be able to complete the task. 

Each lesson has a 'secret' word using all of the letters provided. Throughout the activity he was excited to find out what the secret word was. He was so motivated that he asked me what secret word he is going to spell next week. I love his enthusiasm for learning. 

Visible Learning in Special Education

I have been in special education for 6 years. I have always been told to minimise spoken language so that our students can process what is being said. 

While this is important for providing instructions and especially important for students with communication difficulties I also believe it is important to provide a vocabulary rich environment. 

Many teachers in special education believe their students wont understand if we share their learning goals with them or it will confuse them further. 

This year i made it my personal goal to ensure that every lesson had a learning intention which i could share with my students. Almost 1 year later i have started to notice my students talking about their learning goals or what they have achieved, even students using only keywords to communicate are able to express what they are learning. It is so powerful watching my students have ownership and control over their own learning. This week Evan said, "oo what am i learning today? I like learning about vowels." 

In special education it is so important to assume the best in our students because every day my students surprise me. 

I have shared a template for sharing learning intentions in a previous post which you can see here.

Making Words - Mini Lessons

I have a student in my class (Evan) who is a very confident reader but when it comes to writing tasks or attempting to spell words he shuts down and refuses to complete his work.
This term i have been reading a book called "Making Words" which entails a very specific phonemic awareness and spelling programme.
This week i am going to implement a mini-lesson after each guided reading session for Evan to practice making words. The book breaks down each step with small tasks which doesn't require Evan to write but uses his letter-sound awareness to make words.
The book has set lessons however i am going to split one lesson across the week so that Evan has time to process what he has done and doesn't get overwhelmed with the workload.

Ending Sounds

Many of the students in my classroom have communication or speech difficulties. This makes reading and writing difficult for them as they are unable to pronounce or hear all of the sounds in the word. It takes a lot longer for my students to learn their initial word sounds as they are unable to verbalise many sounds. It is important to take this into consideration when teaching students who have speech difficulties.
Two of my students can now identify the initial sound at the start of an unfamiliar word. This is evident in their reading and writing as they will use beginning sound cues to guess what the word might be or write the first letter down when writing a story. These two students are now working on identifying the middle and ending sounds and they are also learning to make CVC words. While the student in this video isn't one of my target students, i have been using similar activities with James. Both students have speech difficulties.
 In this video this student has to identify if he can hear the "n" sound at the beginning or the end of the word. I decided to use these activities to introduce him to sounds at the end of the word. I felt that teaching them the sound at the end would be the best next step rather than middle sounds. Medial sounds are often vowels which my students struggle to identify as they sound similar. 

Where to from here?

This week I attended our CoL Hui where all of the teachers in our CoL displayed our inquires. It was a great opportunity to share my journey with other professionals and see how other teachers were progressing with their inquiries. What a wonderful experience to reflect on my practice and my inquiry as many of the visitors to my display asked me some interesting and valid questions; the main question?

My students are improving and moving up reading levels (2/3 students). If they haven't shifted reading levels then they have increased their sight word knowledge and gaining confidence in reading. The strategies that i have implemented to improve the Key Competency - Managing Self are working. My students can work for longer periods of time and are more willing to take risks with their reading. Below is an outline of what i am wanting to achieve by the end of the term with my students reading and behavior management. As each student is so different there is not a "one size fits all" approach.
I will update my blog on the success of the following:

• James : attempt to sound out a word he doesn't know. I am going to try Elkonin boxes with him as seen on another colleagues blog. James will say "i don't know" and ask "whats this" when coming across a unfamiliar word. 
• Evan : Attend 2x mainstream classes a week for reading. At the moment Evan goes once a week. He is allowed to return to class whenever he is ready as sometimes he doesn't cope. I will implement some form of communication symbol that he can show to the support person to indicate that he wants to leave the class. 
• Toby : implement a programme suggested by my schools SLT to teach Toby comprehension. At the moment Toby can point to symbols to answer questions but often repeats your question rather than answering the question. He has to be taught how to answer a question. Currently he can answer "who" questions with support. 

Morning Message

Each day I write a message to my students. They help to choose a greeting at the start of the message , they use words from the word wall to help to spell words and assist with sounding unfamiliar words out. Once the message has been written the students read the message back. Sometimes we read the message in a funny voice.
My students are always engaged during morning message as they enjoy helping me to write the message and finding out what my message will say.
Some students with learning difficulties associate writing with specific writing tasks, the morning message shows them a functional writing task that has purpose as it conveys an important message. They can also see the link between writing and reading.

High Frequency Words - Results

I have always had a word wall in my classroom however last year i felt that my students never used it or even recognized the words on the wall. This year I have worked on using the word wall effectively in order to recognise their high frequency words. At Sommerville we have our own list of high frequency words that we use to test the students on their word recognition.
As part of my inquiry i set out to implement different games that we played every day that would include all of the students with their different skills. Some students work on recalling the word and putting it under the correct letter and other students are using their chosen word in a sentence, finding words that rhyme or finding out how many syllables in the word. This way i can include all of my students in the same game.
Here are the results of using the word wall daily for two of my students who I have selected as part of my inquiry.
* Please note that Evan's results are not shown as he can already recall all words in word list 1-4.

Positivity Breeds Positivity...

This week i went out to see a colleague of mine Susan, who teaches in one of our Junior Satellite classes. I was amazed at how well her students responded to her teaching team as well as how nicely they interacted with each other. Her classroom oozed positivity and she celebrated every success no matter how small the achievement was. Her students were glowing with praise they received and the classroom environment was set up well for her students. I have taken many of her strategies on board which i will implement this term.

My students are very social where they enjoy interacting with each other however it doesn't always end well. I find myself having to intervene before the behavior escalates. After visiting Susan i have decided to implement a reward system that she uses which gives more frequent praise throughout the day. Each student will have to earn stickers on their chart, when they have filled the 5 boxes they can put a tick on their strip. Once they have all 5 ticks they can choose a prize from our prize box. This system worked well in Susan's class and i know my students will also respond well.
This week i will have a meeting with my teacher aides to get them on board with the overall aim of increasing our positive behavior strategies in the classroom.

Taking Risks with Reading

My inquiry this year is the link between the key competency of "Managing Self" and my students reading levels. One of my students that I am focusing on doesn't like to take risks with his reading. Instead of sounding words out he will ask me what the word is, even if he has the skills to decode the word on his own. I have built a good relationship with this student as he has been in my class for almost two years. A year ago he would never have tried this activity for the fear of getting it wrong. The importance of building strong relationships with our students is imperative to their success, especially with students who display more challenging behavior.

http://educationtothecore.com/2015/12/ways-to-build-stronger-relationships-with-your-students/

Positive Behaviour Strategies

At Sommerville we use a positive behavior approach to manage challenging behavior in the classroom.
Sometimes the function of the behavior is unclear and we need to collect observational data to find out what is causing the behavior. I have been using the same system for over a year and i have found it very useful for students with challenging behavior because it is student driven and allows them the opportunity to think about their own behavior to earn rewards.
Each of my students focuses on a specific and individualized learning goal to manage their own  behavior in the classroom such as..
- using a quiet voice in the classroom
- using "gentle hands"
- being kind to my friends
The students earn stars on their charts to earn free play at the end of the day. They need 4/5 or a full 5 stars to earn free play. Most of the students manage their own charts by themselves, however if they do not earn a star we do not focus on the negative behavior, instead we focus on how many more they need to earn free play.
There are some excellent resources available on the TKI website.
http://pb4l.tki.org.nz/Encourage-Positive-Behaviours/Support-material

Decoding Skills

James is currently reading at Red 3. For the last year James has been working on his initial sound knowledge to work out words he doesn't know. Now that he has got this skill i need to move him onto making words as well as identifying middle and ending sounds.
I started him on this activity which he was able to do with support. He was able to find the beginning letter independently and i helped him to sound out the end sound by slowing the word down as i repeated it back however he needed much more support for the vowel sounds. James struggles to hear the difference between similar sounds like "i" , "a" and "e" due to his speech impediment. For his reading this term i will focus more on vowels to bridge this gap in his reading and writing.

Teaching Comprehension

Teaching comprehension is a challenging task, especially if the student has special needs or communication difficulties. Comprehension is one of the main reasons why my students are unable to move up to higher reading levels. As the books get harder, they find it more challenging to recall information or follow the main story line. Sometimes my students do not have the vocabulary to be able to answer questions about the book however it doesn't mean that they don't understand the text they have read. 

I have started using multi choice question activities and true/false activities when working with James who has recently moved from Magenta to Red books which have much more content. 

Below are some examples of activities i have made to go with each reader to increase his comprehension skills. 

 

Student Self Assessment

As part of my focusing inquiry i am looking at the Key Competency "Managing Self". Part of managing themselves is getting our students to think about their own learning and to reflect on the work they have done. Self Assessment in special education can be very challenging to achieve when many of the students have communication difficulties. 

" In self-assessment a learner evaluates their own work, and thinks about their own learning. This helps them to make sense of what the teacher says, relate it to previous learning and use this for new learning" 
https://cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswafl/index.html

A colleague of mine, Lidia shared a self assessment resource with me that she has started to use with her group of students to teach meta-cognition. I have adapted her version which i am going to be using for differentiated instruction during 1:1 teaching time during literacy and maths. To start with my students may not make the connection between their learning and what the smiley faces indicate, however, over time I am hoping that they will be able to provide feedback on how they think their learning went. 

To download a copy of this resource click HERE

Reading Results

What a busy and rewarding term for my students. I am overwhelmed at the success my students have had this term. At the beginning of my journey I shared my students initial reading levels. After implementing multiple strategies to mange their on task behavior i have seen a huge shift in my students reading this term.

Students	Reading Level T1	Reading Level T2
Toby	1/2 Magenta	2 Magenta
Evan	14 Green	15 Orange
James	2 Magenta	3 Red

Toby continues to work on answering comprehension questions using a core board. This term he was able to use the board to label characters and objects from the book. He is coping well at reading less repetitive books at level 2.
James has made a huge jump up to red level this term and he has found a new appreciation for reading. He is enjoying the added content that a higher level book provides. His reading is slow but he is trying hard to work out new words he doesn't know.
Evan has joined the mainstream classes at Tamaki Primary for reading, he reads at a lower level in the mainstream classes so he is successful.

My students have also made significant gains with their sight word recognition scores which i put down to my word wall activities which are repeated each day. The biggest learning challenge for me this term has been teaching comprehension. Our class speech language therapist is going to work with me next term to help Toby with his comprehension and language.