Interest Based Learning

Interest Based Learning is a strategy that Special Education Teachers naturally become quite skilled at. When so many students are difficult to engage then you will use whatever you can to spark their interest.
I had a student last year that enjoyed writing about lawnmowers. On challenging days where i wasn't able to get him to do any writing, we would research his favourite lawnmower and write a story about it.
When i get a new student in my classroom, the first thing i do is send home a questionnaire asking about their special interests, hobbies, important people in their lives and places they like to go. I then use this information to create activities and resources to use to teach them new skills.
One of my students enjoys watching things fall. This can often be a barrier to his learning as he will continuously drop materials instead of using them in a activity (eg puzzle pieces).
As part of my inquiry i am using a Interest Based Learning approach to engage and motive my learners. In this video you will see a alphabet activity i made based on my students interest of things falling. I gave him a choice of 2 letters and when he chose the correct one he could put the letter down the tube which then splashed into water. This activity was a highly motivating activity for this student who was so keen to choose the correct letter that he was able to focus and engage for the whole session.

Testing Success!

This term i have focused hugely on assessment. I now have a good relationship with my students and a good grasp of their current skills.
I have a few students who i find challenging to assess. I have tried many different assessment techniques and the data remains inconclusive.

Getting accurate testing information from students who are unable to verbalize the answer is complex. After attempting alphabet testing with one particular student multiple times with no success I was unsure about what to do next. Some times he was able to show me that he knew some letters and other times I thought he was just guessing. Over the weekend i decided to download some new iPad apps which were motivating and easy to use.
Not only did he get almost all of them correct but I had finally found a testing method for a student who was difficult to test. Now i can use the same method to test letter sounds and high frequency words. Finding alternative testing techniques has been the biggest breakthrough in my inquiry this term.
This year has definitely taught me to try and if something fails....try again!

Testing non-verbal students

I have a range of students in my class and my biggest struggle is finding an appropriate and reliable method to test their skills. I have had an influx of new students in my class this term and whenever I get a new student my first question is, "how do I test what they already know?"

In the past I have success with one of my students using an alphabet programme I made on my smart board. However when i tried this method for my three new students I found it was not suitable. They starting popping all of the balloons not just the letter i was calling out. 

This week i have spent some time teaching my new students to "point to" or "give me" a flashcard. This isn't the most reliable method because when they make a choice out of 3 they may accidentally pick the correct card. With this method i will usually retest them multiple times to make sure my data is correct. However testing alphabet and sound knowledge can take a very long time. Most of my students are still learning to attend and sit for extended periods of time which means testing is done in short mini-sessions. 

When researching other appropriate methods i came across a blog that shared the exact sturggles that I have been having with my students. In this blog there were some excellent suggestions for testing phonological awareness. I have a number of students who can identify both upper case, lower case letters and letter sounds but i am unsure if they are able to link this sound awareness to a word.

With the remainder of the term i am going to try assessing their phonological awareness using the testing strategies outlined in the blog (linked above). I am hoping this will give me more insight into their reading skills. 

Alternative testing techniques

In special education we learn to get creative with how we deliver our teaching and test our students. I have a group of students in my class who i have struggled to formally test. I have used many different techniques to find out if they know their alphabet. For a teacher who has a student who is non-verbal it can be challenging to find out what they know.
Usually i would get them to choose out of 3 cards "show me ___" however what if they cannot yet make choices or don't understand the task? What if they cannot respond to simple instructions like "point to", "show me" or "give me"?
I have a student who i have attempted to test 8 times, ive tried everything from building alphabet towers and getting them to find the correct alphabet block to using  letter stencils to make letters in play dough.
Benjamin (part of my focus group) works well with technology however i couldn't find an app or game that was suitable. I have access to a smart board in my classroom so i made a game where Banjamin had to pop the balloons with the letters on them.
I used peer modelling initially to teach him the task. I used a student who had good alphabet knowledge and as i read out the letter, he would pop the balloon. When it was his turn he completed the task correctly, i was astounded that he knew all his lower case alphabet. I tested him twice to ensure that my data was correct and managed to capture some evidence on video to show his family.
Now that i have found a method to test him, i look forward to finding out what else he knows.

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

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.

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.

Visual Checklists

A visual checklist provides the individual with ownership over their own learning and the ability for them to manage themselves. Those familiar with AFL (Assessment For Learning) will recognise the importance of allowing students the opportunity to participate in assessing their own learning. Students who use self assessment strategies become more independent and motivated learners.
bsolum, M. (2006). Clarity in the classroom. Auckland: Hodder Education.pp 98–117.

Whilst this is particularly challenging with students who have communication difficulties; a visual checklist will allow them to be able to participate and it is a good starting point.
My students use many different checklists throughout the day to identify what they have to do at each step and what to do next.
Students who are not yet able to read or associate meaning to written words will find a visual checklist particularly useful.
This is a photo of one of my students using a self assessment checklist to assess his writing.

Visuals and Assessment

One of my students is able to use key words to express himself and request items. He does not yet have the spoken language to be able to answer questions about the text during guided reading sessions.

To overcome this hurdle I am using a reading core board which is a board of core vocabulary from the text which they can use to answer questions. The visuals i have displayed on this board have both correct and incorrect answers. 

Usually my core-board's would contain colour coded prompts used in a programme called "Colourful Somantics" however i have taken them off this core-board for the function of a running record. 

Once the text has been read I will ask him questions about the story and he will point to the appropriate picture. I make sure that he has a core board for every guided reading book so that he is given the opportunity to answer questions about the story or comment on the book. 

Initial Reading Levels

My target group of students i am focusing on for my inquiry are at all different levels. They all have different challenges that i am going to focus on in order to progress their reading levels.

• Toby : 8 year old boy currently reading at level 1/2 Magenta. Toby uses 1-2 keywords to communicate but does not have the vocabulary yet to answer questions. 
• Evan : 8 year old boy with great vocabulary, reading is a strength of his but he gets frustrated with decoding words he doesn't know. Evan is currently reading at level 14 Green.
• James : 10 year old boy who has been verbal for 5 years. Currently reading at level 2 Magenta, has good initial sound knowledge and uses picture cues when reading unfamiliar text to decode words. 

My boys struggle to focus for extended periods of time. Once they have read their book they want to move onto the next activity quickly so there are limited opportunities to complete activities on each book to further their comprehension of the text. My hunch is that if i focus on extending their 'on-task' behavior by strategies to manage themselves then they their reading levels will improve. Over the course of the term i will share the strategies i am using to increase their on task behavior.