Progress update - Term 3

This term has been a hectic and busy one and unfortunately i have not been able to trial as many interventions as i initially planned. I have had a huge influx of new students who started during term 3 and each child takes a few weeks to settle. My programme has been disrupted and i haven't had the opportunity to develop behavior strategies to improve my students reading practice.
Here is a brief outline about what i was able to achieve this term in regards to changing my practice and what strategies i put in place to improve the key competency "managing self".

Oliver: This term Oliver has been unsettled due to his family going away for a few weeks of the term and having his routine out of place. In the classroom he is not able to attend and focus like he was during term 2. However a behavior therapy student has been working with Oliver 1:1 to find the cause of his behavior and to set up a behavior plan for the remainder of the year. We are continuing to follow the behavior plan we have put in place and it continues to work well for him. I am looking forward to trialing more interventions for him next term.

Conner: Conner progressed so well during term 1 and 2 that he has been moved to a satellite class in a mainstream school. He has transitioned well to his new class.

Benjamin: Benjamin has made the most progress this term. He is calm, happy, settled and compliant. He is started to vocalise as he is reading rather than just pointing to the words as an adult reads. This is huge progress to Benjamin being able to read by himself as he can already recognise many high frequency words.

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.

Literacy apps for emergent readers.

Following on from my last post, i thought i would share some apps i have found to be successful in the classroom and across Sommerville Special School. I use the iPads as an independent activity as part of my writing rotation.
I have downloaded a whole bunch of other new apps which i will spend some time using in the classroom before sharing. Enjoy!

	Writing Wizard: - excellent tool for tracing letters and numbers
	Sight words by photo touch: - flashcards on screen that read out high frequency words which the student has to press - great for testing sight word knowledge
	ABC alphabet by photo touch: - same concept as the sight words app but upper case alphabet - video shown on previous post
	Special words: - teaching word concepts - starts with matching picture to picture, then picture to word etc - similar concept to the programme "my baby can read"
	Elmo loves ABC's: - All of my students enjoy exploring this app - great for teaching alphabet knowledge
	ABC Magic 1: - flashcards that word like a book. Students can flick through to explore letter sounds, letters and objects beginning with that letter

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. 

Teaching visuals for communication

One of my lovely colleagues has been making activity specific core language boards for reading for many years. When I first moved to Sommerville I saw how they could be used to support reading comprehension and I continued to add them to my reading packs.
I have used them to teach visuals to my students who are non-verbal. Once i have taught them what the symbols mean, i then use the board so that the student can answer questions about the book. For students who are unable to verbalise the words in the book, the board can be used to complete assessments so that you can test their understanding.
In this video one of my students is pointing to the object he can see in the book when asked, "what can you see?"

Please note: sound has been removed to protect the child's identity

Personalised books

Reading should be highly engaging, especially for new and emergent readers. Often the language used in Magenta readers are simple to encourage high frequency word recognition at an early stage. Many of my new students that arrive at school are unable to attend for long periods of time let alone taking part in a shared reading experience at mat time.

To overcome this challenge I have split my class into two groups. 

- One group reads 1:1 with an adult on their individual reading which includes activities i have shared on this blog. Activities include; responding to visuals, identifying high frequency words, matching visuals to the pictures/words and colorful semantics. 

- One group to work on foundation reading tasks such as turning the page, pointing to the words, looking at the book, pointing to pictures and engaging in a story. For this group i have had to adapt my resources to suit their interests. 

At the beginning of the year I always send home a questionnaire  to ask about the students and their interest. Using this information I made lots of books that the students would be interested in so they can choose a book for silent reading. I have had a breakthrough with one of my students who has taken much longer to settle this year. She is now choosing to read a book to read and turning the pages on her own.