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. 

Literacy and Communication

This term i have two new students joining my class, both students are non-verbal and have no communication system currently set up. A huge focus in special education is communication and many classes at our school will have a variety of systems to support the student with communication.
Communication is at the core of all my lessons as it is woven throughout the class programme. Having acess to communication weather it is through a iPad or a core board is vital. I usually modell lamguage on a large core board for the whole class, the support sdtaff working in my classroom will also support individual students who have funded devices or are trailling devices so that the language that i am using is modelled on their individual devices. It is a time consuming and difficult process which makes it more difficult when you have different students using various devices however seeing the results long term is worth it!

In the holidays i watched a very inspiring Ed Talk video about literacy expert, Sally Clendon. At Sommerville we are fortunate enough to get professional development from Sally, i have implemented many of Sally's literacy recommendations and seen the students success as a result.
If you have students in your classroom who are non-verbal or using AAC (Augmentive and Alternative communication) i would highly recommend looking into Sally Clendon's work.
You can find her short Ed talk video by clicking here. 

Colourful Somantics

I posted last year on my blog about colourful semantics and how well it can work for students with communication needs.

You can see the previous post by clicking here.

I have started to use the same resources i used last year however i have simplified the activities by focusing on ONE key area. I am going to include colourful semantics activities in my writing rotation.
My students are working on answering questions about the story, for students who do not yet have the language or are non-verbal then using visuals allows them the chance to be able to communicate their answer.
In this activity, the student is working on answering "who" using pictures from the story. Using the colourful semantics system, "who" is coloured orange. He has to look at the picture and choose the correct visual to identify characters from the story.
I will use this programme in my writing rotation as well.

There is plenty of resources avalibale online. you can find more information by clicking here. 

Student Sucess

This term one of my focus students, Conner, has excelled since starting school. Next term he will be attending one of our satellite classes. It is a good opportunity for him to be able to integrate with his mainstream peers.

In the two terms since he has started school he has learnt to;
- join group activities in the classroom
- complete his morning routine
- write his name
- use his individual timetable so that he understands what he is meant to be doing
- attend to learning activities for an extended period of time (from 5 minutes to 30 minutes). This was a goal for him in the classroom as part of my inquiry.
- reading skills: turning the page, pointing to the words, recognising high frequency words, retelling the story line, identifying the title, answering comprehension questions.
- he has moved from a Level 1 Magenta reader to Level 3 Red reader.
- his high frequency word recognition has increased (see graph).

I look forward to hearing how he progresses in his new classroom. I have two new students starting next term so i will choose another student to add to my focus group.