Cozy chats about speech, language and learning

Reading comprehension

The Scarecrow’s Hat And Teaching Story Sequencing

The Scarecrow’s Hat And Teaching Story Sequencing

Good children’s literature can be the vehicle to teach story grammar. I love ” The Scarecrow’s Hat” by Ken Brown to teach story sequencing as there is a very clear story sequence structure. ” The Scarecrow’s Hat” is a story in which the chicken  admires…

Listening Comprehension versus Reading Comprehension

Listening Comprehension versus Reading Comprehension

Listening Comprehension skills versus Reading Comprehension Skills I know that it may be confusing when you are writing goals but if you are the person that is reading the story to a child what we are measuring is listening. If the child is the only…

Story Retell

Story Retell

Story Retell: Story Retell is one way to measure listening or reading comprehension. This is usually done using a rubric as there are so many elements that need to be measured as well as the support that you may be giving to the student. Reading…

Examples of Lesson Plans for a Story Retell

Examples of Lesson Plans for a Story Retell

In the summer of 2015 students at Providence College had a project to examine communication disorders  and to construct a lesson plan for a read aloud. They needed to take a trade book with a multicultural theme and prepare a 3-day lesson plan that incorporated…

Oral Language the Framework for Written Language

Oral Language the Framework for Written Language

  We have been spending a great deal of time understanding oral language.  Why is this important for written language?  What is the correlation? Here is a great PowerPoint from the Department of Education: Oral and written language2 Some have found the paragraph’s graphs confusing…

All Questions are Not Equal, Use Bloom’s Taxonomy

All Questions are Not Equal, Use Bloom’s Taxonomy

A common therapy goal is for a child to increase comprehension skills as measured by their ability to answer questions. It is important, however, to consider the type of question that is being asked. There is a difference between ” Who broke the chair in…

Braidy: The Story Grammar Marker by Mindwing: A lesson on Setting

Braidy: The Story Grammar Marker by Mindwing: A lesson on Setting

Mindwing’s Story Grammar Marker is a great tool to teach story grammar.  You use Braidy for the younger student.   The older children use a story braid   However, there are times that students have difficulty with some of the concepts presented in the program.…

Close Reading Strategies

Close Reading Strategies

  This year I wrote a grant for East Greenwich School system that helped support close reading strategies. The grant was from the Rhode Island Department of Education and it allowed staff from Frenchtown and Meadowbrook to be able to attend the Core Reading Institute…

Determining Reading Levels of Books or Text Selections, Student Instructional levels

Determining Reading Levels of Books or Text Selections, Student Instructional levels

When choosing a book for speech and language therapy you want to make sure that the text matches your student’s reading level.   There are several tools that you can use that will make this easier. Scholastic has a tool called Book Wizard: http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ This will…

It’s Mine by Leo Lionni  Lesson Using Text Talk from Scholastic

It’s Mine by Leo Lionni Lesson Using Text Talk from Scholastic

  In class I am using  “Text Talk”.  This program delivers direct vocabulary instruction of sophisticated words, combined with rich talk about text, to provide students with critical language and reading comprehension skills. This scientifically based program has been proven effective in raising students’ knowledge…