As part of my group work within the special education room, I have a story as part of the routine. I have a variety of students in this room who are all are different levels of expressive language and who have different goals. In order to meet the needs of this diverse group, I need to prepare materials that will support each of the students.
As it is November we are reading the story ” 5 Little Turkeys”. 5 Little Turkeys Adapted Story. I have one first-grade boy who uses the book that just has the sentences as he is a reader.
I have three students ( 2nd-grade boy, 1st-grade girl and kindergarten girl) who use the story with the adapted sentences as although they are beginning to read they are not yet fluent. The adapted sentence also helps them make a comment as the adapted sentence is not the prose of the story but rather indicating how many turkeys there are at that point of the story. If then, they try to read the prose that is okay but they are also able to make a comment.
There is also a student that has limited verbalization and we are expanding her vocabulary. While she is part of the whole poem or story being read, and she is shown hand over hand the comment on the page, the expectation for her is that she is able to say the targetted word.
She matches a card with a turkey to this one and says the word. Once she is very good with this task I will introduce her to the numbers and have her count and say the number of turkeys on the page, and finally, I will see if she can label the items on the page ( door, sun, tree, run) All of these visuals are included.
I am finding that I prefer to use binder clips to put together my books rather than binding them. The binder clips allow me to lay the books flat. When I was using the binding machine I found that there were times that the spiral binding would begin to unwind or the children would begin to unravel the binding.
I also review the book in my individual sessions with the children. I have some graduate students working with me and they were working with one of the children who said to them ” I want my book” when the therapist had pulled out a different level of the book. I was excited about this as it is the beginning of self-advocacy as the student selected the book that supported them as a learner.
You can meet the needs of this diverse group when you prepare materials that will support each of the students.
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