Recent Posts
I love how music aids language!
Old MacDonald is a favorite song of the students that I work with. This simple song has choice making and a sentence request board. This particular song is great for language learning. It is an easy melody for children to learn The repeating chorus helps…
First days back to school
I love my job! Today I was working through the kindergarten speech and language screening and having such a fabulous time talking to these 5-year-olds. Part of the test is having the students repeat words after me. I say “Bib”, the child says, “Bib”. One…
5 Little Monkeys
I love working with music with my students. Something that they are reluctant to do when presented as a work task they will do when it is incorporated into a song. This song is 5 little monkeys hanging from a tree. It uses a count…
Developing a literature unit: Tier Two vocabulary, Bloom’s questions
My plan this summer was to create units using literature and having all the resources in one place. As I have been using children’s literature I have been able to discover that there are some stories in which some of the extensions to create deeper…
Behavior as Communication
Behaviors are a way that children communicate. Think about the newborn. The baby cries to get its needs met as the listener tries to determine the cause of distress. We need to be the same kind of detectives when we see the older child demonstrate…
Using a Song Choice Board
I have always loved incorporating rhymes and music into my lessons. Music assists in memory, developing language, and often a child’s first vocalization can come as they try to sing along. When we are working with children with minimal verbal language skills we need to…
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…
Creating the Read Aloud Lesson Plan: Reflections
As we have been working on our read aloud lesson plans as we go through the semester, what have you learned? If you have begun the lesson with students what has surprised you? What are some of the unique strategies that you have in place…
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…