sutton062

This is a long post but it is so worth reading if you are struggling or want to improve the way you teach literacy to your students with significant disabilities. In the short time I have been doing this I can already see the benefits and wish I would have started this sooner. Teaching reading and writing to our students with significant disabilities can be tricky. You may often think, do they get this? Is this worth my time? How do I get them to interact if they are non verbal? No worries, I have had these same thoughts until recently. I attended a training at my local ISD and left feeling so inspired. Before diving into this I want you to know I have 11 students on my caseload. I have 3 students who I use this method with and it takes about 45-60 minutes a day. All 3 students are non verbal. One has a communication device, can spell and will hold a writing utensil for 5 minutes or longer. The other 2 students do not have a communication device, cannot yet identify letters and before ...

Let's face it, as teachers we are busy. And when I say busy I mean when I get home at 7:00 every night I have to ask myself did I eat today? Was I able to leave for the bathroom? kind of busy! Teaching is super rewarding and I love my job, but at times it can be difficult to find the time in the day to include everything that is expected of us. Over the past 4 years I have tweaked and tweaked and reworked my schedule a ton but I think I finally have things down and feel that I effectively utilize every minute of my day. I want to share some of the tips, tricks and/or strategies I use in my day with you! Hopefully you can use some of these and leave everyday feeling like you utilized your time wisely. Whole Group I spend the first month or so teaching every task I would eventually like my students to do independently in a whole group. This gives me a good idea of how well they can do the task and it gives my para the chance to see what I expect. Sure these tasks are easy and may not...

Let's face it, our jobs are tough and as much as we want to teach whole group it can be difficult! I am ALWAYS looking for activities that my students can work on independently. I had to find ways to keep my kids busy while I worked with their classmates. I came up with this fun and differentiated language arts activity that can be used in a variety of ways. With this alphabet writing activity students can work on a variety of reading and writing skills depending on their level. Reading Students can sort words into different categories. For vowels they can sort initial sounds, long and short vowels. For consonants they can sort initial and ending sounds. Depending on the independent level of your students you can pick and choose what you want them to do. Some ways I use them are: sorting all words into all of the categories, reading words for 1 category and saying them into the iPad (or other voice recording device), direct matching words. Writing After students complete the readin...

Welcome to the SPED Tricks and Treats Blog Hop. I am so excited to share my tricks and treat with you! Introduce technology into your T.E.A.C.C.H work tasks. Take pictures of various building or pattern tasks. I like doing these because it allows our students to use technology as a tool rather than a choice time activity. I also like this because it is super easy and quick to make changes for future tasks or on the fly. I store the iPad in the drawer with the task itself. Use Wiki Stixs to engage your readers in the lesson. I have some students who struggle to do paper pencil tasks. I do this to allow him to show me he knows the answer. If I need to have documentation of his work I simply snap a picture, print it, date it and put it in his file. Ever have students who are doing everything they can to get your attention? Do you struggle to ignore them because all you can think about is how difficult it will be to clean up their mess? Well...if you take the time to label EVERYTHING in yo...