Howard Wigglebottom, first language lesson of the school year

For this post, I am sharing with you the lesson that I am using for the beginning of the school year. This lesson aligns with common core and meets a variety of language goals.    I am including links to mindwingconcepts.com, Amazon.com, and lessonpix.com for your convenience. 

I work primarily with Preschoolers and kindergarteners, and as of yet, there are no common core standards for preschool.  But I think the standards for Kindergarten give me a good framework for what to work towards.

This lesson will address the following kindergarten standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

This lesson also addresses IEP goals focusing on direction following, increasing MLU, vocabulary, answering “wh” questions, sentence structure, and story narrative. 

Materials:

Braidy The Storybraid (or The Story Grammar Marker) from mindwingconcepts.com.

Howard Wigglebottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow and illustrated by Susan Cornelison.

Sentence Strips: “Howard doesn’t listen.” “Howard learns to listen.” I made my sentence strips from lessonpix.com. 

By vcverve at LessonPix.com

By vcverve at LessonPix.com

Howard Wiggle Bottom is an adorable story that tells about a little rabbit named Howard and his adventures in school. He struggles with listening to his teacher and to his friends, which create problems for all involved.  Eventually he is asked to take a time out.  Howard decides to listen and is positively reinforced for his good listening behavior.  This is a good book for the beginning of the school year, because it helps children recognize appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the classroom session.

This book also lends itself well to story retell as it is a complete episode.  However, the book’s audience is younger children who are just beginning their school year.  In addition, some of the children I work with have not been exposed to the StoryBraidy and are not developmentally ready for the later stages of story retell. Time will need to be spent at the beginning stages.

Step 1:

Review or introduce the concept of Character.  
The manual for the Storybraid comes with excellent lessons on how to teach the concept of character.  While I do adjust the lessons to meet the needs of my students and teachers, I do follow the order and structure.

For my non-verbal/newly verbal students, I will address basic concepts of pointing to body parts (i.e. eyes, face and head.) I do hand over hand with them if necessary, but I work towards having them point or touch eyes and head on both the Braidy Doll and on themselves independently.    I also work on naming body parts.

Students using short phrases and following 1 step directions will begin identifying characters.  I begin asking questions such as “Are you a character?”  “Am I a character?”  “Is your friend a character?”  “Is your pet a character?”  We are beginning to answer “who” questions.  We begin discussion the physical traits of a character (has eyes, face, and head) and the fact that a character can “do” things. 

For students that already have exposure to Braidy, we will also talk about setting in terms of place.  We begin to answer “Where” Questions.  “Where are you?” “Is a school a setting?”

Step 2: 
Read and then talk about the book. 

           

For my non-verbal and newly verbal students I have them begin to point to images in the book.  They point to Howard, to his friends, to the teacher and to his friends.  We begin working on naming items in the book.

For my students using short phrases, we will begin answering “who” questions and answering in complete short sentence. 

            “Who is the Character?”

            “Howard is a character.”

            For my older students, we will also begin to answer “Where” questions?

                        “Where is Howard?”

                        “Howard is at school.”

                        “Howard is in the classroom.”

                        “Howard is in the cafeteria.”

                        “Howard is on the playground.”

Step 3: 
Review the book and use sentence strips.

For my non-verbal and newly verbal students I will have them point to the picture as I say the words.  I use hand over hand if necessary to help them understand what I want.

My students short MLU’s will work on using contractions and verb conjugation.  I work on having them  point independently while saying the words of the sentence, but I also model it if necessary.

For my older students we look at the words under the picture to address print recognition.

For me, the majority of my language therapy is done in the classroom.  In each classroom, I am likely to have students at every level and need to be able to meet all of their needs at once.  I typically see my students for two 30 minutes sessions and I recruit the classroom staff to help me with the lessons.  I will probably repeat this lesson 4 to 6 times, reducing my support and increasing student independence.     

My Room and Good News!

So my good news for the week is that I got my Donorschoose.org project funded! You can view my project here.  If you want more information on Donorschoose.org, check out my blog post here.

I am working on a post about how I intend to use the items in my project, so stay tuned for that.  In the meantime, I thought I would give you a tour of my speech room.   This is what it looked like when I got to school 3 weeks ago.

 And this is what it looks like today.

I share my room with 2 other SLP's. Fortunately I like them a great deal.  The picture above is my work space.  Here is what it looks like when I walk in the room:

On the other side of the map drawers is my space. 

We use rolling cabinets to section off the space and reduce distractions.  The cabinets also make great surfaces to decorate.  This is my Room Rules. 

On the back side of the map drawers, I have my welcome and good bye routine. 

My white board. Can you see the SGM?

My Desk.

There's Story Braidy.

I made the picture on this cabinet on lessonpix.com.  It reminds the younger students that they need to ask before they get into the cupboards.

It's only a little messy in there.

Did you notice the pockets on the doors? More goodies from lessonpix.com.

This side has all my articulation cards that I've made from lessonpix.com. 

And this side has all my pictures for picture exchange.

I am pretty lucky. My room also has a sink and a bathroom, and we control the heating and cooling.  On the other hand it's a huge campus, and we are pretty far away from the main school, so we have to hike to get kids, work in classrooms or even get to the workroom.  But hey, I'm going to get my work out, right?

Welcome Routine and Student Folders

So Tuesday was the first day of school for my school district, and it was fun to wandering into classrooms and seeing all my old students.  I won't start official therapy until next week; the first week of school is usually about finding where all my kids are and getting my caseload together.  I will have 4 special education preschool classes, several preschool speech therapy only kids, and I will probably have a few k-5 as well.

I am also setting up my materials for my speech room routine. I like routines.  It makes my life easier.  It also makes my students' life easier, because they know what to expect and what they are supposed to do, which makes them more independent.

This is my welcome routine, which I made using lessonpix.com:

Welcome Routine

By vcverve at LessonPix.com
 

I use this with all of my students who come to my room.  I review it several times after introducing it my students can either do this independently. Occasionally I have to refer them to the list to get them back on track.

This week I got every thing ready to put student folders together for the new year.

Shipping labels, pocket folders, and a reward chart are the main items.  You can download my reward chart for free teacherspayteachers.com here.

On the first session, my students will pick a color for their folder.  I will then put a shipping label on the folder and either myself or the student will write their name on the label. Afterwards, they get to decorate their folder with stickers.

Inside the folder I keep their data sheets and reward chart.

I keep the folders in a file box I bought from Big Lots many years ago.

I made the dividers with poster board and shipping labels.

Most 4 year old's can recognize the first letter in their name.  After some practice they are able to look for their letter, and then recognize their own folder.  Some of my 3 year olds can also do this, but if they can't, I am able to help them pretty easily without getting out of routine myself. 

It's taken me a few years and adjustments to make this system work for me, and this is the first year I haven't felt the need to tweak it a bit.  It's helped reduce behavior issues, and has helped keep me organized.  Hopefully it will give you some ideas.

Do you have a welcome routine?  What is it?  Leave a comment below.

Dos and Donts for the coming school year.

I reported back to the schools today and students start next Tuesday.  The first week will be spent getting a schedule together, but within two weeks I should be involved in my caseload.  As I get ready for the year, I thought I would share with you my Dos and Don'ts of working in the schools.

© Zsolt Fulop | Dreamstime.com

 

• Do plan ahead.  All the preparation you do at the beginning of the school year will pay off during and towards the end.  One of the first things I do when I get my caseload, is figure out when IEP's are due and if I have to do testing. I start tentatively scheduling when I'm going to start testing and writing IEP's. 
• Don't Procrastinate.  Never ever put off tomorrow what you can get done today.  One of the things I have learned is that despite my careful planning something will always happen that will throw my schedule out the window.  So I do things as early as I can so that I am not rushing around at the last minute with too many things to do. (Of course that happens anyway, but less frequently when I don't procrastinate.) 
• Do be flexible with your coworkers and students.  You aren't the only one who has an intense amount of pressure on you to meet deadlines and provide quality service. Teachers, other related service professionals, even your administration has an amazing amount of work to do while still trying to be positive for the students.  Your students also feel the pressure, from succeeding in the classroom to dealing with social situations.  Many of our students are already struggling in these areas.  The kid who pushes your buttons probably has low self-esteem about his or her own skills.  
• Don't overbook yourself.  As a school SLP you have an immense amount of paperwork that must be completed.  Try to schedule time to do that.  Don't schedule your students 1:1.  Push in to your special education classes so that you can see large groups of kids at a time. Use the teachers and teaching assistants to help you.  Write your IEP's so that you have flexibility.  Most children on your caseload do fine when you miss a session and don't show regression.  I like to write my IEP's by hours per semester, so that I have flexibility.  Remind parents and teachers that for every hour you see their child, you will spend another hour in service of the child, from documentation to preparing for the lesson.  
• Do document everything. Billable or unbillable, document everything. The unfortunate truth is, you can get named in a law suit, even if someone else messes up.  Your documentation will save you.  It will also save you when people just aren't sure what you are up too. As SLP's, we have a lot of autonomy in the schools, but it's not unusual for people to start to wonder what you are up to.  Again, that documentation will make your life much easier.
• Don't fly by the seat of your pants. There's a term I heard recently: R.A.T.  (Random Acts of Therapy).  This is what you get when you don't have a plan.  Even doing play therapy with the little ones, you have to know what you are working for.  If you don't have a plan of what you want and how you are going to get it, as well as how you will know if it worked, then you get R.A.T. .  
• Do K.I.S.S (Keep it simple, sweetheart.) While you shouldn't make it up as you go, you don't have to make it complicated or elaborate.  I like to follow a routine, I do very similar things each session, so my students aren't guessing about what comes next.  My lessons follow a similar format and I just build on the last lesson.  This means that I am not having to make up a new lesson each session, or even each week. I have an easier time measuring progress, and I save a lot of time in prep.
• Don't waste your students time. We like to be fun and entertaining.  And I am not against games at all.  But remember this: That 8 year old only has one year to be 8.  He has a lot of things to learn this year, and every time he's in my room, he's missing out on what the other 8 year olds are learning. I need to make sure his time with me is worth it. 
• Do have a back up plan. In my practice, I use games as my back up as opposed to my standard operating procedure.  Our jobs require us to be "on" the entire time we are working with kids. We don't give out busy work, we don't have free time, or self selection.  But some days, being "on" is really tough. Some days we just don't feel well, but we aren't sick enough to use a sick day.  A good language rich game is a good back up.  It helps keep me engaged with the kids while still not wasting their time. 
• Don't be afraid to try something new.  The worst thing you can do as a therapist is become set in your ways. Inflexibility regarding strategy, scheduling, and service delivery will make for a frustrating life for you and your coworkers, and well as limit your quality of service for your students.  Things have changed drastically since I was in Grad school, and I suspect that it will only continue to change.  Keeping up with and being willing to adapt to the changes improves the quality of your service.
• Do follow the lead of the veterans. When I first started working in the schools, I worked with an SLP who had many more years experience.  I remember watching her, and thinking "Why is she doing that? That's so much extra work."  Turned out there was a method for her madness and that little bit of extra work each day saved her hours at the end of the school year.  
• Don't under estimate your skills. If you are a new SLP, don't worry, you know more than you realize.  I've been an SLP for 16 years, and last school year I had the pleasure to work with an SLP who'd only been out of school for 2 years. I learned so much from her.  She was fresh with the most up to date information.  And she directed me to new places in terms of organization and my knowledge base.  So new or old, you've got a lot to offer. 
• Do learn from other professionals.  And by other professionals, I mean the OT's, PT's, counselors, social workers, PE teachers, Reading Coaches, etc. that you work with.  In the schools, you are going to run into a lot of people with a lot of different skills: behavior management, crisis prevention, classroom management.  We didn't learn that in school, but these are people who can share what they know, and that knowledge will really help you out.

What are your Dos and Don'ts?  Leave a comment.