Tag Archives: books

K-12, Transitional

The Doors.

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Screen Shot 2015-03-10 at 2.19.03 PMStep 1 of inclusion is teaching skills to help students be a part of the physical community of a classroom or school!  This book is one of a series created to teach behaviours around being at school and in classes specifically for a student named A. A. is a grade 8 student who loves doors! As A. walks down the halls of his school, he likes to open and close doors…which, as you can imagine… drives both teachers and students nuts. So rather than just never letting him walk in the hallways, A. and I wrote this book together.

A and I had a photo shoot and together, as a part of his program, him and his staff read it together and practice. We used a visual consequence map to help, which his staff carried around with them in a binder, to help A. when he was stuck. Or as a reinforcement tool, in case he exhibited the behaviour after it was taught.

Book: Me and My SchoolScreen Shot 2015-03-10 at 2.19.23 PM

Target behaviour: Opening and closing doors

Literacy level of text: Transitional

5-7, 8-10, Emergent, Literacy Activities, Social Studies, Transitional

Arrival to Canada: First Contact

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Strategic Instruction: Humanities 9

I had the opportunity to collaborate with Linda Watson, a Humanities 9 teacher, and together we planned the unit: Arrival to Canada: First Contact.

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The Essential Questions for the class were:

  • Who were the major players of early settlement in Canada
  • Where did they come from and where did they go? and
  • What were the consequences of their arrival?

Screen Shot 2014-02-06 at 1.06.17 PMFor Lisa and Jack, the 2 student who were modified in the class, their goals were to answer the first 2 questions. As a part of a text set, I wrote a book for these 2 students with the information they need to answer the questions.

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To incorporate literacy, as an extension activity, the class also had to prepare a mind map of the information. A scaffold was made for students, as well as a template built into the book for Jack and Lisa.

Goal Area(s): social studies- terms and vocabulary, Literacy- main idea and details/mind mapping

Literacy Level(s): Emergent (red print), Transitional (Black print)

Text: Arrival to Canada

Extension Activities: Mind Map (Emergent), Mind Map (Conventional)

5-7, 8-10, Social Studies, Transitional

Manitoba

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Strategic Instruction: Social Studies 10

Screen Shot 2014-02-04 at 10.34.55 PMWe learn about many different people in our schooling lives. An easy way to make this accessible for students with disabilities is to explore where these important people are from. This Social Studies class was learning about Louis Riel, for Dustin, his goal was to learn about where Louis Reil was from…Manitoba!!!

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There are fascinating facts about Manitoba that could also help other students connect with, that are engaging and a great hook, like hockey, Winnie the Pooh and polar bears!

This could be done for many people: Shakespeare, Stuart McClean, Lois Lowry or even Obama! Everyone is from somewhere, and this book can be used for any province or city. A great template to use for students who are modified in content classes. 

Goal Areas: Social Studies- Canada, literacy-main idea and details

Text: manitoba

5-7, 8-10, Emergent, Social Studies, Transitional

Markets

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Strategic Instruction: Social Studies 10

ImageThis social studies 10 class was learning about supply and demand, for Sharon, however, her goal was to understand and differentiate the concepts of buy, sell, craft and goods. This also happened to be the  the first lesson for everyone in the class. A great strategy for teachers who want to create accessibility and build background knowledge at the same time. Spending time on this foundational, otherwise assumed, background information, proves helpful to many students, not just those with additional learning needs. Although Sharon stayed with this goal for the unit, the rest of the class built on from there. A much easier strategy than teaching and then trying to simplify and retrofit curriculum after its been taught, or trying to modify a lesson on the fly. This book was used to support Sharon learn the new information.

The book has been differentiated for multiple learners, words in red are at an emergent text level and words in black are transitional text level.

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Goal area(s): sorting and classifying, increasing vocabulary

Literacy level: emergent, transitional

Text: Markets

8-10, Conventional, Science, Transitional, Wordwork

The Periodic Table

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Strategic Instruction: Science 9

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While James’s grade 9 science class was learning about the periodic table of elements, he was too! At first one might think, “why does James, a student with Down Syndrome, need to learn about the periodic table of elements?!” and my response, “because every student does!”

I didn’t know this, but the Periodic table of elements is not just about memorizing symbols, numbers and formulas, there is actually a big idea to this coloured chart!

Screen Shot 2014-02-03 at 9.54.58 PMThis book is about the big idea of organization, and how it is applied to the scientific elements. The book is written at two levels, at the conventional level for reading out loud to James, and at the transitional level for James to read independently. To differentiate the difference, James knew that his words were red.

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If only I knew this information back in high school, what a good reminder about how teaching to big ideas can help us connect details that can sometimes get lost or forgotten.

Let me tell you…. all, the students in the class were fighting over this book!

Goal areas: science- sorting and classifying, organizing

Literacy level: transitional, conventional

Text:The Periodic Table of Elements

Emergent, K-12, Reading, Wordwork

SuperHeroes!!

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Explicit Instruction: Literacy

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Peter is in Grade 10 and his team wanted to work on developing his literacy skills. Being a BIG FAN of Superheroes, we made a theme incorporating this interest. We started with a book of his favourite characters and then built on from there. Because peter is an emergent reader, we included super hero toys as a support to help Peter interact with and engage with the pictures and word in the text.

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As an extension word work activity, Peter used letter stamps and match letters to spell out each super hero name. Individual stamping boxes were used to support his reference matching, but we hope that we will eventually not need them. In the template attached, I have included both the letter and the word boxes. We used stamps, but yo could use markers or glue and sparkles!

Goal Area: Literacy- motivation and engagement, joint attention, matching, print referencing

Literacy Level: Emergent

Text: Superheroes book

Extension Activity: SUPERHEROES word work

8-10, Conventional, Social Studies

Canadian Heroes

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Strategic Instruction: Social Studies 9

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In this Social Studies 9 class, the essential question for all the students was, “What is a Hero?” The students worked through multiple examples of people in the world culminating to their summative assessment of determining if Napoleon was a hero. There were 2 students who were modified in this class. Leslie and Jamie were both readers at an early conventional level and so parallel texts to the class were written about the Canadian heroes: David Suzuki, Rick Hansen and Jordin TooToo. Using these texts, an extension activity of character trait sorting helped the students transform and personalize their learning while connecting what they had learned to the real world.

This unit is a beautiful example of how the high school curriculum can be accessible to students with developmental disabilities, but in addition, all the students in this class had access to and benefited from the resources, even though they were specifically developed for Jamie and Leslie.

Goal Area: Literacy-inferences, Strategic- critical thinking, having and supporting opinions

Literacy Level: Early Conventional

Example(s):

David Suzuki

Jorrdin Tootoo

Rick Hansen

Extension Activity: character sort

 

8-10, Social Studies, Transitional

The Book of Ships

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Strategic Instruction: Social Studies 9

The book of shipsIn this Social Studies 9 class, Derek, a student with Down Syndrome, learned all about Ships during the “Early Exploration” unit. With a goal of identifying main idea and details, Derek’s task was to discriminate the details of the different types ships that the vikings and other early explorers used to travel.

Goal Area(s): Literacy: main idea/details, Social studies: early exploration

Literacy Level: Transitional

Example: The Book of Ships