This is an all-inclusive example classroom composed of six first grade special needs children with varying disabilities. General classroom accommodations for the children will include frequent breaks, immediate feedback and cooperative learning activities. These will motivate the students to work as a team, towards the common goal of creating a progressive teaching atmosphere as a community of learners. Further instructional accommodations for each child are included in the following IEP’s (Individualized Education Programs).
Student- #1 Tommy
Tommy is a male who lives at home with his mother and father in a middle class neighborhood. His home is close to other relatives and he has no siblings. Tommy has Down syndrome also called Trisomy 21, a condition in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child develops, both mentally and physically. This puts him in the Mental Retardation category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Down syndrome almost always have difficulties with hearing and language development. They are able to comprehend information at a very quick rate and have a higher visual rather than auditory memory. They can learn to read just like other children if the right systematic instruction is implemented at a very early age. Reading instruction for Tommy should be very visually based and include a lot of sight-word instruction that links to pictures. Computer and television methods providing immediate feedback aid in maintaining positive behavior. Phonics instruction that is based around linking letters with there sound will be helpful for him. Joining the sounds he learns together into syllables and word groups will work favorably with his high comprehension and increase his reading potential.
Student #2 Becky
Becky is a female who lives in her grandparents home with her sister in an upper class neighborhood. Her mother often visits on the weekends because she works out of town and she has little contact with her father and other family members. Becky has Autism, a neurological disorder that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication along with social interaction. This puts her in the Autism category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Autism tend to have a lack of interest in the most things resulting in a learning delay. They take place in repetitive behaviors without control and will have an unusual focus or preoccupation to odd things. Sensitive sensory perceptions to light sound or touch make them very cognitive visual learners given accurate individual teaching techniques. Reading comprehension and Phonics need to be Becky’s main focus as an autistic reader. Interactive reading methods on computers or game boards based in reality will be very useful tools. Because she is less able to relate social cues or connect emotion to reality, she lacks the ability to read with inference. Presenting the reading material visually in a simply explained manner will help captivate her interest and grow her reading abilities.
Student #3 Jason
Jason is a male whose father works in corporate America and his mother stays at home and tends to the children and home. They have moved from place to place over several years per the father’s career path. Jason has two older sisters, both without symptoms of mental illness. By the time Jason’s mother was pregnant with him she was thirty eight and her husband was forty five. Jason has Schizophrenia, a disorder that affects his sense of reality. This puts him in the Emotional Disturbance category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Schizophrenia suffer from hallucinations, illusions, delusions, disordered thinking and abnormal emotional expression. Some Schizophrenics can have paranoia like symptoms and react badly in stressful situations. Jason’s teachers should always work on keeping their classrooms a stress-free environment in order to keep him calm. Repetition techniques will be an important part of Jason’s reading plan in order to keep his attention. Extra activities will need to be provided to complete and practice at home since he will often have trouble focusing in class.
Student #4 Jessie
Jessie is a female whose parents both work fulltime jobs to provide for the family. She is an only child with a non-English speaking grandmother who watches her after school everyday while her parents are at work. She has a room with many books but has issues reading them without assistance. Jessie has Dyslexia, a lifelong problem with processing phonological information while reading. This puts her in the specific learning disability- Dyslexia category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Dyslexia have trouble encoding, retrieving, and using phonological codes, speech deficiencies and issues forming overall speech production. Jessie will benefit from having reading materials in advance so she can be better aware of the information before having to read and complete activities on it in class. Her teachers should read questions out loud to her prior to the reading assignment, so she knows what to focus on. The whole language and holistic method approach to reading with sight words in addition to extra one on one time to practice phonological development are a must in Jessie’s classroom.
Student #5 Billy
Billy is a male living in a single parent home with his mother who works a part time job cleaning houses. His mother depends of government aid to pay the bills and maintain their middle class lifestyle. Billy has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a disorder that causes extreme inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. This puts him in the other health impairment- ADHD category of the diagnostic checklist. Billy was diagnosed after displaying aggressive and severely impulsive actions. Children with ADHD will be in constant motion, seeming to fidget and squirm relentlessly. Billy may have trouble listening, paying attention and playing quiet during class. He will talk excessively and often interrupt, intrude and distract other classmates, causing him to have trouble completing assigned tasks. Children with ADHD usually have different combinations of these symptoms making it very difficult for their teachers to create and implement useful teaching methodologies. Billy’s teacher will need to use constant reinforcement to maintain strict control. Identifying Billy’s unique educational needs and following a very structured step by step teaching process will be very useful in his classroom.
Student #6 Amy
Amy is a female living in an upper class neighborhood with both her mother and father. Her parents have been seeking advice from specialist since Amy has been having extreme difficulty with her vision. Amy has Partial Sight, otherwise known as being legally blind, which causes her to wear corrective lenses and tools in order to visually see the world. This puts her in the visual impairment including blindness- Partial Sight category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with partial sight can see some things but not others, and sometimes what they see will vary from day to day depending on the lighting conditions. Amy’s teachers will need to verbalize everything that happens in the classroom. Additional time for her will need to be set aside during each class period in order for proper lighting to be achieved. Tactile learning techniques including brail and large print material will prove to be very useful tools. Hand held magnifiers, monocular, and high powered closed circuit televisions may also be used. Reading materials in braille and touch type keyboard reading instruction will be very important for Amy’s classroom.
The following reading plan was developed as an inclusive multi-sensory method to teach all learning styles. The instruction is systematic and meant to be implemented in a clear, direct manner that moves from simple to complex information building on what has been previously taught. It is strategically designed to be given as a step by step procedure enabling each child to proceed at their own pace. Techniques for how each area can be taught along with classroom activities are included. All five of the primary reading areas, which are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are thoroughly linked within this plan.
Phonological Awareness
Reading teachers call this the blending, combining and segmenting of sounds, all of which are necessary in order to read. A good way to learn this skill is by gaining knowledge of individual sounds through practice. A focus on which words in a set belong to the same sound , identifying the first and last sounds while combing them will be done in this plan. Verbally the students will also identify oral rhymes and work on syllables by speaking the words. This brief lesson plan will include the following activities.
· Guess-The-Word-Game
This will identify how students blend and identify a word that has been stretched out into its basic elements. Picture cards of objects that students are likely to recognize like a flag, snake, tree book or cup will be used. By placing a small number of these cards in front of the children and saying the words as stretched out as possible, the children will try and guess which word is being said. It is important for every student to get a chance guessing the correct response and for Tommy, the child with Down syndrome, it is imperative that error-free practice (lessening his chances to be wrong) is implemented in the beginning to build and maintain self confidence. Alternating between the children who guess and those who say the words will help keep Billy, the child with ADHD engaged in the activity.
· Blending Slide and Robot Talk
With a photo of a playground that has a large slide, all the students will watch as each letter slides down to form sounds and ultimately words. This is very interactive and helps the students work together as a team. Talking in “Robot Talk,” allows student to hear segmented sounds and put them together by blending.
· Segmenting Cheer Activity
Write a cheer using words that only have three phonemes like rat, cat, dog and fish. Then cheer the word, Sun!Sun!Sun! and the children will be asked to give the beginning sound “s”, give the middle sound “u” and give the ending sound “n”. This activity offers a lot of opportunity to give positive reinforcement to the students and helps make Amy, the child with partial sight, feel involved as a team with her classmates.
· Rhyming Games
The term rhyme refers to a string of letters that follow one another, usually a vowel and consonant. Rhymes are in poetry, songs and books. How, Now, Brown, Cow is one example. Another would be cat, hat, sat, understanding this rhyming technique is very important in the development of phonological awareness. Students can make a Rhyme book by drawing pictures of the objects that rhyme or by cutting images out of magazines and placing them in their books.
Phonics
Phonics instruction will teach the children about the relationships between the letters and individual sounds of written and spoken language. Understanding these relationships will aid the children in not only learning to read but also write. Letter naming is often a strong predictor for future reading success. Learning the alphabet and gaining value for the alphabetic principle results in a systematic predictable reading approach. There are many fun activities to help children explore the alphabet.
· Matching Upper-case and Lower-case
The ideology of mama animals being capital letters and baby animals being lower case often helps children with the idea that they go together. The letters can be printed on paper or sculpted from play dough among others ways to also add an element of letter formation.
· Letter Bingo
Bingo is a simple game for the children to play and learn their letters.
· Letter Stamps
Adding letter stamps into the game of bingo or just for general class use like making a letter book is very fun and interactive.
· Picture Books and Movies
Learning phonics through spelling out some of the pictures they may see in a book or movie. Braille and large print materials for Amy, the student with partial sight will also be implanted through this activity helping with the overall outline and features of the objects and words.
Fluency
Fluency instruction is an important time for the teacher to make sure she independently works with each student on their level. Each student will have a model of instruction to follow closely, as they read and re-read the passage the instructor will guide them directly. These guided reading activities enhance not only reading but also increase vocabulary.
· Choral Reading
Reading aloud in unison with a class of students not only builds a students fluency and self confidence but also motivates them to continue reading independently. Reading aloud in front of peers and instructors they trust will take feelings of being self-conscious or nervous away because the environment acts as a built in support system. This activity offers different levels of readers to benefit from practice and a correct model using sight words.
· Paired Reading
This is a research based fluency strategy that helps readers who lack the confidence to read aloud. Children enjoy reading with a partner of the same ability level because it motivates and encourages them through a peer-assisted learning technique. By taking turns reading a book, page, chapter or paragraph together students are more likely to not only stay on task but complete the task at a high proficiency level.
· Tape Assisted Reading
Tape assisted reading can be done as an individual or group activity where students read aloud in their book as they hear a model reader doing so on the audiotape. Soon children will be reading the same book or passage correctly with no help from the audio model. This is especially helpful to Tommy, the child with Down syndrome; because he may have hearing issues when trying to listen to am actual instructor speak in a mono tone sound. As well as Amy, the child with partial sight, audio activities are always easier to tackle than just reading alone.
· Timed Repeated Readings
Monitoring a child’s fluency can be easily done through the instructional practice known as timed repeated readings. Under times conditions students have increased development when faced with familiar text. Reading speed has been shown to improve comprehension and the reading rate of accuracy and fluency. Times repeated reading should be done only using books or passages the students are familiar with and can read with at least a ninety five percent accuracy rate.
Vocabulary
Categorizing listed words through grouping and labeling helps children organize new concepts in relation to previously learned concepts ultimately forming a vocabulary of used words. Having a broad vocabulary that is also specific helps students gain further knowledge and understanding of a topic. Actively engaging students in to learn new content vocabulary they are in turn developing their critical thinking skills used in all aspects of reading.
· Possible Sentences
A re-reading strategy that will openly activate a student’s prior content vocabulary is building new sentences. Before reading a passage students are given a list of words and instructed to form a sentence or two using those words along with their prediction of what the story will be about. After reading the text children will revise their sentences for accuracy based on their understanding stories content.
· Semantic Feature Analysis
The semantic feature analysis uses a grid to help kids explore how sets of things work with and relate to one another. Using the grid helps children form predictions about a passage and develop connections about the reading. The analysis technique builds vocabulary through avid teacher and student discussion.
· Word Hunts
One way to focus on spelling and vocabulary patterns within words is by using word hunts. The curiosity of hunting for words and connections of words engages students to read and develop strong spelling skills. By blending the spelling words with reading vocabulary inevitably grows.
· Word Maps
A visual organizer that promotes vocabulary can be a crucial tool especially when working with children who have disabilities. Using the graphic word map organizer students have to think about terms and concepts in several different ways in order to achieve understating. Definitions, synonyms, antonyms and pictures for each vocabulary must be used to gain the full effect.
Comprehension
Enriching children’s reading understanding is also known as comprehension. Requiring students to think about a concept in several ways develops natural questioning skills, such as “What is it”, “What is it like”, “What is it about”, all of which deepen the understanding and comprehension of the reading. Constructing meaningful connections between the main idea and other information is imperative in developing and maintaining quality comprehension.
· Direct Reading and Thinking
A strategy that guides children to ask questions about the text and make predictions is known as direct reading and thinking. Motivating the children through proper reading materials will motivate them to read further and confirm or revise their predictions. Encouraging students to be active and thoughtful is also done through this technique.
· Exit Slips
Written student responses to questions the teacher asked during the class period that are turned in at the end of the day are known as exit slips. These informal assessments on what each child individually understood and grasped from the material that was covered. Measuring these responses aids the teacher on how the topic or lesson should be taught the following day. They also inform the teacher as to those students who need additional help and to those who may be ready for new information.
· First Lines
First lines is a fun activity where students begin reading the first passage of a story and then make valid predictions about what is to come. Acting out their predictions and forming visual imagery or drawings can add an element of fun and teamwork to this activity as well.
· Jigsaw Puzzles
A cooperative learning strategy that helps a group of children focus on one aspect of a given text can be done through jigsaw puzzles. Children will each be given the information needed to fill in a portion of their puzzle and then must take it home or meet with other groups of children in their class to finish the activity.
This reading plan and brief lesson plan provided will be adjusted around each child and their individual needs and interests. All class days will made up of short, concise methods so the children can see the relationship between what was taught and what was learned. The steps to all the above mentioned techniques may also be acted out, presented on diagrams, samples and computers when possible to meet each child’s special need. All students will be given the opportunity to present their finding on each assignment to the class either individually or as a group. Appropriate classroom behavior will be constantly re-enforced and monitored to ensure the class programs remain structured.
Student- #1 Tommy
Tommy is a male who lives at home with his mother and father in a middle class neighborhood. His home is close to other relatives and he has no siblings. Tommy has Down syndrome also called Trisomy 21, a condition in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child develops, both mentally and physically. This puts him in the Mental Retardation category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Down syndrome almost always have difficulties with hearing and language development. They are able to comprehend information at a very quick rate and have a higher visual rather than auditory memory. They can learn to read just like other children if the right systematic instruction is implemented at a very early age. Reading instruction for Tommy should be very visually based and include a lot of sight-word instruction that links to pictures. Computer and television methods providing immediate feedback aid in maintaining positive behavior. Phonics instruction that is based around linking letters with there sound will be helpful for him. Joining the sounds he learns together into syllables and word groups will work favorably with his high comprehension and increase his reading potential.
Student #2 Becky
Becky is a female who lives in her grandparents home with her sister in an upper class neighborhood. Her mother often visits on the weekends because she works out of town and she has little contact with her father and other family members. Becky has Autism, a neurological disorder that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication along with social interaction. This puts her in the Autism category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Autism tend to have a lack of interest in the most things resulting in a learning delay. They take place in repetitive behaviors without control and will have an unusual focus or preoccupation to odd things. Sensitive sensory perceptions to light sound or touch make them very cognitive visual learners given accurate individual teaching techniques. Reading comprehension and Phonics need to be Becky’s main focus as an autistic reader. Interactive reading methods on computers or game boards based in reality will be very useful tools. Because she is less able to relate social cues or connect emotion to reality, she lacks the ability to read with inference. Presenting the reading material visually in a simply explained manner will help captivate her interest and grow her reading abilities.
Student #3 Jason
Jason is a male whose father works in corporate America and his mother stays at home and tends to the children and home. They have moved from place to place over several years per the father’s career path. Jason has two older sisters, both without symptoms of mental illness. By the time Jason’s mother was pregnant with him she was thirty eight and her husband was forty five. Jason has Schizophrenia, a disorder that affects his sense of reality. This puts him in the Emotional Disturbance category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Schizophrenia suffer from hallucinations, illusions, delusions, disordered thinking and abnormal emotional expression. Some Schizophrenics can have paranoia like symptoms and react badly in stressful situations. Jason’s teachers should always work on keeping their classrooms a stress-free environment in order to keep him calm. Repetition techniques will be an important part of Jason’s reading plan in order to keep his attention. Extra activities will need to be provided to complete and practice at home since he will often have trouble focusing in class.
Student #4 Jessie
Jessie is a female whose parents both work fulltime jobs to provide for the family. She is an only child with a non-English speaking grandmother who watches her after school everyday while her parents are at work. She has a room with many books but has issues reading them without assistance. Jessie has Dyslexia, a lifelong problem with processing phonological information while reading. This puts her in the specific learning disability- Dyslexia category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with Dyslexia have trouble encoding, retrieving, and using phonological codes, speech deficiencies and issues forming overall speech production. Jessie will benefit from having reading materials in advance so she can be better aware of the information before having to read and complete activities on it in class. Her teachers should read questions out loud to her prior to the reading assignment, so she knows what to focus on. The whole language and holistic method approach to reading with sight words in addition to extra one on one time to practice phonological development are a must in Jessie’s classroom.
Student #5 Billy
Billy is a male living in a single parent home with his mother who works a part time job cleaning houses. His mother depends of government aid to pay the bills and maintain their middle class lifestyle. Billy has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a disorder that causes extreme inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. This puts him in the other health impairment- ADHD category of the diagnostic checklist. Billy was diagnosed after displaying aggressive and severely impulsive actions. Children with ADHD will be in constant motion, seeming to fidget and squirm relentlessly. Billy may have trouble listening, paying attention and playing quiet during class. He will talk excessively and often interrupt, intrude and distract other classmates, causing him to have trouble completing assigned tasks. Children with ADHD usually have different combinations of these symptoms making it very difficult for their teachers to create and implement useful teaching methodologies. Billy’s teacher will need to use constant reinforcement to maintain strict control. Identifying Billy’s unique educational needs and following a very structured step by step teaching process will be very useful in his classroom.
Student #6 Amy
Amy is a female living in an upper class neighborhood with both her mother and father. Her parents have been seeking advice from specialist since Amy has been having extreme difficulty with her vision. Amy has Partial Sight, otherwise known as being legally blind, which causes her to wear corrective lenses and tools in order to visually see the world. This puts her in the visual impairment including blindness- Partial Sight category of the diagnostic checklist. Children with partial sight can see some things but not others, and sometimes what they see will vary from day to day depending on the lighting conditions. Amy’s teachers will need to verbalize everything that happens in the classroom. Additional time for her will need to be set aside during each class period in order for proper lighting to be achieved. Tactile learning techniques including brail and large print material will prove to be very useful tools. Hand held magnifiers, monocular, and high powered closed circuit televisions may also be used. Reading materials in braille and touch type keyboard reading instruction will be very important for Amy’s classroom.
The following reading plan was developed as an inclusive multi-sensory method to teach all learning styles. The instruction is systematic and meant to be implemented in a clear, direct manner that moves from simple to complex information building on what has been previously taught. It is strategically designed to be given as a step by step procedure enabling each child to proceed at their own pace. Techniques for how each area can be taught along with classroom activities are included. All five of the primary reading areas, which are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are thoroughly linked within this plan.
Phonological Awareness
Reading teachers call this the blending, combining and segmenting of sounds, all of which are necessary in order to read. A good way to learn this skill is by gaining knowledge of individual sounds through practice. A focus on which words in a set belong to the same sound , identifying the first and last sounds while combing them will be done in this plan. Verbally the students will also identify oral rhymes and work on syllables by speaking the words. This brief lesson plan will include the following activities.
· Guess-The-Word-Game
This will identify how students blend and identify a word that has been stretched out into its basic elements. Picture cards of objects that students are likely to recognize like a flag, snake, tree book or cup will be used. By placing a small number of these cards in front of the children and saying the words as stretched out as possible, the children will try and guess which word is being said. It is important for every student to get a chance guessing the correct response and for Tommy, the child with Down syndrome, it is imperative that error-free practice (lessening his chances to be wrong) is implemented in the beginning to build and maintain self confidence. Alternating between the children who guess and those who say the words will help keep Billy, the child with ADHD engaged in the activity.
· Blending Slide and Robot Talk
With a photo of a playground that has a large slide, all the students will watch as each letter slides down to form sounds and ultimately words. This is very interactive and helps the students work together as a team. Talking in “Robot Talk,” allows student to hear segmented sounds and put them together by blending.
· Segmenting Cheer Activity
Write a cheer using words that only have three phonemes like rat, cat, dog and fish. Then cheer the word, Sun!Sun!Sun! and the children will be asked to give the beginning sound “s”, give the middle sound “u” and give the ending sound “n”. This activity offers a lot of opportunity to give positive reinforcement to the students and helps make Amy, the child with partial sight, feel involved as a team with her classmates.
· Rhyming Games
The term rhyme refers to a string of letters that follow one another, usually a vowel and consonant. Rhymes are in poetry, songs and books. How, Now, Brown, Cow is one example. Another would be cat, hat, sat, understanding this rhyming technique is very important in the development of phonological awareness. Students can make a Rhyme book by drawing pictures of the objects that rhyme or by cutting images out of magazines and placing them in their books.
Phonics
Phonics instruction will teach the children about the relationships between the letters and individual sounds of written and spoken language. Understanding these relationships will aid the children in not only learning to read but also write. Letter naming is often a strong predictor for future reading success. Learning the alphabet and gaining value for the alphabetic principle results in a systematic predictable reading approach. There are many fun activities to help children explore the alphabet.
· Matching Upper-case and Lower-case
The ideology of mama animals being capital letters and baby animals being lower case often helps children with the idea that they go together. The letters can be printed on paper or sculpted from play dough among others ways to also add an element of letter formation.
· Letter Bingo
Bingo is a simple game for the children to play and learn their letters.
· Letter Stamps
Adding letter stamps into the game of bingo or just for general class use like making a letter book is very fun and interactive.
· Picture Books and Movies
Learning phonics through spelling out some of the pictures they may see in a book or movie. Braille and large print materials for Amy, the student with partial sight will also be implanted through this activity helping with the overall outline and features of the objects and words.
Fluency
Fluency instruction is an important time for the teacher to make sure she independently works with each student on their level. Each student will have a model of instruction to follow closely, as they read and re-read the passage the instructor will guide them directly. These guided reading activities enhance not only reading but also increase vocabulary.
· Choral Reading
Reading aloud in unison with a class of students not only builds a students fluency and self confidence but also motivates them to continue reading independently. Reading aloud in front of peers and instructors they trust will take feelings of being self-conscious or nervous away because the environment acts as a built in support system. This activity offers different levels of readers to benefit from practice and a correct model using sight words.
· Paired Reading
This is a research based fluency strategy that helps readers who lack the confidence to read aloud. Children enjoy reading with a partner of the same ability level because it motivates and encourages them through a peer-assisted learning technique. By taking turns reading a book, page, chapter or paragraph together students are more likely to not only stay on task but complete the task at a high proficiency level.
· Tape Assisted Reading
Tape assisted reading can be done as an individual or group activity where students read aloud in their book as they hear a model reader doing so on the audiotape. Soon children will be reading the same book or passage correctly with no help from the audio model. This is especially helpful to Tommy, the child with Down syndrome; because he may have hearing issues when trying to listen to am actual instructor speak in a mono tone sound. As well as Amy, the child with partial sight, audio activities are always easier to tackle than just reading alone.
· Timed Repeated Readings
Monitoring a child’s fluency can be easily done through the instructional practice known as timed repeated readings. Under times conditions students have increased development when faced with familiar text. Reading speed has been shown to improve comprehension and the reading rate of accuracy and fluency. Times repeated reading should be done only using books or passages the students are familiar with and can read with at least a ninety five percent accuracy rate.
Vocabulary
Categorizing listed words through grouping and labeling helps children organize new concepts in relation to previously learned concepts ultimately forming a vocabulary of used words. Having a broad vocabulary that is also specific helps students gain further knowledge and understanding of a topic. Actively engaging students in to learn new content vocabulary they are in turn developing their critical thinking skills used in all aspects of reading.
· Possible Sentences
A re-reading strategy that will openly activate a student’s prior content vocabulary is building new sentences. Before reading a passage students are given a list of words and instructed to form a sentence or two using those words along with their prediction of what the story will be about. After reading the text children will revise their sentences for accuracy based on their understanding stories content.
· Semantic Feature Analysis
The semantic feature analysis uses a grid to help kids explore how sets of things work with and relate to one another. Using the grid helps children form predictions about a passage and develop connections about the reading. The analysis technique builds vocabulary through avid teacher and student discussion.
· Word Hunts
One way to focus on spelling and vocabulary patterns within words is by using word hunts. The curiosity of hunting for words and connections of words engages students to read and develop strong spelling skills. By blending the spelling words with reading vocabulary inevitably grows.
· Word Maps
A visual organizer that promotes vocabulary can be a crucial tool especially when working with children who have disabilities. Using the graphic word map organizer students have to think about terms and concepts in several different ways in order to achieve understating. Definitions, synonyms, antonyms and pictures for each vocabulary must be used to gain the full effect.
Comprehension
Enriching children’s reading understanding is also known as comprehension. Requiring students to think about a concept in several ways develops natural questioning skills, such as “What is it”, “What is it like”, “What is it about”, all of which deepen the understanding and comprehension of the reading. Constructing meaningful connections between the main idea and other information is imperative in developing and maintaining quality comprehension.
· Direct Reading and Thinking
A strategy that guides children to ask questions about the text and make predictions is known as direct reading and thinking. Motivating the children through proper reading materials will motivate them to read further and confirm or revise their predictions. Encouraging students to be active and thoughtful is also done through this technique.
· Exit Slips
Written student responses to questions the teacher asked during the class period that are turned in at the end of the day are known as exit slips. These informal assessments on what each child individually understood and grasped from the material that was covered. Measuring these responses aids the teacher on how the topic or lesson should be taught the following day. They also inform the teacher as to those students who need additional help and to those who may be ready for new information.
· First Lines
First lines is a fun activity where students begin reading the first passage of a story and then make valid predictions about what is to come. Acting out their predictions and forming visual imagery or drawings can add an element of fun and teamwork to this activity as well.
· Jigsaw Puzzles
A cooperative learning strategy that helps a group of children focus on one aspect of a given text can be done through jigsaw puzzles. Children will each be given the information needed to fill in a portion of their puzzle and then must take it home or meet with other groups of children in their class to finish the activity.
This reading plan and brief lesson plan provided will be adjusted around each child and their individual needs and interests. All class days will made up of short, concise methods so the children can see the relationship between what was taught and what was learned. The steps to all the above mentioned techniques may also be acted out, presented on diagrams, samples and computers when possible to meet each child’s special need. All students will be given the opportunity to present their finding on each assignment to the class either individually or as a group. Appropriate classroom behavior will be constantly re-enforced and monitored to ensure the class programs remain structured.