Picture Book Communication and Comprehension Supports in the Special Education Classroom

In my classroom, I used Unique Learning System for a majority of my curriculum. However, I found that I often wanted to supplement the stories with rich, authentic picture books. So my Picture Book Communication and Comprehension Supports units were born! 

Not familiar with my picture book supports? They include:

Communication Supports

• Vocabulary Cards: to teach and assess targeted vocabulary (can also be used to create interactive games!)

• Communication Board: to generate sentences about the story verbally or through velcro manipulatives

• GoTalk 9+ AAC Board: formatted for use with GoTalk 9+

Comprehension Supports

• Differentiated Wh-Question Assessments: 3 leveled assessments (multiple choice pictures, multiple choice words/phrases, fill-in) for answering who, what, where, when, and why questions about the story.

• Fill-in-the-Blank Sentences Worksheet: Cut-and-paste cloze sentences with picture choice options

• Sequencing Worksheet: Picture-based cut-and-paste sequencing of story events

IEP Supports

• IEP Goal Ideas
• Communication IEP Goal Ideas: for vocabulary and sentence-building goals
• Comprehension Goal Ideas: for wh-questions, writing, sequencing, and higher-order thinking

• Progress Monitoring:
• Higher-Order Thinking Progress Monitoring: for recalling story elements (characters, setting, and events) and answering inferential and evaluative questions about the story 
• Vocabulary Progress Monitoring Sheet: for receptive and expressive identification of story vocabulary and generalization
• Sentence Building Progress Monitoring Sheet: for assessing sentence generation
• Unit Report Card: Convenient data collection sheet for all unit activities to be used for grading and sharing with families

• Implementation and Differentiation Tips: Do you have a diverse group of students this year? Don't worry! I have that covered too. Every activity in each of my picture book units includes ideas for accommodating and extending to meet your students' needs.

Interested in implementing these Picture Book Communication and Comprehension Supports in your preschool, elementary, or special education classroom? Grab my BUNDLE and save 20%!

The bundle includes 14 popular classroom favorites which integrate perfectly into thematic instruction. Don't have all of these books? No worries! You can use versions on YouTube, check them out from your school library, or head to your local library to see if they have a teacher program. In some locations the librarians will even gather the books for you! 

The bundle also includes lesson plans that map out the year at a glance and provide guidance on monthly and/or weekly implementation of each unit. 

What is your favorite picture book to read in your classroom? Don't see it on this list? Send me an email and I can add it to my list of future units!

Facilitating Communication During Structured Play Groups in the Special Education Classroom

In early intervention settings, Structured Play Groups are a perfect, developmentally-appropriate evidence-based practice for autistic students and can be a valuable support for developing friendships and communication skills. In my experience, the benefit of these groups certainly stretches beyond just my autistic students but those with other developmental disabilities and even their neurotypical peers! Especially in these unique post-pandemic lockdown times when all students have had gaps in their opportunities for social engagement.

To facilitate communication during structured play groups, I created communication boards with common play phrases in predictable locations and fringe words specific to the play activity including related labels, actions, and even descriptive words. 

Each board was easy to implement because all I needed to do was print and laminate and they were ready to go! In my opinion, sometimes low-tech options are all you need! Students can simply point to the word they want to use or for some they may use the board as a word bank to facilitate their verbal communication. 

To make these even easier to use in my classroom, I created lesson plans for each board that could easily be implemented by my paraprofessionals or subs. These lesson plans were differentiated for early, intermediate, and advanced learners. Often, I would have a paraprofessional introduce some of the vocabulary and concepts on the board using the lesson plans during 1:1 instruction, and then I would help with the application during our structured play groups. Then, once we had practiced a bit with a board I would add it to my free play area so that students always had them accessible during play times. 

And as an added bonus, when I added these boards to my TPT store I also added differentiated IEP goal ideas that aligned with the lesson plans. 

In addition to being a big hit with my students, these communication boards have been a big hit with my TPT customers too! 

Ready to check these out for youself? Head over to my TPT store!

Why I ditched Communication Notebooks in my SpEd Classroom... and never looked back!

My first few years of teaching I used communication notebooks in my elementary special education classroom.... and I HATED them. 

For those who are not familiar, a communication notebook is a notebook passed between home and school to communicate between families and school staff. It sounds good in theory, but in my experience it was not. 

Why did I hate these darn notebooks so much?!

• they were time-consuming... and the absolute worst time of the day to add something that is time-consuming is during pack up and dismissal. It is chaos enough as it is!

• they were ignored... every teacher knows which notebooks, binders, folders, etc. are checked every night and which ones are not. Which essentially means you have just wasted your time writing in the notebook. 

• they were negative... written communication about student behavior can be easily misunderstood and can lead to defensiveness which is not an effective way to foster a parent-teacher relationship

• they leave out the student... for our students it is so important to facilitate communication opportunities at every opportunity

So what can you do instead?!

• Reminder Bracelets: These were a game changer! I would attach them to the student's wrist or backpack loop and write on any reminder that I wanted to be sure wasn't ignored and they were MUCH faster (i.e. field trip tomorrow, please send more diapers, etc.) 

Oriental Trading Reminder Bracelets

• Think it Over Sheets: When a student engaged in negative behavior, I learned to focus less on the offensive and more on making it a teachable moment. In Dr. Ross Greene's book Lost at School I really connected with the concept that "kids do well if they can" and this was especially enlightening considering all of my students had disabilities which often impacted their emotional and behavioral regulation skills. Rather than sending home a long note to parents, my staff and I would reflect with the student on their behavior and help them choose an alternative for the future. (We also directly taught regulation skills through social stories, role playing, and sensory activities). Then I would sign the form and send it home for parent signature. 

• Home-School Communication Reports: To involve my students and work on their recall skills, I created these communication reports which we would complete at the end of each day. My students would circle or write what they did that day and then when they got home they could easily refer to their report to tell their families about their day. My families LOVED how their children could now share and it was a great authentic communication opportunity. On some, I also included a small box where staff or families could write a brief note if needed. This definitely eliminated any rambling negativity!

To grab these home-school communication reports and more check out this resource in my TPT store! 

Differentiated Daily Home-School Communication Reports

Until next time!

March Activities in the Special Education Classroom

Can you believe it is already March? It shocks me every year! In our classroom, there has always been two big celebrations each March... Read Across America Day and St. Patrick's Day. 

Our focus each year for Read Across America is Green Eggs and Ham. In my first year of teaching, this was a favorite of one of my students with limited communication. He just LOVED the book and had memorized each page. We all loved to have him read it to us because it was so wonderful to hear him say so much! So from that point on Green Eggs and Ham has always been a mainstay in my room.

Over the years, I added more and more activities that we could do with the story so that we could address IEP goals and meet all the needs of my students including practicing vocabulary and building sentences using a communication board, velcro pieces, or our trusty classroom GoTalk!

I also created lots of comprehension activities so that I had something that fit the needs of each student. We worked on wh-questions, sequencing, and fill-in-the-blank sentences. 

Then I used my progress monitoring sheet framework to create corresponding differentiated data collection sheets. 

Reading with my students was definitely fun for me... but what was really fun for the kids was actually making green eggs and ham to try!

In a room full of students with various sensory differences, some students were definitely more eager than others! The mood of the classroom ranged from enthusiastic....

to uncertain!

But at the end of the day, we all learned if we are unsure about how something will taste... just add cheese! 😂😂😂

Eating green food definitely gets us ready for everything green during our St. Patrick's Day Unit! I grew up going to a predominately Irish Catholic grade school in Cleveland. St. Patrick's Day was such a big deal that we always had the day off so everyone could go downtown for the parade. For most of my childhood I spent the day marching in the parade and Irish dancing at various cultural centers. My love for St. Patrick's Day was definitely something I wanted to bring to my classroom (it isn't as popular in the Dayton area). So I created a whole unit for us to celebrate!

The students learned vocabulary, we made green "potion" to go along with our green eggs and ham, played games, did themed math activities! 

We also took the opportunity to talk about rainbows and colors. One of our favorite activities was melting and mixing colored ice cubes to see what colors we created! 

Another favorite activity (especially for me!) was our social skills group where we shared compliments about why we were lucky to have each person as part of our class. 

And now I am compiled all of my activities to create a few products for Teachers Pay Teachers to make it easier for other teachers to implement these units in their classrooms! 

For the reading and comprehension activities, check out my Greens Eggs and Ham Unit. 

And for the thematic activities (including the green eggs and ham recipe!) check out my St. Patrick's Day Unit. 

Or get all of your March lesson plans done early and grab both in the bundle!