The Science of Reading in the Special Education Classroom

Last year I read a book that changed my entire outlook on teaching teaching to my students with significant disabilities and complex needs. Comprehensive Literacy for All: Teaching Students with Significant Disabilities to Read and Write by Karen Erickson Ph.D and David Koppenhaver Ph.D. is a MUST-READ for teachers in the self-contained classroom! It provides Science of Reading research specific to our students with significant disabilities and provides some practical guidance. 

However, when I was finished reading, I struggled with knowing what literacy materials would work best for applying what I had learned. 

So I got to work creating some! And that is how my Differentiated Phonological Awareness Visual Supports for Elementary or SpEd, Letter of the Day Science of Reading Lessons and Visual Supports for Special Ed, and Predictable Chart Writing Year-Long Lessons and Materials for Elementary SpEd were born! 

Differentiated Phonological Awareness Visual Supports for Elementary

Phonological Awareness activities are often very auditory-focused. For my learners, this is often the most challenging learning modality. Therefore, I wanted to create visual supports for each skill that could be easily differentiated across a variety of learners.  

The skills I addressed included: 

It was also important to me to make visual supports that could be modified to be used across a variety of learning activities to increase engagement and build student independence. This was also key to differentiation. 

Task Cards

Cut and Paste Worksheets

Puzzles

File Folders

Letter Tile Cards

Paper-Pencil Worksheets

Dry Erase Mats

Letter of the Day Science of Reading Lessons and Visual Supports for Special Ed

Comprehensive Literacy for All taught me the importance of daily alphabet instruction. I wanted to create materials for this instruction that had a similar format for daily instruction each day so that students could focus on learning the content (and not concurrently trying to learn the activity expectations!). 

Based on the research from the book, I developed a daily lesson framework and lesson plans to accompany my materials:

1. Alphabet Song

• Provide students with the alphabet song visual support.
• Play or sing the Alphabet Song while students track each letter with their finger.

2. Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge

• Provide each student with the EAK worksheet.
• Follow the included EAK script adapted from Comprehensive Literacy for All

3. Letter Matching

• Provide student with letter sheet and manipulatives based on their level:
• Identical capital letter matching
• Lowercase letter matching
• Match pictures with beginning sound

4. Letter Picture Book

• Read aloud the book from the provided picture book list.

5. Letter Book Worksheet

• During or after reading, give students the letter worksheet to color or draw.

Ready to get started with the Science of Reading in your special education classroom? Check out the resources I created in my TPT store!

Predictable Chart Writing

Shared Writing is another important aspect of the Science of Reading instruction in the special education classroom. Predictable Chart Writing is a weekly sequence of activities that can be used during shared writing that follows a predictable format and can easily be differentiated based on student needs. There are 5 steps... one for each day of the week including:

1. Write the Chart (Monday)

2. Reread the Chart (Tuesday)

3. Work with Sentence Strips (Wednesday)

4. Be the Sentence (Thursday)

5. Make and Publish the Book (Friday)

For an in-depth look at each step, head over to my blog post:

Predictable Chart Writing in the Special Education Classroom

And to get started you can grab my ready to use resource with lessons for the entire year! 

Ready to dive right in and get started with it all?! I have you covered with this great bundle at a 20% discount! 

Fine Motor Taskboxes

When first preparing a student for the TEACCH structured work system, we first start with simple fine motor taskboxes. Most of the time, students at this level are working on fine motor goals anyway so this is a great starting point.

In my classroom, the purpose for the structured work system is primarily INDEPENDENT task completion. Therefore, we always introduce each of our taskboxes during an isolated one-on-one session and continue working on it until the student can complete it independently in isolation. During this time we may begin introducing the TEACCH structured work system through using VERY simple tasks such as lacing one bead on a string or putting three pegs in a pegboard.

This goes back to a very fundamental part of special education especially in the MD classroom which is focusing on one goal at a time and typically performing a task analysis of each goal to see what the steps to reaching that goal would be. This is exactly what I do when planning student IEPs and even though a student may not have a goal for the TEACCH center, it is a routine in my classroom and each routine needs to be broken down just like each IEP goal to ensure my students' success.

Therefore, I would not put a child at the TEACCH work system center with for the first time with three taskboxes they are also seeing for the first time. This is just asking for a meltdown! It would be the equivalent to expecting a student to complete an addition with regrouping worksheet when they haven't even begun addition yet.

Here are some examples of where we would start:

Pegs: place pegs in hole (for some students you may need to remove the lid if this is too hard)

Pom-Pom Tweezers: use tweezers to move pom-poms from one cup to the other. This is a tricky one!  Variations could include using beginner's chopsticks or tongs and/or bigger pom-poms or cotton balls. To make it tricker add a lid to the second cup.

Clothespins: pinch the clothespins to get them off the box, then push them through X slot on canister (remove lid to make it easier)

Some wonderful other ideas can be found in these awesome books:

• How Do I Teach this Kid?
• Tasks Galore
• Tasks Galore for the Real World

Autism Team Moodle

For the past two years I have been working with the amazing ladies of the Miami Valley Autism and Low-Incidence Coaching Team (Miami Valley A.C.T.). I have learned a tremendous amount of information from them for meeting the needs of not only my students with autism but all of my students. 


Below is the link to their Moodle course. They are working hard to build the forums and provide all of the wonderful information they have to give for anyone to use. They are also looking for any ideas that others have to offer. It is an awesome resource! I highly recommend joining the site and taking and leaving some of your wonderful ideas. 


Since beginning my blog I have also been working on posts for their site. I am so excited to announce that they are coming out on Friday to tape some lessons in my room to post to their site as well. What an honor! But I have to admit I am SUPER nervous! I had a dream last night that EVERYTHING went totally wrong! Eeek! Wish me luck! 


http://moodle.mvidl.esu.k12.oh.us/course/view.php?id=189

ABLLS website

My colleagues and I use the ABLLS (The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills) to assess our students with autism and other low-incidence disabilities. It is an awesome tool for pinpointing what skills students are still lacking and provides a great sequence of skills for all aspects of a child's life (communication, social interaction, academics, self-care).


The ABLLS is very involed, however we found this helpful website that has tons of premade tracking spreadsheets which really cuts down on the work: 

http://www.trackingsheets.net/

Recommended Instructional Reads

When working with students with moderate to intensive special needs it can sometimes be difficult to know where to begin. The following two books have been extremely helpful for me and my colleagues in helping us plan IEPS and one-on-one instruction.

Behavioral Intervention for Young Children With Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals by Catherine Maurice is a great resource for setting up "programs" for teaching even the most basic skills (such as sitting in a chair) to students with autism. The book contains a list of skills for various curriculum levels and then maps out how to teach each skill. It even describes what cues and prompting can be used. 

Teaching Reading to Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Teachers by Patricia Logan Oelwein helped me completely change my approach to teaching reading to students with intensive special needs (not just down syndrome). The aspect of the book that I found most helpful was the process of teaching sight words which focuses on the most functional words for the child and uses a very repetitive, explicit method of introducing and practicing these sight words.