Showing posts with label special education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label special education. Show all posts
June Show & Tell Linky
I have an crazy teacher rubric, this year I'm going to swing to the fences. I have in the past talked about Personalized Learning and how I'm working to use the thinking in s Resource Special Education room. I'm adding a Data Binder this year.
Each student will have a binder where they will keep their data, Personalized Learning Plan, rubrics, and week reflection plans. This information will be used to info IEP meetings and make it easier for students to crate a video of presentation for their IEP meetings. I also hope I can give students more responsibly like their books, progress monitoring materials, attendance, behavior, and what ever else I want them to hold on to. I chose to make the paper pieces match the divider tabs in the hopes it would help with organization and I could spend less time with missing pieces.
One thing that I added to my Data binders was a way for my students' for reflect on and take control of their learning and a perfect way to use it as a Formative Assessment. Last year to used Robert Marzano's Checking for Understanding. This is one of three versions I have in my Teachers pay Teacher store. Even though I'm keeping the same students just a grade older than last year--this version was perfect for them as first and second graders. This is perfect for students to self-assess and reflect on their learning, you can target specific skills they say they are missing or confused or speed up you instruction because they've got it. You can buy it from my store-click on the picture.
What is Effective Comprehension Instruction?
It is Explicit, Intensive, persistent instruction. I do mine in small and large groups. Small groups allow me to focus in on the specific skill the groups needs. I find this is a great easy way to differenate students because each student does not need to be in the same reading material--they are grouuped to practice the specific comprehension skill.
To become good readers, most students require explicit, intensive, and persistent instruction. In explicit comprehension strategy instruction, the teacher chooses strategies that are closely aligned with the text students are reading. The teacher models and "thinks aloud" about what a given strategy is and why it is important, helps students learn how, when, and where to use the strategy, and gives students opportunities to apply the strategy on their own.
Modeling is followed by practice, guided by the teacher, who works with students to help them figure out how and when to use the strategy themselves. As students read, the teacher provides feedback and engages them in discussion. In subsequent lessons, the teacher asks students to apply the strategy on their own to other texts.
Students are encouraged to plan before reading so that reading has a clear goal or purpose, to continually monitor their understanding during reading, and to apply repair strategies when breakdowns in understanding occur. To improve self-monitoring, the teacher may model for students how to do one or all of the following:
· think about what they already know before they start reading and during reading;
· be aware of whether they understand what they are reading;
· employ strategies to identify difficult words, concepts, and ideas;
· ask themselves: "Does this make sense?"; and
· be aware of how a particular text is organized.
One of the most important features of explicit instruction is the teacher's gradual release to students of responsibility for strategy use, with the goal that students apply strategies independently. However, teachers do not ask students to work on their own until the students have demonstrated that they understand a strategy and how and when to use it.
The Primary Comprehension Toolkit from Heinemann (grade K-2) allows me to teach specific comprehension skills in a sequence that makes sense to the reader. The student does the work--I have to listen to how they are applying the strategies to text.
My students LOVE expository text (non-fiction). Most of the reading students do throughout their schooling — indeed, throughout their lives — will involve expository text. Without an understanding of the organization of such text, students often have difficulty understanding what they read. Unlike a narrative, an expository text has no familiar story line to guide students' reading. To read expository texts successfully, students must learn that authors may use a variety of structures to organize their ideas, including cause-and-effect or compare and contrast relationships, time-and-order sequences, and problem-solution patterns. Indeed, students need to know that authors may use some or all of these structures in any given chapter or section of a text.
They need to learn that expository text can differ from narrative text in the way it is presented on a page. For example, expository text may be organized by means of text headings and subheadings, and may contain extensive graphics, such as tables, charts, diagrams, and illustrations. Instructional practices that facilitate students' understanding of expository text include helping them learn how to:
· chunk information in a text by grouping related ideas and concepts;
· summarize important information in a text by grouping related ideas and concepts;
· integrate information in a text with existing knowledge;
· apply information in a text to real-world situations;
· interpret and construct graphics such as charts, tables, and figures;
· synthesize information from different texts; and
· develop presentations about the text
and this one show two examples of the sentence stems.
My hope in using the Primary Comprehension Toolkit is to have student's think more critically about what they have read to in turn create new works that show how they created meaning strategically in reading and writing. This set of strategies being tied to their Personalized Learning Plans. I hoping to see great products but I'll have to wait until next week to see what students do.
Classroom Accommodations Ideas
If the student has difficulty learning by listening, then try…
Before the lesson:
- Pre-teach difficult vocabulary and concepts
- State the objective, providing a reason for listening
- Teach the mental activities involved in listening — mental note-taking, questioning, reviewing
- Provide study guides/worksheets
- Provide script of film
- Provide lecture outlines
During the lesson:
- Provide visuals via the board or overhead
- Use flash cards
- Have the student close his eyes and try to visualize the information
- Have the student take notes and use colored markers to highlight
- Teach the use of acronyms to help visualize lists (Roy G. Biv for the colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
- Give explanations in small, distinct steps
- Provide written as well as oral directions
- Have the student repeat directions
- When giving directions to the class, leave a pause between each step so student can carry out the process in his mind
- Shorten the listening time required
- Provide written and manipulative tasks
- Be concise with verbal information: "Jane, please sit." instead of "Jane, would you please sit down in your chair."
- If the student has difficulty expressing himself verbally, then try…
To accept an alternate form of information sharing, such as the following:
- Written report
- Artistic creation
- Exhibit or showcase
- Chart, graph, or table
- Photo essay
- Map
- Review of films
- Charade or pantomime
- Demonstration
- Taped report
- Ask questions requiring short answers
- Provide a prompt, such as beginning the sentence for the student or giving a picture cue
- Give the rules for class discussion (e.g., hand raising)
- Give points for oral contributions and preparing the student individually
- Teach the student to ask questions in class
- Specifically teach body and language expression
- Wait for students to respond — don't call on the first student to raise his hand
- First ask questions at the information level — giving facts and asking for facts back; then have the student break in gradually by speaking in smaller groups and then in larger groups
If the student has difficulty reading written material, then try…
- Find a text written at lower level
- Provide highlighted material
- Rewrite the student's text
- Tape the student's text
- Allow a peer or parent to read text aloud to student
- Shorten the amount of required reading
- Look for same content in another medium (movie, filmstrip, tape)
- Provide alternative methods for student to contribute to the group, such as role playing or dramatizing (oral reading should be optional)
- Allow extra time for reading
- Omit or shortening the reading required
- Substitute one-page summaries or study guides which identify key ideas and terms as the reading assignment
- Motivate the student, interesting him
- Provide questions before student reads a selection (include page and paragraph numbers)
- Put the main ideas of the text on index cards which can easily be organized in a file box and divided by chapters; pre-teaching vocabulary
- Type material for easier reading
- Use larger type
- Be more concrete-using pictures and manipulatives
- Reduce the amount of new ideas
- Provide experience before and after reading as a frame of reference for new concepts
- State the objective and relating it to previous experiences
- Help the student visualize what is read
If the student has difficulty writing legibly, then try…
- Use a format requiring little writing
- Multiple-choice
- Programmed material
- True/false
- Matching
- Use manipulatives such as letters from a Scrabble™ game or writing letters on small ceramic tiles
- Reduce or omit assignments requiring copying
- Encourage shared note-taking
- Allow the use of a tape recorder, a typewriter, or a computer
- Teach writing directly
- Trace letters or writing in clay
- Verbalize strokes on tape recorder
- Use a marker to space between words
- Tape the alphabet to student's desk
- Provide a wallet-size alphabet card
- Provide courses in graph analysis or calligraphy as a motivator
- Use graph paper to help space letters and numbers in math
- Use manuscript or lined ditto paper as a motivation technique (brainstorm the advantages of legibility with the class)
If the student has difficulty expressing himself in writing, then try…
Accepting alternate forms of reports:
- Oral reports
- Tape-recorded report
- Tape of an interview
- Collage, cartoon, or other art
- Maps
- Diorama, 3-D materials, showcase exhibits
- Photographic essay
- Panel discussion
- Mock debate
- Review of films and presentation of an appropriate one to the class
- Have the student dictate work to someone else (an older student, aide, or friend) and then copy it himself
- Allow more time
- Shorten the written assignment (preparing an outline or summary)
- Provide a sample of what the finished paper should look like to help him organize the parts of the assignment
- Provide practice using:
- Story starters
- Open-ended stories
- Oral responses (try some oral spelling tests)
If the student has difficulty spelling, then try…
- Dictate the work and then asking the student to repeat it (saying it in sequence may eliminate errors of omitted syllables)
- Avoid traditional spelling lists (determine lists from social needs and school area needs)
- Use mnemonic devices ("A is the first capital letter," "The capitol building has a dome")
- Teach short, easy words in context:
- On and on
- Right on!
- On account of
- Have students make flashcards and highlight the difficult spots on the word
- Give a recognition level spelling test (asking the student to circle correct word from three or four choices)
- Teach words by spelling patterns (teach "cake," "bake," "take," etc. in one lesson)
- Use the Language Master for drill
- Avoid penalizing for spelling errors
- Hang words from the ceiling during study time or posting them on the board or wall as constant visual cues
- Provide a tactile/kinesthetic aid for spelling (sandpaper letters to trace or a box filled with salt or cereal to write in)
This is just the tip of the iceberg of ideas to use in the classroom. What are your favorites?
August Show and Tell Linky
I have at lest unpacked and you can make out all the piles on my teaching table. I spent today between collecting baseline data and calling parents--that pile is on my desk. But as you can see I don't hang things on my walls. Most of what I hang is student created and anchor charts they use. I don't hang things up student don't take the time to reference. I'm starting small groups tomorrow.
This year I have gone back to student binders. I want them to be way more responsible for everything. I don't want to be the holder of any of it. I'm hoping that this idea will help with building on Growth Mindsets, IEP input, and increase student buy-in on IEP goals. My district is huge on student voice and choice and innovation, my hope is that with the Personalized Learning Plans students will demonstrate all that and more. I'm looking forward to taking this idea out of a spin with them. I have shared this idea with my Speech/Language Pathologist and came up with some great ideas to build in a week of finish projects, progress monitoring, finish student choice assessments, and build in student driven next steps. Finger crossed this works.
I have one bulletin board in my room. I have been trying to get it to be interactive-last year that didn't happen. So this year, I have tried to tie into our data binders and hope to have them use it on a monthly bases to show how well they meet their IEP goals. As a building one theme we are focusing on is mindset. This idea ties into the teacher rubric. Last year my students worked on determination and resilience since many just give up. I think it really helped get them to grow as readers and work. I'm looking forward to see what they do with the idea of mindset and create pictures to support what it means to them. Most of what I have been doing over the summer is working through ideas that would get them to think about what kind of voice and choice they want and creating a space that supports this thinking. 
Happy Tuesday!
Data Collection Dred--With What?
Each school year brings dred and worry over how to progress monitor IEP goals and establish baselines. When it comes to setting and tracking IEP goals... there's NOT an app for that. I have tried just about everything but the advice I give is always find what works for you—otherwise it won’t happen. We all know in this age of RTI and MTSS that if they don’t have it there is nothing we can do. The same is true when explaining to parents if their child is making growth—without your sunk. Here are a few ideas to get you started on figuring out what works for you. This is by no means everything.
As we get ready to begin the school year, I must assess my goals for the year. A goal I always seem to make is to find a better way to document data for progress monitoring, especially for my students with IEPs. Over the past 12 years, I have talked to other teachers, scoured the internet, and made up my own resources. I have been secretly hoping that an app developer would come up with some IEP-specific apps that I could use on my iPad, but no such luck yet.
According to the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs, effective progress monitoring provides for accelerated learning, informed instructional decisions, and more efficient communication with parents and other professionals. This is why I feel it is so important to come up with an effective way of collecting and using this data.
Use IEP Goal Pages Teacher Binder
Use the IEP goal pages: In the past I have kept a binder that had only the IEP goal pages for my students and made notes directly on the pages. I was able to then carry this teacher binder around with me throughout the day. I always choose a teacher binder that is a different color than the usual black or white so that it would stand out if I was looking for it.
Personalize Your Tracking Pages
Teacher-created pages: I have made my own pages to document progress monitoring which include a column for the goal, date, notes, and progress code. I find transferring all of the goal information onto this page to be time consuming, but transferring information to the progress reports is fairly easy.
Tap into Online Templates
Last school year, a fellow teacher suggested checking out the assessment & testing form templates on Mrs. Perkins website. I must say these were a fantastic resource for me in tracking sight words and letters. Her simple format made it easy for myself or a paraprofessional to assess student progress. I could also easily send the form home for parents to review.
Utilize Online Assessment Tools
There are a ton of resources online to save you time and energy in progress monitoring. One of my favorites for elementary math is Numberfly, which is great for assessing students’ number recognition. Numberfly creates your assessments for number recognition and has built-in tracking resources. For reading I use, Intervention Central. I love their reading fluency making, I use it for reading records. I was able to also use a chart on the site to chart information to take to IEP meetings and the student progress monitoring team.
Still looking for more ideas-check out my RTI Data Collection packet from Teachers pay Teachers for more ideas.
How do you keep track of student progress? I'd love to hear what everyone else does.
Websites to Support Math Planning
Planing for specific and targeted math instruction is a challenge and some days a pain. I work to make sure my instruction resources are free. I also work with these ideas in mind--even when I think I know which direction I need to go in next.
Mathematics interventions at the Tier 2 level of a multi-tier prevention system must incorporate six instructional principles:
- Instructional explicitness
- Instructional design that eases the learning challenge
- A strong conceptual basis for procedures that are taught
- An emphasis on drill and practice
- Cumulative review as part of drill and practice
- Motivators to help students regulate their attention and behavior and to work hard
This is a collection of websites I use to plan math instruction to differentiate and help student’s access core instruction.
- The Illustrative Mathematics Project connects mathematical tasks to each of the standards. Bill McCallum, a lead writer of the Common Core State Standards, helped create the site to show the range and types of mathematical work the standards are designed to foster in students.
- The Arizona Academic Content Standards contain explanations and examples for each of the standards created by teachers with the help of Bill McCallum a lead writer of the Common Core State Standards.
- Achieve the Core is the website for the organization Student Achievement Partners (SAP) founded by David Coleman and Jason Zimba, two of the lead writers of the Common Core State Standards. The website shares free, open-source resources to support Common Core implementation at the classroom, district, and state level. The steal these tools link includes information on the key instructional shifts for math and guidance for focusing math instruction.
- The Model Content Frameworks from Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) were developed through a state-led process of content experts in PARCC member states and members of the Common Core State Standards writing team. The Model Content Frameworks are designed help curriculum developers and teachers as they work to implement the standards in their states and districts.
- The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has released a new Practice Guide: Teaching Math to Young Children. From naming shapes to counting, many children show an interest in math before they enter a classroom. Teachers can build on this curiosity with five recommendations from the WWC in this practice guide. The guide is geared toward teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to build a strong foundation for later math learning.
The Common Core State Standards were built on mathematical progressions. This website provides links to narrative documents describing the progression of a mathematical topic across a number of grade levels, informed both by research on children's cognitive development and by the logical structure of mathematics.
- What Works Clearinghouse released a practice guide, Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle Schools. In addition, Doing What Works has developed professional development resources associated with the practice guide for Response to Intervention in Elementary-Middle Math.
- The Colorado English Language Proficiency Standards provide educators with an invaluable resource for working with not only English Language Learners in mathematics but developing mathematical language in all students. The Can Do descriptors are particularly helpful entry point to the standards.
- Open source Mathematics materials for English Language Learners, released by Understanding Language, were developed using research-based principles for designing mathematics instructional materials and tasks from two publicly accessible curriculum projects, Inside Mathematics and the Mathematics Assessment Project. Each lesson supports students in learning to communicate about a mathematical problem they have solved, to read and understand word problems, or to incorporate mathematical vocabulary in a problem solving activity.
Back-to-School Tips for Special Education Teachers; Giveaway
Today, I'm linking up with Ashley from Ashley's Brainy Centers for a Back to School Giveaway.
My top 10 must dos for each back-to-school tips I do to emphasize communication, organization, and a focus on student success.
1. Organize all that paperwork
Special educators handle lots of paperwork and documentation throughout the year. Try to set up two separate folders or binders for each child on your case load: one for keeping track of student work and assessment data and the other for keeping track of all other special education documentation.
2. Start a communication log
Keeping track of all phone calls, e-mails, notes home, meetings, and conferences is important. Create a "communication log" for yourself in a notebook that is easily accessible. Be sure to note the dates, times, and nature of the communications you have.
3. Review your students' IEPs
The IEP is the cornerstone of every child's educational program, so it's important that you have a clear understanding of each IEP you're responsible for. Make sure all IEPs are in compliance (e.g., all signatures are there and dates are aligned). Note any upcoming IEP meetings, reevaluations, or other key dates, and mark your calendar now. Most importantly, get a feel for where your students are and what they need by carefully reviewing the present levels of performance, services, and modifications in the IEP.
4. Establish a daily schedule for you and your students
Whether you're a resource teacher or self-contained teacher, it's important to establish your daily schedule. Be sure to consider the service hours required for each of your students, any related services, and co-teaching. Check your schedule against the IEPs to make sure that all services are met. And keep in mind that this schedule will most likely change during the year!
5. Call your students' families
Take the time to introduce yourself with a brief phone call before school starts. You'll be working with these students and their families for at least the next school year, and a simple "hello" from their future teacher can ease some of the back-to-school jitters!
6. Touch base with related service providers
It's important to contact the related service providers — occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech/language therapists, or counselors — in your school as soon as possible to establish a schedule of times for your students who need these services. The earlier you touch base, the more likely you'll be able to find times that work for everyone.
7. Meet with your general education co-teachers
Communicating with your general education co-teachers will be important throughout the year, so get a head start on establishing this important relationship now! Share all of the information you can about schedules, students, and IEP services so that you're ready to start the year.
8. Keep everyone informed
All additional school staff such as assistants and specialists who will be working with your students need to be aware of their needs and their IEPs before school starts. Organize a way to keep track of who has read through the IEPs, and be sure to update your colleagues if the IEPs change during the school year.
9. Plan your B.O.Y. assessments
As soon as school starts, teachers start conducting their beginning of the year (B.O.Y.) assessments. Assessment data is used to update IEPs — and to shape your instruction — so it's important to keep track of which students need which assessments. Get started by making a checklist of student names, required assessments, and a space for scores. This will help you stay organized and keep track of data once testing begins.
10. Start and stay positive
As a special educator, you'll have lots of responsibilities this year, and it may seem overwhelming at times. If your focus is on the needs of your students and their success, you'll stay motivated and find ways to make everything happen. Being positive, flexible, and organized from the start will help you and your students have a successful year.
Ashley from Ashley's Brainy Centers Back to School Giveaway is live for 24 hours--be sure to get in on the fun and get a $5.00 Teacher pay Teacher Store credit from me and others.
Until next time--
June's Show and Tell
Each pathway has the 4Cs (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) and a blank for a World Class Outcome (example-create meaning strategically) but I thinking instead of the WCO, it needs to be "Must Do's." Here I could list the the weekly IEP goal monitoring or items I need a student to complete before the end of the week
Showing IEP growth with voice and choice, I think will have to be done with student data binders. With students choosing which IEP goal they want to focus on, they will have to collect the data to match that goal. In looking at my current version students can choose: subject and they will show growth/mastery of the World Class Outcome (example-create meaning strategically) through a 4C (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity). this idea should already be tied to IEP goals but not always plus there is some rubric scoring that gets done as well. I use Marizono's and have students self score but this idea only touches the tip of the iceberg. I would like to also self score for things like fluency and using comprehension strategies too. My district has rubrics I need to use that are embedded with the 4Cs. (Its not as much work as it seems but yes I'm working on streamlining it to be less and still get everything collected on a weekly basis.)
Creating "I can" statements for IEP goals. In many ways its interesting that my students have similar goals in reading, writing, and math--each with its own twist but basically the same. This will make it easy for me to create "I can" on labels so I don't have to write then and the students don't have to write then. My hope over time as they take ownership of these goals they have an active voice on what their new IEP goals should be. (This is a wild and very new idea for teachers and parents to grasp.)
I'm thinking student data binders will lead to both student graphing and goal tracking and a working portfolio students can use for IEP meetings. This is a new idea that has not been used before. This idea gives students a huge voice in what they have been doing and what directions they want to take their IEPs in.
I like the idea behind each student having a binder. I have done that in the past but I have not done the personalize learning plan tie that to an IEP and then in turn to IEP meetings. WOW!! That's a lot but I think in small groups students will make it their own and that in turn students will make more than a years growth. I see an action research project coming in the near future. Stay turned more details to come.
Have a great week.
Special Education Teachers as Speech/Language Support--Who Knew
If your like me, you have students who need more language support than your speech/language pathologist has time for. In Colorado, I have two speech/language learning disabilities that cross over from speech to academics but knowing what to do if half the battle. My plan/hope over the summer is to find ways to build language into my lessons.
ORAL EXPRESSION AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION
Oral expression pertains to the use of words and includes the ability to formulate and produce words and sentences with appropriate vocabulary, grammar and application of conversational rules.
A student’s oral expression skills are essential to their learning and academic success. Oral expression problems in students may result in literacy problems. Students with poor oral expression, may not perform at grade level because of their struggle with reading, difficulty understanding and expressing language, and the fact that they may misunderstand social cues. Oral expression is about the student’s ability to express ideas, explain thinking (critical in math), retell stories, and contrast and compare concepts or ideas.
Characteristics of Oral Expression
The following may be exhibited by those children who demonstrate oral expression difficulties:
- Difficulty with the grammatical processes of inflection, marking categories like person, tense, and case (e.g., the –s in jumps marks the third‐person singular in the present tense), and derivation, the formation of new words from existing words (e.g. acceptable from accept)
- Learning vocabulary
- Difficulty formulating complete, semantically and grammatically correct sentences either spoken or written
- Difficulty explaining word associations, antonyms/synonyms
- Difficulty with retelling, making inferences, and predictions
Definition and Implications of Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension refers to the understanding of the implications and explicit meanings of words and sentences of spoken language. Listening comprehension often seen with difficulties in written language and in the auditory processing of oral information. Students with problems processing and interpreting spoken sentences frequently can experience difficulties in mastering syntactic structures both receptively as well as expressively. Although students appear to perceive and interpret the words used in spoken sentences, building oral language is important to ensure they build sentence level comprehension.
Characteristics of Listening Comprehension
- Children experiencing listening comprehension difficulties may exhibit the following:
- Difficulty with following directions for seatwork and projects
- Difficulty remembering homework assignments
- Difficulty with understanding oral narratives and text
- Difficulty answering questions about the content of the information given
- Difficulty with critical thinking to arrive at logical answers
- Difficulty with word associations, antonyms/synonyms, categorizing, and classifying
- Difficulty with note‐taking or dictation
Intervention and Progress Monitoring
The speech‐language pathologist can provide both direct and consultative services in collaboration with the classroom teachers, resource teachers and interventionists in developing intervention strategies that will include explicit skills‐training in the areas of oral expression and/or listening comprehension as key to some students’ access to the curriculum.
Providing structured opportunities for students to participate in social interactions, such as giving them “helping” roles or having them “talk through” an activity involving a successfully learned skill, reinforces oral expression skills. Working on beginning, middle and end to organize narratives as well as in the retelling of stories fosters oral expression development.
The direct teaching of listening strategies is important to improving listening comprehension. Particularly effective is cuing the student to keep their eyes on the speaker, make a picture in their head, ask for clarification, and internalize directions by repeating them to themselves. Modeling and demonstration is essential with students of all ages.
An example of progress monitoring of an oral expression and/or listening comprehension intervention would be correct identification of picture cards of specific targeted vocabulary being taught. The desired result should be that the student’s correct labeling/identification of the target vocabulary increase with each collection of data to be analyzed (progress monitoring).
The targeted intervention needs to be systematic and explicit in its delivery and progress monitoring.
I'm planning to reach out to my SLP this summer, to beginning co-planning how to target our more intensive students. We are hoping with deliberate programming, we can make big strides with this kiddos. Stay turned for some fun short ideas that you can use in your groups!
I'm planning to reach out to my SLP this summer, to beginning co-planning how to target our more intensive students. We are hoping with deliberate programming, we can make big strides with this kiddos. Stay turned for some fun short ideas that you can use in your groups!
Using Technology to Create Social Stories
Over the years I have made my fair share of Social Stories. Each one specific to that student and their need. They are very helpful for staying on task and ensuring that the student is prepared for future events and activities and behavior challenges.
Making Social Stories can be time consuming, I have some suggestions for to make effective social stories to help you out.
Pogo Boards is a full-featured, robust, web-based, solution for creating boards, Features include: Speech output with 42 different, high quality, text-to-speech voices. Access to millions of images through an intuitive, integrated Google image search, plus thousands of unique, custom symbols with SymbolStix© and the new PiCS© symbol system. Pogo Boards also gives you the ability to share boards online either within your own private community or the global community of all users.
Price: Starts at $9.95 a month or $69.95 a year.
2. Picto Selector is a Windows application written for easy selection and printing of pictos. After downloading and installing the software you can start creating pictosheets. You can insert your own pictures into a pictosheet or choose from over 24,000 pictures and symbols. Once you are finished you can save it as a pdf and print out a copy to use.
3. ConnectABILITY
ConnectAbility offers a visuals engine that is great for creating a quick social story on the fly. There are no downloads necessary. Simply select your template (choose from choice time, rules, schedules, personal stories and more), add Boardmaker images or upload your own images and print or save as a PDF.
4. LessonPix
is an easy-to-use online resource that allows users to create various customized learning materials. LessonPix offers a simple three step process for creating a social story.
Price: $36 per year
5. Boardmaker
Boardmaker was one of the first and most well-known social story applications created. Boardmaker lets you create talking books, behavior supports, schedules, rewards charts and much more. Boardmaker also lets you download over 10,000 ready made boards that other members have created. Please note that Boardmaker was designed for schools and therapists and therefore the price is significantly more than other products.
Price: $399
6. StoryMaker for Social Stories
HandHold Adaptive created StoryMaker to help caregivers everywhere construct social narratives, an evidence-based practice for individuals with developmental delays. StoryMaker allows users to create Social Stories using pictures, text and audio. Add pictures from the built-in Library, or expand the Library with pictures from the camera, Google, Bing or Flickr. You can than print or email the stories you created as a PDF.
7. Stories About Me
Stories About Me allows parents and teachers to create their own social stories for their children and students. Blending photos, text, and voice recordings into a talking picture book, children can playback rich media stories of their own personal experiences. Swiping advances the pages and tapping plays the audio; simple as that!
8. Stories2Learn
Stories2Learn is a parent approved app that promotes social messages to individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. S2L offers parents and educators the ability to create personalized stories using photos, text, and audio messages. These stories can be used to promote an individual’s literacy, leisure, as well as social skills.
9. i Create… Social Skills Stories
i Create… Social Skills Stories is an application with the ability to totally customize sequential steps of a storyline for individuals that need help building their social skills. The app is designed to make unlimited personalized social skill story books by importing personal photos, adding titles, text and audio to unlimited pages in the story.
Price: $4.99
10. First Then Visual Schedule
First-Then visual schedule is an affordable user-friendly mobile application designed for caregivers to provide positive behavior support through the use of “visual schedules”. First-Then was designed for individuals with Autism, communication needs, developmental delays, Down’s Syndrome, Alzheimer’s, or anyone who would benefit from a structured environment.
Price: $9.99
11. iPrompts
iPrompts, the original app for visual supports, is used by parents, special educators and therapists of those with autism and other developmental delays. iPrompts® also works great with kids who just need more structure, including kids with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD), and even typical, pre-verbal toddlers!
Price: $49.99
So… How do you make social stories?
- Reinforce or teach abstract concepts, such as time (e.g., next, later), actions, and prepositions (e.g., open, put in,)
- Break down multi-step tasks into smaller, more manageable parts.
- Increase your child’s independence by improving his ability to complete parts of his routine with less help or prompting.
Making Social Stories can be time consuming, I have some suggestions for to make effective social stories to help you out.
Software and Apps
1. Pogo BoardsPogo Boards is a full-featured, robust, web-based, solution for creating boards, Features include: Speech output with 42 different, high quality, text-to-speech voices. Access to millions of images through an intuitive, integrated Google image search, plus thousands of unique, custom symbols with SymbolStix© and the new PiCS© symbol system. Pogo Boards also gives you the ability to share boards online either within your own private community or the global community of all users.Price: Starts at $9.95 a month or $69.95 a year.
2. Picto Selector is a Windows application written for easy selection and printing of pictos. After downloading and installing the software you can start creating pictosheets. You can insert your own pictures into a pictosheet or choose from over 24,000 pictures and symbols. Once you are finished you can save it as a pdf and print out a copy to use.3. ConnectABILITY
ConnectAbility offers a visuals engine that is great for creating a quick social story on the fly. There are no downloads necessary. Simply select your template (choose from choice time, rules, schedules, personal stories and more), add Boardmaker images or upload your own images and print or save as a PDF.
4. LessonPixis an easy-to-use online resource that allows users to create various customized learning materials. LessonPix offers a simple three step process for creating a social story.
Price: $36 per year
5. Boardmaker
Boardmaker was one of the first and most well-known social story applications created. Boardmaker lets you create talking books, behavior supports, schedules, rewards charts and much more. Boardmaker also lets you download over 10,000 ready made boards that other members have created. Please note that Boardmaker was designed for schools and therapists and therefore the price is significantly more than other products.Price: $399
6. StoryMaker for Social Stories
HandHold Adaptive created StoryMaker to help caregivers everywhere construct social narratives, an evidence-based practice for individuals with developmental delays. StoryMaker allows users to create Social Stories using pictures, text and audio. Add pictures from the built-in Library, or expand the Library with pictures from the camera, Google, Bing or Flickr. You can than print or email the stories you created as a PDF.7. Stories About Me
Stories About Me allows parents and teachers to create their own social stories for their children and students. Blending photos, text, and voice recordings into a talking picture book, children can playback rich media stories of their own personal experiences. Swiping advances the pages and tapping plays the audio; simple as that!8. Stories2Learn
Stories2Learn is a parent approved app that promotes social messages to individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. S2L offers parents and educators the ability to create personalized stories using photos, text, and audio messages. These stories can be used to promote an individual’s literacy, leisure, as well as social skills.9. i Create… Social Skills Stories
i Create… Social Skills Stories is an application with the ability to totally customize sequential steps of a storyline for individuals that need help building their social skills. The app is designed to make unlimited personalized social skill story books by importing personal photos, adding titles, text and audio to unlimited pages in the story.Price: $4.99
10. First Then Visual Schedule
First-Then visual schedule is an affordable user-friendly mobile application designed for caregivers to provide positive behavior support through the use of “visual schedules”. First-Then was designed for individuals with Autism, communication needs, developmental delays, Down’s Syndrome, Alzheimer’s, or anyone who would benefit from a structured environment. Price: $9.99
iPrompts, the original app for visual supports, is used by parents, special educators and therapists of those with autism and other developmental delays. iPrompts® also works great with kids who just need more structure, including kids with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD), and even typical, pre-verbal toddlers!Price: $49.99
So… How do you make social stories?
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