Jeremy Bower
Saturday, April 27, 2013
End of the semester.
I can't help but smile when I look at this year from a distance. I was able to turn my life around I feel. I also was learning more than I could have ever thought I would. This class was amazing and I will never forget it I learned a lot about myself as well as the kids I will be teaching.
Teaching doesn't seem so scary anymore, now that I know I will have a great support with me and I can do anything! I made some new friends and I hope one day some new collegues. The class was unforgetable, even though it was my second time taking it, I feel I learned more this time around no doubt.
Thank you Dr. Evans. You are amazing.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Presentations
So in this class we had to give presentations. They were, fun, challenging, and eye opening. I was in a group that dealt with the low vision and hard of hearing aspect of special ed. I looked at some interventions specifically for my group. That was really fun, I looked at something called visual phonics. This is where you have actual signs and pictures to represent the phonics in english. It is great to use because english can be complicated and by using this you are able to side step that difficulty a little bit.
I like it, here is a small example of it.
Visual Phonics
I like it, here is a small example of it.
Visual Phonics
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Boardmaker/LAIP 4
First off let me say that boardmaker is a pain at times. It is only on some computers and the license was out and it was a problem and ugghhh, now that I am done venting...
Boardmaker is a software that is great for making communication boards for students who are nonverbal. It has, what seems like, millions of pictures. I had to use it for the designing of a LAIP project, but I have had some experience with it in the past. I like the program for what it is, but it can at times be a little laggy and expensive. I hope that I am able to use it in my future classroom and that I have someone to talk to about it.
Here are my boards!
Boardmaker is a software that is great for making communication boards for students who are nonverbal. It has, what seems like, millions of pictures. I had to use it for the designing of a LAIP project, but I have had some experience with it in the past. I like the program for what it is, but it can at times be a little laggy and expensive. I hope that I am able to use it in my future classroom and that I have someone to talk to about it.
Here are my boards!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Brian Wojcek (I hope that is right)
I LOVED this speaker. He was amazing, he was fun, he was interesting, and to me most importantly he was a guy. He was very fun to listen too, his "lecture" flew by and I didn't even know the time was moving. He kept us talking and we were all so enthralled by the speech. The information he had about AAC was extremely great. I took notes on the topic before hand and will put them at the end of this blog. As I said earlier he was a male. This, to me at least, was a big deal. I have listened to some amazing people talk, but they are mostly female. There is nothing wrong with that, sometimes I just feel like I want the male perspective too, and I think that he was a perfect representation of what I want to be as a teacher.
Thanks Brian!!
Thanks Brian!!
What is AAC?:
- AAC refers to a diverse set of strategies and methods used by people who do not speak, are difficult to understand, or have language retrieval issues.
-“An area of clinical practice that attempts to compensate
(either temporarily or permanently) for the impairment and disability patterns of individuals with severe expressive communication disorders”
What are the two
main techniques?:
-Unaided
-Aided
-Low Tech: 1 response
-High Tech:
Name and describe
4 components for AAC aides ir devices
1. Representational symbol set or
VOCBULARY capability
2. A means of selecting the symbols
3. A means for transmitting the symbols
4. Portability feature
List the elements
considered for pre-assessment of AAC device
1. Communication
of wants and needs
2. Information
transfer
3. Social
closeness
4. Social
Etiquette
What are the
critical questions when designing an AAC system?
1. What type of system? Combination?
2. What symbol system? What factors
should be considered?
a. Guessability
b. Learnability
c. Generalization
3. Which vocabulary terms
What is the
hierarchy for symbol transparency?
-Letters, Words, Real objects. Photographs (Color/B&W),
Line drawings
Name the
considerations for planning communication goals?
1. Increase
a. Environments
b. Age-appropriate
interactions
c. Opportunities
2. Honor
topics valued by the student
3. Honor
topics valued by Parent/Guardian
4. Use of the
system by the ACC user – can it be put into place right away?
5. Target
enhancing the status of the ACC user
List the steps to
develop an AAC instructional program.
1. Pre-assessment
2. Develop
goals
3. Selection
of mode of communication
4. Selection
of symbol system
5. Method to
enhance communication
What are the
display types?
1. Static
2. Dynamic
What are the
access methods?
1. Direct
Physical contact with the device
2. Scanning
3. Multiple
access methods
a. Switch,
mouse, joystick, headpointer, etc.
Name examples of
AAC devices and use?
1. Big Mack:
Switch for power
2. Eye gaze
board: Ability to chose without having to move hands
3. Base
Trainer: Object Recognition
How do you talk
with an AAC user?
1. Collaboration
with adults in the child’s life, not just the disciplinarians
2. Functional
Skills should be taught
3. Anyone
coming into contact with the ACC can help instruct communication skills
How do you promote
literacy with an AAC user?
By using a board maker to give the students a chance to
answer questions. They can also interact with the story.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
visual strategies
What can I say about visual strategies? Well I can say that they are amazing, they are a great help to special ed. as well as general education classes. They are things like calenders, schedules, power cards, social stories etc. They are some times difficult to make, not because it is hard to actual make them, but instead it is hard to choose which one is appropriate for the child.
If you are to pick the wrong one, the student could hate to use it. You need to make sure it is not a one size fits all kind of mentality too. Not all kids are the same, in fact they are all vastly different and need different techniques to learn.
If you are to pick the wrong one, the student could hate to use it. You need to make sure it is not a one size fits all kind of mentality too. Not all kids are the same, in fact they are all vastly different and need different techniques to learn.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Assesing Language
We mainly talked about the assessment of language in today's class. The main thing that we talked about was the actual assessment of language. When a teacher is assessing a student you must make sure that you are using an assessment that has been tested in many different norms and has yielded positive results in the tests it has already administered. We looked at an assessment in class in our groups and we saw just how difficult it can be to make a positive assessment and how good they can be. My group got a great assessment. These were the questions that my group had and I think that they were great questions!1. How do you deal with the challenges of young kids and assessing them for language disorders? (some kids just don't talk and have no language problems at all, or sometimes they just develop a tad slower but catch on)2. How do you handle an assessment for a child who is an ELL?3. What ways can you as a teacher enhance language skills in the classroom?
School Age Language
The main thing we talked about this week was the development of school age language.
These were the 6 things in Morphology and Syntax Development in School Age children!
1. Inflectional prefixes ( un- and dis-)
2. Derivational suffixes : word endings that
change the meaning of the words ( -ly)
3. Reflexives: ( myself / himself)
4. Verb Tense: ( have, be, has, had)
5. Continue to develop advance sentence types
6. Development can be observed in their
writing
We also learned that the 2 main predictors for reading success are Language skills, Phonological ability.
This bit of learning seemed to really stick in my mind because of the practicality of it. I thought that the part of the lesson on how to monitor students was the most important. It said that if you need to see how a child interacts with language you should also look at their social interaction as well.
These were the 6 things in Morphology and Syntax Development in School Age children!
1. Inflectional prefixes ( un- and dis-)
2. Derivational suffixes : word endings that
change the meaning of the words ( -ly)
3. Reflexives: ( myself / himself)
4. Verb Tense: ( have, be, has, had)
5. Continue to develop advance sentence types
6. Development can be observed in their
writing
We also learned that the 2 main predictors for reading success are Language skills, Phonological ability.
This bit of learning seemed to really stick in my mind because of the practicality of it. I thought that the part of the lesson on how to monitor students was the most important. It said that if you need to see how a child interacts with language you should also look at their social interaction as well.
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