Burst and Bubbles

 

Burst and bubbles presentation

All of the students I work with have Neurodevelopmental
disorders, some of whom have complex communication
needs and limited experiences of generating language, 

My inquiry was to  focus on How can we use the Key
Competencies to help motivate students with complex
needs and see a shift in their writing. 

Writing presents many challenges to my students with
complex needs. To develop writing skills they need to learn
to generate an idea, to think about language, think about the
words, spelling and controlling their writing tool ,etc. and
eventually students need to be able to do all of these, within
the one task, to become writers.  

At Sommerville we have been fortunate enough to have
Dr Sally Clendon take professional development over the last
few years. As a result of Sally Clendon's guidance as well as
strong routines and behavior support, I was able to implement a
range of strategies and have noticed a difference in my student’s
writing skills. 

All my students are ORS funded and are working within level one

of the curriculum.

(If I used the traditional NZ  writing assessments they would be well
below their curriculum level for writing)

 

To assess my students, I  used the developmental writing scale

for beginner writers developed (Sturm, cali, Nelson and

Staskowski, 2012) adapted by Jane Farrall to see how my

students progressed.

 

 The scale has 14 levels and overall gives us information about

how to help a student move to the next level.

I used three different interventions for my students and was able
to see an overall improvement in their writing

One of the interventions was the use positive behaviour support

Due to writing being so complex, Motivating my students to write was
very challenging. I found that beginning a task and getting students to
stay focused is an ongoing issue. Students require lots of support
and motivation to just get started. I used a range of visuals.
All my students responded well to the FIRST-THEN visual Eg,
First writing -then choosing, This strategy worked well and
helped motivate them, as they knew they would get a reward as
soon as they completed their writing

Another intervention was-  Writing for real reasons

My students are not motivated to write, they need to know why they
must write, the purpose of writing and how is it going to help them.
(Eg talking about their weekend)

After looking at the research by Dr Sally Clendon, I encouraged
whanau to be involved. Each week they sent in a range of photos
from the weekend. These were events that the student could relate to,
they have had the experience and were more eager to share. 

It is authentic and students are more motivated. 

I noticed that the more involvement we had from whanua, the better
the outcomes.

For those whanua that were not involved we used Photos from daily
school activities.

The other intervention that was really useful, was 

Colourful semantics

The approach is used in stages and helps children develop
language and vocabulary in addition to grammatical structure.

Colourful semantics is an approach created by Alison Bryan. It is
aimed at helping children to develop their grammar but it is rooted in
the meaning of words (semantics).

It encourages students to use wider vocabulary and make longer
sentences

By using these three different interventions with my students I
could see the difference in their writing. They were wanting to
write more and were more motivated.

Students needed explicit teaching, the use of a device for writing
was not a motivator.

Out of my six target students Two students moved up three level,
Two moved up two levels and two moved up one level.

For the students and their whanau this was massive as
previously most of them made no attempt to write at all.

Expanding sentences

Due to the complex needs of the students I work with, mastering a skill takes longer than other neuro typical students. We have been working on forming simple sentences for most of the year. It is great to see that the students are finally beginning to achieve this.
This student is able to form simple sentence and I am now working on expanding his sentence by adding adjectives . This is some of the work he produced. He felt very proud of his work.

Draw and talk

Draw and Talk

Uses drawing to ‘Sketching’ enhances the meaning as children draw.

Drawing is a complex sensory motor action requiring the selection, organisation and communication of visual material.

Drawing establishes a relationship between the child and the world.

‘My drawing is about______, because______’

This student has Down Syndrome and significant language delays. He is at the drawing stage, sometimes he attempts to write individual letters. Currently he is not motivated to use a device. 

He has some amazing ideas and even though his language is very delayed, he uses a combination of NZ sign language  and speech to convey his message. in the pictures below, the class was asked to create an invention. He decided to invent a self cleaning food bowl for his cat. He wanted to call it 'Doolalee machine'. He did all the designing and I recorded what he said. Due to the complexities of writing, this student wouldn't attempt it. He has the ideas.....by using draw and talk, the adult is able to record what he say.

Thereafter he made his invention. He often requires lots of motivation to get started with his writing, but because this was of interest, he got started immediately with the drawing. I wrote what he said. he was able to then make the invention. He was so excited to show everyone what he drew and made.

Investigating writing tools

Using clicker sentences as 'A' writing tool 

“Students can start exploring and experimenting with alternate pencils/ writing tools 
BEFORE they know letter names or sounds,and well before they have control of 
the choice making required to choose specific letters.
Over time, you begin to see evidence that students are learning letters.”
–The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies

What is an alternative pencil/writing tool?
In order to develop literacy skills, all students need a way to write using the full alphabet no
 matter what level of understanding they appear to have about print.
(In my previous blog posts, I discussed a range of alternative writing tools).
Developed by Hanser (2009) at the Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS), 
an alternative pencil is defined as anything that provides a student with access to all 
26 letters of the alphabet.

How can students benefit from using an alternative pencil/writing tool?

Writing is an essential component of literacy instruction for students without disabilities and a part of their daily instruction. In order for students with significant disabilities to develop as readers and writers, daily writing is equally, if not, more important. However, this becomes a challenge when most students with significant disabilities are unable to hold a pencil.

Which students would benefit from using an alternative pencil/writing tool?

For students with physical, cognitive or linguistic challenges, an alternative pencil can offer a way to write and/or explore the alphabet while focusing the majority of their cognitive energy on text production.

Alternative “pencils” /writing tools were created for students unable to hold a traditional pencil or physically manipulate a standard keyboard. As well, if a student can hold a pen or a pencil but struggles to form letters with it, especially if they have already been practicing for years, then we need to look at an alternative pencil for the majority of their writing.

Alternative pencils can be used with writers of varying abilities and ages including students who are emerging writers and those who are able to write more conventionally (Browder & Spooner, 2011).

This student is unable to form any letters independently and is at the scribbling stage.
Even though his language is limited, when something of interest happens, he does have ideas and attempts to say what is happening. Here I introduced him to clicker sentences. The student gave the sentence. I added the words and he was able to put that in a sentence. He was really exited when it read back to him. This was definitely a good motivator.

This student is able to string a few words together, she is very keen on adding her thoughts and wants to attempt spelling the words, she is still learning to use the predictive text. This is her independent work.

This student has had a few opportunities to work on clicker sentences and is able to form a simple sentence. He is very motivated to use this as his writing tool as he is successful and feels a sense of accomplishment. This student has autism and will only write for real reasons. He has to experience something to write about it. 

My teaching as inquiry

My blog is based on improving writing of students with special needs. 
Enjoy the journey....

All of the students I work with have Neuorodevelopmental disorders, some of whom have complex communication needs and/or relatively limited experiences of generating language, writing presents many challenges. To develop writing skills they need to learn to generate an idea, to think about language, think about the words, the spelling, controlling their writing tool ,etc.