WHAT'S IN YOUR TOOLBOX?

One of the best tools a special educator can have is an treasure chest of visual supports.
Visual supports cover a large range of student needs. For students who have difficulty communicating with others and difficulty understanding what others are communicating to them, visual supports can be a life saver. I know they have saved me many times.
Visual supports present information in a way that is easier for kids to comprehend. They can be customized to meet the individualized learning style of each student. Sometimes they can be that one thing that gets the message across.

A wide range of needs can be met by using visual supports such as increase independence, understanding classroom and school rules, provide a system to organize tasks needing to be completed, aid in making choices, facilitate transitions from one task to another, clarifying what work is to be completed and in what order that work should be done. These are just a few of the things visual supports can do.

In the special education classroom, we constantly work with students exhibiting challenging behaviors such as anxiety, anger, frustration, eloping, and more. Visual supports are a great way to present behavior expectations and direction while diminishing some of these challenging behaviors.

There are many different kinds of visual supports. Today I will touch on just a few.

1) Visual schedules are a great way to communicate many different types of activities in a classroom. This can be done for the entire class or group within the class. For me, using them individually has worked the best.
One year I had a lot of students that were able to transition from center to center in the classroom. I needed something to help them understand what was on their schedule next and where they would be going.

CENTER SCHEDULES

With this type of visual support, they were able know the order of the work centers using the number on the cards and then they could also tell which center they should be doing. They matched the sea creature on the card with the matching sign at the center. In addition to helping the student it also was great for me because it controled the number of participants at each center.

2) Checklists and organizers can help by breaking down larger tasks into smaller more manageable steps. Checklists can contain pictures or pictures and text to aid the student in completing the correct steps in things such as arriving at school or preparing materials to go home at the end of a day.
Here are a few examples of checklist and organizer visual supports. Thanks to Chris at Autism Classroom News and Resources for sharing this.

MINI SCHEDULES FOR CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

3) Behavioral supports can help
manage and prevent challenging behaviors. These could include rules and guidelines of what to do in certain social situations such as fire drills, or asking someone to play. These are particularly useful in preparing the child for what comes next, and what will happen when challenging behaviors occur. Behavior supports can tell the student how to complete steps such as going to the bathroom, taking a break or asking for help.

FIRE DRILL VISUALS

 Check out how this next idea has designated partitions on the table to show the space for each person.  These spaces also have a reminder at each spot for the behavior expected while at the table.

LOVE THIS! Thanks to Autumn for sharing these great ideas. You can check out her blog post about these here. 

BEHAVIOR EXPECTATION STRIPS

4) Routines in the classroom are another  great use of visuals. These great visuals  from Nicole Chavanne show a visual indicating when bathroom passes are available provide a great way to communicate using pictures. Visuals such as these can cut down on interruptions of the classroom and help students know when its okay to use the facilities. Check out these BATHROOM VISUALS

The visual at the bottom is a great reminder for students about the noise level in the classroom. 

NOISE LEVEL REMINDERS

 First/Then boards can be a simple type of schedule we can use to communicate. You can use these for schedule issues and behavior issues. The great thing about First Then boards is they can be used for the even the smallest behavior you are reinforcing. In the picture below, the student is being asked to FIRST raise their hand. THEN they can have their preferred activity such as the puzzle card shown here.

FIRST THEN AND TOKEN BOARDS

I found it worth my time and effort to spend some time making as much of the visuals ahead of time. For instance, I liked to make the first/then boards and the cards to go with them, get them all organized. Then when the need arises in the classroom you can pull the needed visuals and implement them quickly. 

Make sure your visual support tool box is well stocked and ready to go at any time. 

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Reinforcing Behavior and Academics

Token boards are a great way to increase compliance with non-preferred activities in the classroom and at home. They provide students with a visual means of telling when and how they will receive reinforcement. 

What's a Token Board

A token board is a visual system that shows progress toward a reinforcer with tokens earned for completing behavioral and academic tasks. They act as a visual reminder for the student about how close they are to the reinforcer. It helps to keep them more focused and reinforce positive behavior. The token board is an awesome way of decreasing those verbal reminders we constantly repeat to students, of what is expected. Instead of repeatedly stating your expectations,  point to the token board, saying "When you finish 2 more words you may....".

I first started using token board systems to increase positive behavior while in the halls and special activities such as music, lunch, art, and P.E. It worked so well, I soon extended it into the everyday activities of my classroom.
If I had an unusual behavior I wanted to work on with a particular student such as sitting in a chair, I used a token board first. And many times, it was perfect!

 There are many different types of token boards you can use. There is no one correct type. Use what works best for you and your students. I usually use very simple token boards to eliminate artwork that may be distracting. Some students will work harder if the token board contains pictures they like. You may need to experiment to see what is best. You may need a variety of types of token boards to meet the needs of your students because as we all know, no 2 students are alike. One of the greatest things about token boards is they are so modifiable. They can be super simple or more complex to meet the need of the task/behavior and student.  A token board should include the following parts.

• A reinforcer/reward section - what is the student working for
• Tokens section - what tokens  have been earned
• Quantity of tokens needed- how many do they need to earn?

Here are a few of the token board series I frequently used. The cards have different amounts of token spaces on them so I can use them to increase the work/behavior reinforcers as the students become successful.

How to use Token Boards:

1.  Select a reinforcer the student is interested in. Perhaps you have a student that loves princesses. Then perhaps having a princess on their tokens will be particularly motivating to them. Dinosaurs, pennies, keys, smiley faces, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Thomas the Tank Engine are just a few of the other tokens I have used. 
   
   I often had a board in the classroom with the token reinforcers that were available. The students could select which one they wanted to use on their token card. Making sure the token reinforcer and end reward is motivating to the student is key to token boards being successful.
2. Select the behavior or task you want to be completed. It's important to use one that is attainable and broken down to the simplest step. (e.g. If you want the student to complete a math assignment of 4 tasks or problems, but they can't complete 2 make sure to work on completing 1 first then build up to 4 when 2 and 3 tasks have been mastered.
3. Each time the student successfully completes the requested task/behavior then hand him a token to be placed on the board. (e.g. If you are working on sitting in a chair. 
4. Keep the board in view for the student to help with attention.
5. When the student has earned the designated amount of tokens, give them the agreed upon reinforcer.

Teaching Token Boards:

1. Two options
   A.  Begin with a token board that is almost complete. If using a 5 penny board, for 1 example, pre-load the board with 4 pennies. When the student performs the desired behavior, place another penny on the board and immediately reinforce the student. Always place the penny on the board in view of the student and pair with verbal reinforcement each time.

As the student becomes more familiar with the token board, preload the board with fewer pennies until you reach the student’s current ability level. The ultimate goal is to start with an empty board.

B. Begin with a token board with minimal spaces for token such as 1 or 2. As you progress, you can change the card to other with increasing amounts of token spaces on it.
When introducing the token board, the teacher may manipulate the board and tokens. As student understanding of the token board increases, allow the student to manipulate the board and tokens.

Token boards can be used in a variety of ways and lend themselves easily to many different situations. How do you use them in your teaching?

shopsuperteach56ontpt.com

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ITs a Leaping Big SALE!

It's a LEAP DAY sale!!  20% off everything in my store!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Superteach56

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REPETITION, CHAOS AND ORGANIZATION!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin REPETITION, CHAOS, AND ORGANIZATION!! I cannot stand having to do things repeatedly especially if I can design a way to make it work better for me. I spend A LOT of time in the classroom making and remaking schedules. It was needed for sure! Changing schedules for changing needs of students, Redoing schedules and choice boards because I put the wrong item on the schedule even after double checking.
RE-DOING the schedules AGAIN!
NOT HAVING THE BEST SCHEDULE FOR A STUDENT - CHAOS!
GET IT STREAMLINED and YOU GET BETTER ORGANIZATION!

I LOVE organization but I do have difficulty maintaining it. But this idea seemed to work for me.

So, if it works better for me - I want to share it with you because just maybe, it will help one of YOU also. Take a look!

A few weeks back I shared with you about a new product coming out. The plan didn't exactly happen as I had planned.
Of course life happens, Thanksgiving came and went  and other product ideas got in my head, but finally I do have it up in the store.
This is something I have used in different ways in my classroom but never put it all together.

In my classes, I served a variety of skill levels, ages, grade levels and disabilities ranging from moderately to significant.  One thing they all had in common over the years was that they could all learn independence in the classroom at some level and in some capacity.

Of course as we worked on increasing independence, more and more students worked on their own schedules. Each child worked with whatever type of schedule worked best for them. I truly operate on an individual basis in my classroom. Some children worked with picture schedules, some with pictures and text and some with just text and occasionally I have that student that can work independently.

Some students carried their own schedule with them, some are mounted on the board, some in notebooks or clipboards. Some are fastened on desks and tables and some were managed by the adults in the classroom.

Many of the children also  have choice boards as well. Some are incorporated into the schedules and others are separate from them. The choice boards give them the options they can choose once their work is complete. This may be an IF/THEN board or a token board or it could just be a board of fun, relaxing or preferred items they can pick from once their work is completed.

With all these schedules and choice boards in the room it can get pretty confusing at times and I wanted a way to keep all the schedules and choice boards in an organized manner so that all adults in the room could access them quickly.
So I came up with a schedule/choice board flip book that is bound with a binding coil. It has removable visual cards so options can be changed quickly without hassle and all the pages can be together in one place for multiple students.

I made multiple copies of the boards for me and also for my paraprofessionals. This way everyone had a copy at their fingertips.
As we all know- schedules and choice boards rarely stay the same for long, so I wanted something that could be modified quickly and easily. Here is what I came up with.
The book is tabbed so you can easily flip to the specific student you want, The visuals are fastened with hook and loop fasteners so they can be exchanged quickly when needed.

 This is an editable product. The 6 tabbed pages can have student names typed in prior to assembly. A prepared title page is available as well as an editable one so you can personalize it. You can type on the tab, use a marker or just add names with label tape.
Above is a picture of some of the 144 visuals I created to go with the first version of the product. There are multiple choice items, school activity cards, and subjects. Some of the items have multiple cards showing variations of the topic such as 1 card showing a swing set with children on it and one card shows an empty swing set. Some of the other variations include activities showing girls or boys doing activities and others show photos of items while others are clipart pictures of the same item.

I would like to hear from you. Pick this item up in my store before the price increases.
 Send me suggestions as to what additional visuals and choices you need to make it work for you. All schools and situations have different activities and or subject names for things. Let me know what YOU need for your tabbed book. As soon I have accumulated additional visual card ideas, I will update the product with your suggestions. You will then be able to download them and any other I add FREE of charge.


You can find this item in my store http://bit.ly/flpbk562 .

Being organized and streamlining everything you can in a special education classroom helps make the entire day run smoothly.

Take it easy and everyone have a great week! The holidays are almost here!

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READING SKILLS: SEQUENCING

Today I wanted to share a few strategies and supports I have used for teaching sequencing in my special education classroom over the years.
Teaching order, continuance, sequel, consecutiveness is so  important in our world and lives today.
SEQUENCING IS PUTTING THINGS(events, ideas)  IN ORDER.

WHY
Why learn sequencing? It is the basic stepping stone to other more complex skills and concepts in multiple subjects. Just a few places sequencing is imperative to understand include:

1. Sequencing events in a story
   Sequencing is part of comprehending and understanding what is being read. 
2. Sequencing is important in learning math.
    Remembering steps to completing mathematical problems, even addition and subtraction with regrouping requires sequencing of steps.
3. In daily living- sequencing of activities and steps in order to complete activities is vitally important. 

HOW

Picture Sequencing
Start at the picture level. Cards such as this from my Goldilocks and the 3 Bears set with only pictures on them can be extremely helpful in starting to put things in order.

Using pictures from magazines, photos, picture books or comic books are extremely useful for sequencing. When working with materials at the picture stage, be sure and include the use of key sequencing words so the students get use to hearing them. Pictures depicting how to make a sandwich, giving the family dog a bath, planting a flower or the stages of the growth of a flower all make excellent places to begin.

Pictures and Word Sequencing

Once the student is successful at sequencing pictures, try incorporating words that correspond with the pictures, such as with familiar stories.  Below you will see a page from my Goldilocks Sequencing Card Pack. 

First I have included a picture only card and then next to it the same picture is accompanied by the text for that picture. This way the pictures can be used to help put the cards in order when reading the text.

Sentence Sequencing

Following pictures and/or picture and text, putting sentences in order would be a logical next step.
First start with 3 sentence stories that focus only on first, then, finally. Cut apart sentence stories and have the students place them in order.

The example above is a 3 sentence store about Dad working on his car. It uses the keywords of first, next and finally. Once you know a student can read the text of this mini story, you can cut apart the sentences. Then you put magnets on the back and cookie sheets or use hook/loop fasteners to fasten them at a learning center. The students can then put the sentences in order and get them checked. 

From here you can of course increase the difficulty of the text and  add pictures to this.  

 Here is an example of 2 stories. They are very
simple with basic sight words. Each story has limited illustrations that depict what the story is about. Each story also has 3 multiple choice sequencing questions underneath. The questions can be used with the text enabling the student to look back at the story or you could fold the page so that only the questions are visible.

Below is an example of visual picture cards that match these two stories. They can be used for extra prompting if needed to determine the events in the story. When the story is read to the student, the picture card could also be used as the answer cards the student used to sequence the story. This sequence packet is  available by clicking here.

Increasing text difficulty and adding details to the story can be extremely beneficial in building  sequencing skill difficulty.

Thanks for joining me today as we talked a little about the topic of sequencing. 

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Little changes in the classroom can have BIG effects

Today I thought I would share with you a little change that made a big difference for me in my classroom. Sometimes its the little things you do in the classroom that can make teaching life easier or help things go smoother in your classroom. And wouldn't we all like that?
In my classes, I served a variety of skill levels, ages, grade levels and disabilities ranging from moderately to significant.  One thing they all had in common over the years was that they could all learn independence in the classroom at some level and in some capacity.

As teachers, we spend a lot of time not only assessing students, but assessing the workings of the classroom as well. I realized during one of my own assessment times that classroom time was being wasted looking for, and retrieving schedules or choice boards for students.  I found that all the adults (paraprofessionals and teacher) were needing to take time away from more important things to locate visuals needed by the students.

You know how fast things move in a classroom. Keeping things convenient and within reach was imperative. The more children I had with serious behavior issues, the more important this was.
 In my self contained classroom, I designed it so the students moved around the room from station to station and from adult to adult. This way, each student worked with every adult throughout the day. Using this setup, every adult needed each child's schedule or visuals set and they needed to be able to reach it quickly without fumbling for it or passing it from adult to adult. It encouraged the students to use/read their schedules and learn to move within the room.

One way I came up with to help with this schedule/visual problem was a tabbed visuals book. Each child's schedule or choice board  is put on a page in a tabbed book with their name on the tab.  I made a copy of the entire book for each adult in the room and even hung copies near the exit doors for when we were lining up or exiting the room.

 The pictures below come from a prototype a made for a product I currently working on to sell in my TPT store. The actual product will be up within the next week and I will announce it on the blog.

 You can see in the cover page picture,  the book has tabs on the bottom of the book with student names on them. 

The page above is Sarah's choice board. When she completes her work at each station, she is allowed to have a quick reward time and these are some of the things she can select. 

John's page (above) and Brian's page (below) are schedule pages. It shows them what they are supposed to do in the morning all the way up to lunch but are individualized according to what stations they go to. 

One of the best changes I made to the schedules and choices booklet is that is adaptable. Who has ever known schedules and choices to stay the same? So the book needs to adapt to needs quickly.
Each piece in the book is attached to the book page with hook and loop fasteners. This way it can be changed quickly and as often as is needed.
Making multiple copies available to each adult in the room and around the classroom made a big difference in my class and freed up time that can be well used in more important ways than looking for materials.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today! Be sure and stop by next week when the Schedules and Choices booklet will be available for sale in my store.

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BTS 2015 Whats In Your Cart Linky

Check out the sale in my store today 8/3 and tomorrow 8/4 at 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Superteach56

Teachers Pay Teachers always has a site-wide sale for Back To School and this year is no different!
This year's sale is August 3rd and 4th. Everything in my store will be on sale at 20% PLUS you will get more discount by using TPT's CODE: BTS15 at checkout.

I am so excited to have found What's in Your Cart Linky! What a great idea! Big round of applause for Jenna from The Speech Room News.
Thank you Jenna Rayburn !

Here's What You Need From My Store

This Sight Word Package has 140 worksheets with reading, writing (tracing and writing) and a cut and paste section for reinforcement of reading vocabulary words. These PCI Reading Program words give kids that extra bit of practice after they have learned the words in the program OR it can be used without the PCI Reading Program as all of the words are also on the DOLCH sight word list.

The beginning of the year brings assessment time to get a basal line for the beginning of year. This Alphabet Assessment Package includes 4 different assessments for the alphabet recognition and identification with both upper and lower case. These progress monitoring sets include sets for testing letters in isolation or in groups of 2, 3, and 4 other letters. Data sheets are also included or you may use your own. Its all set up to start a data sheet for a student and continue periodic assessment throughout the year.

This set of Behavioral Supports includes general visuals useful in Special Education rooms as well as inclusion. Some of the items inside it are:

1-5 token "I'm working for card"
1-10 token I'm working for card"
1-15 token I'm working for card"
1 FIRST THEN card
1 page of penny tokens
1 page of dinosaur tokens
50 schedule and behavior cards to use with "I'm working for cards", and FIRST THEN cards.

Here is what's in my cart

This is a teacher's dream come true!  I have taught for many years, but have always done my classroom set up by myself. Sometimes  I had other Special Education teachers in my school that could help me with ideas, but other times, I was all by myself for ideas as to how to set up a classroom for children with disabilities so that it works well for everyone.  LOVE THIS!!!





Several of my kiddos have a hard time retaining recognition and name of the alphabet letters. I am always looking for ways to reinforce these skills.
This products has a color section AND a bingo dauber portion!  YIPPEE!
These Alphabet Find and Daub from Erin Hagey from You AUT-a Know will make it fun for the kids and an easy activity for a center or work station. SUPER IDEA!

As a TPT seller I love creating my products and buying clip art and other items needed to dress up those products to make them appealing to students and buyers.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE buying clip art...oh yeah...already said that. These little skinny borders by Sonya DeHart at Sonya DeHart Design fit so easily on a page and dress it up while not cluttering it. AWESOME!!!





Thank you for stopping by. Be sure to check out the other links in the What's In Your Cart Linky.

Check by soon for more information on the TPT sale!....and more! Stay tuned here and don't forget to check out Superteach's Special Ed Spot on Facebook.

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Special Education BTS Blog Hop and Giveaways

A 20 PLUS teachers all giving away FREEBIES ! Click on this awesome ebook link below to look at the Back to School Tips Book. Included in the book on every page are links to freebies along with helpful tips to help you get started just right this coming school year.

One of the most important things you need at the beginning of every school year, especially in a special education classroom are schedules.
Schedule help students know what they are supposed to be doing, they help the class to flow better and often help make students, especially those on the Autism Spectrum feel more at ease know what they will next.
Not only are schedules good to use in the self-contained classroom but they are great to use in inclusion classroom as well.
I have found schedules extremely useful in many types of classrooms and with many different types of students. Think about yourself or people you know. What would happen if they lost their planner or their phone with their schedule and calendar on it? Some of these people would be fine but others would be "lost", not knowing how to function without their phone and while most adults would not pitch a fit because they don't know their schedule or the next thing on their day, some would. Kids, especially those with disabilities find it hard
what they will do next, or get distracted after they have completed one task and do not know what to do. A schedule can keep them focused and on track.
Schedules can help can also help the child that has difficulty with unexpected changes in the regular schedule.  Using a schedule has also been shown to help increase independence! IF a student can tell from a schedule where he/she needs to be, then they will require less prompting from the adult.
So as you get ready to start another school year, think about schedules for your students and what type they may need. In the meantime click the schedule picture above  to pick up yours for a discounted price this week.

And to keep your summer going great, I'm having a giveaway of 3 products from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click on the Rafflecopter Giveaway below to enter for your chance at 3 FREE products

HOST GIVEAWAY
RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

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