Spooky

There are currently 666 downloads of my Halloween Figurative Language cards using context clues.

Motivating Upper Elementary Students Working on R

I have a handful of 4th and 5th grade students working on their last speech sounds - vocalic /r/.  Most of them have been in speech therapy since kindergarten or first grade and they are ready to GO! It is wonderful to work with kids who are so motivated, ask for homework, and prefer artic drills to games. (Yep, I'm livin' the dream with these kiddos).

The flip side is that these life-long speech kids sometime need to be shown the light at the end of the tunnel. For this reason, their therapy is structured a little differently from my other articulation kids.

1. I let them in on the plan.

I started out the year by explaining that /r/ is the hardest sound to work on because there 8 different kinds of "r"s! We start by finding their "Best /r/" using this resource by The Buckeye Speech Path:

This resource screens r blends, initial r, and all vocalic r sounds in all word positions. This way, my treatment targets sounds in need of remediation and I don't waste time on sounds or word positions the student has already mastered. Most of my upper elementary kids can produce at least one /r/, if not more. 

This screener has done wonders for my kids who feel like they're getting nowhere in speech! 

With this tool, I can recast the kid's experience. Instead of being the kid who's been working on /r/ for 2 years with no end in sight, he's the kid who only has a couple of /r/ sounds left before he is done. 

I use this chart to track their progress. You can find it for free here. 

When they achieve the percentage they need, they get to put an "X" in the box. Three X's ensure that they have really mastered the sound :) 

2. Reward, reward, reward!

I emphasized to my kids that practicing at home is the key to doing better and getting out of speech. Then, I sneakily tell them that they don't have to do homework. But if they choose to do homework, they get a punch on a HW card towards a special prize. Some kids worked for a 'Speech Party' with snacks and a new game. Some kids worked for a special (little!) toy or a big box of candy. They had to bring back at least 10 homework pages - that's about a month and a half of consistent at-home articulation practice!

Almost all of my kids took the bait. That's how I find myself in a situation where the kids are asking for more homework than I had prepared! Admittedly, it hasn't worked for every kid. But I've seen big improvements in the kids who are practicing at home. 

I also reward my /r/ kids whenever they've mastered an /r/ using this freebie you can find in my TPT store. 

I feel just as proud as they do when I hand these out! /r/ is the hardest sound to teach and to work on. I am always looking for new ways to teach the sound and to motivate my kids to practice, practice, practice.

For the next couple of weeks, my kids will be working on their vocalic /r/ with these cute winter-themed Penguin cards found here.

Christmas Around the World Freebie!

If the speech goals on my caseload had a popularity contest, Main Idea and Compare and Contrast would be neck and neck! So many of my kids are working on those skills. Though I've found SO many great resources on TPT that address these goals, trial and error has taught me two things about using general-ed reading materials in the speech room:

1. Forget about the grade-level listed on the product. 

My 5th-grade language impaired kiddos struggle with 3rd grade level materials I find on TPT. Part of this is that they are language-impaired (no surprise, there!), but also that grade-level on TPT is very subjective. AND grade-level expectations vary by state, something that will hopefully be remedied in the future (welcome, Common Core!). So when I buy reading stimuli on TPT, I always go down at least one grade-level, if not two.

2. A one-page worksheet is going to give you one trial in therapy!

Though I have found amazing resources that allow me to address those upper-elementary reading goals in my thirty minutes of group therapy, most of the (still amazing!) materials on TPT aren't meant for the time we have.  

All that to say that I decided to just make my own  "Christmas Around the World" materials for my upper-elementary students working on comprehension, compare and contrast, and main idea goals. 

Here's what I have: 

I included short passages about Guatemala, Spain, Italy, India, Australia, Greece, and Ethiopia. Also included are wh-? for comprehension and recall. They are short passages made for the time crunch of group language therapy. 

If you are looking to extend the theme past one or two sessions, check out Super Power Speech's Christmas Around the World pack. It's awesome :) 

You can find my freebie at my TPT store. Enjoy!