My students need interactive, hands-on materials for functional reading and literacy lessons, such as the Magnetic Letter Builder and Alphabet Learning Locks.
My students are in a self-contained, special education classroom at a high poverty public elementary school. They are on a functional curriculum in which they learn academic and life skills appropriate to their developmental level.
All of my students fall in the moderate to severe disability range, having diagnoses such as Autism, Down Syndrome, and Traumatic Brain Injury.
This population of students requires hands-on, realistic lessons that are individualized to their unique needs.
They require consistency, repetition, and teaching that is broken down into small steps. Each little achievement is celebrated! Some of my students are nonverbal and use picture exchange as a form of communication, however, each student has communication needs. My students have their challenges, but they put a smile on my face every day and work very hard.
My Project
One of the focuses in the curriculum used in my classroom is beginning Functional Literacy. In order for my population of students to have success with learning the alphabet, alphabet sounds, and sight words it is important for them to have interactive, hands-on lessons.
It is also important to repeat lessons using different kinds of materials so the students can learn to generalize what they have learned to their every day life.
The materials will be used to supplement direct instruction lessons as well as they will be used in independent work stations.
With these materials, my students will be able to learn and practice skills that are necessary to live as independently as possible. The students in my class practice what they have learned at independent work stations as this population often needs extra practice to cultivate independent skills.
Having this practice in my classroom helps achieve this goal of independence. I will use these new materials such as the Magnetic Letter Builders and Alphabet Learning Locks to help supplement what the students are already learning. Then I will focus on teaching how to use the materials independently.
Once the students have mastered independence with the materials, they will be added to and independent work TEACCH station, which is an evidence based practice for self-contained classesrooms.
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