Our school is classified as Title I, meaning that the students come from low-income households. My students have speech and language disorders and special learning needs. They are also ethnically and linguistically diverse.
I feel incredibly lucky to work with my students.
Some of the students I work with have difficulty saying certain speech sounds. For example, if they struggle with /r/, "rainbow" becomes "wainbow." The majority of my students have language disorders related to developmental delay, autism, or other health impairment. The severity of language impairments of my students ranges from mild to profound. Yet I am able to connect with all of my students through shared reading activities.
Story books are wonderful teaching tools for providing contextually embedded vocabulary instruction, story grammar, and much more!
My Project
I am a second-year speech therapist in the school system. Through research into narrative development teaching tools, I found the Story Grammar Marker by MindWing Concepts, Inc. The SGM is an interactive teaching tool to help students understand story elements such as character, setting, kickoff, plan, feeling, actions, direct consequence, and resolution and how they integrate. Research shows that the use of narratives in instruction is appropriate for students. The books I selected for this project are perfect for teaching narratives and plot structure.
My personal professional goal for next school year is to work on students' language skills by using story books.
Research shows that use of literature in instruction is especially helpful in teaching speech and language skills like describing, sequencing story steps and retelling narratives.
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