Help me give my students quality, colorful, and engaging children's literature to support their communication development and meet their individual goals.
I am the speech language pathologist working in an elementary school serving students from preschool through fifth grade. My students have a variety of communication disorders including articulation, language disorders and social communication disorders. Some of my students have more significant disabilities such as autism or health impairments, but other students have less severe communication disabilities.
I see students individually, in small groups, and in their classrooms.
Our school is identified as a continuum school for special education. This means that we have a variety of different programs to serve our many students who require special education services.
My job is to individualize instruction for each of my 45+ students so that they will meet their communication goals. I am always looking for different ways to engage my students, connect my services to school wide goals, and support their overall academic and social development. All of my students benefit from hands on learning activities.
My Project
Quality speech and language therapy activities are engaging and interesting, while supporting a variety of individualized student goals. Books are critical to this. Books support the use of many communication modalities which include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These are exactly the areas where my speech and language delayed students struggle. Books are an important component of quality materials for kids. Kids not only love books, but they can be used to target so many important skills.
These new books will be used to share and discuss, answer and ask questions, make inferences, problem solve what might happen next to the characters, and talk about character emotions.
They are also used to target specific expressive and receptive language skills such as formulating grammatical sentences, understanding concepts, or increasing vocabulary. Books provide the platform for students to identify story components or retell actions and events in the story. These skills are also needed not only for good listening and speaking, but they support student's written expression skills. These speaking, listening, and writing skills support students across the school day in all subject areas.
This project will infuse new life into my bookshelf, which is currently old and tired. These new books will be used for my preschool through 5th grade students to share and enjoy for years to come. My students will be excited to see so many new books waiting for them as the new school year gets under way.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. H. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.