Happy New Year! I welcome 2021 with open arms and all kinds of excitement for his new year! I hope you have weathered this storm and are looking forward to getting the classroom back to normal as soon as possible! I feel that I don’t see visual supports for writing as often as I see other kinds of things. Do you agree? When I saw the ideas and strategies provided […]
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07
Dec
2020
The Best Strategy to Teach A Multi-Step Task!
Independence is one of the top goals we have for our students with special needs. How do you do that when sometimes the task has several steps? You need to build confidence one step at a time. Here’s the way I can relate to this concept. I’m OK with technology, but I’m not a tech wiz. I learn what I need, but I don’t spend hours playing around with technology […]
Read moreI LOVE children’s books! So much so that I took a course on children’s literature AFTER college! Who does that? I love great content, clever twists, beautiful illustrations and the way good books can inspire and influence children! Speaking of wonderful children’s books, I’ve got a treat for you today. Check out this wonderful author and one of her most recent books! Take a look! Please stay safe. You take […]
Read moreIf you have ever tried to teach idioms to students on the autism spectrum by teaching them the definition for what the idiom means, then you know it often fails. Students need not only explicit instruction when learning something difficult, they also need the opportunity to practice the new skill in context so it makes sense. Just like we don’t just teach reading by only teaching students to decode words, […]
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08
Nov
2020
The Girl Who Thinks in Pictures: Temple Grandin!
If you don’t already know that major companies like Microsoft are actively looking for college graduates on the autism spectrum, you should do a bit of research to see for yourself! Why? Because they are looking for bright people who think outside the box. People who see things from a different perspective. It’s been a long time in coming, but our students/children with ASD continue to have more examples of […]
Read moreDon’t think that because this is my 4th spelling rule video that there are only 4 rules. There are actually SEVERAL more as you will learn in future videos! Just like the three previous rules, knowing this one today would have saved me lots of time with my dictionary! Take a look! We are in the middle of a global pandemic that affects all of us. We would be naïve […]
Read moreYou get spelling rule # 4 today, BUT there are so many more! This one is easy and fun and who doesn’t like a bonus?? Anything that we can repeat, really seems to make things easier, right? Anna Gillingham calls adding a bonus letter to /f/, /l/, /s/ ( and sometimes /z/) the FLOSS Pattern. That stands for f..l..or s “floss”. Some people like to come up with their own […]
Read moreI wish I could have back all the time I’ve spent looking up whether or not I doubled the consonant in a word when I added a suffix! I know that sounds a bit ridiculous but think about all of the words you’ve spelled in your life and how many times you’ve needed to know this concept. For some reason I always thought that this was one of those things […]
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28
Sep
2020
Know the Rules so You Can Teach the Rules!
The only phonics rule that I ever remember learning was the one that went like this. When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. HA! That rule only applies 15% of the time! Now what about the spelling rules I learned. Zero. UG!!! I want to make sure that you know the rules so you can teach the rules!!! I’ve learned so many things since I’ve been […]
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