Objective: To develop emergent literacy/communication
overlays to facilitate communication and
vocabulary development during literacy activities.
1. Select a story book.
A. Utilize Repetitive Phrase story books
Using
repetitive phrase stories during reading time is a quick and efficient
way to engage students with
limited verbal skills in the literature process.
To do this, you will need to:
Examples of repetitive
phrase story books:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley
B. Choose from other recommended children's
literature
Recently,
I had the pleasure of meeting two early childhood teachers whose love of
children's literature was infectious.
Each has compiled
a list of "Favorite Books" which are reprinted here with permission.
Incidentally, we met at a
"book share" which was organized
by our early childhood consultants. The "book share" was held at
our local
Border's books. FYI
- Border's offers teachers a discount on all books purchased for classroom
use!
Lori Von Asten, EC-EEN Teacher
for the New Auburn School District in Wisconsin has grouped her favorite
books by
theme. Marianne Daw,
EC-EEN Teacher for the Augusta School District in Wisconsin has titled
her list "101 of My
Favorite Books for Preschoolers.
Each provides a rich resource of excellent children's literature.
2. Sequence the Story on an Augmentative
Communication Device
Simple
stories can be easily sequenced on an AAC device. In this method,
students activate keys in sequential order
to read/retell the story. This method works best when each page of
the story contains no more than one line of
text. For students who are scanning, set the communication device
to step scanning so each time they activate their
switch, the cursor advances to the next line in the story.
To do this you will need to:
3. Provide Access to Main Theme Vocabulary
Create a "generic" communication story board which can be used with a number
of story books. For example,
many books feature colors and numbers within the plot. Creating a
communication overlay that can be used whenever
you have a story dealing with numbers, colors or another theme will give
you easy access to vocabulary pertaining to
more than one book.
To do this you will need to:
4. Use Aided Language Stimulation Boards for
Story Reading
Goossens',
Crain and Elder have developed aided language stimulation overlays that
can be used to promote
expressive communication during story time. You may use their overlays
or create your own.
To do this you will need to:
5. Novel Stories Based on Favorite Literature
or Songs
Retelling favorite stories or songs in a new way provides an opportunity
to promote communication. Taking a story or
song such as Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear or Mary Wore a Red
Dress and revamping the vocabulary
to make a novel story/song allows you to tailor the new vocabulary to the
season, the classroom theme or curricular
unit. For example in the winter, Brown Bear, Brown Bear can be changed
to "Snowman, Snowman".
To do this you will need to:
See
also the excellent songbooks and other materials created by Caroline Musselwhite
- Available through
Creative Communicating (see links page)
© 1999 Tufte/Maro
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