Center for Literacy and Disability Studies
Website Guided Tour: Focus on Significant Disabilities
This website was developed under the excellent leadership of Dr. Karen Erickson. Sections have been developed to represent project coordinated by individuals such as Dr. Gretchen Hanser and Dr. Penny Hatch.
This guided tour will focus on resources at that website that support students with significant disabilities.
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PrAACtical AAC Website Tour
 This website was developed by Robin Parker and Dr. Carole Zangari. Hundreds of practical, creative, and fun ideas are shared and archived!
The site provides resources in five categories: PrAACtical Thinking, Strategy of the Month, Video of the Week, AAC e-Tool Box, and Blog Love.
February 2013
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Significant Disabilities Access Guide Tour
 This website was developed by the Significant Disabilities and Literacy Division at the Louisiana Department of Education.
Resources were developed jointly by creative Louisiana teachers and therapists with support from outside literacy consultants including: Gretchen Hanser, Vicky Roy, and Caroline Musselwhite.
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Tarheel Reader Website Guided Tour
This website was developed by Dr. Karen Erickson and Gary Bishop for the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies.
The site provides thousands of easily accessible and downloadable books for students with disabilities. The tip provides a quickstart guide to getting the most out of this website!
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AAC Mentors
The importance of having AAC mentors cannot be overstated. AAC mentors can be helpful by:
• Becoming a role model for students and their families
• Offering to discuss AAC issues with peers, families, and professional
• Providing direct instruction under the supervision of a professional
AAC mentors have truly ‘walked the walk’ and ‘talked the talk’ so they can provide supports that no one else can offer.
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9-Word Guess Poems
 Poetry writing can be highly motivating and accomplished quickly. This form has students picking a topic (ex: a place, an animal, a state, a sport), then defining it by writing:
• 3 nouns
• 3 verbs
• 3 describing words
Students then recite their poems in stages (first nouns, then verbs, etc), while listeners write their guesses at each stage, then discuss why they are or are not possible.
June 2013
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The Three T's of Writing
 This tip is offered to provide more information on a slide I have shared at AAC workshops for years. Three components are necessary to ensure successful writing for students who struggle, including students who use AAC:
• Time, making sure that students have multiple opportunities to write for different purposes EVERY day
• Teaching, offering minilessons, modeled writing, group writing, and scaffolding during independent writing.
• Technology, providing technology for ACCESS, technology to support OBSERVATION, and technology for ENGAGEMENT.
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The 3 P’s of Group AAC Activities
 This tip is offered to provide more information on a slide I have shared at AAC workshops for more than a decade. When planning group activities for students who use AAC, it is very helpful to:
• Plan It, considering exactly what is expected of each student during the activity (e.g., will ask a question using who / what / when with 2-3 word phrases)
• Post It, writing notes for staff re: the target for each student
• Prompt It, remembering that the most important prompt is a PAUSE, then working up the hierarchy as needed.
August 2013
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Literacy Starters White
Many titles make up the Start to Finish Literacy Starters Library from Don Johnston. The sets can be found at this address: http://donjohnston.com/stfliteracystarters/
This tip provides cover photos for all Literacy Starters. These can be used for choicemaking. They can be printed and placed in a binder as a Table of Contents, or titles can be cut out and laminated separately so that they can be selected using a choice board.
Thanks to Dr. Gretchen Hanser for making this choicemaking set available!!
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Literacy Starters Yellow
 Literacy Starters Book Choices – Yellow Background
Many titles make up the Start to Finish Literacy Starters Library from Don Johnston. The sets can be found at this address: http://donjohnston.com/stfliteracystarters/
This tip provides cover photos for all Literacy Starters. They are presented on a yellow background, which may make choicemaking easier for students who have visual impairments or cortical visual impairments. These can be used for choicemaking. They can be printed and placed in a binder as a Table of Contents, or titles can be cut out and laminated separately so that they can be selected using a choice board.
Thanks to Dr. Gretchen Hanser for making this choicemaking set available!!
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Literacy Starters Black
Literacy Starters Book Choices – Black Background
Many titles make up the Start to Finish Literacy Starters Library from Don Johnston. The sets can be found at this address: http://donjohnston.com/stfliteracystarters/
This tip provides cover photos for all Literacy Starters. They are presented on a black background, which may make choicemaking easier for students who have visual impairments or cortical visual impairments. These can be used for choicemaking. They can be printed and placed in a binder as a Table of Contents, or titles can be cut out and laminated separately so that they can be selected using a choice board.
Thanks to Dr. Gretchen Hanser for making this choicemaking set available!!
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Alphabet Action Man
 Alphabet Action Man
Alphabet Action Man is a very quick, motivating, and ACTIVE game for making the alphabet meaningful.
One student picks a letter, then the group performs an action with that letter, such as: R = run; B = bounce; C = crawl
Enjoy!!
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Our little idea guy marks the tip attachments. They are posted in pdf format. On the few occasions where there was more than one document to attach, we have "zipped" the files.
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Tip of the Month 2010
