Literacy Activities
These activities are intended to increase literacy skills amongst students with moderate to severe disabilities
Letter or Vocabulary Book
Materials:
1. 5" x 8" three or five hole punched and zippered pencil holders
2. Variety of printed craft foam and stiff felt sheet scraps
3. Assorted marking pens or paint markers
4. 2 ring clasps
5. Optional: Letter stencils and cookie cutters
Directions:
1. Trace around letters on craft foam or felt scraps. Cut out letters.
2. Cut out animals or objects which begin with the letter sounds.
3. Write the name of the animal or object on the outside front of the plastic sheet.
4. Join the pages by sliding ring clasps through the punched holes.
Secondary Reading---It's News To Me!
Recycle your newspapers by having students share current events. Students with moderate disabilities can learn to find and read the movie schedule, the schedule for sports events in the Sports section, and with help of pictures, they can often read their Sports headlines to determine team game winners. They can read about their own high school's football, basketball, volleyball, and track performances. Students read sections which interest them and report out to the class in gesture, sign, PECS, and words.
Book in a Bag
Send a book in a bag home once a week for parents to read and re-read with their child. Each book is placed in a zip-lock bag along with a half sheet of paper labeled, "Book Response."
After reading the book several times with the child, parents are to ask the child what he/she thought happened in the story. The parent writes down exactly what the student says. The book bag is returned to school with the book and response inside.
This activity forges a bridge between school and home, and also increase the child's listening skills, attention span, and prediction skills each time they hear the book narrative.
Listening Skill Development
This activity is intended to improves skills in auditory memory, listening, and following directions amongst students with moderate to severe disabilities.
Touch One, Two or Three
Give oral directions for a child or children to touch one, two or three things, for example:
- "Touch your nose and touch the plant."
- "Touch something brown, then touch something green, then touch something yellow."
This is a good activity during transition times and just before going home. The complexity of the directions can be individualized spontaneously for different students.
To make the activity more challenging, require that the objects be touched in sequence. If a student is successful, have that student give the direction for a classmate.
Skills in auditory memory, listening, and following directions improve with practice.
Language and Communication Development
The activities below are intended to further develop language and communication skills amongst students with moderate to severe disabilities.
Photo Album Books
- Put photos and digital camera pictures to good use—ask parents to send pictures from home to school.
- Use small photo albums to create individualized "books" for students to read.
- Name people, supervisors at worksites, and peers in the books.
You can expand students' vocabulary when you attach more words to what is being done in the photos. - Ask for students to either repeat or sign after the teacher, or make their own oral sentences of 2 or more words in length. More capable students can write a phrase or sentence.
Personalized Memo Pads
Make a personalized memo pad for each student. Print Shop has a "Making Stationery" option, and Microsoft Publisher allows you to design a page for each student. Use a copier to make several copies. Staple a small pad together.
Students use their own pads to "write" notes. Their writing could be a scribble, a picture, stamped pictures, PECS symbols, words, sentences, or a paragraph.
This activity is a way to help students understand writing is putting down on paper what we say.
I'll Give the Answer.....You Give the Question!
Give the students the answer and have them come up with the logical question. This is taken from a popular television game show. The level of sophistication for the answer can be individualized for each student.
Much like Daily Oral Language technique, the "Answer of the Day" can be posted or orally posed when students enter the room. The first one to ask the question correctly receives a reward or preferential seating for the day.
Students do not understand how to pose questions unless they receive direct instruction. They benefit when they learn how to effectively ask teachers, educational assistants and peers for help on an ongoing basis.
Novel Transparencies
Ask students to draw their stories on several clear pages of transparency film. Either they can write the story underneath, or the teacher can write the story from dictation. Then show the transparencies as overheads and hear students tell their stories. This encourages them to expand their length of utterance, and include descriptive words as they do the storytelling.