Text Simplification - Simple Rules for a Complex Process

Text Simplification - Simple Rules for a Complex Process

What:  Presentation Handout

 Handout Link Here

Students who struggle with literacy, including students who use AAC, may struggle to comprehend texts (e.g., stories, chapters, articles, plays, and poems) because they don’t understand features including complex vocabulary words, complex sentences, and figurative language.  Text simplification is a useful strategy to support these students.  This session will provide an overview of strategies for text simplification (simplifying passages based on course requirements and student language needs), as well as, text summaries (providing a summary of the content of a passage).  Resources will be reviewed for text summarization, and specific rules will be described for text simplification.  Participants will be given a sample passage to simplify using rules provided.  Throughout the session, text resources will also be shared.

Who:  Dr. Gretchen Hanser and Dr. Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite

Where:  Closing the Gap Conference, Minneapolis, MN  2018

Nifty Thrifty Fifty Goes Viral! Supporting Reading, Writing, and AAC – Apps Included!

Nifty Thrifty Fifty Goes Viral!  Supporting Reading, Writing, and AAC – Apps Included!
  
What:  Presentation Handout -

 Handout Link Here
 

Comprehensive literacy instruction should include word instruction that teaches students to decode unfamiliar words (NRP, 2000).  The Nifty Thrifty Fifty (NTF) is a powerful approach to word instruction from Pat Cunningham (1998), typically used in the upper elementary grades.  NFT introduces 50 key words that teach patterns for decoding, spelling, and building meaning for polysyllabic words through understanding root words, prefixes, and suffixes.  Students learn to identify the 50 key words, develop a ‘visual checking sense’ when spelling, and cross check meaning with knowledge of word patterns.  Once they have learned the meaning of the prefixes and suffixes, they learn to transfer that knowledge to figure out unfamiliar words that contain those prefixes and suffixes.  As with Cunningham’s other work, this approach to phonics instruction doesn’t require speech, which makes it ideal for students who don’t speak, including those who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).  

Who:  Dr. Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite and Dr. Gretchen Hanser

Where:  Closing the Gap Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota