Gearing up for Valentine's Day at Fletcher Miller

February is almost here and that means LOVE and FRIENDSHIP are in the air!!! Are you looking for a little inspiration to find some new fun, motivating, and age-respectful activities that promote and celebrate the authentic use of AAC??  We’ll share a few ideas of activities in the works at Fletcher Miller in February.  Comment below and share yours, too!  What better way to get your kids engaging meaningfully with their AAC than talking about those they love and admire the most!??  

1. Create a Valentine’s Day playlist-  Is your school/class planning a dance?  Have your students use their AAC to make a rockin’ playlist.  Students can nominate songs by using their AAC or use their AAC to critique popular love songs and say whether or not they make “the cut!!”  Easily assemble your class’ Valentine’s Day playlist on youtube to share with families, friends, and even use at a school dance.  Share via an email or social media post your students create using their AAC!

1. Elliot’s song review-  will it make the cut for our Valentine’s Day playlist??

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2. Hot or Not-  have students compile a list of popular celebrities, activities, characters, trending topics, etc.  Students use their AAC to rate the selections and whether or not they think the celebrity/character is hot/cool or not– and why!

1. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1PubLJL8OWk

3. Plan a “Galentine’s” Day!-  at Miller, we’re getting the gals together for a morning of girl-talk, Valentine’s Day sticker nails, chick flicks, and maybe even a few surprises from the gentlemen of Miller.  The ladies will use their AAC to girl-talk, select their nail art, request and comment on the chick flicks, and comment on their surprise from the Miller gentleman.  Everyone around these parts loves a good Galentine’s Day!!

1. Below: Miller’s Mr. Jason doing a student’s nails during the Winter Holiday Galentine’s Party at Miller:

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4. Let Students Plan the Party!!  Have students use AAC to plan the Valentine’s Day party using their AAC.  Break off into sub-committees and plan the party in further detail as driven and directed by students’ AAC use.  We can’t wait to see what the sub-committees have in store for us?  Photo Booth??!!  We’re IN!!!

1. The AAC-created Valentine’s Day party plan in Ms. Anna’s class:

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5. Celebrity Crush- have students (and staff!) use AAC to share their favorite crush.  Have them spell out names, share the characteristics of their celebrity crush, and/or tell why they chose that person.  Expand this activity to make a game– “Who is your celebrity crush?”  Have students match their classmates to their celebrity crush using their AAC.

1. Below: a student’s celebrity crush revealed!

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3. Staff celebrity crushes revealed:

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6. Beaded Bracelets-  beaded bracelets with sayings or personally significant words are all the rage!  Have students use their AAC to select words or create sayings that are powerful to them or their friend.  Encourage them to make an “artist statement” on why they chose that word(s) for themself or their friend.  This is a great way to show self-love and empowerment– or make a bracelet for a friend!

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2. What’s trending now/current events tie in– “Little Words Project” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nRj1BAwyNI

3. How to make the bracelets video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTnQdtU9gX0

7. Speed “Connections”- think “Speed Dating” but without the pressure!  Have students practice using AAC to connect with classmates and peers by engaging in brief conversations and rating whether or not they felt a connection with others they conversed with.  This is a great way to practice social skills and pragmatics using AAC to introduce themselves, ask questions, and respond to questions and comments from a communication partner.  Finally, use AAC to comment on their perception of their communication partner and whether they felt the spark of friendship ignite!

1. To help build that background knowledge of “Speed Connection,” check out this clip beginning at the 1 min mark:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7IW6PQnZIg

8. A special Valentine’s day note to mom/dad/caregiver saying WHY the student loves them so much- Let students use AAC to request materials, colors, etc they wish to use to create the perfect valentine for their loved ones.  Use AAC to create the perfect message for their special someone.

9. Valentine’s Day Mad Libs: Work with a partner and use AAC to complete Valentine’s Day Mad Libs.  Use a free printable or create your own using AAC!

1. Free printables here: https://www.mamasmiles.com/printable-mad-libs-for-kids/

10. Staff Treat!  Whip up a sweet treat for staff and leave a personalized message with each sweet treat using messages from students using their AAC.

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Have fun and enjoy!  Don’t forget to comment below and share your own AAC-rich Valentine’s Day activities!!

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Fact or Crap!

Looking for a fun activity to promote the functional use of AAC?  Miller’s secondary students LOVE a good game of “Fact or Crap?!”  (If this title might raise some eyebrows, feel free to call it “You or Boo??!!”)

In this game, students use their AAC to create several truths and several lies about themselves.  At Miller, we made a special gameshow out of Fact or Crap and pitted our three secondary classrooms against each other.  Students’ AAC-created statements were presented to the two opposing teams.  For students with a variety of sensory learning needs, we also worked to include tactile and auditory “Fact or Crap” statements.  So interactive and fun!!

Pictured Above:  Fletcher Miller’s facility dog, Gregory, gets in on the “Fact or Crap” fun.

Students worked as a group to determine if the statement was, in fact, a FACT or CRAP.  Each team cast their vote using hand voting signs depicting FACT (check mark) or CRAP (poo emoji).  This turned out to be the students’ favorite part!!  Audience members even got in on the action with their own Fact or Crap hand voters.  It was a blast!

After each class had cast its vote, the statement was shown again– this time with the checkmark (fact) or poo emoji (crap).

Pictured Above:  “Gregory’s Arch-Nemesis is Lamb Chop” is….. CRAP!!! (He LOVES Lambchop toys)

If the class’ answer was correct, they were awarded one point on their ten-frame.  The first class to fill their ten-frame won! (A great way to sneak in some emergent math skills, right??!!)

Comparing ten-frames!

Students loved creating their “facts and craps” and especially loved being the center of attention as their AAC-created statements were shared with the audience members and contestants.  They also enjoyed using their AAC devices to do a little friendly competitive “trash-talking” before, during, and after the Fact or Crap game (we’re a super competitive school, it turns out!).

This could be a great on-going activity for a variety of groups and classes.

What games are motivating for your students using AAC?  Comment and share below!

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The Fletcher Miller Newspaper!

Before jumping into the journey of our school newspaper, I wanted to introduce ourselves. We will be contributing here and there with some fun ideas around teaching emergent literacy! Fletcher Miller is a self-contained school in Jefferson County Public School District in Lakewood, Colorado. We serve students ages 3-21 all with multiple, complex disabilities. We have roughly 100 students in our school, of which about 90% are emergent literacy learners. We are passionate about creating age-respectful and meaningful literacy opportunities for our students. We love to think of creative ways to reach this complex population and provide opportunities that help them to access the world around them. We are so looking forward to connecting, and sharing what we do! 

Do you remember your school newspaper? I still have some of mine! The idea of a school newspaper came up when thinking about authentic learning experiences for our students with complex, multiple disabilities. Wanting to diversify reasons for writing, and allow a different, collaborative, opportunity to write. 

We started out by exploring newspapers both in print and online. We quickly realized that many of our students had never interacted with a newspaper before! It isn’t a total surprise, since most people are getting their news from the internet these days, but it ended up being a fun exploration. The feeling of the paper, the smell of the ink, and even how differently pages turn was a unique experience. The fact that the pages will fall out was an interesting exercise in adaptation for the adults. We ended up using paperclips to keep the pages together, and finding different ways to help turn the big pages for our students with physical motor impairments. For our students that primarily use switch scanning to access their literacy, we looked through newspapers online. We worked collectively to highlight the different sections and what belongs in each section. Not only was this a great literacy exploration activity, it was also a super rich language activity. Explaining sections like the horoscope, advice columns, and the classified section was so much fun! The students get such a kick out of the horoscope section, it’s become a favorite to write! From there, we asked each student which section they wanted to contribute to. Students would either use a conventional yes no response to auditory scan, or their dedicated communication systems. Once their section was selected, they would then narrow down to a topic. We ask students to use their alternative pencils to generate letters and words around the topic first.

If they selected an obscure topic or section, we made sure to learn more about the topic or section first before asking them to write. For instance, this month a student selected that he wanted to write a classified ad. He also picked dogs, spiders and alligators in his topic selection. We explored different classified ads and what they mean. Some sell items, some post about jobs, and some highlight an event, like a garage sale. He decided to stick with the “job” section of the classifieds. It was easier for his learning partner to then help him explore jobs where he might see a dog, spider or alligator. He decided on petsitter. For an emergent communicator, this is a huge amount of fringe and tier two and three language. We acknowledge that, and align our expectations to balance out the engagement of the student. We know the students will be absorbing much of these lessons receptively and that generating novel language around these topics will be tough. But, viewing this as an authentic writing opportunity and a world knowledge building experience, makes it fun and valid learning. The alternative pencils are used to generate letters and word-like groupings, and the writing was followed up with specific feedback from the students' learning partners. In the example of the classified ad, the student selected letters “LLF.” Words like “leash, learn, food, fun” were used to make a connection between their writing, and words commonly used by a pet sitter. Then the students are asked “Would you like to add any additional words from your communication book?” Some pick additional words, and some don’t. The last task of generating the newspaper is our editing section. We ask students to pick pictures they want to be included with their posts, fonts and colors. On the last day of newspaper creation, we set up a newspaper stand and sell the newspaper. This time is a blast. Kids love hearing others read their newspaper and talk about it with them!  Here are some snapshots of our newspaper! Let us know if you create one with your class! 

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MLK Songboard

 What:  This is a songboard that I made more than 20 years ago.  It was part of a ''Social Studies' CD that I was working on, but never finished.  There were some fun songboards, that have been added to my Singing to Learn 'CD' (a.k.a., dropbox).  For more information about that dropbox, use this link:  Caroline's 'CDs'/ Dropboxes Flyer

The MLK songboard folder includes PDFs of all symbols and images needed to create this songboard.  It also includes the lyrics and goals, relative to standards (see below).

How:  The MLK Songboard is designed to start a conversation about the many dreams of Martin Luther King.  While symbols are included to suggest typical examples (freedom, equality, etc.) students are encouraged to use their devices, voices, and the alphabet to share their own ideas.  Take time to read books, watch videos (including his "I Have a Dream Speech) and have a conversation first.  Using this songboard can be part of your assessment, determining how much your students learned from the prior lessons.

 The lyrics could be made into a transitional book using PowerPoint, Slides, Pictello, Book Creator, etc.

Where:  Download this as a gift using this link:

MLK Songboard Folder

Augmentative and Alternative Communication: breaking Down Opportunity Barriers

New Book!

What:  Excited to share about a new book by Susan Johnston, Cindy Gervarter, Samuel Sennott, Lateef McLeod, and Eric Sanders. The book covers multiple types of barriers:

• Knowledge / Skill Barriers

• Practice Barriers

• Attitude Barriers

• Policy Barriers

Who:  I contributed to case examples for attitude barriers along with Krista Howard and Brandi Wentland, and with policy barriers with Dr. Gretchen Hanser.

Where:  This book is available through Plural Publishing.  The price (academic textbook pricing) is $99.95.  But the coupon shown below offers a 15% discount!  Enjoy!

Unleash Your Creativity - Handout!

 Unleash Your Creativity – The Handout!!

Brenda Del Monte & I did a very fun prezzie at CTG - the last in a series.  I promised to post the handout quickly on this blog but . . . well . . . um . . . I forgot!  Anyway, here it is!  Enjoy!

Unleash Your Creativity

Comments Are Cool – AAC Fun!

What?   Krista Howard and I are working on a series of short books to support teachers, therapists, and families who are supporting individuals who use AAC.  These books are free to anyone, and have been  'published' at:  www.tarheelreader.org.   One of these books is titled Comments Are Cool.

Why?   These books are intended to painlessly support partners in helping learners:

• Understand why this skill – being an active listener by commenting on events – is important.  (See Light and Binger, 1988, and Soto and Zangari, 2009 for more information).  It is helpful for both the teaching partners and the students who use AAC to understand why we are working on these goals.  Having cognitive clarity about goals helps people understand what we are doing, and what it will help them accomplish.  These goals are shared through 'advice from Krista' speech bubbles, such as those shown below.

  

• Practice the skills we are sharing.  Students get an opportunity to actually try out the skill of commenting through visual prompts, such as those shown here.  In each case, the learner gets to practice, based on the image and the prompt. 

• Examples of the skills we are sharing.  Following each image, we give two examples of possible comments.  The first is very simple (typically only one word), while the second is more sophisticated (longer, and with less frequent words).  Using multiple examples serves two purposes:

1) Demonstrates that a range of compliments are appropriate, and helps learners not to get 'stuck' with one specific example.

2) Models sample comments for students at different levels of AAC use.

Have Fun!  So, what are you waiting for?  Start commenting!

References:

Erickson, K. and Koppenhaver, D.  (2020).  Comprehensive Literacy for All:  Teaching Students with Significant Disabilities How to Read and Write.  Baltimore:  Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.

Light, J. and Binger, C.  (1988).  Building Communicative Competence with Individuals Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.  Baltimore:  Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.

Soto, G. and Zangari, C.  (2009).  Practically Speaking:  Language, Literacy, and Academic Development for Students with AAC Needs.  Baltimore:  Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.