Autism 101- August Week 3

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Hi All,
Thanks for following us on our journey. Here are the highlights of our 3rd week of school. We are still working on routines. The routines have been evolving according to the needs and ability levels of the students. We've been doing as much work as we can. There are lots of student directed breaks between work. We pretty much work in 20 minute increments which includes a presentation on the rug at the Promethean and some type of follow-up activity at the table.

Because student directed time is still quite the challenge, I am still working on "Go To" activities. My girl likes the sand table but it gets old quickly. My boy likes the computer but often needs redirection. Both students tend to get into mischief once their "Go To" gets old (which does not take long) so I've been working with them in blocks to give them another "go to."

I am teaching them to build a tower using all of 1 color blocks. Once they are done I want them to "clean-up." My girl does not like cleaning up at all. :0) My boy will try but he can't fit all of the blocks in the given space because he throws them on the shelf randomly. So this is what I've been teaching them:

I have a shelf for blue, a shelf for red, and a shelf for yellow. I traced a block to make templates for each shelf and numbered them in the order that I want them to be placed. Hand-over-hand we are practicing clean-up after building a tower.

It's coming along. They aren't doing it independently yet but we're working on it.

Another thing that we've been working on is fine tuning our work routine; particularly ELA. So much of their work is not actual paperwork so documentation tends to be in the form of photos, anecdotal notes, and checklists. I like to put cutesy stuff on the board or send it home but I wanted some type of work sample documentation that I could show parents, or other IEP team members to see what the student has been working on and how they are doing. I came up with a Letter of the Week Journal.

Whatever letter the general ed kindergarten is on, that's the letter we work on. We use the Promethean Board, Starfall, ABC Mouse, letter tubs, foam letters with pegs, and Doodle Pro throughout the week to learn about the letter. This stuff is wonderful but where's your proof? Yes Starfall allows you to print out a report which I love but I wanted something a little more personal. So each day during the one-on-one time; we work hand-over-hand to do 1 page in the journal. I made enough pages so that there's at least 1 for each day. I did varying levels because when I do my pull-outs, we work on the same thing but at different levels. I've even started turning in a copy of my Search & Find page with my lesson plan as an assessment. It's working out nicely. Here are photos:

I like to use the Alphabet Sight Word Reader during the presentation.

This is an accurate assessment of what this student can do without hand-over-hand assistance. As the year progresses I expect to see the improvement as I flip through the journal.

It's interesting to see the difference in the levels.

This is one of my pull-out students doing the same assignment.

Well, that's all for now. The week was productive. We are still learning and growing. It's a work in progress.

Autism 101 is a documentation of our 2014-2015 school year. Follow us on our journey!
Go to the next installment: Autism 101: September Week 1 Reflections
Start from the beginning: Autism 101 Reflections on the 1st Week of School

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Thanks for stopping by!

Asia