There are a number of strategies that might be used as intervention strategies within the Situated Contexts discussed before under Component Two. Remember, however, the skills and strategies (Component Three) and the proper mediation to achieve a therapeutic effect (Component Four) are also required.
The intervention strategies that are discussed here are divided into several of the Situated Contexts for Intervention discussed previously. Each can be used at multiple levels of development and/or at multiple age levels.
LITERACY ACTIVITIES
Strategy Number One
Reading Aloud
(Adapted from Teale, 1984; Trelease, 1989)
1. This simple strategy is most effective in preparing and developing
literacy.
2. Research has indicated that reading aloud develops
at least 6 areas:
--- develops assumptions about the functions/uses of written
language
--- develops concepts of print, books, and reading and
the form and structure of written
language itself.
--- Develops positive attitudes toward reading
--- Provides and develops reading strategies (self-monitoring,
predicting)
--- Provides the opportunity for vocabulary development
--- Provides the opportunity to gain more knowledge of
the world
without direct
experience.
3. Someone should read aloud to students daily (minimum of 15 minutes).
4. The material should be of high interest to the students.
This will usually
involve the issues/ books that the students
are interested reading themselves.
5. In general, your local library and the librarian are
your best resources for
interesting literature.
6. Although most of the research has been done on reading aloud
to pre-literate
children, this strategy is effective
at all levels. It is especially effective with
learning-disabled students and provides
them positive reading attitudes.
7. There is a difference between a student's listening level and reading
level. Most
students can effectively listen and benefit
from material that is 3 or 4 grade levels above
their reading level. Reading aloud to
students helps expand awareness of the reading
process and their exposure to material at
a higher level of functioning.
Why is this activity important?
1. The real key is that it exposes the individuals to the PATTERNS
OF LANGUAGE
* Meaningfulness * Structural Schemes * Genres
* Standardization * Vocabulary * Spelling
2. This results in an increase in PREDICTABILITY
3. Because it is repetitive, engaging and motivating.
Strategy Number Two
Reciprocal Reading
(Kirchner, 1991; Marvin & Wright, 1997; Pappas &
Brown, 1987)
1. Well known strategy that incorporates both literacy and interaction.
2. Employed often in pre-literacy and early literacy contexts.
3. Provides an opportunity to engage in close interactive routines
with significant others.
4. Advantages:
--- Assists in developing a love of the rhythm of language and
aesthetic sensitivity to
illustrations.
--- Reinforces basic concepts
--- Strengthens emotional ties
--- Increases comprehension and attention span
--- Increases knowledge of story structure
--- Increases ways to meaning-making with print
--- Language is more salient
--- Increases semantic and syntactic knowledge from hearing language
in context
--- Can focus on topics of interest
--- Excellent specific instance of relationship between interactive
routines and language
5. Within reading routine set up various ways to achieve successful
production from the child
--- Expansions
--- Use open-ended questions
--- Be responsive to child's attempts at answering
--- Make use of a developmental sequence of
* what-explanations
* reasoning explanations
* affective commentaries
6. This technique functions as a convenient way to provide mediation
to the student through the
utilization of written text as an effective
scaffold.
7. In keeping with the whole language concept of the commonality
of different forms of text,
this (and all other strategies discussed)
may be used for written and oral text intervention.
8. The interventionist uses his/her abilities as
a communicator and a reader to
establish a mediational link between
the reader and the author.
9. Preparatory sets are provided throughout reading to
supply Information on what the author
is communicating. This allows
the student's processing to be spent on decoding the message
meaningfully.
10. The interventionist uses verbal language to tie together
the relationships between the ideas
being communicated by author.
11. Just as with naturalistic intervention, use POSITIVE
CONSEQUENCES with
appropriate verbalization
and REQUESTS FOR COMMUNICATIVE REPAIR at other
times (Norris &
Hoffman, 1991).
12. When the idea being communicated is complex and entails many
relationships between
interrelated actions and agents,
establish the most focal or important events or situations
first, and then add the meaning
of supporting situations or events.
13. For older students, Communicative Reading Strategies (Norris, 1989)
deals with the
same type of technique.
Strategy Number Three
Weaving in the Necessary Meaning-making Components
1. All reading researchers recognize the importance of the various cuing
systems used for literacy. All have discussed the fact that
these need to be addressed.
Phonographic Cuing Grammatical Cuing
Semantic Cuing Pragmatic Cuing
2. van Kleeck (1995) uses a model of preliteracy
Phonological Processor
Phonemic Awareness Precursors
Orthographic Processor
Letter Knowledge Print Conventions
Meaning Processor
Vocabulary Development Word Awareness
Context Processor
World Knowledge Syntax
Narrative Development Book Conventions
Reasoning
3. Researchers and teachers recognize that there might be problems
with the various cuing systems and that students must become more
facile with the specific cuing systems
4. There is much mis-information about the holistic philosophy of reading
and how the meaning-making components are employed and valued
* Fallacy of Dichotomy of "Whole language versus Phonics"
-- Many whole language advocates discuss the importance
and the direct instruction of
phonemic awareness, phonics, &
conventional spelling:
Atwell, 1987 Calkins, 1983
Clay, 1979 Clay, 1991
Cunningham & Cunningham, 1992 Freppon & Dahl,
1991
Goodman, 1993 Goodman, 1985
Graves, 1983 Hoffman & Norris,
1992
Mills, O'Keefe & Stephens, 1992 Moran, 1997
Newman & Church, 1990 Routman, 1991
Phenix & Scott-Dunne, 1991 Scott, 1993
Rhodes & Dudley-Marling, 1988 van Kleeck, 1995
Weaver, 1990 Wilde, 1992
5. Three primary ways to address the different components of meaning-making
in literacy:
Normal developmental/experiential strategies
A. Phonological Component
1. Rhyming books and games as interactional routines (early
phonological awareness)
B. Orthographic Component
1. Being read to in home/child care (early print conventions)
2. Individual letters encountered in being read alphabet books,
on watching Sesame Street, or
being pointed out in the environment
(letter knowledge)
C. Meaning Component
1. Words encountered in being read to and definitions provided
by the reader; frequent outings
(vocabulary)
2. Adults underlining words with their finger as they read to
the child (word awareness)
D. Context Component
1. Being read to frequently (book conventions)
2. Frequent outings and being read to (world knowledge)
3. Child-centered interactions with adults and being read to
frequently (Syntax)
4. Dramatic and symbolic play with peers and being read to frequently
(book conventions)
5. Adult mediation during reading (reasoning)
Incorporating these elements naturally into the holistic literacy events
and activities
A. Never a question of should these elements be taught, but rather,
when, where, and how they
should be taught.
B. The focus is on meaningfulness and in context
C. Key is instruction that supports the learning that children
are naturally engaged in as they try
to make sense of written language in
authentic activities
D. Freppon & Dahl (1991) offer eight principles for phonics
instruction in whole language that
can be extended to other skills as well:
1. Keep it learner-centered.
Rather than applying a pre-determined sequence of phonics
concepts,
present specific information as needs for instruction occur.
2. Ensure it's Learned in Context.
Phonics instruction must be contextualized in
communicative acts such as writing notes or making lists
3. Present this phonics information
after Foundation Concepts are Learned. This focus --
even in
context only begins after the students exhibit knowledge of some foundation
ideas
about
written language.
4. Make certain that the instruction
is Meaning-Based. The teacher should use children's
intended
meanings to provide occasions for discussing sound-symbol relations.
5. Make certain Instruction is Integrated
with Other Written Language Instruction. This
instruction
occurs in tandem with other concepts about the form and function, rather
than
in isolation.
6. Learning Should Occur through Teacher
Demonstration. Modeling is the primary way to
instruct in
context with the teacher telling and showing her way of figuring out specific
words.
7. Learning Should Occur Through Active
Involvement. The teacher should invite the child
to become actively
involved, "What do you hear in that word?"
8. Learning should Occur Through Multiple
Information Sources. Children should learn from
each other and
from various forms of print experiences and these experiences should be
repetitive --
in context.
E. From Freppon and Dahl (1991: 192-193):
"I think children need a lot of time
and examples and support. I do teach the code directly
by sitting down with them
individually when they write and also, in circle time with my
demonstrations, by writing
in front of them." In individual sessions she helps children think
about the words they choose.
'The children generate the writing ideas first. Then I find
ways to hook onto the child's
ideas and work with that meaning. I might say to a learner, 'I
can see this says my because
it starts with m' or 'I can see this is puppy because it has
a
‘p' at the beginning and
end.' I find the one thing that the child is trying to say and make
the
connection.
Kristin often says
the child's intended word, slowly drawing out its sounds. Frequently,
she also tells the
child to say the words and asks, 'What do you hear?' just after
the child
pronounces it.
She often models listening for sounds and making connections to letters:
'I
want to write about Dinosaurs,
di-no-saurs, di-no, I hear a D, that starts dinosaurs.' As she
writes the letter
D on her own paper, she adds as an aside, 'Yes, D like in dinosaurs and
D
like in David in our
class'".
F. Stabb (1990) FOR YOUR INFORMATION (FYI) techniques Calkins'
(1983) and Atwell's
(1987) mini-lesson examples are other
demonstrations of this meaning-based approach to
specific skills.
G. Primary Mistakes in using this approach
1. No sufficient specific skill monitoring
("Kid watching")
2. No consistent and frequent relevant
instruction
3. Too impatient with changes
4. Teachers don't inform the parents
about the process
5. Too "warm and fuzzy" with feedback
6. Too quick to abandon meaningful instruction
for skill-drill
7. Not immediate or explicit enough
in addressing the issue
8. Child not given sufficient time and
practice in context
9. Instructor not reinforcing enough
10. Instructor not accepting of the
normal developmental progression
11. Instructor is too reactive and not
proactive with other adults
H. "Too much out-of-context and uninformed phonics can produce
problems for precisely those
children who are less likely
to succeed in our schools. They are made to believe that
reading is word recognition,
so they think that if they can't recognize words immediately,
or sound them out, they
can never become literate." (Goodman, 1993: 111)
Incorporating additional activities that focus on specific components
A. This is never done prior to the establishment of the meaning-making
focus of literacy.
Rather, it should be done after meaningfulness
is established and then in conjunction with
more meaning-based activities
Adams (1990: 49) "Approaches in which
systematic code instruction is included alongside
meaning emphasis, language instruction, and connected reading are found
to result in superior reading achievement overall."
van Kleeck (1995)
B. Use games and activities that embrace the child's fascination
with language and
meaning-making and that are fun
(in addition to plenty of reading aloud)
C. Phoneme Segmentation (Catts, 1991)
1. Use activities that are engaging
and fun....not drill
2. Employ a more developmental ordering
of tasks
A) Initial sounds
first
-- first isolate first phoneme
-- provide "key" words beginning with that sound
B) Begin with
continuant sounds such as "nasals" and "fricatives"
(Can be produced in isolation and held)
C) Introduce
"stops" next. Make them salient by iteration
D) Use short
vowels as much as possible (usually represented by single letter....so
less
confusing)
E) Might use
visual representations to be more concrete
D. Alphabetic Knowledge
1. Learn letter names alone (via
Alphabet song)
2. May supplement with tactile
letters and manipulatives
3. Learn letter shapes that correspond
with the child's name
4. Learn the sounds of the letters
E. Sound-letter correspondences -- this is the awareness
that spoken words are comprised of
these individual sounds
1. Focus on onsets and rimes --
more consistent than phonics (Treiman, 1992)
2. Use "making words" (Cunningham
& Cunningham, 1992)
A) Used
alongside meaningful literacy events
B) Active
and hands-on manipulative activity in which children discover sound-letter
relationships and learn how to look for patterns in words
Strategy Number Four
Initiating a Reading/Writing Activity
This was demonstrated in class
1. Shared reading activity
2. Use of Quick shares
3. Use of brain storm activities
4. Use of quick writes
5. Share work with others
Strategy Number Five
Dialogue Journals
(Adapted from Staton, 1983)
1. The dialogue journal is a private, interactive dialogue in writing
between a
student/interventionist acting as communicative
partners.
2. The goal of the journal is improved personal communication and mutual
understanding
between the student and the teacher
3. This strategy meets the criteria for promoting authenticity constraints
because the focus
enables attention to meaning and function rather
than grammatical form, an emphasis on
interaction, and relevant/motivating communication.
4. The journal entries can address a broad range of topics to the interventionist
and student
including personal information, interpersonal exchanges,
and academic topics.
5. The Dialogue Journal is implemented as follows:
--- The student and interventionist write each other
on a scheduled basis about whatever they
find interesting.
--- All entries are confidential and each student
has his/her own journal book or "diary".
--- The interventionist responds only to the content
of each student entry; The teacher does not
correct any
grammatical mistakes.
--- Each teacher response should take about 5-10
minutes.
--- Interventionist entries are characterized by
comments, expansions, and various types of
questions including
clarification questions when student grammatical errors severely
impede communication.
6. Dialogue journals result in the interactants getting to know
each other as unique
individuals. This leads to more
motivation and interest on the part of both parties. Such
interaction is very empowering to most
students.
7. Dialogue journals encourage students to write more by reducing the
risks normally associated
with traditional error correction, and by
supporting topics inherently interesting to each
student.
8. Students become progressively less dependent upon the interventionist
and write
progressively longer entries.
9. Students typically go from making few grammatical errors to more
grammatical errors as
they become more comfortable and daring, just
as in normal language acquisition.
Simultaneously, meaning units also increase.
10. This strategy promotes more than writing. Cognitive processing
increases, there is more
integration and transformation
of information, more generalization, greater perspective-
taking, and other benefits.
Strategy Number Six
Free Voluntary Reading
(Elley, 1991; Krashen, 1993; Morrow, 1985)
1. This is one of the most powerful tools that we have in language education
2. This is used as a transition after the child can start to do some
independent reading.
3. Research demonstrates that FVR results in as much -- or more growth
-- in literacy as does direct reading instruction.
4. Comparisons between direct ESL instruction, FVR, and "shared book
experience" showed the FVR and SBE students far superior on tests
of reading comprehension, writing, and grammar, listening comprehension,
vocabulary, and oral language.
5. FVR is effective for vocabulary development, grammar test performance,
writing, and oral /aural language ability.
6. It encourages overall reading practice and ability. Research
indices that 75% of children prefer to read alone than read aloud
to someone else.
7. FVR was the best predictor of reading success for students in second
to fifth grade.
8. During FVR when a child encounters an unfamiliar word "a small but
statistically reliable increase in word knowledge" typically occurred
(Nagy and Herman, 1987). Found that word acquisition from one
exposure to an unfamiliar word was between 5 and 20 percent.
When reading amount increases.......this small effect becomes significant.
9. The same thing happens with spelling as it does with vocabulary
10. Results in the students interacting with messages they understand
in a low anxiety environment (and so it is consistent with Krashen's
input hypothesis)
11. We have to be particularly aware of the power of FVR with poor
or beginning readers. Because we try to use fragmented direct
instruction with them and include workbooks, worksheets and exercises
that don't encourage FVR......these students fall further behind
good readers.
Components needed to make it happen:
A. Access to books
Print rich environments
Well-designed library corners
Plenty of good trade books
B. Comfortable and Quiet
Well-designed library corners
Access to Libraries
Opportunities to read in bed (reading lamps)
C. Types of reading
Self selection
Trade Books
Paperback books are fine
Comic books are fine
Teen romances are fine
Hopefully these may act as a conduit for more sophisticated
books
INTERACTIONAL/CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Strategy Number One
Providing Language Stimulation for Infants
It is divided into three major parts:
I. Stages of Language Stimulation
II. Principles of Language Interaction
III. Activities and Settings that can be employed for language
play and interactions
STAGES OF LANGUAGE STIMULATION
Using the metaphor of play as a description of how infants start constructing
meaning via the exploration of meaning-making through prelinguistic and
then through early linguistic stages of verbal interaction.
This section is based on developmental order and it covers the major progression
of infant interaction: Note how these mesh with the developmental
stages that I gave you previously
Stage One: Vocalization Play (2 - 5 months)
-- Infant learning to play with sounds as a major meaning making
activity
Stage Two: Word Labeling Play (9 - 14 months)
-- Start using words and employing them in labeling and for
referential
purposes
Stage Three: Phrase and Sentence Play (17-24 months)
-- Start using single word combinations and becoming progressively
more complex
-- You should note the occurrence of repetition strategies to
extend this
and of "carrier-like" strategies
or phrases used in "pivot like" constructions to advance
complexity.
Stage Four: Theme Activities (24 - 36 months)
-- Increase of meaning-making via thematic orientation
and expansion of narrative abilities.
-- In this stage they show the synergy of the various
manifestations coming together in that
schemas of interaction are used
and employed within the following manifestations:
* Symbolic (Sociodramatic) play
* Pragmatic Purposes (Conversation)
* Mathetic Purposes (Discussion about activities and the world)
PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE INTERACTIONS
The major important aspects of interaction and mediation with young
children on the basis of five principles which are explained and demonstrated:
1. Interact with the Child
-- Interactional formats
-- Social Schemas
-- Turn taking
-- Responding and Reading Indices
2. Relate personally to the Child
-- creates positive affective environment for interaction and
learning
-- Provides comfort and reinforcement
-- Use effective contextualization cues in addition to language
-- interaction is more than words.
3. Use a Cognitive Strategy
-- This is his word for the various types of interactional formats
and scaffolds that should be
employed
-- Provides the child with contextual support and mediation
that helps the construction of
progressively complex meaning
making in the form of language interaction
4. Keep the language Stimulation focused
-- Strategies to keep the child's attention to the match between
the language used and the
contextual variables being
referenced
-- Speaking clearly
-- Concreteness at first
-- Intonational emphasis
-- Repetition
-- timing of words to attention and awareness
5. Engage the Child Through Play
-- Ah yes....the work of childhood
-- Provides excellent formats and contexts for meaning making
Strategy Number Two
Interactional Formats
(Bruner)
See the work presented as demonstration under Component Two
Strategy Number Three
Conversational Intervention
(Brinton and Fujiki, 1991; 1994)
* Since conversation is one of the primary mediums and purposes
for meaning-making, it is a
vehicle for interaction that should always
be employed.
* We are talking not just the use of interactional dialogue/conversation
as a medium for
mediated learning opportunities themselves,
but as an activity in its own right.
* We need to re-emphasize the importance of communication in
the context of
social interaction
* While working within the medium of conversation as a vehicle
for intervention, it is essential
that the role played by specific conversational
skills in the communicative process is the
primary target and concern.
* The primary objective is to facilitate the development of specific
skills within conversational
settings in a way that those skills will enhance
conversational interaction and communication.
* According to Brinton and Fujiki (1994), we often use conversation
as the primary
context for intervention -- a contextually
rich framework to support three types of learning:
-- Conversation supplies the context to facilitate
the acquisition of interactional skills
-- Conversation supports the acquisition of
structural skills.
-- Conversation provides compensatory skills
to offset the effects of language difficulties that
may persist as the
individual matures.
* Supporting and manipulating the child's targeted skills can
be accomplished with a number of
factors in conversation:
-- The clinician's input as a conversation
partner
-- The physical setting
-- The purpose of the interaction
-- The addition of conversational partners
These and others can highlight and even scaffold
the child's contribution to conversational
activities.
* Conversational intervention should always involve those individuals
who interact with the
child on a regular basis.
* In this sense, parents and caretakers, siblings and peers should
be involved -- the dyad is the
minimal structure of therapeutic interaction
* I agree with Brinton and Fujiki that conversational skills
cannot be directly
taught. They must be facilitated as we present
children with situations and provide
opportunities for them to make and test hypotheses
about how conversations take place.
CASE EXAMPLE (From Brinton and Fujiki, 1994):
* Five year old boy
* Good mapping abilities in terms of play, nonverbal interactions,
Nonlinguistic
comprehension, and cognition, his control
of turn-taking Allocations was adequate and he
was assertive as a conversational partner.
* Verbal interactions were problematic:
-- difficulty comprehending complex
syntactic forms
-- difficulty comprehending vocabulary
-- difficulty understanding abstract
verbal concepts
-- limited productive vocabulary
-- limited production of complex sentence
forms
-- topic initiations were limited to
the current physical context
-- frequently failed to respond appropriately
to WH questions from his listeners
-- Could not describe or explain a past
event clearly
-- Poor management of conversation
* when parents or adults elicited contributions from him on
the basis of questions, he
frequently did not respond directly
on topic. So they redirected or rephrase the questions
and he became more inappropriate
* Three pronged service delivery:
-- clinician worked one-on-one in University
Clinic
-- worked done with the child's mother focusing
on her interaction with the child in the clinic
and at home
-- collaborated with the child's special education
and general education teacher at his school
* Skills focused on in therapy:
-- improving topic maintenance within question-answer
sequences
-- increasing the ability to discuss topics
drawn from past and future events
-- increasing available lexical items
-- increasing the ability to map two or more
ideas onto a single complex sentence form
* Each goal was addressed simultaneously within the context
of conversation.
* Objectives within the Conversational Context:
1. Decrease the numbers of questions asked of the child
-- It was noted that many questions were asked --
many of which violated sincerity constraints
(partner already knew the
answers and the child knew this) and there were so many
questions that the child
did not have to give an appropriate answer......others questions
would follow.
-- Attention paid to monitoring output to the child
(that is, his
input from the dyadic
partner)
-- Eliminated didactic or "test" questions
-- Only used questions in which the child could
contribute a response that contained
information previously
unavailable to the partner (in this case, an adult -- clinician or
mom).
-- Used and taught the mom to use various strategies
that could substitute for the series of
questions that partners
had been using
* Follow his
lead
* Expand his
utterances
* Ground one's
explanations in the current context
* Initiate and
develop topics of interest to the child
2. Encourage the child to initiate and develop topics
that were not dependent on the current
physical context
-- Attention concentrated on describing past and future
events
* Events with salient
components were set up (e.g., Shopping trip to the grocery store,
watching a demonstration science project by another child) and discussion
of this event
was initiated later in the therapy session -- not a retelling but a conversation
about what
was going on --
* Clinician familiarized
herself with past or planned events in the child's home life and
encouraged the child to discuss these events
* Mother helped him
to regularly choose objects or materials that were important to him to
bring to the intervention session and these were used as "springboards"
for discussion of
events that occurred outside of therapy.
3. Work was conducted on lexical development
-- Lexical items were presented within topical themes
in a conversational context
* Clinician set up a grocery
store in the clinic room; the clinician and child made a list of
items needed for shopping and drew or wrote them on the board.
They went to the "store" they set up and while buying them the clinician
pointed and
named various items in categories, noting their attributes and similarities
and
differences. The child selected the items on his list
* Mother adapted this
method at home during her daily routine........(e.g., enlisted the
child's help to fix dinner, she described items they needed, noting functions
and
similarities and differences. She tried to keep her input clear and
interesting, while
being responsive to the child's contributions)
-- Teachers and parents were encouraged to
present lexical items and concepts in a way that
were as salient as
possible
-- Was suggested that new concepts be presented
within overriding content areas or
curricular units
that provided multiple opportunities for the child to discover new
meanings.
4. Work was conducted on mapping multiple ideas onto single
complex sentence forms
-- Focused stimulation was used
* Within conversation, complex
sentences were presented to express ideas important to the
setting
* With this child, the forms
that expressed cause and effect or means to an end were used.
* These were used naturally
in conversation but were highlighted using stress and
intonation
-- Expansion of the child's simple forms into
complex forms was also done by the clinician
in the
course of conversational interaction
Strategy Number Four
Conversational Facilitation
(Muma, 1998)
1. The concept of conversational intervention hinges on the idea of
facilitation rather than on
direct instruction.
2. The facilitation of conversation and the structures employed......and
how they are employed...
is determined by two general principles
of language acquisition: Expansion and
Replacement
3. Expansion refers to the extension of various meaning-making systems
or manifestations to
enabled the individual to achieve more effective
and wider pragmatic maps of the world.
This expansion may be construed in four ways:
-- Expansion of available lexical repertoire
-- Expansion of script repertoires
-- Expansion of available grammatical
and pragmatic repertoires
-- Expansion of a learning strategy
that extends to other strategies
4. Replacement refers to the principle that previous skills subsequently
become replaced by
new skills in accordance with acquisition sequences.
5. These two principles tend to guide the acquisition of language and
language intervention.
They suggest a more qualitative rather than a quantitative
approach to planning........you
should ask what meaning-making skills in conversation
are necessary to increase the
effectiveness of pragmatic mapping.
6. There are three general strategies that should be used in language
intervention according to
Muma:
Parallel Talk
Strategy
Peer Modeling
Parent Participation
7. Muma suggest ten techniques that can be used via these three general
strategies to expand the
meaning-making skills of language disordered individuals.
8. These techniques should be used in authentic and naturalistic contexts......see
the Vehicles of
Intervention to assure effective acquisition of
the necessary structures.
9. The ten techniques: (the italics mean stress)
Correction Model - A correction is given
for syntactic or referential error. Many syntactic
corrections frequently result in a child avoiding speech so syntactic
corrections should be done sparingly.
Syntactic error:
Child: Hers hat
Clinician: Not hers hat. Her hat
Referential error:
Child: Hers hat
Clinician: Not hers hat. His hat. He is a boy
Expansion Model - The adult expands the child's
utterance.
Child: Daddy home
Clinician: Daddy is home
Expatiation Model - This means to elaborate or broaden
on....and refers to the topic not the
grammatical structure.
Child: My raincoat
Clinician: Yes. Raincoats keep us dry.
Expatiation Complex Model - This is merely a combination
of expansion and expatiation in
which both form (syntax) and function (topic) of a child's
utterances are expanded or elaborated.
Child: Doggy bark
Clinician: My doggie barks because he wants in
Alternatives Model -The underlying reasons for a
topic are raised.
Child: Mommy go
Clinician: Where did Mommy go?
Completion Model - The clinician produces
some incomplete sentences derived from the
child's own language sample. The child is asked to complete the
utterances. The intended completions are carefully selected so a
child
will have opportunities to expand and vary his or her repertoire of skills
in particular areas of need.
Child utterance (language sample): Doggy Run
Clinician: Doggy ___________
Child: Doggy eat. Doggy sleep. Doggy barking
Replacement Model- A clinician produces a series
of sentences derived from a child's own
speech. The child is asked to take something out and replace it with
something else.
Child utterance (language sample): I like big soup
Clinician: I like hot soup
Child: I like hot soup. I like my soup.
Alternative-Replacement Model - A clinician produces
a series of alternatives that may be
used to make a construction.
Child utterance (language sample): I eated.
Clinician: I eat
He eat
We eats
They ate
Child: I eat. He eats. They eat
Revision Model - A clinician produces a few utterances
derived from a child's speech. The
child is asked to change them
Clinician: The dog is black. His name is Spotty. He eats popcorn.
Child: Spotty, the black dog, eats popcorn.
Combination Model - A clinician produces several
utterances derived from a child's
speech. The child is asked to combine them in any way he or she
wishes.
Child utterance (language sample): My doggie ate the bone
Clinician: The dog ate the hot dog. The dog is big
Child: The big dog ate the hot dog.
10. Dr. Damico disagrees with the use of the last five strategies.....To
use such explicitness
violates the pragmatic naturalness constraints......and
shows a significance inconsistency in
Muma's own work. The first five
strategies, however, are valuable.
11. It is important that these strategies are used in embedded and
authentic contexts and that they
are repeatedly used..........the meaningfulness
and the"exposure effect" are both necessary for
these techniques to be effective.
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Strategy Number One
Mediation of Learning
(Adapted from Nelson, 1985; 1990; 1993)
1. Once the context of assessment and intervention are
geared toward academics, this
mediational strategy can be effectively
utilized. It can be based on curriculum-based
assessment or any focus on academics.
2. Mediation of learning strategies utilize two main tacks
to aid the student:
-- Provide the student with new skills, strategies, or
compensatory
techniques to better participate
in the learning process.
-- Modify the curricular expectations so that the student
gets more
opportunity to participate.
3. "Mediation of learning through specially focused discourse
interactions is the primary
technique of curriculum-based
intervention" (Nelson, 1990:23)
4. It is important to note that nearly all of the so-called
"mediation of learning" strategies
involve a process of moving from heavy-load
mediation to light-load mediation. That is, the
interventionist/teacher takes great
responsibility at first for creating meaning but then tapers
off as the student progresses.
5. In general, this process follows the same progression
and can be viewed as a set of
intervention stages that vary according
to the student's rate of progression. Each of the
stages or steps, however, must be considered
if not actually implemented. Depending on the
student, some of these steps may be
skipped or may even have to be cycled back over if the
student does not meet success.
A key to each step is the opportunity for the student and the
interventionist to interact and engage
in discourse both to demonstrate and teach the
strategies and to discuss and modify
them as is necessary. The essential element is to gear
the stages or steps to the performance
success of the student. Adapted from Beed, Hawkins,
& Roller, 1991).
Step One: Explanation
Step Two: Instruction
Step Three:
Modeling
Step Four: Inviting
Student Performance
Step Five: Guided
Practice
Step Six: Praise
Step Seven:
Teacher Judgment
6. There are a number of techniques that can be used as
focused discourse interactions.
K-W-L
Strategy (Know-Want-Learn) (Ogle, 1986)
Guided
Comprehension Interview (Wixson, et al, 1984)
Think
Alouds (Davey, 1983)
Evaluative
and Directive Phrases (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1982)
Directed
Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) (Stauffer, 1981)
Flowcharting
(Geva. 1983)
Word Maps (Davis,
1989)
Webbing (Alveraman,
1991; Duthie, 1986; Reuzel et al, 1989)
Strategy Number Two
Cooperative Learning Grouping
1. Cooperative Learning Groups are adaptations that allow students to
work in small groups
that encourage mutual cooperation. Cooperative
Learning Groups are usually heterogeneous
in regards to gender, ethnicity and ability.
Each team consists of four or five members and
the group is responsible for the learning of all
of its members and rewards are earned by
groups not by individuals.
2. There are several advantages to cooperative learning groups:
-- It increases the amount of time for
providing support and assistance to the targeted
student.
TEMPORAL SATURATION
-- It increases the number of contexts
in which support can be provided to the targeted
student.
SPATIAL SATURATION
-- It increases the naturalness
of the support and intervention provided to since much of the
work is done
with peers. AUTHENTICITY
-- It provides social and emotional
advantages as well as academic ones.
-- It provides higher levels of motivation
and greater intrinsic motivation.
-- It provides increased self-esteem.
-- It results in more positive perceptions
about the intentions of others.
-- It results in a decrease of negative
competition.
-- It provides greater acceptance of
differences in others.
-- It results in decreased dependence
on the teacher.
-- It increases achievement test scores.
-- Due to the structure of the interactions,
there is typically a give-and-take that provides
benefits for
all the students in the grouping.
-- Cooperative learning is an ideal
approach to use when expanding to a more
collaborative/inclusive
service delivery model.
-- This strategy is particularly
effective with adolescent clients because of the reliance on
peer influences
at this stage of development.
-- This strategy provides an opportunity
for incidental learning to occur that can benefit the
targeted
student in terms of social and academic proficiency and it provides a supportive
network
outside of the school.
3. Johnson and Johnson (1980) discuss five basic elements of cooperative
learning:
A. Positive Interdependence
-- Students must feel
that they need one another to complete the task
-- This can be accomplished
by:
* establishing mutual goals
* providing joint rewards
* using shared materials and information
* employing assigned roles
B. Face-to-Face Interaction
-- It is necessary
that the students engage in positive interpersonal interactions.
These
may have to be trained or practiced. Important interchanges for cooperative
groupings
are:
* oral summarizing
* giving and receiving explanations
* elaborating
C. Individual Accountability
-- It is important
to stress and assess individual learning so that group members can
appropriately support and help one another. This is essential to
the success of the
cooperative grouping.
D. Interpersonal and Small Group Skills
-- May need
to teach the appropriate communication, leadership, trust, decision making,
and conflict management skills.
E. Group Processing
-- This means
giving students the time and procedures to analyze how well their groups
are functioning and how well they are using the necessary social skills.
-- Teacher feedback
is very helpful here.
4. Implementation suggestions
-- Provide the students with practical examples
of what you want them to do.
-- Strive for heterogeneity in groups
-- Consider students' ability to work together
-- Keep groups together for several weeks but no
longer
-- Make certain "buddies" are not always in the
same group
-- Never create groups larger than 5...3 or 4 are
better for younger students.
-- Arrange desks or tables to fit within the cooperative
paradigm
-- You likely will have to develop cooperative skills
* Ask the kids what
they like and dislike about C.L.
* Ask how it should
be done differently
* Provide opportunities
for students to practice specific social skills
* Utilize specific
roles
-- Confronting Problems
* One student Dominates
-- Assign specific roles -- that student becomes praise giver (so must
listen and
comment)
-- Use a free token response-cost system
* Competition
-- Give groups different assignments
-- Same assignment worked on at different times
* Noise Level
-- Assign a "noise barometer" in each group
-- Set the classroom expectations early and be consistent
* A student may not
be able to fully and effectively participate
-- Make adjustments in presentation and/or response
-- Use the jigsaw activity
5. Cooperative Learning can be used for many various activities:
A. Conducting research for any
class
-- Group selects topics they wish to research
-- They define and narrow their research focus
-- They brainstorm what background knowledge they already have
-- Jointly search for new information in books, magazines, etc.
-- They learn to use other people as resources
-- Jointly create data charts
-- Work out formats to share information with other groups
B. Reading Expository Texts
C. Reading Engaging Fiction
D. Writing Stories or Reports
E. Working out Academic
Puzzles and Problems
6. Cooperative Learning can be achieved with various kinds of
grouping techniques:
A. Group retellings
-- Groups of three
-- Each student is given a different (or even the same) assignment to read
-- Material may come from different sources and multiple academic levels
-- Students read the material silently and then retell material in their
own words to
other group members
-- At any point the others can interject with appropriate additional
info.
B. Group Communal
Writing
-- Groups of Four
-- The group composes only one written product
-- Group members contribute their strengths in areas such as
* experiential background
* language/writing mechanics
* outlining
* proofreading
-- Assignments within the group should be rotated
-- After the written product is completed, group members sign the paper
separately to
indicate agreement on the final product.
-- A group grade is given.
C. Dyadic Learning
-- Students work in dyads to read and learn subject area material
-- An assignment is given
-- Each student reads the assignment silently
-- Each student takes turns with the role of recaller (orally summarizes
the material
read) and listener/facilitator (corrects mistakes/adds info)
-- After several designated passages or paragraphs the roles are reversed.
-- Finally the two students Put their heads together to draw pictures or
diagrams or
make outline depicting the major concepts of the selection.
D. Roundtable
-- Often used at the beginning of a lesson to provide a content-related
team building
activity.
-- Teacher asks a question with many possible answers (e.g., name all of
the objects in
your home which were not invented fifty years ago)
-- Students in the group make a list on one sheet of paper, writing one
answer and then
passing the sheet to the next student in a left or right fashion.
The sheet literally goes
around the table.
E. Roundrobin
-- The oral counterpart of roundtable
-- This is more informal and can be used to
* Create an anticipatory set for a lesson
* Practice and master a lesson
F. Three-Step Interview
-- Works best in groups of four
-- Group breaks into two pairs
-- Step One: One Way Interview
* One student interviews the other on a topic or question
-- Step Two: Reversal
* The two students reverse their roles
-- Step Three: Roundrobin
-- Suggestions for where to use:
* For Anticipatory Set
"What do you most want to learn about this topic?"
" What experience have you had with...?"
* For Closure
"What did you learn from the lesson?"
"What would you like to know more about?"
* To reinforce homework
"What did you find most interesting from last night's reading?"
"What did you find most difficult in last night's reading?"
G. Numbered Heads
Together
-- Students number off within their teams of four
-- Teacher asks a question (announces a time limit if desired)
-- Student put their heads together and make sure all members can answer
the question.
-- Teacher calls a number. Students with that number all stand and
answer the question
* One may answer and others with that number will be asked for clarification
or
corrections
* Several of the numbered students could participate in multiple
part answers
* Students may answer simultaneously by showing a written answer
or using
blackboard
H. Think-Pair-Share
-- Students listen while the teacher poses a question
-- Students are given time to think of a response individually
-- Students are then cued to pair with their team member and discuss their
responses
-- Students are invited to share their responses with the whole group.
I. Jigsaw
-- A topic or task is assigned
-- Each member of the team is provided with or selects a subtopic
-- The students assigned the same subtopic from all the groups get together
to
investigate the subtopic using other group structures
-- Each of these students becomes an "expert" on the subtopic and brings
the information
back to his/her group
-- Upon returning to their original group or team, each student in turn
teaches the group
on their topic and the students are assessed on all aspects of the topic.
J. Literature
Circles
-- Designed for reading and discussing fiction or non-fiction at all levels
-- Combines collaborative Learning and Independent Reading
-- Discussion groups of three to five students who choose and read the
same book,
article, or novel.
-- While reading (inside or outside of class) they prepare to play a specified
role and
then they come to the circle with notes to help them take that role.
-- Circles have regular meetings with the roles rotating each meeting
-- When they finish a book the circle may report briefly to the whole class.
-- After completing the novel or book, the group trades members and the
process starts
again.
-- Consistent Elements of Literature Circles:
* Students choose their own reading materials
* Small temporary discussion groups are formed based upon book choice.
* Different groups read different books
* Groups meet on a regular predictable schedule to discuss reading
* Students play a rotating assortment of task roles
* Students write notes on these role sheets to help guide them
* Discussion question comes from students not teacher or textbook
* Personal response, connections, and open ended questions are the
starting point
of discussion...then the group may move to literary analysis.
* Teacher does not lead any group. She visits and listens,
may serve as a fellow
reader or a problem-solver.
* When books are finished, each group shares with the class via posters,
reader's
theater, book chats, or reviews.
* A spirit of playfulness and sharing pervades the room.
* Evaluation is by teacher observation and student self-
evaluation.
-- Teacher may have to "massage" some book selections to form groups.
Strategy Number Three
Peer Tutoring
1. This strategy enables the intervention to shift from the clinician
or teacher to other students in the target child's environment.
2. There are several advantages to peer tutoring:
-- TEMPORAL SATURATION
-- SPATIAL SATURATION
-- AUTHENTICITY
-- Due to the structure of the interactions, there is
typically a give-and-take that provides
benefits for both the tutor and
tutee.
-- Peer tutoring is an ideal approach to use when expanding
to more collaborative service
delivery model.
-- This strategy is particularly effective with adolescent
clients because of the reliance on peer influences
at this stage of development.
-- This strategy provides an opportunity for incidental
learning to occur that can benefit the targeted student
in terms of social and academic proficiency and it provides
a supportive network that can function outside of the
school environment.
3. To benefit from peer tutoring, careful selection of
the tutors must occur. These students can be recruited by teacher
recommendations or by self-nomination through posters or advertisements
in the school. It is important that the tutors:
-- Are serious about the commitment to work with
another
-- Have no "hidden agenda" for serving as a tutor
-- Have the patience to work with others
-- Have the ability to interact and work with others
-- Have a positive attitude about education
-- Have the time available to work with the tutee
-- Are dependable
-- Have the ability to plan and execute a lesson plan.
4. Once selected, peer tutors should be oriented and trained
to perform their tutoring activities. It is important
that tutors are provided with instruction and demonstration of several
simple techniques that they may use with the targeted students.
Some of the techniques described in this presentation are appropriate.
5. Peer tutors should also be instructed to do the following:
-- Be able to interact and provide support to the targeted
student in the classroom in a non-disruptive manner.
-- Provide a reinforcing and empowering set of interactions
for the targeted student.
-- Be able to ask for help if they are having problems.
-- Be able to provide support for the target student without
actually doing all the work. The tutor works with not
for the tutee.
-- Be able to help the targeted student organize activities
and attend more to the teacher.
-- Encourage the targeted student to be a more appropriate
risk-taker during learning activities.
6. For peer tutoring to be effective, the interventionist
must carefully monitor and follow-up with the tutors on a regular
basis. Without such follow-up, the tutoring as a strategy
will not be effective.
Strategy Number Four:
Sheltered Instruction
1. Sheltered instruction is a way that mainstream teachers can make
language in the
classroom more comprehensible.
2. Sheltered Instruction Means:
Using Contextual Cues
-- these will increase the opportunities for scaffolding to
occur
-- visuals, realia, manipulatives, gestures, hands-on experiences,
modeling and demonstrations.
Accessing and Building Background Development
-- prior knowledge and cultural experiences
-- concept "mind set"
-- vocabulary necessary for concept learning
-- referential questions.
Organizing Purposeful Peer Interactions
-- peer tutoring
-- two-way tasks
-- cooperative groups
Focusing on the Message versus Form of Language
-- comprehensible input
-- here-and-now focus
3. The following are techniques that facilitate Sheltered Instruction:
-- Whole group instruction based on hands-on experiences like
experiments, field trips, and inquiry activities
-- Language experience stories written based on hands-on experiences
-- Shared book experience
-- Study Guides
-- Dialogue journals and learning logs
-- Contract of 10-50 activities related to the content area
theme
-- Learning center task cards
-- Peer tutoring
-- Cooperative learning
-- Literature based activities
-- Total physical response
-- Use of technology like software programs, videos, films and
cassettes
-- Use of rhythmic language like chants, poetry and song
-- Multiple reading selections that express content area theme
and
Vocabulary in context (i.e., trade books in L1 and
L2)
-- Coordinate services with other instructors who serve the
C/LD student
-- Use of strategies that access and build prior knowledge like
KWL and semantic Webbing.
4. To initiate Sheltered English Instruction, Watson, Northcutt, &
Rydell (1989) has proposed an Eight Step Plan for Sheltered English
Instruction:
A. Preplanning the year by developing themes
-- decide what the students need to master
-- organize content around themes
B. The Diagnosis
-- develop objectives for content and language
C. Think of ways to bring lessons to life
-- identify visuals and manipulatives
-- identify concrete models to illustrate ideas
D. Setting the stage
-- present a broad overview of the unit/lesson content
E. Preteaching two vocabulary sets:
-- learning vocabulary
-- content vocabulary
F. The Instruction
-- use consistent lesson plans
-- find ways to animate the direct instruction (realia, role-plays
and models for learning)
G. Guided Practice
-- more examples and tryouts
H. Independent Practice
-- student interaction maximized (dyads, groups, and cooperative
learning)
-- evaluation (student-developed products and tests)
Strategy Number Five:
Adapting Materials for Content-Based Language Instruction
1. Modify to the students' proficiency level.
* Exposing students to different formats (pictures, diagrams,
graphs,
etc.) will help cater to different learning styles
2. Build on students' prior knowledge.
* Moving from the known to the unknown, and from concrete
to abstract,
while relating materials, if possible, to students' experiences
3. Highlight specific text.
* Main points should be highlighted, extraneous detail
is excluded
4. Control new vocabulary.
* Vocabulary should be simplified, but key technical terms
retained
* New vocabulary should be clearly introduced and reinforced
5. Simplify grammar.
* simple verb tenses/simplify word order/write in active
voice
6. Structure paragraphs carefully.
* The topic sentence should appear first
* Key features of text that guide information flow should
be maintained
THEME BUILDING ACTIVITIES
Strategy Number One
Theme Building
(Damico & Damico, 1992; Norris & Damico, 1990;
Stabb, 1991)
1. This strategy allows for the use of a repeatable context and experience.
The strategy makes use of
-- recurring ideas and events
common to the theme
-- allows for multiple formats
art pictures literature play
writing drawing storytelling dance
snacks discussion problem-solving
-- These allow development and
expression of ideas related to the theme.
-- The recurrence allows the student
both the time and opportunity to become familiar with
the material and to gain very specific knowledge with this
scaffold of known context.
2. Theme building allows for a variety of activities involving multiple
formats to be used to develop topics concepts and overall themes.
3. These multiple formats can be conceptualized as COLLABORATIVE
ACTIVITIES that can involve
-- the different formats
-- a host of different goals
-- the three functions of language can be
utilized
4. To engage in theme building, the interventionist develops activities
surrounding a theme and incorporates relationships between people,
objects, and events. Begin with description of the basic relationships
and gradually incorporate attributes and inferences.
5. Some examples of Theme Building Plans according to developmental
levels:
PRESCHOOL LEVEL
Theme: Zoo Animals
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week Read Aloud
Re-read book
Talk about
One
"A Zoo in our
with pauses for
Zoo animals
House" &
Predictions &
& Draw your
Discuss it
Discuss trips to
favorites
the Zoo.
Week Discuss how Zoo
Read a related
Plan & Organize a trip
Two Animals act outside
story about a
field trip to the zoo.
of Zoos and Pretend
trip to the zoo.
using the 2 books as
you are some animal
Learn sounds of
guides.
Use the book as a
new animals.
Guide (re-read parts)
Week Discuss what you may
Take a Field
Discuss the
Three see at the Zoo using
Trip to the
Trip, Reflect on
the 2 books as guides
Zoo. Discuss
the 2 sets of notes.
write yourselves
the trip and
Dictate a Story &
"notes" on what to do. dictate
"notes"
Illustrate.
to an adult
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEVEL
Theme: Imagining
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week Read Aloud
Discuss some of
Discuss
One "Kirsty Knows
your imaginings
fantasy books
best" & construct a
and allow
Discuss it
semantic word
students to
map of terms
select a
reading group
to join to read a book:
"Catwings"
"The Class
Trip" or
"The last
dinosaur".
Week
Divide into
In the reading
As a group,
Two
groups of three
group choose one discuss and
and discuss the
of the other
take notes on
story in terms of
books to read
differences
the fantasy and the
and discuss.
in stories
way author wrote it.
and writing
Take notes
styles.
Weeks
Discuss your own fantasies and divide into
Three/
groups of three to outline, write and
Four
illustrate a fantasy story. Teacher conferences will be conducted
and students may read other fantasy stories or discuss
imaginings with others to assist them. Each Wednesday there
will be a short group meeting of everyone to discuss progress and
ideas.
HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL
Theme: "The Scientific Method"
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week
Read about the Read
portions of
Discuss the
One
Scientific Method Loren Eiseley's
advantages
in the textbook.
"The Man Who
of the Method.
Create a flow
Saw through Time".
Practice
chart description
Discuss why and
using it to
of it.
how Bacon created
problem
the method.
solve.
Student's take notes
(they are critiqued
and suggestions given)
Week Discuss
the
Discuss how the Method
Two
Method's
can help in other classes
relevance to
Practice strategies based
everyday occurrences.
on the Method.
Review the components
and assign observations
of everyday events
(this may require
demonstration)
Week Comment
and Discuss
Read excerpts from scientists
Three how
the student's
reporting discoveries and
applied portions or
applying the method. Write an
strategies of the
essay on its significance in
scientific method in
everyday life.
classes or situations
SYMBOLIC AND REPRESENTATIONAL PLAY
See the examples under Component Two
with regard to narrative structures
Such representational play can also
be used effective on lots of other meaning-making skills
including
Facilitating Turn taking
Increasing Abstraction
Building Vocabulary
Training Syntactic Forms
The best work in this area in speech-language pathology comes form Barbara Culatta (1994)
STORY TELLING ACTIVITIES
Strategy Number One
Personal Story Creation and Acting the Story Out
(V. Paley, 1981; 1984; 1992; 1994)
* As a meaning-making creature, we are "born story tellers, it
meshes with the
organization of reality, and,
consequently, the way we think, the way we analyze
our feelings, and the way we integrate
new ideas
* According to Paley, telling and acting out one's own story
is a euphoric
experience: Self-initiated, self-fulfilling,
and self-revealing.
* It is intensely concentrated and leads to a rewarding act of
concentration.
* It involves play -- it is play under control
* Often, the more different or difficult a child appears, the
more eager and able thechild is to
use stories as a pathway to the outside world
and to others.
* Those children with minimal language or socialization may need
to listen for a long while
before their own stories emerge ... but they know
what is going on and can follow the stories
of others.
* The children should not only have an opportunity to tell their
own stories and act
them out -- they should have an opportunity
to act out the stories of the other
children -- that is, participate in the stories
of the other children.
* A key is that the logic and semiotic capacity of social and
linguistic development are found
in dramatic episodes. As Vivian Paley states:
-- drama is the proper stage for those cognitive
questions that need ballast and substance that
is not found in workbooks
or diagnostic tests. They provide the opportunity to scaffold and
contextualize the linguistic/meaning-making
elements needed in the world::
* What does this word mean (so we can act it out?)
* What does this sentence mean (so we can act it out?)
* What do these characters say to each other (so we can
act them out?)
Strategy Number Two
Storytelling
(Peck, 1989)
Storytelling, the oral interpretation of a traditional, literary, or
personal experience story, is a very effective strategy for focusing students
on literacy. It tends to promote expressive language development (oracy
and written composition), receptive language development (reading and listening
comprehension), and the schemata necessary for literacy.
Two distinct learning situations are available:
A. The teacher or an actual storyteller that tells a story in
a natural manner with all the flavor
and language of the particular
tradition from which it comes. Develops critical
listening.
B. The students as storytellers after learning from the adults
as models. This allows for the
development of oral and written
expression.
After storytelling, and important component is the guided discussion in which the students and the storyteller interact about the story and what the students liked best about it. The students can develop critical awareness, focus on rhetorical devices that they enjoyed, focus on specific facts or Information. This is also a good time to seek predictions and motivations from the students.
Mini-lessons can be effectively used after the students participate in some storytelling from real storytellers. They can revolve around developing the story, mentally mapping out their story, creating a story structure that is effective and clear for the telling, exploring vocalization, gestures, movement, and eye contact.
Storytelling is a great way to get the community and individuals from
different cultural backgrounds involved and participating in your program.
This not only enables students to be proud and embrace the diversity of
the class, it also allows for excellent "spin-offs".