![]() When the class read The Summer of the Swans (Byars, 1981) the teacher asked the class to participate in creating a story kit. ![]() One teacher used story kits to help Jerry Joe, a student with Down syndrome, understand and remember the books studied in class. The kit can be used to introduce or review the story, to interest and support students as they discuss certain passages or chapters, and to give them cues as they engage in other activities related to the book (e.g., writing a report). Story kits can help a reader generate ideas, retain information, and further their understanding of a particular idea or concept. A kit for the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, for instance, might contain a tin cup, a rag doll, a girl’s bonnet, a small toy fiddle, and a piece of chalk. A story kit is simply a bag or box of items related to a theme, unit, or particular story. ![]() Story kitsįor students with more significant disabilities, for those who are blind or have low vision, or for those just needing a more concrete way of relating to a piece of text, teachers might consider the use of story kits as a tool for improving literacy learning. The text includes not only a story of the river itself but also contrasting maps of New England (in the 1500s and in the 1900s) and an author’s note detailing the work of a committee who organized to clean up the Nashua. For instance, a middle school science teacher used A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History (Cherry, 1992), a story about the Nashua River of New Hampshire, to teach all learners in the class about conservation and pollution. Picture books can be used as a primary text to introduce and examine an issue or as a supplementary text for all or for just some learners needing extra support. ![]() Picture books are often used in the early elementary grades but they can actually be incredibly effective for students in older grades including high school. Typically, in these texts, the pictures don’t just supplement the text they are as important or central as the text. Picture books combine words and pictures to tell a story. Some of these ideas may be effective for working with some students with disabilities and each may be used as catalyst for designing literacy lessons that are appropriate and challenging for learners in the inclusive classroom. Many learners with disability labels are visual learners and are best able to understand and remember content when they can see it represented in some way in other words, they need to “see what we mean.” Three visual supports helpful for teaching and supporting literacy development are described here: picture books, graphic notes, and story kits. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |