Looking Back
More than anything, I wish I had conferred more with the students. Many of the children I worked with needed multiple models, demonstrations, and opportunities to practice--more than other students might need. I also think my communication with classroom teachers regarding what I learned about their students was poor. I believe this is a critical error. My work with students needed to have an impact on classroom success or I risk wasting their time. I think it would be important to investigate how the lesson and instructional process meshed with their daily writing workshop. This requires communication and collaboration with classroom teachers. This needed to be built into the instructional process. As a special educator, this is a high hurdle and speaks to larger systemic issues that I may or may not have the ability to change. Still, this communication process between special educator and classroom teacher, together with parents, needed to be facilitated. |
Student Results
Students willingly participated in the writing process, for the most part. Because of time constraints, I needed the kids to get words on paper as soon as possible, which is why I incorporated oral story telling and created the "note" sheet. It seemed to get them going. Also, rather than start off with oral story telling, I wanted them to get something on the paper. I wanted to model how to use notes from my oral story to make a written story. When I conferred with children, I was able to show them the difference between a list of words and sentences that made a complex story. The lessons were excellent for expressive language expansion. Students used oral language to discuss the read aloud, ask questions, tell their own story, and re-read their writing as they composed sentences. The goal that went by the wayside was functionally incorporating technology. My idea was to record their hand stories on their iPads to use as they did their writing. I needed ear buds, which I didn't anticipate. I simply ran out of time. When implementing the lessons again, I want to try out this strategy. |
Looking Forward
There is a strong chance that I will be able to work with many of these students next year. This opens the door to building on what we started and continuing instruction that can be individualized to their needs. I am most interested in digging more deeply into the oral language-written language connection and how it differs among students with varying speech and language impairments. Do my students strengths and needs with written language match the abilities of other students that have been studied? How can use of technology help or hinder the quality of writing and also the writing process of my students who struggle? How does my instruction and instructional language align with what is happening in classrooms? Knowing that many students needed more conferences than other students, how can I help this to happen in the classroom, given a teacher's time demands? What would that instructional model look like as part of a writing workshop? What models of speech therapy service delivery could take these factors into account? |