APP REVIEW: Conversation Builder for Teens!

Conversation Builder for Teens
Only $29.99 in the App Store

Today we are reviewing the very interesting and exciting app from the Mobile Education Store called "Conversation Builder: Teen."

This app opens up with the expected registering page but is easy to navigate and does not require much information. 

You are then navigated to edit the settings within the app. You can change the conversation type to 2 or 3 players, or group for more. You can turn on and off audio, reset the played conversations in order for you to work with a clean slate, and then you can choose the categories that will be used once you begin the activity. You can also manage your user(s) here, turn on parental controls, or watch a video tutorial.

Settings/Opening page

Once your settings are completed to your satisfaction, you then select play at the bottom of the screen and are immediately directed to the first task/question. I selected "randomize all available modules" so the first question for mine was "Hey Dude" and three responses popped up with audio buttons next to them. It then directed me to choose what I would say next. For the first incorrect answer, the audio feedback stated, "That is an unusual response to the question, try again." For the second incorrect answer, the audio feedback supplied a helpful hint, such as, "try asking a question." 

You are then able to record your response and listen to it as many times as you need to. You have the option of re recording your response for your student and then letting them record their voice.  This is a fantastic feature of this app since so many of our students on the spectrum have such a difficult time with prosody.

The app has a variety of audio feedback responses that are socially appropriate responses that we as speech therapists and educators would most likely say to our students if they were to respond with a negative, literal, or off-topic response. The pictures within the app are extremely appealing and relevant to today's society and what our students see often.  At the top of each question, an icon that states "info" describes the scenario. The "history" icon changes the page and shows in text what the question stated and is in the format of an iPhone text message conversation. Many of our students have iPhones or have played on them and this a definite bonus. 

The last icon at the bottom of the app is "progress." This is where your conversations are stored. I'm unaware of how many conversations you have to have in order to save them or master them. That is the only downfall so far. This app has fantastic modules that relate to a range of ages and topics.  I see myself using this app with my high school students and them thoroughly enjoying it! 

Hope you enjoy as well!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS APP IN THE APP STORE

Enter for a chance to win a FREE app code for Conversation Builder Teen!!!

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EET It!

Earlier this school year I attended a conference in Baton Rouge for our state school-based speech/language pathologists. At this conference I had the priviledge of listening to Sara Smith present on her product, The Expanding Expression Tool (EET). I was impressed with what she had to say that I decided to write a grant to purchase the kit along with other accessory items. I have been using the EET for the past few weeks and I have to say, I am blown away! Since the conference, I have been in contact with Sara and asked if she would guest post on our blog so that we could assist in spreading the word about this awesome tool - and of course, she agreed!! :)

Looking for a way to help your students achieve improved oral language and writing? The Expanding Expression Tool™ (EET) can help. The EET is a hands on approach that is being used in both general and special education classrooms (preschool through college) to build both oral and written language.

What makes Expanding Expression unique is that we use a simple multisensory approach that guarantees quick results!! This tool can be used for general DESCRIPTIONS AND VOCABULARY, INFORMATIONAL WRITING, AUTOBIOGRAPHIES/BIOGRAPHIES, SUMMARIZING and more.

The EET Kit helps to build the following language skills:

·         Oral expression

·         Written expression

·         Vocabulary comprehension

·         Defining and describing

·         Making associations

·         Stating functions of objects

·         Categorization

·         Similarities and differences

*Students quickly learn each symbol and consistently describe and define objects and items providing 6-7 details in an organized manner.

The

Expanding Expression Tool Kit is designed to be used by teachers, literacy coaches, reading specialists, parents, speech-language pathologists and other specialists to support academics. Language arts is essential for academic success. It is at the heart of each curriculum area. Without oral language, students may have difficulty organizing information while speaking, writing, or pulling valuable information from their reading material.

They may have trouble defining or describing vocabulary or objects. The Expanding Expression Tool was designed to make things easier for all students. It provides structure for the struggling student and

enhances the skills of those students already strong in the language arts area. The Expanding Expression Tool provides students with a hands-on approach to describing and defining. As a mnemonic device, it provides visual and tactile information which facilitates improved language organization. The kit itself is designed to allow you to follow a hierarchical approach taking student's expression from words to paragraphs to reports. Therefore, it can be used by a variety of ages.

The kit consists of the Expanding Expression Tool, a manual, stickers for written expression, object cards for describing activities and a poster. The Expanding Expression Tool is color symbol coded. Students learn the code and from this code are able to provide detailed descriptions including the following elements: the category the item belongs to, the function of the object, the appearance, what the item is made of, the parts of the item, and its location.

* Entire schools have adopted the program to facilitate improved expression and comprehension.

*It allows students to quickly progress from word to phrase to paragraph to multi-paragraph levels.

THE LATEST NEWS: White pine academy in Leslie, MI reported that their 4^th grade writing scores went up 32% from using the EET (press release), Sheryl Stone (educator in Rockford Public Schools) introduced the EET to teachers in orphan schools in Zambia Africa, The EET is being used in over 10,000 classrooms across the United States, Canada, and Australia.

For more information and to order visit us at www.expandingexpression.com

For elementary school

and cognitively impaired students, a new learning tool is taking the intimidation out of the blank page when it comes time to write. The Expanding Expression Tool™, or EET . . . helps students describe objects and organize their writing say local teachers.

“This is the best writing

I’ve ever gotten out of any group,” said a teacher who has taught second grade for seven years. After comparing pre-EET and post-EET writing samples, she credited the tool for pushing her students from one-word answers and drawings to seven sentence descriptive paragraphs.

“What I love,

because of the way it’s going around, are teachers running into other teachers and nding out they’re using it,” said speech pathologist Gail Morris, from Jackson County ISD. “It’s a gold mine for provoking writing and self-questioning.” Morris said some of

her students have improved dramatically and returned to regular classrooms.

(Above excerpts from: Jackson County Citizen Patriot, by Tony Gonzalez)


If you have not tried the EET yet, I highly encourage you to do so; you won't be disappointed!!

Our Prayers

The three of us at Public School SLPs would like to take a moment of silence for those who lost their lives so tragically last Friday.



We can not begin to tell you how sorry we are for your loss. We pray that God's tender care and comfort come to you who have lost and to those of you that must to continue on having lost a sense of security and hope. May the Lord's love shine down upon all that work with precious children. May the Lord restore hope and vanquish fear. May the Lord show His grace and mercy to Newtown.

May God bless you.

Sincerely,

Public School SLPs

Put a little Rainbow in your Day

I want to tell you about an app that I have had for quite some time now, Rainbow Sentences. I absolutely love this app. I am a visual learner and so that's what drew me to purchasing this app months ago. Now I use it with my elementary and middle school kids.

Yes, this is another app by Mobile Education Store! Don't you just love what they do there?? I do! And Kyle has been so generous...he has donated 3 FREE app codes for this great therapy tool!!

According to the developer, "Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues.  Students will learn how to recognize the parts of sentences such as nouns, verbs, and prepositions and improve their understanding of how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure."

So lets get right to it...here's what's cool about the app:

- It's totally VISUAL!!
- Teaches the grammar you hate teaching! (Oh go ahead and admit it...you know you hate it!)
- Color coding can be turned off
- Word grouping can also be turned off
- Can be used with any age group thanks to the control you have over the stimuli, cues and reinforcement.
- You can add as many students as you need to
- Keep track of those students' data easily with the Stat tracker - you can also email your data/results

This is a great app from Mobile Education Store. You won't be disappointed!! So sign up today for a chance to win 1 of 3 FREE app codes!

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TenseBuilder App Review and Giveaway

Happy Holidays everyone! So sorry it’s been so long since our last post. We have been busy here in the public schools and with the holidays it just gets crazier!

Thanks to Kyle over at Mobile Education Store, we are able to giveaway a FREE code for his app Tense Builder!! Thanks so much Kyle for your generosity! Sign up at the end of this post!! Good Luck!

Tense Builder is yet another great app from Mobile Education Store. I really enjoy using this app with my RTI students because it is quick, easy and efficient. I am able to focus on those specific skills and know quickly whether or not the child is grasping the concept or not.

According to the developer, “TenseBuilder is designed to help students learn how to identify and use correct tense forms by playing movie quality animated videos to demonstrate past, present and future tenses.”

Here’s what we love about this app:

·         Input students to collect and store data

·         Can be individualized for each student

·         Animated stimuli

·         Choice of Tense: Future, Present, Past, or All

·         Choice of Verbs: Regular, Irregular, or All

·         Can also choose specific Verbs for individual student needs

·         2 Lesson Styles: Short and Long (video introduction to each verb and tense/s

·         2 Levels to differentiate instruction

·         48 target verbs with matching animated movies (developer says will expand to 58 by Dec 2012)

·         Easy to navigate and visually appealing to the students

·         Can work on Receptive and Expressive language skills 

·         Students can also record their own sentences in their own voice – my students really like this feature about the app!

Please take a moment to visit Kyle’s site at Mobile Education Store and good luck with the giveaway!!

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"The Solution to Reading Comprehension"

There is a buzz going around about this fantastic website..........readworks.org 

LESSONS & UNITS

About the Lessons & Units

What if I already use a core reading program?

• ReadWorks complements core reading programs. In fact, we’re aligning many of the programs for you.
  
• Most reading programs Do NOT address the specific needs of teachers and students in reading comprehension.

Is ReadWorks all I need?

• Reading comprehension requires decoding and phonics mastery, fluency, independent reading, and the building of vocabulary and background knowledge across all subjects, so ReadWorks is one essential component of your complete literacy program.
   
• ReadWorks lessons support vocabulary and background knowledge development.

This is phenomenal, clean, simple, user-friendly, SLP-friendly (whooohooo!) resource gold mine. This website provides FREE READING PASSAGES that are organized by Grade Level, Skill/Strategy, Lexile Level and then you can search by keyword. 

The website also allows you to ALIGN YOUR LESSON PLANS WITH COMMON CORE STANDARDS!  This can be done once you've created an account and designated which grade levels you work with.  You can put it into an Excel doc, a Word doc, or print it. 

I downloaded 15 lessons already and at least 10 different passages. The passages can be filtered alphabetically, by grade level, lexile level, or by skill/strategy level. 

IT'S FREE and very very good for those of us who need new passages or like to mix things up. 

On the left hand side there are links for LESSON PLANS 

Each lesson plan has extensive resources, worksheet, passages, and step-by-step instructions. Who said we ever needed to create everything from scratch? With a resource like www.readworks.org, we don't have to!

What will you do with this resource?

The Boy and the Ghost

I typically don't like to scare children or teach them to talk about scary stories...however, I found this great southern folklore tale about a brave little boy named Thomas who wanted to help feed his poor family and conquered his fears by meeting a ghost who shared all of his wealth to him and his family thanks to Thomas's bravery and courage.

The story has beautiful imagery

"He set out the next morning. His mother hugged him and gave him a pot and a hambone to make soup and said, "Now, you always be polite to anyone you meet, and generous as well." Then his father embraced the boy, gave him a box of matches and a croaker-sack to carry things in, and told Thomas, "Be brave, no matter what happens, and always be honest."

and a great lesson about bravery, putting others first, and keeping your mind and heart set on what will benefit your family

You can find the questions that I used for this story on the download page or you can click here.

I hope your library carries this book so that you can do this lesson before the month ends. It's a wonderful book that addresses socioeconomic struggle, providing for the family, being brave at a young age, giving to the poor, and the universal theme of money and comfort.

What else will you do with this story?