CCSS Articulation Activity

This is an easy activity that I came up with to address articulation objectives while incorporating the common core state standards. I have to first give credit to my wonderful graduate clinician, Samantha Barksdale, for telling me about this awesome graphic organizer.

First, you take the paper (or cardstock - which we used) and fold it like a hot dog (vertically). Then, you cut strips on the top fold (10 down).

From here, you have several options/activities you can do depending on the skill level of your student. Have the students look up words with their sound in the dictionary. Then have them write the word on the top of the strip and open to write the definition.

If your student has difficulty writing, you can use one session to collaboratively find words in the dictionary that have his/her sound. Then print those words along with the definition for the next session where the student can paste onto each strip.

My students really enjoyed this activity because they were in control of what words they practiced! You can also use this as a language activity to address vocabulary words the students are learning in the classroom.

So what are you doing to incorporate the CCSS into therapy??

Lesson Plans

Being an SLP in the public school system has its ups and downs . . . one of the "downs" is trying to figure out how to develop individualized lesson plans ... this is REALLY a downer when you have 65+ students with varying disabilities. After working in the schools for the past eight years, I think I finally found the perfect lesson plan for me. Holly came up with this layout last year and it has worked beautifully!

You can download an example of this fabulous lesson plan by clicking the pic above or by clicking here. You'll see that we have the day of the week at the top, with a place to put the date for that day, a To Do list and a Meeting list (this is really my two favorite parts of the lesson plan!!)  We create one for each day and save each to the desktop so that each morning when we turn on the computer we can print out our LPs. I have entered one group as an example for you. We normally do not type in the Activities, we just write in what we want to do ... we do type in anything we need to in the To Do list and Meeting list. The plans are arranged by group and the student's individual objectives are added. Depending on what I plan for that day, I will choose which objectives I want to target and highlight it to remind me :) 

You'll notice I have one group that says "Rotating Direct Therapy and/or Assessment" ... I put this in when I have gaps/breaks in my schedule. I use this time to schedule screeners or make-up sessions when needed.

I print my LPs in portrait form (as shown) b/c this is what works best for me; Holly, on the other hand, likes to print hers in Landscape....either way, I hope you like the plans as much as we do!

App Review: Articulation Station

Articulation Station is a great app to use with any articulation student. The app utilizes colorful, motivating pictures that the students can relate to. Stimulus items are organized in three groups: Words, Sentences, and Stories. These are the things we love most about the app:

• Students can record and playback their own productions (promotes self-awareness/self-monitoring)
• "Check" and "X" buttons on each page/sound can be used for student feedback and therapist data
• Data can be saved to individual students
• You can work on multiple sounds with multiple students, each with their own data being stored for each sound
• Stories are followed by comprehension questions

This is a must have app!! Check out the author's blog at: http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?p=1711