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!!

The Story Grammar Marker

I've been using the The Story Grammar Marker for about five years now and I just love it! SGM was developed by MindWing Concepts, Inc. Please check out their site at http://www.mindwingconcepts.com/. This is a well developed product!

I use it to facilitate expressive and receptive language skills in students through literature. Sometimes we use the SGM to recap stories we have read and sometimes we use it to develop our own stories. I used this in my Mysteries of Harris Burdick lesson.

This is a picture of how the SGM works; each story element is accompanied by a graphic. For instance, the green puff ball with googly eyes represents the Character/s. I like to make a copy of this on bright paper to give to each student so that they can identify each story element.

This is the SGM Episode Organizer; the story elements are broken into three parts: Beginning, Middle and End. Simple as that. I make a copy of a blank SGM Episode Organizer for the students to fill in themselves.

Finally, I make a copy of each SGM on different color paper to represent the Beginning, Middle and End of the story. After we have discussed each story element and have applied it to a story we have read, I have the students develop their own stories through the use of these worksheets.

Check out MindWing Concepts, Inc. to see their full line of innovative, hands-on learning products!

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

So you may be asking...who IS Harris Burdick??  Well in MY world, Harris Burdick is an inspiration and a great Language activity!!

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a book written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg (also author and illustrator of The Polar Express). This book only has an introduction which is followed by fourteen drawings. The introduction states that the author visited this children's publisher and viewed fourteen drawings each with a title and caption. Now here's where it gets interesting, the illustrator of these drawings is also the author of the stories that go with them, Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick reportedly dropped these drawings off to the children's publisher and was to return the next day but was never heard from again. So, Chris Van Allsburg published the collection of Harris Burdick drawings along with the title of each of the stories. The drawings are remarkable and have so much detail and wonder to each one of them.

So what can you do with this book of drawings?  LOTS!!! This is how I utilized this awesome piece of work. I chose to use this as a semester long activity with my fifth grade students.

• First, I had each student pick a picture he/she was interested in
• Then I had each student use a blank piece of paper and color pencils or whatever inspired them to brainstorm a story to go with their picture. Brainstorming has to be taught to these kids; utilize what they are doing in the classroom. If they use bubble maps, use bubble maps; if they use writing robots, use the robots....we do NOT want to confuse them by adding in something different...use what is being taught in the classroom. Help the students by scaffolding and cueing them to things that are needed in a story: characters, setting, events, ect.
• The rules were:
• they had to use the title the picture came with
• they had to incorporate the picture's caption in their story
• The next session we discussed the parts of a story: Beginning, Middle and End and what each entails. I use stories I know the kids KNOW and know well....movies are also good examples to help students understand Characters, Setting, Initiating Events, Problems, Attempts at solving the Problem, Resolution and Feelings.
• Then we move on to actually writing out the Beginning...as I said, I used this as a semester long activity. Rome was not built in a day, neither are good stories!
• By the end of the semester the students should have a completed short story. Their reward?? Well, you read them the actual story that belongs to each picture ... where do you find these alleged stories you ask?? Well in the recently published book The Chronicles of Harris Burdick ... fourteen well known authors each wrote a short story to accompany each picture.

I know there are so many more activities you can do with these books, if you have an idea please share! I just love the illustrations and imagination Chris Van Allsburg has!