Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Speech & Language Impairment

Definition •There are many kinds of speech and language disorders that can affect children. In this fact sheet, we’ll talk about four major areas in which these impairments occur. These are the areas of: o Articulation | speech impairments where the child produces sounds incorrectly (e.g., lisp, difficulty articulating certain sounds, such as “l” or “r”); o Fluency | speech impairments where a child’s flow of speech is disrupted by sounds, syllables, and words that are repeated, prolonged, or avoided and where there may be silent blocks or inappropriate inhalation, exhalation, or phonation patterns; o Voice | speech impairments where the child’s voice has an abnormal quality to its pitch, resonance, or loudness; and o Language | language impairments where the child has problems expressing needs, ideas, or information, and/or in understanding what others say. (1) •&νβσπ;Specific words in IDEA o “(11) Speech or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” [34 CFR §300.8(c)(11] Characteristics •A child's communication is considered delayed when the child is noticeably behind his or her peers in the acquisition of speech and/or language skills. Speech disorders refer to difficulties producing speech sounds or problems with voice quality. Characteristics may include: o interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech such as stuttering (known as dysfluency); o trouble forming sounds (called articulation or phonological disorders); o difficulties with the pitch, volume, or quality of the voice; o trouble using some speech sounds, such as saying "see" when they mean "ski." •&νβσπ;A language disorder is an impairment in the ability to understand and/or use words in context, both verbally and nonverbally. Characteristics include: o improper use of words and their meanings; o inability to express ideas; o inappropriate grammatical patterns; o reduced vocabulary and inability to follow directions Strategies •&νβσπ;Patience, patience, patience •&νβσπ;Accepting and accommodating an individual’s speech and individual instruction •&νβσπ;Encourage the student to participate in classroom activities, giving her adequate time to speak. •&νβσπ;Create an environment of acceptance and understanding in the classroom, and encourage peers to accept the student with speech impairment •&νβσπ;Practice and maintain easy and effective communication skills: o model good listening skills, o facilitate participate of all students in discussion and activites •&νβσπ;Speak to the student as you would with any other student. •&νβσπ;Do not interrupt or try to complete her thoughts. Ask her to repeat her message when necessary; do not feign understanding. •&νβσπ;When introducing new vocabulary, help the student practice difficult words. Dividing words into syllables and pronouncing each syllable will improve speech, reading and writing. •&νβσπ;Using many different listening activities will also aid the student in comprehending and determining her own production of sounds. •&νβσπ;Have the student answer “yes” or “no.”

Thursday, November 8, 2012

ten tips for using videos in the classroom

1.it is an engaging learning activity 2.it provides a better understanding of the topic 3.Students can use it for a final project 4.There are many topics that can be addressed with a video 5.Students feel more connected because television is part of their lives 6.A video is more motivating than a lecture 7.the video has to be related to the objectives and essential questions of the unit 8.It allows room for different learning strategies such as note-taking, discussion, debates, etc. 9. The design of it allows the incorporation of multiple intelligences 10. if the videos are shown from youtube teachers need to be careful.

Individual video

This video can be used for spanish I in the unit of daily routines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f3LD0yxIdc

Ten tips for apps

1. The apps needs to be related to the Standards and objectives 2. Necessary equipment in the classroom 3. it is motivating for students 4. it helps students with disabilities 5. it incorporates, depending on the apps, different types of intelligences 6. It makes the class interactive 7. It gives an alternative way to assess students 8. It can be used as a final project 9. it helps teachers to make the class for appealing to students because the use of technology. 10. it is an extra resource if activities are not enough for the class.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

accommodations for ELL students

This is a great guideline with a list of accommodations that can be done in the classroom so ELL students can feel more comfortable learning and accomplishing the standard goals. http://www.birdville.k12.tx.us/instruction/ss_web/special_services/images/esl/Instructional%20Accommodations%20and%20Strategies.pdf

Activities for ESL

This website is really awesome. It provides with activities that are translated in foreign languages and English! Also grammar, and vocabulary quizzes!. http://a4esl.org/

A Nation with Multiple Languages

With this title this pdf report starts, telling numbers of immigrants the come to the United states and how this affect/benefit the education system. It gives an overall vision about the current situation here in the U.S and some of the key terms used in ESL. http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/ELLResearchBrief.pdf

Classroom challenges

this is a great website that explain the challenges that education is facing right now with ELL students. It also gives guidelines to improve the acquisition of English without losing the native language. I highly recommend to explore this website http://www.netc.org/focus/challenges/ell.php

The ESL network

This website is great. It has many links with websites that are useful for ESL instruction such as quizzes, vocabulary, reading passages, etc. http://www.esl.net/esl_resources.html

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Semantic Feature Analysis

Webquest

Ten tips for web quest 1. Have objectives before designing it 2. Have clear instructions of how to explore the website and answer the questions 3. Make it interesting by posting videos, interactive websites, etc. 4. Create it in a way that students feel that they are in an adventure 5. Have open questions that allow critical thinking 6. The questions have to be related with the standards and objectives 7. Take your time to design a good webquest 8. Have a t least two questions per website 9. Include different activities from Bloom's taxonomy 10.Incorporate different resources.