Lesson Planning (Sped Style) & Reading

Well, it's Sunday  Tuesday (whatever, at least I got to post) ha...planning day. So that's why I'm blogging :). Helps me to put off the inevitable.

This year I am doing more resource time than normal, so that means more planning. The thing about special education is that my kids each have a different plan. In general I have one lesson plan that I differentiate 5 different ways, because their needs are SOOOOOO different and they all have different goals to monitor. It is not a lie when experienced teachers tell newcomers that special Ed is a lot of paperwork, because it definitely is. When I sit down to make a week's lesson plan I must not only make sure I am hitting the standards on their levels, but also making sure I am addressing each IEP goal so I will have data to monitor!  Whew!  So enough whining and a little more information on how I do my lesson plans.  I have posted about my lesson planning before, but there are a few changes I will share. I wish I did some fancy visual plans like fellow blogger http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.com  But I just can't see making time for that right now. :).

Today's Special---READING
I use Corrective Reading with my third and fourth grade resource group. It is an awesome structured program that reteaches and corrects phonetic reading misconceptions. You can learn more about it by clicking on Corrective Reading above.

Sight word recognition is also a big part of my reading instruction.  Students are assessed on sight word recognition during the first week of school and are given new words as old words are mastered.  We are practicing for recognition and fluency.  My students are "quizzed" daily on their sight words using Time Delay.  For a wonderful tutorial and all you have ever wanted to learn about the Time Delay method---Go HERE.  (You may need to register to be able to use the Autism Internet Modules, but it is worth the time!)

I also use a modified Daily Five structure to my resource time too. My resource time is an hour so it is like one big (small) strategy group during this time. I use Reading A-Z to find leveled readers and ideas for weekly lessons.  My lessons include vocabulary and prereading, reading and comprehension skills, writing, and work on grammar or phonetic principles.  As far as Daily 5 goes, we are working on the CAFE strategies through our leveled readers and the students are word work daily.

Enjoy some pictures from my reading group!

Here we have sandboxes.  This is by far my students favorite word work station.  The colored sand can be found at craft stores.

This is my basket of magic!  Just kidding!  This is where I keep all of my weekly lesson organized for reading.  Each student has a yellow folder that holds the sheets needed for Corrective Reading.  I forgot to get a picture of the boxes my kids keep their sight words in, but they are just the index card file boxes that you can buy at Walmart! :)

Here are my baskets of books sorted by category.

 Word Work Stations

Letter Magnets

Letter beads to string on pipe cleaners

Nuts and Bolts (Letters are written on the nuts and students twist the nuts onto the bolts to create words)

Chalk words (black paper with white chalk to use to write words)

Salt box (write words in salt)

Sandbox (write words in sand)

Smelly Markers 

Dry erase boards

Foam letters

Play Doh

Connect Four Sight words (letters on checkers and put in Connect Four frame to spell words)

Letter stamps

Ipad Spelling

Use the (real) iPad to practice words

Tactile Letters (made of sandpaper type material)

Type a Word (on old keyboards)