Here's what I have found to be very effective with my students with autism: A combination of visuals and related desk work interspersed. I use SmartBoard continually through the day in a variety of ways. In fact, my students' desks are positioned right in front of the wall with the SB and I feel I co-teach with it.
Many students with autism struggle with activities that require fine motor skills: pencil/paper, cutting, drawing, etc. They don't understand a lot of teacher-talk. People always think students with autism are comprehending more than they are. But they "get" things presented with a combination of pictures, action, and words.
Here's an example of combination teaching. I showed the Magic E song video. After the video, I gave my students a sheet with the words and had them read the short vowel word and then add the magic "e" to the end, and then read the long vowel word. Then we watched the video again. We have repeated this activity with different writing sheets each time. For the first time, my students are beginning to understand the short- long-vowel connection with the silent "e."
Another project we are in the middle of is based on the book "The Scarecrow's Hat." I looked up the book on Youtube and play the story. I sometimes read the book, too, with the book projected on the screen with a document camera. Then little by little we have been making a book. I copied and printed images from online of the animals from the book. The kids cut them out and put them in sequence with one animal per page in their book. The next day we watched the story again and drew pictures on each page with the animal of the item they each swapped. Now we are going back through their books a little at a time and writing sentences to describe what is happening on the page.
If we were to just sit and work through this as a project one day, I would have screaming and crying and gnashing of teeth! But showing the story visually and doing little bits at a time is not only fun for them but leaves them wanting to do more each time. It becomes a very familiar, repeated activity with slight variation. Students are proud of their product at the end, and parents love them, too.
I do this combination teaching in all subject areas. Kids are engaged and learning like never before!
More good things ahead,
Jean
P.S. You can get a whole Phonics Time DVD with the Magic E and MANY other great learning activities from Jenny's Class and Edutunes at TeachersPayTeachers.com.
Many students with autism struggle with activities that require fine motor skills: pencil/paper, cutting, drawing, etc. They don't understand a lot of teacher-talk. People always think students with autism are comprehending more than they are. But they "get" things presented with a combination of pictures, action, and words.
Here's an example of combination teaching. I showed the Magic E song video. After the video, I gave my students a sheet with the words and had them read the short vowel word and then add the magic "e" to the end, and then read the long vowel word. Then we watched the video again. We have repeated this activity with different writing sheets each time. For the first time, my students are beginning to understand the short- long-vowel connection with the silent "e."
Another project we are in the middle of is based on the book "The Scarecrow's Hat." I looked up the book on Youtube and play the story. I sometimes read the book, too, with the book projected on the screen with a document camera. Then little by little we have been making a book. I copied and printed images from online of the animals from the book. The kids cut them out and put them in sequence with one animal per page in their book. The next day we watched the story again and drew pictures on each page with the animal of the item they each swapped. Now we are going back through their books a little at a time and writing sentences to describe what is happening on the page.
If we were to just sit and work through this as a project one day, I would have screaming and crying and gnashing of teeth! But showing the story visually and doing little bits at a time is not only fun for them but leaves them wanting to do more each time. It becomes a very familiar, repeated activity with slight variation. Students are proud of their product at the end, and parents love them, too.
I do this combination teaching in all subject areas. Kids are engaged and learning like never before!
More good things ahead,
Jean
P.S. You can get a whole Phonics Time DVD with the Magic E and MANY other great learning activities from Jenny's Class and Edutunes at TeachersPayTeachers.com.