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ОглавлениеThe Worksheets
There are two reading-comprehension worksheets for each of nine animals, totaling eighteen worksheets. Each worksheet has four variations. Each variation goes with a one- hour lesson. This is approximately 72 hours of instruction.
For more severely affected children, a thirty-minute or even fifteen-minute lesson may have to suffice. Even if students are able to attend for the full hour, it may be best to take a short break every fifteen minutes or so. Use your best judgment based on your students’ needs and abilities. The children should be challenged but not agitated and panicky. Customize the lessons as needed, but try to maintain a consistent lesson structure.
The lessons provide lots of much-needed repetition. I suggest teaching these lessons every other day. Then supplement on the “off” days with art projects, music, books, and instructional videos related to the animal theme. In the back of this manual, you’ll find an appendix with numerous suggestions for complementary activities for each animal theme.
Doing the same worksheet for four consecutive lessons is central to the success of the program. It gives students the predictability and routine they need so they can relax and learn. However, the colors of the objects change with each lesson. This helps the children to pay attention. This formula works for children with autism in many different settings. Establish a predictable framework, but change the details within that predictable framework. You’ll be surprised how many different ways you can work this formula into your day.
For these worksheets, I’ve used animals, food, and prepositional phrases on purpose. My students love animals and food, and any academic exercise with these two things catches their attention and keeps them engaged. Prepositional phrases are particularly difficult for autistic students to grasp, so repetition helps. You can also teach these separately using concrete objects and flashcards. Mayer-Johnson (www.mayer-johnson.com/default.aspx) has many resources for teaching language and communication.
Sentence-Building Exercises
There are two sentence-building exercises for each animal theme. Each exercise is a one- hour lesson. This is approximately 18 hours of instruction.
It’s hard for children who have autism to generate their own conversation. The sentence- building exercises concentrate on building your students’ observation skills and corralling those observations into conversation. Not unlike the worksheet lessons, the conversation is transformed into written language. However, this time, the written language is plugged into a pair of graphic organizers and, ultimately, into actual sentences.
The goal of each sentence-building exercise is to build three sentences describing the animal in the picture and to illustrate those three sentences.
Schedule
The program covers one animal at a time. Here is a sample schedule:
The Cat
Monday – First variation of first reading comprehension worksheet
Tuesday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Wednesday – Second variation of first reading comprehension worksheet
Thursday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Friday – Third variation of first reading comprehension worksheet
Monday – Fourth variation of first reading comprehension worksheet
Tuesday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Wednesday – First variation of sentence-building exercise
Thursday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Friday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Monday – First variation of second reading comprehension worksheet
Tuesday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Wednesday – Second variation of second reading comprehension worksheet
Thursday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Friday – Third variation of second reading comprehension worksheet
Monday – Fourth variation of second reading comprehension worksheet
Tuesday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Wednesday – Second variation of sentence-building exercise
Thursday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
Friday – Supplemental activity (book, video, craft, etc.)
The Process
In this section, I will walk you through “The Cat” lessons so you can have a clearer idea of how the lessons will play out in your classroom. After all, children with autism aren’t the only ones who like to know what’s ahead of them!
The worksheets you will need for the lessons are provided at http://fhautism.com/arc.html. You can print out the customizable worksheets if you prefer to write in the color words yourself, or you can print out ready-to-go worksheets for each variation.
The animals have been chosen because of the variety of colors they come in. The cat, for instance, can logically be black, gray, brown, or orange. It’s also important that the cat and the table (or the two items that vary on the other worksheets) are two different colors, specifically, two highly contrasting colors. The more vivid the visual, the easier it will ultimately be for them to answer the questions. So for the first worksheet, the color combinations are:
Worksheet 1, Variation 1: brown cat, yellow table
Worksheet 1, Variation 2: orange cat, blue table
Worksheet 1, Variation 3: black cat, pink table
Worksheet 1, Variation 4: gray cat, red table
Let’s say you have seven kids in your class and you have distributed Worksheet 1,
Variation 1 to your students. Their desks should be clear of all writing utensils. Start by having a student volunteer to read the passage. If no one is able to read the passage, read it yourself, or have an aide read it aloud.
(An additional benefit to the lesson repetition—having the same sentence frame for several lessons—is that it allows children to memorize the simple sentences, ultimately enabling them to “read” them out loud to the class. So even though they’re not actually reading the passage, they feel as if they are and, subsequently, feel successful. The more positive associations they have with reading and words, the better.)
Once the passage has been read aloud, say to the class, “Now we want to color the picture that goes with the story. What two crayons should we take out of our box?”
Having the kids stop and focus on the colors like this, right from the beginning, will help them to answer the questions later on. Once someone answers “brown and yellow,” repeat the question and have another child answer. Some kids will still take out the wrong crayons, even if you repeat this question-and-answer round three or four times. Just be patient and get the information out there verbally, as often as you can. Once you do, help them physically take out the two correct crayons and a pencil. Check around the room and make sure that’s all they have on their desks—their worksheet, their pencil, and (with this particular variation) their brown and yellow crayons.
Once they’ve successfully taken out the brown and yellow crayons, have them return the box of crayons to their pencil box or supply area, wherever the crayons are kept. You could even assign an aide to hang on to the boxes once the two correct crayons have been removed. Even something as simple as leaving a box of crayons out on the desk is distracting in an autism classroom. Children who have autism, through no fault of their own, can be so easily tempted that leaving the crayon box out can lead to disruptions. Trust me. I’ve seen it.
Have them pick up their pencils and write their name and the date first. You should write the date on the board. If there are students who don’t know how to write their name, this is a good time to have them practice (daily) just the first letter or couple of letters of their first name. Baby steps.
Once the name and date are completed, remind them that they’re going to be coloring the cat brown and the table yellow. Tell them that they will be starting with the cat. Say, “If we’re starting with the cat, what color do we need?”
When the color brown is established, make sure that everyone has his or her brown crayon in hand and ready to go. Let them begin coloring ONLY the cat. Have aides dispersed around the room as best you can and be watchful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the cat, the table, and the pizza all be colored brown in the blink of an eye. (This is another good reason for those back-up copies!) I’ve also tried to make the illustrations as simple as possible, with enough surface area for the students to color and, therefore, focus on the color they’re using.
Check the room; make sure that all the cats have been colored brown. Repeat the words “brown cat” as often as possible. “Oh, that’s a lovely brown cat,” or “What a wonderful job you did coloring that brown cat.” The more they hear the phrase “brown cat,” the easier it will be for them to answer the upcoming question:
“Okay, now that we’ve colored the cat brown, what color should we color the table? Let’s look back at our story if we need a reminder.”
Proceed the same way with the table as you did with the cat, repeating the phrase “yellow table” as often as possible. Once the cat has been colored brown and the table has been colored yellow, have students put aside their two crayons and their pencils and refocus their attention on you. Again, if some students (as many of mine did) have trouble with writing utensils sitting idly on their desks, just have an aide temporarily remove temptation. It’s important that they stay focused through this next section, because the next step is important.
This next section of the lesson is spoken language. Before any of the answers are going to be written down on the worksheet, the questions are going to be read aloud—by you, the teacher—and answered by the students. Start by playing to your students’ strengths. If you know someone is going to have an easier time with a certain question, give him that question. Frustration is a huge problem for these kids, so allow them opportunities for success whenever and wherever you can. With that in mind, start with the first question, reading it aloud: “What color is the cat?”
Either ask a volunteer to answer or call on someone. If they can’t get the answer right, coach them through it, guiding them back to the visual cues in front of them. The important thing is to get the right words out into the classroom. The answers are also written directly into the text. There’s no need for conjecture here. Nothing even needs to be rephrased. The answer to the question “What color is the cat?” is directly embedded into the text, word for word, so those capable of reading can actually go back and read it. (This is true of all the questions on all the worksheets. They don’t need to be challenged yet with inferences, so they’re not. I’ve found that inferential and abstract thinking is tough for these kids.) Also, make sure they answer in complete sentences. This is crucial. So many times my students will just want to say, “brown” or “cat brown,” but that’s not enough. The answer must be “The cat is brown.” They can begin building their communication skills on this foundation.
Remember, no one is writing anything during this phase. This phase is purely verbal.
Once the questions are asked (and answered) in order, then skip around, asking the questions again in random order. Many students will simply memorize the answers in order. Skipping around FORCES them to pay attention. That’s the key to reading comprehension for students with autism. Forcing them to stop going by rote and to pay active attention to what’s on the page and what’s being asked of them. It also gives a student who may have struggled the first time around a chance to answer correctly, now that he’s heard the correct answer.
When the questions have been asked in order and at random, and the students have all (hopefully) had a chance to answer a question (or at least have heard the correct answers being spoken by a classmate) have them pick up their pencils and get ready to write down the answers on their worksheets. So we’re now moving from spoken language to written language, with the answers they’ve already processed. This transition is crucial—especially with simple-as-possible sentences—because it helps them to make the connection between spoken and written language, a connection they don’t always make. To them, much of the time, the words on the page are meaningless. Bolstering the connection between those words on the page and the words we speak to communicate with one another is central to these lessons.
Start with the first question, reading it aloud as before.
At this point, the kids have practiced answering these questions, so they should be okay. However, there will probably still be some confusion, so go with a student you’re certain can answer the question. It’s now less about assessing individual students and more about giving everyone a clear example of spoken language transitioning into written language. As soon as the right answer is spoken aloud, you write it on the board, allowing them to copy it onto their worksheets. You could use one of the extra worksheets to do this modeling, but I find it more effective to write on the board, where I can use larger, easier-to-see handwriting. Even with this, some students still won’t be able to copy the full sentence; that’s okay. If they write only the first letter, praise them for trying, and then maybe have that be the focus of an individualized lesson later on. Conversely, some students will be able to write the whole sentence independently, without looking at the board. This is more unusual, but in my experience, it became less so as we progressed through these worksheets.
Don’t forget—you’re always going to be dealing with a huge range of skill sets. That’s why these worksheets were so successful for me. Everyone was allowed to get SOMETHING from the experience. The kids in the middle of the pack (the majority) got the most.
The rest of the lesson is self-explanatory. You move through the remainder of the sentences in the same manner—read the question aloud, get the answer spoken aloud, and immediately transcribe that spoken answer into a written sentence, with the students following your model. When you get to the end of the sentences, you allow the kids to color the pizza (or whatever the food or extra item is on the worksheet you’re on) as a reward. This, like so many things, falls under one of the basic teacher tenets: if you make it seem like a reward, it becomes a reward.
Then give lavish praise, pass out stickers, and display the children’s work on the bulletin board.
You will do the whole thing again in two days. One worksheet, with its four variations, will take you a week and a day—Monday, Wednesday, Friday and the following Monday.
When you’ve finished the fourth variation of the first worksheet, you will do the first variation of the sentence-building exercises. This lesson will be implemented on the Wednesday after the fourth variation of the first worksheet. In other words, every fifth lesson will be a sentence-building exercise.
The sentence-building exercises concentrate on building your students’ observation skills and corralling those observations into conversation. Not unlike the worksheet lessons, that conversation is then transformed into written language. However, this time, that written language will be plugged into a successive pair of graphic organizers and, ultimately, into actual sentences. Each sentence-building exercise will have two variations, one to follow each of the two animal worksheets. The first cat worksheet, with its four variations, will be followed by the first variation of the first sentence-building exercise, also about a cat. The second cat worksheet, with its four variations, will then be followed by the second variation of the first sentence-building exercise.
The goal of each sentence-building exercise is to build three sentences describing the animal in the picture and to illustrate those three sentences. Like the worksheets, it’s about repeating the predictable lesson structure, so it’s familiar and the kids get comfortable. When students are comfortable, they are open to learning, but they also stay alert because the details within that predictable structure are always changing. I will take you through each detail of the lesson’s structure, with scripted suggestions for each lesson. The fullsized photographs of each animal and the two graphic organizers you’ll need for each sentence-building exercise are found at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.
Before you start teaching this lesson, you’re going to draw the two blank, graphic organizers on chart paper (I prefer chart paper to writing on the board because you can save the completed lesson charts for your records or for future IEP meetings). The first graphic organizer is a circle-in-circle chart, or a general-to-specific chart. It consists of one small circle inside a larger circle. This is what it should look like:
Get the free print PDF of the branch organizer at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.
This second graphic organizer is a branch organizer, with three subtopics/categories. It should be drawn on the chart paper to the right of the circle-in-circle organizer. (Always emphasize a left-to-right progression when teaching reading and writing.)
The branch organizer is going to look like this:
Get the free print PDF of the bear photo and this page at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.
After you’ve drawn both graphic organizers, the next step is to hold up the picture of that lesson’s animal for the children to see. Since the lesson is going to start with a “conversation,” it’s best to gather the children in a less formal, circle-time-style arrangement. The first question you’re going to ask your class is, “What animal is this?”
If no one is able to identify the animal, that’s fine. You can cue an adult aide to answer the question, or you can even answer it yourself. Once the word “cat” has been spoken aloud, write the word “Cat” in the smaller, inner circle of the circle-in-circle chart, like this:
Your next goal is to write down nine observations about the cat in the bigger part of the circle, in the form of words or short phrases (usually no more than two words). The nine observations should fall into three different categories, with three observations in each category,
The three categories are can, has, and likes.
In the lesson plan, I provide three sample observations for each of the three categories:
can jump run say meow
has a tail four legs fur
likes milk fish cat food
You will start the lesson with spoken language, trying to elicit these observations from the children. Start with the “can” category by asking, “What can the cat do?”
The first few times you attempt this, you’re probably going to be met with stony silence and blank stares. Persevere! They’ll get better at it. There’s also no need to worry about that stony silence—you, as the teacher, know exactly how the conversation should go and which observations need to be made. Chances are it’s going to be rough at the beginning. Yet, even if you (and your aides) have to do all the talking in the early stages, that’s fine. The kids are still hearing the language and watching spoken language being transformed into written language and, ultimately, coherent sentences.
If students do not answer, prompt them. You can say something like, “Can the cat fly?” If still no one answers, have an aide answer or answer yourself: “Can the cat jump? Yes, the cat can jump.”
Write this first observation in the larger circle, like this:
Throughout the exercise, continue to prompt with leading questions/conversations such as, “The cat likes to drink this white beverage. We like to pour it over cereal. Sometimes we like to put chocolate in it so we can have chocolate________”
The lesson plans will provide the nine observations you need to make the lessons work. Those plans will serve as an instructional foundation you can rely on. The words I provide you with have been pre-selected to create manageable sentences—the ultimate goal. In the beginning, it’s hard for children who have autism to generate their own conversation. As the kids get better at this activity, they might come up with observations and sentences even better and more creative than those provided by the script. That’s great! The script is just there as a “back-up.”
Once all nine observations have been spoken aloud and written down, the circle-in-circle graphic organizer should look like this:
Make sure the outer circle is large enough to contain all the words. Do your best to keep the handwriting legible. The kids will copy these words once they get back to their desks. Also, I advise against adding more than nine words or phrases. You need to keep the graphic organizer looking organized. If you have more than nine words (or short phrases) floating around in the larger circle, it could get messy, especially when the kids copy the words onto their own circle charts—which brings us to the next phase of the lesson.
The children (after much praise over their observation/conversation skills) now leave the conversation area and return to their desks. Have them take out a pencil (and only a pencil!), and distribute the students’ graphic organizers, printed from http://fhautism.com/arc.html. Your students now have their own graphic organizers that match the ones on the chart paper.
Have them write their name on the top of the paper (or their initials, or just the first letter—whatever they can do). The first step of their seatwork is to copy the words from the circle-in-circle chart onto their own circle-in-circle chart. If they don’t write all the words, it’s okay. Especially in the beginning, it’s more important that they become familiar with the process of using these graphic organizers to arrange words into sentences.
Once they’ve done their best to copy the words, move to the second graphic organizer, the branch chart.
Write “The Cat” on the top line and “can,” “has,” and “likes” on the three spaces on the second row. Have students do the same on their version of the branch chart.
Now it’s time to fill in the rest of the branch chart. You will do this together. The time for free floating conversation is over. It’s time for the first question: “What can the cat do?”
We stay on this topic until the first “can” column is filled with the appropriate three items. I found that this combination of graphic organizers worked particularly well together with my kids because the information is right there in front of them. When someone inevitably answers that first question with “milk,” for example, you can form that question back for him or her to hear: “The cat can milk? Does that sentence sound right to us? Let’s think again—what can he do? Let’s look back in the circle and find something the cat can do.”
Everything stays on a concrete, visual level, which works great for these kids. It’s hard to veer very far off course.
Continue in this vein, first asking the students, “What else can the cat do?” until you’ve transferred all three answers to that question, found within the larger circle of the circle-in- circle chart, to the branch chart.
When all three blank spaces in the “can” column have been successfully filled in, move on to the next column. Say, “Okay class, what does the cat have?”
If someone answers, “jump,” you can ask, “The cat has jump? Does that sound right to us? Why don’t we look inside the big circle to see if we can find something that sounds better than that sentence? How about ‘The cat has four legs.’ Does that sound better to us?”
Every time you transfer a word from the circle-in-circle chart to the branch chart, take your students through the formation of the sentence. As you say each word of the sentence, point to the corresponding word on the branch chart. This way, they can become familiar with the way we use the chart to form the sentence.
Once the “has” column has been successfully filled in, move on to the “likes” column. I have experimented with erasing the words from the circle-in-circle chart as they were transferred to the branch chart, but I felt this robbed my students of some of the exercise’s more important challenges. It’s best if they think and observe throughout. If there’s just one word left inside the circle at the end of the lesson, you’ve taken away a potential learning moment for them. However, this is an individual call. If your class is more challenged by this exercise, then make the lesson more manageable. It’s more important for your students to succeed.
Once all three columns of the branch chart have been successfully filled in, you can choose to take a “reward-time” mini break. Go around and admire your students’ work, giving them a sticker, a gold star, or whatever reward you’ve established in your classroom. You could even take a stretch break. I found this not to be a good idea with my kids, but if you have a group that can stay focused, this would be a logical place to take a short break. The connection still needs to be maintained between the graphic organizers and the sentences we’re about to build, so really, no more than fifteen to twenty seconds. This is all up to you, though. You know your kids better than anyone.
Once you’re all refocused, distribute the handouts that are lined on the bottom for sentences and blank on the top for illustrations (printed from http://fhautism.com/arc. html). They now have on their desks this new, blank sheet of paper, along with the filled- in graphic organizers. Some kids might become a little overwhelmed with all of this paper and information in front of them, but it’s important that the graphic organizers stay on their desks for the sentence-building phase.
Tell the children it’s time to make the first sentence. The first time, model it for them, using the branch chart as you do so. Point to the words on the branch chart as you slowly say them, forming your first sentence. Show the students the physical relationship between the words on the chart and how they go together to form a spoken sentence. This will help them read the chart and form the sentences using the chart themselves.
Say, “Let’s make a sentence from the first column, using the word ‘can.’ ‘The cat can jump.’”
After the sentence is spoken, write it on the chart paper.
Then, have students write the same sentence on the first line of their papers.
Ask the class if someone can now make a sentence from the second column, using the word “has.” Making only one sentence from each column eventually will give the kids a feeling of authorial autonomy—they choose which sentence they want to form. They can choose any of the three words to make a sentence. Once a sentence is formed from the second column, write it on the chart paper, and have the students copy that sentence onto their papers.
Finally, have someone form a sentence from the third column.
You should now have written three sentences:
1. The cat can jump.
2. The cat has a tail.
3. The cat likes milk.
Now it’s time for the final part of the sentence-building exercise—the illustration. This is a key component to further connecting the students to their writing. We want them to understand that these are not just jumbles of random words scribbled on a piece of paper. They have meaning, and the illustration helps engender a deeper understanding of this connection. Toward that end, the illustration must reflect the information in the sentence. It’s okay to be a bit strict here, mostly because it’s a drawing—not words—and the pressure decreases at this point. For example, if I see an illustration of a cat not drinking from a bowl of milk—or a cat missing a tail—it’s easy for me to correct the students and guide them in the right direction.
Get the free PDF of the lined paper at at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.
You should now have three full sentences and beautiful drawings to illustrate the words. This marks the halfway point of The Cat lessons. The second half of The Cat lessons is structured the same way, except you’ll begin a new worksheet and work with new sentences. Just like the ones I’ve described thus far, there will be four variations of the worksheet and then a sentence-building exercise, using the same graphic organizers and lined paper.
Don’t forget about the off days; the supplemental activities are crucial for keeping the kids interested in the topics. It is also a much-needed break, and it helps students associate the topics—and reading in general—to good feelings. The lessons will be challenging and sometimes frustrating for them, but I hope they will become fun. The supplemental activities aren’t anti-lessons; they are integral aspects of the curriculum that can make or break the program’s effectiveness.
Having tried lots of different writing and sentence-building techniques and graphic organizers, I found this combination to be the most successful with my students. The concrete, visual transfer of the words from one graphic organizer to the next and then to sentences was a progression that my students could follow. It also provided many opportunities for conversation, which is always to be treasured in the autism classroom.
Best of all, it’s a perfect group lesson! Any time you can employ a group lesson with these kids, you should. Not only is it good for building social skills, it cuts down enormously on the teacher’s behavior management workload. Sure, it’s more difficult to manage a group of children with autism, as opposed to teaching them one-on-one. I have found that a lesson plan like this, during which the students are almost unanimously engaged, helps with behavior management.
Still, the social and behavioral benefits are usually secondary to the lifelong benefits that reading comprehension skills will provide your students. The better they can process written language, the more they can learn. The more they can learn, the more choices they will have in their lives.
