Talking In Class

Talking in Class - Increasing Active Participation
Sheri Lenzo - Jan 21, 2010

I. Students communicate successfully when:

• Communication is FREQUENT: no matter where the student is in the classroom they are able to communicate.
• Communication is INTERACTIVE
  
• GENERATIVE – students can have a rich conversation using a communication board.
• Communication occurs in TIMELY manner: things are in place when needed.
• EFFICIENT: teacher has communication materials easily available.
• PEER based
• Communication OCCURS during 80% of the day.

II. Questions in class can be phrased to respond with:

• Yes / No
• PODD or communication books
  
• Communication - voice output - device
  

Words - there are two types of vocabulary Core and Fringe.

Core Vocabulary
- 78% of the words we use in daily speech are drawn from a core of
fewer than 400 words.  Core words can be used across all activities,
situations, places and populations.

All other vocabulary is known as 'Fringe Vocabulary' - words that occur infrequently, relate to specific topics, consist of more nouns & proper names, and comprise a large number of words.

III. Strategies / Do's and Don'ts To Increase Success

• Model the use of their language system
  

• Give wait time - time for the student to think about what was said and what they need to do to respond
• Give natural cues - pause, 'what did you say?', 'I'm not sure I understand', 'can you repeat that?', 'use your system'
  
• Respond to all (ALL) messages from the student - even if they don't make sense or are unexpected.
• Provide repair strategies - restate, rephrase, alter the question format
  
• Immerse the environment in alternative language
  
• Prompt as little as possible - allow the student to do it independently
• Don't demand a response - avoid pressure
• Do accept all forms of communication
• Don't request something repeated a different way - "now tell me on your device"

Video Classroom

---

Practice Lesson - Dinosaurs

---

    There were many kinds of dinosaurs. Today scientists know about
hundreds of different kinds of dinosaurs. Some, called herbivores, ate
plants, and others, called carnivores, ate meat. The largest dinosaurs
were plant-eaters, like Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus. They were the largest animals to ever walk on dry land.
    Dinosaurs are extinct, which means there are no dinosaurs alive today.  Nobody knows why dinosaurs became extinct. Many people think a great asteroid hit the earth, caused dust to rise up, and blocked out the sun. It could also have been that the climate changed and dinosaurs could not adapt to the new temperatures.
    Scientists have a good idea of what dinosaurs looked like because of the bones that have been found.

herbivore	carnivore
fly	walk on land

---

Use Blooms Taxonomy - to check for comprehension and higher order thinking

	Actions	Questions
Higher Order Thinking	Create Evaluate Analyze	create, conclude, design, judge, justify, measure, recommend, interpret, explain, support, prove, deduct... How is life different today compared to ....? evaluate, combine, compose, construct, design, invent, solve, elaborate, improve, change... What would happen if....? analyze, examine, list, infer, conclude, categorize... What do you know about dinosaurs? What are the features of....?
Lower Order Thinking	Apply Understand Remember	apply, choose, construct, demonstrate, illustrate... How do scientists know what dinosaurs look like? What happened to dinosaurs? compare, contrast, identify, show.... How were dinosaurs different from people? Show the dinosaur that ate plants. who?, what is...?, why?, when, where, which, find, describe, label, spell, list, match, name, tell...

    What do you think about.....?
    What would you do....?

---

Practice Using Communication Systems

• Teacher - use Blooms Taxonomy to question and discuss
• Student - use yes/no and a communication board to answer & discuss
• How many phrases / messages can you create with these words? Make a list.