Context clues activities are hard to select because we don't know exactly which words are familiar or partially familiar to the student. Nonsense word context clues eliminate the confounding variable of prior word knowledge or exposure and allow my students to focus exclusively on using their pre-taught context clue skill.
Category: Receptive Language
Adolescent Grammar & Sentence Structure
Grammar & Sentence Structures Difficulties in Middle & High School I've noticed a trend when it comes to working on grammar and sentence structure with middle and high school speech & language therapy students. My students often look like they have "mastered" their various IEP speech/language goals: subject-verb agreement, copula use, & even complex sentences. … Continue reading Adolescent Grammar & Sentence Structure
An Active, More Hands-On Approach to Main Idea
By the time my speech therapy students are in older grades, it can be difficult to change their perspective on reading. They will say they hate reading, that it is "boring", and that they are not successful at it. Consequently, I find that working on skills like identifying main idea or summarizing to be a … Continue reading An Active, More Hands-On Approach to Main Idea
Just Say No to Multiple Choice Worksheets
We've all been there. It's a busy week with IEPs and evaluation/re-evaluations galore. The paperwork is overflowing, you're feeling sick, and you reach for the pre-printed worksheet. Maybe it's one on context clues or complex sentences or prefixes or root words. Maybe it's an article where they have to answer questions about main idea and … Continue reading Just Say No to Multiple Choice Worksheets