Using Edmodo in the S/L Classroom

I found out about a website called Edmodo towards the end of last school year.  I thought it sounded cool, but didn't really know how I could incorporate it into my SL classroom.  I registered for it and then just started playing with it for awhile.  For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is basically like a Facebook for educational purposes.  It's a very safe environment as kids cannot look each other up or write on other kids' walls.  

At the beginning of this school year I added all my kids to my Edmodo class and gave them the opportunity to change their profile picture (there are images to choose from) and write a little bit about themselves.  They were all very excited to create these profiles!

I then started creating pre & post tests and other quizzes on there to get baselines for the kids.  Creating them is super easy as you can choose Multiple Choice or True/False format.  You create the questions and provide the possible answer choices.  So far I have created quizzes for Vocabulary, Story Comprehension, Irregular Verbs/Plurals, Articulation Placement, etc.  Once you create the quiz you can choose a due date and assign it to any group(s) you want.  You can also have the grades automatically added to your Edmodo grade book after the kids take it!




It's a really neat idea because my kids actually beg to take quizzes on Edmodo!! 

In addition to completing quizzes, the kids can also write on the group wall or my wall.  Sometimes we have 5 or 10 minutes left of a session so they log onto Edmodo and answer my prompt which may be "Tell me 2 things you learned today" or "What was your favorite thing you learned this week?"  This is good feedback for me as I can reflect on my lessons and figure out what things went well and what things I need to change or spend more time on.  As an extra step with answering question prompts, I always stress the need for basic writing mechanics (capital letters, periods, etc.).  


Is anyone else using Edmodo in their SL classroom? What do you use it for?

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Narrative Baselines

Before beginning my book units, I administered some informal assessments to determine my students' current narrative and expository language abilities. I did the same exact assessment discussed in the Story Grammar Marker and the Data Collection and Progress Monitoring manuals from Mindwing Concepts Inc.  

I was kind of anxious to begin but once I got into it I really flew through them and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!  I used the book Big Al by Andrew Clements for my retelling portion of my assessment. 

This is the example they use in the SGM manual so it was nice to already have the Complete Episode mapped for me. Plus they give tons of examples of kids at different stages/levels using that book so it was very helpful for my first time doing this assessment!  

To obtain the retelling sample, I first recorded myself reading the story on my iPad so I didn't have to reread it with each student.  I just met with the student one-on-one and played the recording while showing the pictures as if I was reading it.  After reading the entire story (took about 3.5 minutes), I asked the student a series of factual and inferential comprehension questions (found in the SGM manual) and then had the student retell the story back to me.  I recorded their retelling on my iPad for later transcription and analysis.  This entire process took about 10-15 minutes per student.  After completing all of the retellings, I transcribed every sample.  This was the time consuming part but honestly it didn't take as long as I thought and it was so worth it because I learned so much about my students and their narrative language skills! Examples of transcriptions are also in the Data Collection manual.  When I was done transcribing, I labeled each sentence/utterance with the story grammar element it corresponded to (Character, Setting, Kick Off, Feelings, Plan, Actions/Attempts, Tie Up, Resolution).  I labeled it by adding a Comment box on Microsoft Word program.  

Here are 2 examples of my transcriptions with Comments:

Oral Retelling Sample 1 (Action Sequence Level)

Oral Retelling Sample 2 (Abbreviated Episode Stage)


In addition to the story retelling, I also wanted a story formulation sample.  This is not 100% necessary but I found it to be useful when a student was between developmental narrative stages.  I found a picture from the Test of Narrative Language on Google Images and just projected that onto the SmartBoard.  

I told the student to make up a story that goes along with this picture. I reminded them that stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  I said to tell me the best story they can that goes with that picture.  As I said, it isn't required to do both the retelling AND story formulation but when I was going back and forth between stages for a particular student, I just looked at their story formulation sample and it usually helped my decision. 

The last thing I did was an expository sample.  Examples of this type of assessment is also in the Data Collection and Progress Monitoring manual.  This one was super quick.  I picked out a short paragraph that corresponded to one of the 7 expository text structures (Descriptive, Compare/Contrast, List, Sequence, Cause/Effect, Problem/Solution, and Persuade) depending on their grade level.  My third graders listened to me read a Cause/Effect paragraph, while my 4th and 5th graders listened to me read a Problem/Solution paragraph.  Example paragraphs are in the Core of the Core manual by Mindwing Concepts.  After I read the short paragraph, I had them retell it back to me.  I recorded their retellings for this too.  I was basically checking to see if they were able to identify the author's purpose and tell it back in a format that reflected that purpose.  The Data Collection manual really explains the purpose of expository assessment and why it's so important.

After all 3 of these assessments were completed, I was able to record all of the data on the forms provided in the Data Collection manual and put them in each students' Assessment File.  I have a manila folder labeled "Student's Name Assessment File" in each students IEP hanging file in my file cabinet.  This is where I keep the informal assessments I administer through out the year.  

I make sure to have a little conference with each student to discuss their results so they know exactly where they are in terms of their narrative development.  These results are what goes up on my Data Wall.  Each student has an individual number which goes on a little post-it note then onto the Data Wall. 

All of the students' IEP goals are based off of the results of the narrative/expository assessments.  This is also what drives the objectives of my therapy sessions.  Tons of example IEP goals are listed in the Data Collection manual.  I will do a separate post about IEP goals and Present Levels related to the SGM program.

Hope this makes some sense!

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C'mon C'mon Performance

After about 10 minutes of technical difficulties with our music, they finally got to perform the routine!

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The S/L Curriculum Gets a Makeover!

As expected, I have already changed my curriculum!

Grab it here. 

The first page is the curriculum map itself and the second page is a list of possible activities to do within each book unit.  I put the activities in the order in which I would do them.

I decided I didn't want to teach narrative and expository separately.  I realized it would be much more beneficial to teach them together within a single thematic unit.  So I basically rearranged the curriculum to reflect book units that encompass a wide variety of things all based off of a fictional story.  Each book unit has both the narrative AND expository piece.  For example, if I read the book Jumanji as my fictional story, I might read non-fiction books about snakes or monkeys or jungles to keep with the theme.

I already completed my Narrative Baselines which told me where all of my students were with regard to their narrative development.  This will be explained in a future post.  Here are some pictures of my data wall to give you an idea of the results I obtained:

Each student has a number

I also did my SGM introduction and practice. We practiced our icon identification (character, setting, kick off etc.) with the books Amelia Bedelia and The Giving Tree.  The kids now know the symbols on the yarn tools and are ready for the book units! I wanted to make sure they had sufficient practice with the symbols so it didn't interfere with the story having to teach it all at that particular moment.  Future post on this topic as well.

Hope everyone had a great first day back! :)

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Christmas Kickline Routine

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas :)

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More Classroom Pics!

Here are some new pics of updates in my classroom!

New netbooks and desks!

Color coded stations

Completed SGM Station! Narrative text structure on left, expository text structure on right

Narrative & Expository Maps and Materials

Story Grammar Marker tools

Data Wall

(stages of narrative development)

Book units display by grade

My room finally feels complete! :)

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S/L Goal Rings

So I came across this post on Pinterest about how this teacher uses Strategy Rings in her classroom. I thought it would be cool to put a different spin on it and use it in the speech and language classroom! 

Hers looked like this:

Mine look like this:

Each of my students have a key ring that they take off the wall every time they come into therapy.  I tell them which of their goals to flip to and they set it out in front of them. This way they know that they're working on and I remember what goal each student is working on that day!  Each goal is color coded; lime green=phonology, orange=pragmatics, blue=semantics, yellow=syntax/morphology, and pink=discourse. The students know these primary areas of language.  Please see my previous post on how I give the lessons on the Six Strands of Language at the beginning of the school year.

Grab the 'Today I am Working On' template here.  I just printed them on colored paper, laminated them, then wrote the goals on with dry erase marker.

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