Pasco+-+Melissa+M.

**Week 1**  I found all the Q & A questions reflective. The last question about making the vowels red on the word wall was interesting. Many classrooms that I visit have different colors of paper, different color words and different colors within a word included on the Word Wall. It is interesting to read that highlighting will draw the students focus away from the spelling of the whole word. So many of our classrooms have software that adds the picture to text. I was surprised to read the picture draws the students attention away from the text. I love the two questions on having the SLP and OT involved in the Writing Block. Having the collaboration between the related services increase the likelyhood of generalizing the skills across settings. The authors purpose for writing this book is to provide support for all teachers in addressing the needs of students with disabilities in providing a comprehensive approach in addressing literacy instruction. The authors consider six general areas where children with disabilities often different form their peers. The areas are communication, cognition, physical abilities senses, affect and attention. The authors also discuss that technology now makes it possible for students with disabilities to participate and succeed in reading and writing curriculums in the general education classroom. The final sentence on page 12 sums up the purpose.... to help teachers accomplish the goal is teaching all children to read and write.  BIGmack Timer Electronic Book Mouse House Talking word processor Color-coded Word Wall Eyegaze frame Raised line paper Step-by-Step communication device Word prediction software
 * Week 2 ** 
 * Week 3 **

Benefit: additional adult support, collaboration with therapists, each activity is personalized for each student
 * Week 4 ** 

Challenges: limited technology (computers), no typical peer models, time to develop, organize and instruct multiple students with significant disabilities ** Week 5 **  Mini-Lessons allow for teachers to assist the students with disabilities how to find a book of interest and use strategies and technology to read and share more independently. This process is important for children with disabilities because it helps build fluency and a love for reading.

Selecting - model reading from a random page in a book for interest and ease before choosing to read.

Reading - reading aloud to students who struggle so that they can experience what good reading feels like.

Sharing - model how to use cue cards with key works, pictures, or symbols to remember or organize what students want to say about a particular book. **Week 6**  1. www.ablenetinc.com - Can be used to order a BookWorm. This is a useful tool for integrating children with severe disabilities into partner reading experiences. 2. www.riverdeep.net - Gives access to some electronic texts that are interactive, providing children the option of animating illustrations. 3. www.starfall.com - Provides interactive texts on multiple levels. 4. www.donjohnston.com - Sells Read:Outloud software. The software allows for websites to be read aloud as the text is highlighted. 5. www.bookshare.com - Nonprofit organization offering thousands of digital texts and began as a collection for adults with disabilities and now continues to add digital texts from a wide variety of sources. 6. www.accessiblebookcollection.org - Has hundreds of titles and continues to grow exclusively as a children's book collection. 7. kspope.com - provides links to other services offering accessible texts. 8. www.softtouch.com - Can be used to create a variety of supports for independent reading by children who struggle. This software consists of a set of integrated tools to help teachers easily create electronic books on the computer that are displayed in bookshelves that offer easy selection for students. 9. www.hyperstudio.com - Gives teachers the ability to create their own text, import images, record accompanying read-alouds and integrate sound and movie files. 10. www.bel-tib-lib.org - Provides links to more than 100 children's books on CD and more than a thousand children's books on tape. Conferencing during self-selected reading is important for students with disabilities because it enables teachers to help students find books that fit both their interests and abilities. Additional benefits include assisting teachers in:
 * Week 7 ** 
 * discovering what makes a book a favorite and then the teacher can expand the repertoire
 * helping students explore technology-supported reading
 * gathering informal assessment data

The following strategies can be used with students before reading text: Building and accessing prior knowledge can be done by asking the students to brainstorm what they know about the core concepts. Making connection to personal experience can be used by asking parents to send in photographs or other materials that represent their children's experience. Use of a graphic organizer before reading allows students to understand how they might organize the understandings they develop while reading. Taking a picture walk of the book before reading allows the students to preview the core concepts. Coral Reading is when all the children read the text at the same time. This helps children who can read most of the text and works best with short text, refrains, etc. Echo Reading is when the teacher reads the line an the child reads the line back. This works best when the text has short sentences and uses different voices. Shared Reading is when the teacher and children share in reading the book. The teacher gradually gives the children more control over the reading. Partner Reading when a child is paired with an adult or supportive partner who negotiate the reading task/
 * Week 8 **
 * Week 9 **

After Reading Strategies K-W-L Chart assists students with accessing prior knowledge, make predictions and discuss what they have learned from the reading. When discussing the text it is important to keep the group focused on the text. Acting out the story supports comprehension of a story. Graphic Organizer are visual representations of information. Emergent Writing is the earliest stage of writing. Teachers may use pictures to prompt student writing. The "Write" Stuff is when the team investigates adaptations that can be used for writing. This may include a label maker, stamps or software. Simple Adaptations are items that can be used for students that may have motor difficulties or for students that do not want to write. The adaptations may include a pencil grip, portable chalkboard. Writing. Revising/Editing, and Publishing is a way to have students get repetition with their writing tools across texts and tasks. Writing for Real Reasons provides an audience to hear the writing. This allows for immediate feedback to the writer.
 * Week 10 **
 * Week 11 **


 * Week 12 **


 * Week 13 **