Hernando+-+Caitlin

**Week 1:**
What struck me about some of these questions (number 2 in particular) is that while the suggestions are helpful, they are idealized. In Hernando County, Speech Therapists are a rare breed and more often than not, do not have the time or resources to provide the kind of instruction some students require within the classroom. Almost all instruction occurs in the SLP's room and not in the student's normal classroom. As a result, we have encouraged many gen ed teachers to adopt some of the techniques the SLPs utilize. This, too, works in theory more than reality. As far as AT is concerned, we have developed trainings this year that will inform select individuals to become AT Contacts for each school, and their job will be to make cursory recommendations of devices or strategies for a student's IEP. We hope this will alleviate some of our teachers' and SLPs' burdens.

Week 2:
====The purpose of the book is to identify the areas of learning in which students with disabilities are most impacted and how to overcome those problems within the gen ed classroom.The book serves as a primer on several low-tech AT solutions and strategies and provide examples for implementing them in an effective way. The desired result is to adopt adaptations that will neither fundamentally change the lesson nor make it less fun.====

Week 4:
The one major challenge of developing a Four-Blocks classroom is the initial setup. Even low-tech solutions require many materials, construction, and time. It's not always easy for teachers and their paraprofessionals to carve out time to work on adapting a room to students' AT needs. The major benefit of the Four-Blocks classroom is working in an environment that includes and engages ALL students at ALL levels of ability and learning. Also, it encourages a sense of equality amongst the students in the entire classroom by establishing a sense of familiarity with AT accommodations.

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Self-Selected reading is essential, not only to ESE students, but to all students, because giving them a choice of reading material teaches them that reading is not only meant for school work, but also for recreation. Finding strategies that facilitate the students' reading time (listening to music, sitting in a bean bag, etc) makes the job even easier. Mini-Lessons provide a little teaching, then a lot of personal experience. A bit of instruction goes a long way to help a student learn independence in their lessons. The mini lessons are shorter, giving students more time to share and ask questions.=====

**Week 6:**
www.wiu.edu/thecenter/articles/adaptlit.html --Tips on how to adapt physical books more independent exploration of reading www.ablenetinc.com --Where to order the Bookworm device, which can be programmed to read chosen books aloud www.riverdeep.net/language_arts/edmark_lang_arts/MakeAStory//MakeAStory.html --Interactive online application to utilize animated stories www.starfall.com --Collection of early reading colorful interactive and multimedia activities http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/index.htm --Clifford-themed online reading materials http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm --Listing of free online e-books organized by development level www.donjohnston.com --Where to purchase Read:OutLoud software to assist a student's independence while reading www.accessiblebookcollection.org --Digital text depository www.bookshare.org --Collection of e-books in various formats (DAISY, Braille, etc.) www.bel-tib-lib.org/kids/lists/type.htm --Listing of childrens' books on CD, DVDs, music, & videos

**Week 7**:
Conferences are essential for teachers to have one-on-one time with their students in order to assess reading interests, reading level, and reading rate. The teacher may choose to record the students' performance of reading aloud so that they can give parents a real example of their child's progress and abilities. Individual conference time can be used to identify the students' comfort level with certain texts and aid in choosing new texts or stories more suited to the students' abilities as they progress. Students with disabilities most benefit from conferences because one-on-one interaction gives the them more time to answer questions without competition from other students who can communicate more quickly. A special needs student might need more time to formulate a response using a computer program or device.