Learning while Teaching

Learning to Read Faces: A Sorting Task

Everyday, typically developing students and adults absorb and interpret thousands of pieces of data. Students in special education classes absorb these data too, but oftentimes have a great deal of difficulty interpreting their meaning. This, in turn, makes daily communication a chore for most students. Furthermore, not knowing how to interpret the data received often leads to awkward and/or embarassing social moments.

Students in my resource room, perhaps especially noticeable in students with and ASD, have deficits in communication, play, social skills and relating to others (Rao & Gagie, 2006 membership to Council for Exceptional Children may be required to access full text). A significant portion of my time is spent in developing ways to help these children communicate their needs, their feelings, their wants, their frustrations, and, in some cases, just to say something as fundamental as the ABCs or 123s. 

In response to the need to generalize an understanding of facial expressions among my students, I developed this sorting task. Originally, this task had four categories the student would sort, but in this latest iteration I chose to excise the 'shy' category given that it was too obscure. Then we went with only three categories: sad, happy, and angry as shown below. 

These three categories are at the top of the board and a line separates them. Down the columns, as you can see, are pieces of Velcro. The students attach pictures of faces to these. In the next picture, you see the faces. These faces have been cut from old magazines, shaped, and laminated in order to preserve them for many uses (we also have a bunch of extras we keep separate).

In the original design of this task, the faces were all cut to the same shape. What I found is that this was just a bit confusing at times and offered little in the way of self-correcting strategies. In this revised version of the task, we cut the faces into one of three shapes: triangle, circle, or square. These three shapes then correspond to one of the three emotional categories: sad, happy, angry. 

    

This is a very simple sorting task and costs virtually nothing to create. Any piece of cardboard will do; any face from a magazine or google search will do; and you can decide which categories you wish to use. Sometimes it is difficult to find more categories and the pictures can oftentimes be rather difficult for the students to interpret--due to their subtle nature. I work with elementary students so these three categories are easiest to find and the easiest with which to work. 

When the student is finished working with the task, simply fold it up and put it away! I use this task to help students learn the subtleties of facial expression and the varieties of ways people show happiness or anger or sadness. But I also hope that the students will learn to generalize these categories--so I'm kind of working backwards in a sense. 

It also seems important that the pictures we use are in a rotation too. So I have another bag of faces and we are always in the process of looking through magazines for more. Again, ask your librarian for magazines that are about to become garbage. It keeps them out of the landfill and they are useful for creating wonderful games. 

This is a very simple task to create, you get to recycle, and it is flexible enough that the categories can be altered or adjusted for age appropriateness.  Let me know what you think or what sort of alterations you make to improve this idea. Thanks. 

Edit: I came across an article at Psychology Today written by Lynne Soraya called Empathy, Mindblindedness, and Theogy of Mind that I found very helpful and pertinent to this blog post. From her conclusion:

In her article "Who cares? Or: The Truth about Empathy in Individuals of the Autism Spectrum," researcher Isabel Dziobek outlines her study on the subject of empathy.  Through the course of the study, more than 50 subjects on the spectrum were evaluated against neurotypical control subjects.  The results? To quote Ms. Dziobek - "More generally speaking, our data shows that people with Asperger syndrome have a reduced ability to read other peoples' social cues (such as facial expressions orbody language) but once aware of another's circumstances or feelings, they will have the same degree of compassion as anyone else."

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Recycling Play-Doh Canisters: Ordering Sizes, Matching Colors, & Sequencing Tasks

Not many of the tasks I post about here happen due to careful, calculated efforts on my part. Sometimes I am simply riffing from another idea I see. Sometimes it is out of sheer necessity. Sometimes it is pure luck. Such is the case with this task: it was pure luck that I happened to have in my classroom, stuck in the closet, three different sizes of Play-Doh canisters awaiting purpose. And a game is born. 

The canisters happened to be empty because, as it is in life, Play-Doh when played with enough is eventually left out or falls on the floor or is eaten by hungry students and thus an empty container is born. Luckily for my students, I never throw anything away that has a lid. Everything is useful. (Seriously, the smallest containers have been in my classroom since January 2012. I'm not even sure we used the fake-doh that was in the canister because my paraprofessional would not permit it. She said, "It's fake!")

So gather the Play-Doh containers, grab an empty shoe box, and sort through your box of random or leftover manipulatives and, Voila!, a sorting, ordering, sequencing task is born. 

For the most part the lid colors are the same. Only the smallest green lid differs from the two larger green canisters. There was no intent here; just what was available. I will probably rectify this at some point in the future--and if you want to use this task, you should probably just build it correctly to begin with--but for now, it is sufficient. 

You can see that the three canisters in each column are of three distinct sizes. There are also four distinct colors. You can use any colors you like, but I chose simple colors for the purpose of this task for a specific reason: there are objects inside the canisters that match the canister lids. 

Notice also that the sizes of the objects are also relative: small, medium, and large. These objects fit inside the small, medium, and large Play-Doh canisters according to color. Really, this task is about as simple as it gets. 

Below is the jumbled mess. You can start the task here by asking the students to sort the objects by size, by matching the manipulatives to the correct canister size, or matching by color. Frankly, you can have students work this task any way you like. That's what is fun about it. (I start with all the lids off the containers too just to make the mess in the box look even worse.) Differentiate the task by including less objects and/or less containers. Some students may need only one size; some may need only one color; others may need only one set of objects. Really, it's up to you. 

At the end, all the pieces fit nicely into an empty shoe box for safe and convenient storage. You may want more uniformity in your choice of objects that go inside the Play-Doh canisters. That's fine. Honestly, I should probably be more concerned about it, but again, for now, it works just the same. 

This task came together in a matter of about 10 minutes or so. It was easy to build and it will be a nice addition to our classroom curriculum. And not only that, but we have saved space in our local landfill by keeping 12 empty Play-Doh cans and a shoebox out of it. 

I would categorize this as a math task; however, we are also working with fine motor skills too. It is a chore for the students to remove and put the lids on the Play-Doh containers so they will have to work at it. I also use tasks like this for measuring what I call 'time on task.' That is, it's a long task that I want the student to work at for more than 5 minutes. 

So enjoy the task. Let me know about your use and variations on the task. I'm always happy to hear from readers. 

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Recycle, Reuse: Country Time Lemonade Containers & Film Containers

I have a book called Tasks Galore and the task I will share in this post is, to be sure, a riff on a task found in that book. Credit where credit is due and all that. I have modified my taks and made it a little sturdier and, as always, I have used recycled materials to accomplish my task. 

The task is a simple sequencing or sorting task--it just depends upon what you want to accomplish with your students. It is flexible and can easily be modified to suit your needs. Here is a picture of the completed task.

The materials you will need are as follows:

1. One shoebox

2. Three Countrytime Lemonade containers (minimum)

3. At least six empty film containers w/lids

4. Six plastic counting bears (or other manipulatives of your choice. I used six because that is the six basic colors available.)

5. A few brass fasteners; rubber cement; tape.

Step one is to wrap the plastic film canisters in colorful paper that matches the color of the manipulatives you have chosen. That's why I use the counting bears. There are six basic colors which makes choosing colors easy. 

Next, you will want to secure the lids of the lemonade canisters to the lid of the shoebox. I turn the lids upside down and using the rubber cement to secure them to the shoebox. While they are securing, I punch a hole in the center and addd another layer of security by pushing a brass fastener through. Now, I push the brass fastener from the top of the shoebox so that the part that gets folded down is actually inside the lemonade lid. Note: only fasten two of the lids to the shoebox lid. The third lemonade lid will remain loose so it can be screwed back on top of the lemonade containter where you will store all of your manipulatives when the task is not in use. 

In the above picture you can see the fasteners attached to the outside of the lid. At this point, your project should look like the picture below.

The third step is to wrap the larger part of the lemonade container with a picture of a 'stop' sign. It's not terribly difficult. You can see the sample in the first picture. This will alert the students to the fact that 'this is where the task ends.' You can use different words besides 'stop'. 

That's about it as far as assembly is concerned. When it's all assembled, you can store all manipulatives and parts inside the shoebox. In the picture below you can see how everything fits nicely inside the shoebox for easy storage. (You can also see the brass fasteners. For an extra layer of protection, I cover the fasteners with tape.)

The final step, then, is simply to open up the task and let the students get busy working. What I like about this task is that it is easily manipulated to form other sorting or sequencing tasks. Here is how the task is set up:

 You can't see them very well, but in the third lid is the smaller lids for the film canisters. The task follows three steps:

1. Choose a colorful canister.

2. Choose a matching colorful bear.

3. Put the bear inside the film canister.

4. Put the smaller lid on the canister.

5. Place the canister inside the 'stop' container. 

It's a simple task that I use with my students who have autism or other developmental disabilities. And again, you can alter the task to suit your needs: create less steps; create more steps; change colors; etc. 

This is a fun task for students and it also manages to find a way to recycle stuff that might otherwise end up in a local landfill. 

Thanks to Tasks Galore for the inspiration. Enjoy the task. If you use it and make modifications, please let me know what they are so I can incoporate them into my own version of the task. 

Recycle, Reuse: Empty Bean Cans

I have a friend who was married over this past summer and who hosted her own reception after the honeymoon. At the reception, she must have had some massive dish involving green beans (blech!) because she saved the giant empty cans for me, 5 in all. She cleaned them and brought them to school for me. I love these cans!

That's a lot of green beans!

Well, as it turns out she asked me if I thought the cans would be useful in my classroom. I immediately said, 'Yes!' and about  a month ago we found a use for them. I designed a very simple game that the students absolutely love playing. Seriously took about 5 minutes to invent this game. Here's how we play it.

First, I set the cans up in some sort of configuration on the floor. I make sure there is a wall behind them. Next, we draw a line on the floor with tape and the students have to line up behind the tape. Third, we grab a ball: ping-pong and tennis balls work best because they are small and bounce and cause small damage if they bounce too hard and far. 

Next, inside the cans I place simple things: numbers, pictures of various coin collections, sight-words, addition/subtraction problems, etc. For example, the next picture shows some simple double digit numbers flashcards I downloaded for free from HaveFunTeaching.com. (I think they were skip counting flashcards.) The cards were then cut and laminated. I place the cards in the cans and the game is ready to begin. 

We keep score by making a simple score chart on the Smartboard and placing each student's name in the graph. Using the double-digit numbers example, when a student correctly reads the double-digit (say, '22' for example) they receive the amount of points they just read. So, if they read '22', they get 22 points. On their next round, the values are added together. In this case, 22+10=32 and so on and so forth. We keep score and whoever has the most points at the end gets a prize from the prize box or a pat on the head. 

So, the student stands beh iind the line, softly tosses or bounces the ball towards the cans, the ball will either land in a can, in which case we take the card out and they read it, or the ball misses, in which case the student retreats to the end of the line until their next turn. 

You can play as many rounds as you like. I have found this to be an especially fun game when we have 15 or 20 minutes of 'nothing to do.' It is easy to set up and is so flexible. Like I noted above, you can use sight words, number cards, addition/subtraction flash cards, multiplication cards, or whatever. Coin collection cards are fun too because then the students have to add the various amounts of cards and they get that much 'money' for their score. 

Safety note: please make sure when you open the cans that you use a safety opener that will eliminate any sharp edges from the tin. I don't let the kids near the cans anyhow, but this is an important safety tip so as to prevent injury to yourself and, most importantly, the students. 

I hope this little game is helpful to you and that you will find a use for more stuff that might otherwise end up in a landfill. 

Cereal boxes, breakfast bars, etc: Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle, pt 3

I love when I come across a new resource that really opens my eyes to new possibilities and my mind is stimulated to greater heights of creativity. Such was the case when I was sitting next to a stranger this past summer at a professional development seminar. She happened to be carrying around with her a copy of a book called Tasks Galore. This is a book I highly recommend not only to intervention specialists, but to teachers in general. The book is chock full of creative, hands-on, manipulative based ideas and modified curriculum tasks. Better, most of the taks and projects in the book involve re-purposing and recycling stuff that might otherwise be wasted.

For this post, I have simply expanded on an idea (found on page 51 of the book) the authors called "Seven-piece jigsaw of familiar item." The authors simply took the front of a cereal box, jig-saw cut it (rounded pieces, etc.) and made a puzzle. I like the idea, but I also thought it needed some expansion. (One of the great things about the book is that it shows a picture of a task and its use is left open to interpretation.)

I have kept the basic idea of cutting up the front of a box--in this case, cereal, breakfast bars, or even the lamination product I use--and building a puzzle. The only real difference is that I prefer to cut my boxes into geometic shapes--triangles, trapezoids, etc.--instead of jigsaw shapes. Here is an example:

Now, here is where I am going to build upon the general idea found in Tasks Galore. As important as seeing the parts of the whole and putting the whole back together is, I also want this project to be a little more useful for my older and more advanced students. So, I want them to be able to read and write about what they have just finished. Thus I developed a short paper for the students to work on after the puzzle has been completed. I have attached a file to this bog post that you can use or you can use it as a template for your own writing project. (You can find the link below.)

The puzzles can be as simple or as complex as you like them to be. When I'm using a smaller box, I tend to make the puzzle simpler. When I'm using a larger box-front I make the puzzle more complex.

I am grateful for Tasks Galore for the idea-- because it is a great idea and I will be using this as a writing task for my students. As you can tell, this also serves a vital functional task as the students are learning about products they may need one day in their life. (I included a question on the question sheet that requires the student to use the internet in order to discover the price of the product.)  I believe the only limit to this game is the amount of box-fronts you can collect, cut, and laminate. Yes, even though the box-front is typically cardboard, it is still likely to be destroyed quickly. I go ahead and laminate the pieces so that I can get more than one use out of the puzzle.

It is also serving the function of strengthening your student's fine motor skills--occupational therapy which many of our special education students participate in daily.

As you can see this is yet another way to re-purpose things that might otherwise just be discarded into a landfill. Cardboard is highly recyclable and when the laminate is added, it lasts even longer.

You can use this link Tasks Galore to access the Tasks Galore Task of the Month. You can download the question sheet here: Download Box fronts writing.

Feel free to share your ideas about the writing project that goes along with this task. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I Love Old Shoe-Boxes: Recyle, Reuse, pt 2

I am a special education teacher. It's a calling I heard late in life so I am only now, at the age of 43, learning the joys of creating curriculum and finding ways to recycle stuff that others think is junk. I love what I do: I get the educate those who have the most powerful and fragile minds all in the same body.

This means I have to be creative and energetic. I have to think as I have never thought before; quickly and while on the move. There is no time for the special education teacher to sit in his chair behind his desk. (Frankly, there's not much time for any teacher to do so, but that's another post entirely.) Worse, now that the so-called Affordable Health Care Act is beginning to affect even schools, teachers are going to be faced with less help from aids, paraprofessionals, and others in the school building. We are going to have to be creative and we are going to have to find ways to use, reuse, and recycle stuff.

So I had an old shoebox. And last year someone gave me a giant bag full of brand-new, empty, unlabeled prescription pill bottles. I knew I could use them for something, but what? Then it came to me about a week and a half ago. Below you will find several pictures of the new creation I have built for ordering numbers and also developing fine and gross motor skills for students with developmental disabilities.

My first incarnation of this game involved the use of a $6 fishing tackle box from the local Wal Mart. The box is about 1.5 to 2 inches deep and the dividers are easily moved to accomdate different configurations and/or amounts of pill containers.

I thought the number 24 would be a bit random, so I stopped at the number 20 (you can still use the other four spaces or simply remove the dividers to create a definitive stopping place). This easily fits into the domain: mathematics: operations and algebraic thinking; counting and cardinality (common core/extended standards) in the K-2 grade band.

The numbers I got at a yard sale a long time ago, the pill bottles were free, and the tackle box cost $6. But I was not entirely satisfied. This version of the task does require some fine-motor skills, believe me it is not as easy as it looks to get those bottles standing straight or putting in more bottles without knocking others over, but I was hopeful to do more with it. So I developed the next version of the task.

In this version, I have used an old shoe-box as a container for the pill bottles. The next picture gives a better idea:

Using my X-acto knife, I carefully cut 20 holes in the lid of the shoe-box--just a little smaller than the diameter of the pill bottles. This intentionally limits the task to twenty numbers. The difference here is that students will have to exert effort in order for the pill bottles to fit into the holes. Furthermore, the shoe-box was deep enough for the pill bottles to fit all the way to the bottom. You can see this in the picture below.

This is a simple task at some levels. And, to be sure, after a while the holes will have to be re-cut in another shoe-box or reinforced in some way or other. Furthermore, after a while the students may well memorize the order of the numbers--GOOD!--and the job/task may become a little dated. Still, we can always use this job for skip counting, filling in the missing number, or we can add new numbers for higher counting. The best part, though, might be that we have done a small part to keep usable resources out of the local landfills.

I have field-tested this task and it works well with students who have an ASD.

PS--one other alternative use for this task is that the lids could be removed and the student could be asked to put into the containers the amount of objects to match the number on top. One could use small objects like paper clips or even Skittles.

Building Curriculum: Recycle, Reuse

Building Tasks: Recycling Old Stuff

Without doubt, one of the best aspects of being a teacher is that we get to make tasks (or games, or jobs, or modified curriculum). I love making up ways for my students to learn how to tell time without them having to actually stare at a clock (for example). Modifying curriculum is a way for teachers to express creativity, differentiate learning strategies, and encourage students to become lifelong learners.

Some of my best friends are my small, portable laminator, Velcro, and file folders. And I go through a lot of it. In this first post I would like to share with you a fun project I built this past week that is designed to be both a recycled project and a hands-on (if not occupationally therapeutic) for the students in my class.

The supplies needed are few: at least 6 (six) empty Lays Stax cans; one shoebox; as many different colors of construction paper as you have Stax cans; tape (shipping tape works best because it is wider); and another large section of colorful paper or tacky paper to cover the shoe box. (*You can use Pringles cans if you like. I prefer the Stax cans because they are plastic and, thus, more durable. They are also easier to clean.) Below is a picture.

The steps to creation are even simpler.

    1. Cut as many holes in the shoe box as Stax cans you will use.

    2. Cover the shoe box with tacky paper or construction paper. It really doesn't matter if the entire box is covered or not.

    3. Cover the Stax cans (after cleaning them) on the outside with a variety of colors of construction paper. For my model, I have chosen six basic colors.

    4. After the Stax cans are covered, simply insert them into the holes in the shoe box.

Voila! The project is finished. It took me between 30 and 45 minutes from start to finish. The best part is the I was able to keep six Stax cans and a shoe box out of a local landfill. It does not sound like much, but it is a start.

What can you do with this contraption? Well, you can use it for sorting: sort colors for starters. Use small colored blocks or counting bears. You can cut shapes in the lids and have the students sort shapes. You can put numbers on the lids and have the students place that amount of objects in the cans. You could pre-fill the canisters with objects and have the students remove the lids and count the objects. On another day, you could remove the lids and have the students toss ping pong balls into the canisters and earn points which they will have to add together.

This is a simply task that has as many applications as you can imagine. I have purposely left my first iteration of this project open so as not to limit what I can do with it. Stax cans are simple wonderful. I have also created a game I call "Subtraction Bowling" using Stax cans. That is always a great day in class. Good luck.