Tag Archive: high school

AAC in Secondary School: Using Surveys to Support Language Learning

March 8, 2021 by - 1 Comment

AAC in Secondary School: Using Surveys to Support Language Learning

It’s a great day to explore ways to support AAC use, and today AAC SLP Ashley Larisey joins us with some activity suggestions and lots of implementation tips.  Ashley is an SLP at Community High School District 218 in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She is also an Adjunct Clinical Supervisor and Instructor at Saint Xavier University. This post, part of the AAC in Secondary School series, focuses on the use of language experience surveys with students who are learning to use AAC. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Surveys Surveys can be used within almost any classroom activity to provide students with opportunities to communicate with both familiar and non-familiar listeners. Questions that are used for the survey can be used to gather more information about a topic that guides decision-making. Surveys can be embedded into academic, social, vocational, and community-based instruction. Take a look at some examples of how to use surveys in your classroom... [Read More...]

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AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #32: August 2019

August 11, 2019 by - Leave your thoughts

AAC Posts from PrAACtical Week #32: August 2019

Happy Sunday, AAC friends. If you had a busy week, you may have missed some of the posts below. Monday – How We Do It: Getting to the CORE of Communication (Part 1) Tuesday – AAC Link Up Wednesday – Video of the Week: Making Shared Book Reading Awesome for AAC Users Who Don’t Like Books Thursday – PrAACtically Visual: Supports for When Modeling Communication is Hard :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Here are a few more for those who want to do a little more AAC reading. Back To School with AAC (printables) AAC Goes to High School: The Power of Peers AAC Goes to High School: Community-based Instruction Extension Activities for AAC Practice Making AAC Core Vocabulary Materials

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AAC Goes to High School: The Power of Peers

December 17, 2018 by - 3 Comments

AAC Goes to High School:

We’re so pleased to welcome back Sarah Mueller, who teaches high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Rochester, Michigan. In this post, she shares her experiences in working with peer mentors and how she has helped to facilitate meaningful relationships between students with and without disabilities. Don’t miss her video or the links to download some of the materials they used. Enjoy!     The Power of Peers We often talk about the functions of communication and their importance in developing and expanding the students’ communicative repertoire. Moving beyond requesting to protesting, commenting, and greeting and other functions is often the focus. But as high schoolers included in the school community, my students want to be social with their peers without disabilities. What does that look like for students with complex communication needs? How, as a teacher, can you structure social opportunities to teach and practice core? What... [Read More...]

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AAC Goes to High School: Community-based Instruction

December 10, 2018 by - 3 Comments

AAC Goes to High School: Community-based Instruction

We’re so glad to share the work of Sarah Mueller, a special education teacher in Rochester, Michigan, who returns to talk about AAC with older students. Sarah teaches high school and works with many students who have developmental disabilities. She strives to embed language and communication throughout her students’ entire school experience and help them become strong self-advocates as they prepare for adult life. In this post, Sarah talks about supporting AAC learners who are working with AAC systems rich in core vocabulary as they prepare for their weekly trips into the community. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Core in the Community Core vocabulary is often embedded in the typical instructional tasks of the school day: communication exchanges, calendar time, literacy, etc. Like most high school teachers for students with intellectual disabilities, community-based instruction (CBI) is a component of my classroom program.  My classroom becomes the community every single week! It is yet another setting where I... [Read More...]

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AAC in the High School Classroom: Where Core Vocabulary Meets Life Skills

June 1, 2017 by - 20 Comments

AAC in the High School Classroom: Where Core Vocabulary Meets Life Skills

Today, guest blogger Sarah Mueller, a special education teacher in Rochester Michigan,  shares her thoughts on supporting core vocabulary learning while working on functional life skills. Sarah teaches high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and strives to embed language and communication throughout her students’ entire school experience. Sarah helps her students become strong self-advocates as they prepare for adult life. Marlene Cummings, Sarah’s colleague and mentor, introduces the post. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::           I (Marlene Cummings) had the pleasure of meeting Sarah 2 years ago as a new teacher in one of my districts. She immediately engaged in our county level professional learning opportunities in AAC and Literacy. The AAC focus presented strategies to support AAC and language learning including: core vocabulary, aided language input, vocabulary instruction and opportunities. The literacy focus was designed to create and implement a comprehensive literacy program taught by Drs. Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver. The outcome:... [Read More...]

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