School Year of Core Vocabulary Words: AAC Resources for Month 6 (January) by Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, & Beth Lytle
As we turn the page on the calendar, we’re also thinking ahead to getting back to school after the holiday season. Today, we share the latest post in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words series, guest authored by Michaela Sullivan, Alisa Lego, and Beth Lytle. This series focuses on a selected set of words to highlight for the month along with a suggested order in which to teach them. Therapists and teachers will appreciate the Activity Packets, containing sheets on highlighting these words in a variety of activities, and Data Collection Forms. For January, they’re discussing an important intervention strategy, descriptive teaching.
If you are new to this series, you may want to review the introduction that our series authors created before delving into this month’s target words. You can see the guest authors’ overview here. You can also review the first 5 months of School Year of Core Vocabulary Words using the links at the bottom of this post.
A SCHOOL YEAR OF CORE- INTRODUCTION- January
To the parents, teachers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Paraprofessionals, friends, and other curious professionals or communicators – Welcome back to the monthly School Year of Core Words- January Edition. Happy New Year from our School Year of Core Community! We are excited about all that we have planned for this upcoming year, and all that we learned last year as a team. As we embark on a new calendar year and welcome many new beginnings, we want to take a moment and appreciate all of the work our team has put into this project. We began this project as a team of three and have now expanded to thirty-three core contributor members, all of the collaboration and teamwork has illuminated the importance of communication in all of our lives and we are thankful for the opportunity to share our work with others who can benefit from it. All of the content we have been putting together has reached students, their families, and professionals all across the country, and for this, we are eternally grateful. This school year our team is celebrating connection and building a community around all of our students and with each other! If you’ve ever considered joining us, please do so and become a part of our community of learning and sharing.
Enjoy Month 6 of the School Year of Core Words!
THE WORDS
Level 1 words for January: he/she, is, sleep, come, all gone, can, big, little, this, tell, show, again, fun, you’re welcome, when
The suggested sequence for implementation is listed below:
- Week 1: he/she, is, sleep, come
- Week 2: all gone, can, big, little
- Week 3: this, tell, show, again
- Week 4: fun, you’re welcome, when
Level 2 words for January: own, touch, hit, hold, wave, hurry, light, dark, strong, heavy, middle, between, know, at, surprise, I don’t know
The suggested order for these words is listed below:
- Week 1: own, touch, hit, hold
- Week 2: wave, hurry, light, dark
- Week 3: strong, heavy, middle, between
- Week 4: know, at, surprise, I don’t know
THE SYMBOLS
You can download grids with the symbols for this month’s words from the lists below. These handy tools can help us remember what words to focus on and be useful in our intervention and instruction.
Level 1 Words
- Avaz
- CoughDrop
- LAMP Words for Life
- Wordpower 60 Basic
- Unity 45 Sequenced
- Unity 60 Sequenced
- Unity 84 Sequenced
- Blank Grid (add your own symbols)
Level 2 Words
- Avaz
- CoughDrop
- LAMP Words for Life
- Wordpower 60 Basic
- Unity 45 Sequenced
- Unity 60 Sequenced
- Unity 84 Sequenced
- Blank Grid (add your own symbols)
THE ACTIVITIES
These sets of Activity Packets are divided into weeks and can be downloaded for easy access.
Activity Packets for Level 1 Words
Activity Packets for Level 2 Words
STRATEGY OF THE MONTH: DESCRIPTIVE TEACHING MODEL
The Descriptive Teaching Model is a strategy used by many teachers and therapists to help individuals with complex communication needs, learn to use core vocabulary to describe topic or curricular specific vocabulary or nouns. (Van Tatenhove, 2009). By providing open-ended questions to foster the expression of ideas, individuals can learn to use core vocabulary more flexibly to answer questions by describing words if they do not have the specific vocabulary word programmed on the device. The opposite teaching approach is Referential teaching where posed questions necessitate a specific answer. To provide an example to illustrate the two different approaches, when learning about the word: tide, using a Descriptive Teaching approach, individuals could respond with core words such as: water, go, in, out, up, down, whereas in the referential teaching model, the individual would be required to provide the specific word to answer a question. By focusing on the use of core vocabulary to express the concepts, ideas, and features of the target word, this can build more flexible use of core vocabulary and lead to increased communicative competence.
Please find the following additional resources on the Descriptive Teaching Model. These resources may be helpful for team training.
- Teaching Learners with Special Needs (Descriptive Teaching Model) by Kate Ahern on September 15, 2015
- Descriptive Teaching Model-Video By Language During Mealtimes (Becca Eisenberg). Featured on PrAACtical AAC on October 21, 2020
- From Referential to Descriptive Teaching with AAC Learners; (Video) by Deborah Witkowski, Featured on PrAACtical AAC on April 25, 2018
- Teaching Methods: The Descriptive Teaching Model, (by Saltillo)
- Descriptive Vs Referential Teaching PDF
DATA COLLECTION & ACCOUNTABILITY FORMS
Taking data to measure performance and keeping track of our own modeling behavior are two things we can do to strengthen our AAC teaching. Here are some forms that you can use to support those efforts.
Our Featured Core Contributors for the Month of January include:
- Karen Fahey
- Alice Mui
- Jennifer Yoshimura
- Molly Hartzel
- Sophie Goodwin
- Liz Cambra
- Jessica Oseguera
- Jordan Stuhltrager
- Kelsey Robin
- Abbie Duarte
- Andriana Nikolau
- Shanaz Faisal
- Meaghan Rose Baron
- Beth Kenney
We would like to invite you to join our Core Community to share your ideas with us as we post and share them with others. Our Core Community is all about helping one another by providing monthly resources to help support you and your students. To join our Core Community please email one of us with your ideas and resources and you will be recognized as a featured contributor.
This posting is dedicated to all of you SLP’s, parents, educators, and therapists who are making a difference every day!
About the School Year of Core Vocabulary Series Authors
Michaela Sullivan is an SLP who specializes in the fields of AAC and AT. She currently works within the San Francisco Unified School District on the AAC Support Team where she supervises graduate students, works in a transition program, and on special projects. Ms. Sullivan is also an AAC and AT Team member within the San Mateo Unified School District where she developed an AAC Mentorship program. Ms. Sullivan also has a private practice. She has been a presenter in the field of SLP and AAC at state and national conventions. She serves as a board member and volunteer for the Nika Project, providing services, supports, resources, training, and repurposed equipment for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and internationally.
Alisa Lego is a second-year graduate student and candidate for Master’s of Science in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at San Francisco State University. Alisa is specializing in AAC through San Francisco State University’s federally funded Project Building Bridges. Alisa is also a candidate for the Autism Spectrum Graduate Certificate. Through Project Building Bridges, she has joined the Nika project and is providing resources for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and across the globe. You can follow Alisa on Instagram at @newfriendscollective.
Beth Lytle is a second-year graduate student and candidate for Master’s of Science in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences at San Francisco State University. Beth is specializing in AAC through San Francisco State University’s federally funded Project Building Bridges. Through Project Building Bridges, she has joined the Nika project and is providing resources for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and across the globe.
You can find posts for previous months in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words below.
Filed under: Featured Posts, PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: core vocabulary, school
This post was written by Carole Zangari
3 Comments
Do you have activities for February?
Tracy, look for those during the last week of January.
Have you considered adding Snap + Core First/TD Snap?