Site of the Month: Core Word Classroom

Looking for materials that you can use to support AAC in educational settings? AssistiveWare’s newest venture, The Core Word Classroom, may be just what you are looking for.  While the materials align with their AAC app Proloquo2Go, the concepts, activity ideas, and planning tools have broad applicability. Jennifer Marden and Amanda Hartmann, who created most of the content for this new venture, introduce us to the site.

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The AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom is a resource for anyone who is implementing a core word-based AAC system. The materials focus on teaching using core words, as well as expanding communication beyond requesting to all the reasons we communicate, and helping AAC users use the full grammatical possibilities of language. The classroom materials are built around a framework called the 3W’s:

•   WORDS – the core words that could be used for an activity
•   WHYS – the many different reasons why we communicate (e.g. Needs & Wants, Giving & Getting information, Social Interaction)
•   WAYS – the ways we combine words and add inflections to create grammatical sentences

The AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom provides five main kinds of resources which support the use of modeling to teach the 3W’s:

•   Core Word Planners: Each Core Word Planner helps teams teach and model the 3W’s in an everyday routine or activity. The planner suggests words, whys, and ways for the activity, along with extension activities and literacy teaching ideas.
•   Core Word Modeling Guides: One page printable guides for modeling the 3W’s in an everyday routine or activity to match the language levels of a range of students.
•   Core Word of the Week Planners: These planners support teaching and modeling a specific core word throughout the day, across all activities. Extension suggestions and literacy teaching ideas are included.
•   Core Word of the Week Display: Printable, easy-to-read displays of a single core word, its location on a standard Proloquo2Go home page, and examples of how to model the word for a variety of Whys and Ways.
•   Core Word 5 Minute Fillers: One page quick reference sheets for leisure activities to help make the most of every opportunity and model core words on the fly.

The AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom also has a variety of modeling videos, references and resource lists, light tech communication displays, and other material to help teams implement the 3W’s. While most of the materials are focused on school teams, many can also be used at home. The AssistiveWare Training and Implementation team will be adding more materials over time, both for home and school use.

The AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom will be free during its beta release period, which will last until sometime in the first quarter of 2017. After that it will be determined whether the materials will continue to be free, or whether AssistiveWare will need to charge for some or all of them.

You can learn more about the site here. 

Happy exploring!