In a special education setting, it is crucial that students
master their communication goals according to their IEP. Meeting once or twice a week with a speech pathologist
is not enough, so as a future special education teacher, I feel it is important
to incorporate speech and language into curriculum. Fortunately, speech and language benchmarks
usually can be integrated with other academic benchmarks in one lesson. Teachers
Net (located on the link above) provided an excellent example of an integrated
lesson plan with speech and language.
This lesson plan is a fun scavenger hunt, created to promote
social skills, speech and language, as well as reading skills. The lesson starts with a word list or picture
list, depending on the student’s reading level.
The student should review the words and be on the “look out” for them. Scatter the words throughout the classroom or
school. The student must locate the
words. Once located, the student will
see a picture of someone else who works at the school. Then they must approach that person and ask
appropriately for the word. For example
if one of the words on the list is “pencil,” the student will find the word on
an index card, pronounce it correctly to the teacher, and then look on the
back. The picture might be the office
secretary. When there is time, the student
should then approach the secretary and ask “may I have the pencil please?” If the child is able to pronounce the word
correctly in a full sentence while making eye contact, he or she is awarded that
pencil. I would perhaps do one or two
words a day throughout the week until the scavenger hunt is complete.
This activity is a fun and motivating way to assist students
not only with speech and language skills, but also reading and social skills.
Of course this lesson may not be appropriate for all school settings, as it
clearly depends on the culture of your school.
However, I often find that people are willing to assist as long as it is
not disruptive. This lesson is one that
can build up to meet other important benchmarks in high school settings such as
job skills or life skills in an ESE setting.
