Saturday, February 9, 2013



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. 

2 comments:

  1. What a fun activity to do with the kids!! :) I like how you have the kids active and practicing their speech. It's great that they have to pronounce the word correctly in order to receive what they are looking for. It reminds me of "slow and steady wins the race". The student should take their time when speaking so they can pronounce it correctly.

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  2. Hi Hollie,
    Your right this is a fun activity for the students! Reading, spelling and pronounciation are very important foundations in language skills. I like that it "builds up" to important benchmarks and is usefule in the ESE setting. I would definitely use this lesson plan in my future classroom!

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