This lesson
has differentiated writing prompts that could accommodate elementary grades as
well as contained ESE classes in latter elementary, middle or high school. The lesson plan contains writing prompts at differentiated
levels asking “What did you do over the weekend?” There are a variety of worksheets to choose
from depending on the level of your students.
There are also worksheets with more spacing to accommodate students who
have difficulty with fine motor. Some of
the sheets ask the “W” questions and others ask for descriptions. According to the plan, first the students
write about their weekend, and then they present it verbally.
This is a
great lesson that I plan on incorporating into my classroom activities on
Monday mornings. This lesson is
especially good for special education classes because it asks the students
remember events, which they have to process into writing, then again process it
orally to present. This lesson is
beneficial to students with autism by helping them draw mental pictures of what
they did. An educator might want to make
available visual prompts in the writing center to assist in generating
ideas.
The
presenting part of the lesson is also a wonderful way to incorporate social
skills and communication into the lesson.
By asking the students to come forward and discuss what they did over
the weekend, they are forced to recall and retell the events of the
weekend. This is good for memory and
processing. I will also encourage my
students to ask questions to other classmates to further work on social and communication
skills.
This lesson
will work well if the teacher and paraprofessionals in the class also
participate by modeling and showing examples of their writing and
presenting. Having sound examples will
assist the students and help them feel comfortable with their
presentations. Incorporating this into student’s
weekly schedule will benefit students with autism because they will start
making mental pictures of their weekend activities. Educators can also ask parents to assist with
this activity by asking them to write one or two words of their weekend activities
in the parent-to-teacher planner.
