Using a large Core Board

Lots of classrooms around NZ have started using large wall size core boards to support their communications in the classrooms. These are a great tool to increase the modelling that students are exposed to as well as helping language to be visual which has benefits for so many students with communication needs. Teachers are also finding them a great resource for shared reading times where students can come and engage with the story using core words on the board to retell, comment or answer a question about the story they are listening to.

For more information, please visit SOM Core Board.

Experiences of Others

This article, written by two special educators, Amy Devin and Lauren Pawlowski was posted in March 2016 on the practical AAC website. www.praacticalaac.org/praactical/praactical-teaching-in-an-asd-classroom-bigger-is-better-with-core-vocabulary

It has some great advice for teachers who have students with complex communication needs in their classrooms who would benefit from lots of aided language input or modelling the use of core vocabulary.

Opportunities Throughout the Day

By having a large core board in your classroom, you are increasing the chances of having AAC available within arm’s reach at all times. The more your students see you ‘speak AAC’ the more likely they will be to learn and extend their use of AAC using their own systems.

There are so many ways that you can use a large core board to model throughout the day. Below are a few ideas but these are by no means the only ones! Don’t limit yourself to using the board during whole group ‘circle time’ sessions.

·         Morning Circle/Meetings - use your board to model making comments, asking questions and giving compliments.

·         You and your teacher aides could share some news from their weekend using the core board.

·         Transitions – Give directions using the board. Can some of your students take a turn to give the directions too?

·         Shared Reading - Use your board during shared reading to talk about the pictures and text in the book.

·         Shared Writing - You can model talking about an experience or picture during shared writing using your core board. Have your alternative pencil ready to model as well!

·         Maths - Talk about concepts in a whole class maths lesson using your core board.

·         Playtime - If your board is portable enough, you can take it outside for playtime. Students may want to ask for help or take turns with a friend using that language.

·         Mealtimes – What a great time for conversation! Model talking about what you like to eat, what tastes good/bad. Chat about what we might do at playtime.

·         Choosing – Your students will have multiple opportunities to make choices throughout the day. Can they use the core board to make requests and take turns?

·         Games – Give your students the chance to be in charge of games by using words like ‘stop, Go, your turn, My turn, Uh-oh! and Silly!’

Resources

If you are interested in setting up a large core board for your classroom, TalkLink have several options for sale on their website 

https://talklink.org.nz/resour... 

·  A0 - durable paper version 77 location PCS core board - $57.50 inclusive of GST

·  A0 - laminated 77 location PCS core board - $115.00 inclusive of GST

·  A0 - Coreflute 77 location PCS core board - $172.50 inclusive of GST

Or you can make your own DIY version by blowing up pages on your school photo copier from A4 to A3 and piecing them all together onto a piece of core flute.

If you would like the pdf of the symbols to make your own, please email your TalkLink clinician.

References: http://praacticalaac.org/

Are you interested in learning more about Android linux Core Board? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

Useful Links:

www.praacticalaac.org/praactical/praactical-teaching-in-an-asd-classroom-bigger-is-better-with-core-vocabulary

http://www.janefarrall.com/why-we-do-aided-language-stimulation-and-you-should-too/

https://www.assistiveware.com/learn-aac/learn-about-core-word-teaching-strategies

To download this tip of the month as a PDF, click here.

Created by Polly Thomas and Jane Winter (Teachers) on 8/10/2018

Core words can easily be incorporated into academic curriculum. There just needs to be systematic planning for core word vocabulary and then of course the joining of fringe words.  One of the best visual explanations of core words is in the now ‘famous’ you tube video Language Stealers (HD). If you have not seen it, it is worth watching for  many reasons but in the context of this post, it perfectly illustrates how you can teach about  Greek and Roman history with core words.

Planning for Core Words for the Classroom (& ALL School Activities)

• Have the core word communication board with you at ALL times– If you (SLP/Educator)  have your core word communication board, you can model and teach the target core words during all lessons. A premise of this approach is that the student has access to their core word vocabulary display on a no-tech communication board or on their AAC device.
• Choose specific core words to teach– Choose 1-5 specific core words to teach over a specific time frame. The time frame is usually a week or two but then as new words are added you can follow a pattern of approximately 12 core words per month.   Words will build on one another as teaching and learning expand.
• Develop or use a lesson plan for the curriculum– Once you have the goals and activities to teach the curriculum topic or concept, script out or add in how you will model or use the target core words.  The activities should be meaningful to the students with lots of opportunities for active participation and communication.
• Create visual support materials– Create visual support materials that highlight the target words that you can use as ‘props’ to further enhance ‘seeing’ the target words. Consider a core word key chain, or even a ‘pen light’ to highlight the target words. Let the students interact with the core words on both their AAC display and the ‘props’.  Being an active participant to the learning process is essential.
• Use language facilitation teaching strategies– As you are teaching the target core words, use lots of repetition with variety, aided language input, recasting, scaffolding, and descriptive talking/think aloud strategies.
• Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate– If at all possible, teaching core words in the curriculum is a collaboration between educators and SLP’s. Of course it is great to have parents and caregivers participate as well.  Educators can relate well to the core word philosophy as core words overlap heavily with dolch words.
• Teach first, then test- Spend some time teaching and then build in comprehension checks. Just make sure that if you ask questions, they are phrased so that a core word response works and also build in opportunities for expressive language checks through communication temptations and wait and signal opportunities. Realize core word teaching may take longer than learning concrete nouns but mastering core word vocabulary can help you with all curriculum.
• Remember fringe vocabulary will be needed also– We do not think fringe or extended vocabulary is bad, we do think students need to learn it. However, if 80% or more of our language is core words we need to focus on what we need to use to communicate most of the time. Add fringe in for specific topics or subjects and try to keep to the 4:1 ratio of core word to fringe word teaching. The underlying premise here is that there is a school/district philosophy/method for static placement of core versus fringe words.

Math Examples

5 Target Core Words from September:  “almost”, “take”, “time”, “place”, “nice” (see other specific math core words) 

Math Class– addition and core words

                        SLP/Educator Models: “time for math”, “take 4 pencils and then “take” 2 more and you have 6, “it’s nice when we all do it together”, “we almost ran out of time but we finished”, “nice adding up those numbers”.

                       Students: Have a stack of index or flash cards with addition problems or numbers on them and each student gets a turn to tell  classmate to “take ____” the correct number of items to be counted or  have a box or bag filled with objects to count or math flash cards and the student helper tells each classmate to ‘take some’, The class can vote on if they thought the item they just counted was nice or ‘boring’

Check out a Geometry Lesson by Gail Van Tatenhove on the Minspeak Teaching Material Exchange– Curriculum Supports.

Remember to build  multiple opportunities for students to prAACtice using the core words into each lesson plan and activity.

Additional Resources

Teaching Core Vocabulary

Curriculum Supports– excellent lessons for science, social studies, language arts, math, music, and art from Gail Van Tatenhove.

Pixon Project Curriculum Supports 

Core Word Intervention Plans

 Core Word Lesson Plans– A great resource for clinic and classroom core word lesson plans from PRC’s AAC Language Lab (some free content, some subscription fee).

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Allwinner SOM Allwinner.