Animated
Step-by-Steps® (ASbySs) are a set of resources that are available in three
formats (Regular, SymbolStix, PCS) from the Teachers Pay Teachers site. They are designed to simultaneously
address literacy, language and AAC (if you have purchased a
symbol-supported version). For a quick overview of the Animated Step-by-Steps®
system please visit the website using the button to the right of this post.
ASbySs are a consistent system
that can be applied to a broad range of early childhood activities (recipes,
crafts, science projects, poems, songs, games and stories). This consistency of
approach across a variety of activities is beneficial for all students. but especially students with special needs.
The bottom line:
whenever you are developing educational materials for students with special
needs, strive to develop ‘a system’. The greater the AAC needs within your
organization/agency, the greater the need to put in place a system that can
serve the needs of many students across many classrooms over an extended period
of time.
Continuing this concept of developing ‘a system’, consider
what you could put in place for your students using interactive software authoring programs such as Smart Notebook (https://education.smarttech.com) or ActivInspire (https://www.prometheanworld.com). Interactive whiteboard (IWB) authoring software is a powerful tool for developing
interactive lessons for the classroom. Although there is a bit of overlap in
what PowerPoint and IWB software are capable of doing, each has unique strengths that complement the other, nicely.
PowerPoint has the advantage of having robust animations,
the one feature that makes it ideally suited for creating Animated
Step-by-Steps®. IWB authoring programs have the advantage of allowing you to
easily create lessons that allow students to manipulate content on the Interactive
Whiteboard or the computer. Although SmartNotebook has iPad/Android versions of its software, early versions seemed to be missing many of the
‘bells and whistles’ that are available on the computer version. In general, I have been frustrated by the fact
that the iPad software does not provide a direct translation of complex content created
on the computer. A perhaps better option is to use Splashtop Classroom to mirror the IWB content on to your iPad
allowing a student to directly access the IWB lesson using their iPad.
Over the years, I’ve developed several theme-based units (e.g., Butterfly, Hot Chocolate, Tomato Soup)
to complement various Animated Step-by-Steps® (Hot Chocolate Recipe, Tomato Soup Recipe, Butterfly Puppets, Egg Carton Caterpillars, Fuzzy Grassy Caterpillars,
Baggie Butterflies). In general, these theme-based units are designed to
address the Common Core Standards
for Traditional Math and Language Arts for Pre-Kindergarten
through Grade 1.
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| Launch Pages for Three Theme-Based Units |
Because the content is being used by both regular and
special education students, it is always designed with alternate access in
mind. For example, when using a memory
game to ‘identify pairs as same or different’ the cells are also number coded
to allow a student with physical challenges to participate by selecting numbers
on their communication device. As mentioned earlier, we also have the ability
to allow the child with Complex Communication Needs to access the IWB content through
their iPad/Android tablet when using Splashtop
Classroom (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/splashtop-classroom-annotate/id793621885?mt=8)
As Common Core Standards are widely used in the USA, I’ve adopted this format as the framework for developing a series of lessons targeting Traditional Math and Language Arts (Pre-K through Gr 1). The challenge, of course, is to develop highly interactive content for each and every item in the CCS, while staying within the overall theme of the Unit. Here are several examples of how some CCS (Counting and Cardinality) were targeted across three very different themes.
Counting & Cardinality - Count to Tell Number of Objects (linear array)
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| Counting & Cardinality - Compare Numbers |
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| Counting & Cardinality - Count and Write Numbers (0-20) |
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| Theme Progression Purple reflects targets of current theme Green reflects unmastered targets now being reflected within new theme |
When the Animated
Step-by-Steps® system is used in conjunction with a system targeting Common Core Standards Math and Language Arts, created using Interactive Whiteboard Software system, learning can be very interactive and very fun for students with Special Needs.
So … what systems are you putting in place for your
School/Agency?
…’til the
next post … (new posts every Monday)
Follow me on
twitter www.twitter.com/@AnimStepbySteps
Email
me canadiangoosse@gmail.com
©2016 Carol
Goossens’, Ph.D.
Augmentative
Communication Consultant
Speech-Language
Pathologist
Special
Educator
