"Johnny Appleseed" Reading Fluency Assessment

Reading Fluency/Speed Assessment
I think that my education friends from Whitworth (and my mom) would agree that I have a lot of children's books. I can't help it. I go to a bookstore and just want to get every single one. Plus, my mom saved all my childhood books so that I could use them in my future classroom (too bad the teaching thing didn't pan out Mom). But, I tell you all this because when the idea of Johnny Appleseed popped into my head I clapped my hands and made seal noises. I have the perfect book!

By Jodie Shepherd

I bought "Johnny Appleseed" the semester that I student taught at the school's book fair.

Tangential topic: when I was little the school book fair was the HIGHLIGHT of my life. My mom would take my sister and I and we were allowed to choose a book or two. Seriously, could I have been a nerdier child? Further examples, I also was a diligent follower of a hamster forum and raced imaginary horses online. 

ANYWAY, this book is perfect for my kiddo. Right reading level and a quick & easy overview of Mr. Appleseed. Plus, it works out perfectly because since our session is the night before Johnny Appleseed Day, he can form a schema so that he will be ahead for Wednesday. 

Here is how I am using it: I need to get a timed reading from him. He is pretty alert so I think he would know if I was timing him (which I do not want him to know). Therefore, I will just audio record it and be able to see how long it took him by listening to it after the session.

Things I'll Assess:
1. Speed
2. Continuous voicing
3. Accuracy of using a guess & go strategy
4. Ability to focus for a whole book
5. Comprehension at the end

Johnny Appleseed Day 2012!

Wednesday is Johnny Appleseed Day. I LOVE any kind of "holiday" that can incorporate history and fun into learning. When I student taught in kindergarten we had a whole Johnny Appleseed day: the kids walked around barefoot, made applesause in a crockpot, and made tin pot hats. There are so many ideas for celebrating the day in the general education classroom: apples into fractions, geography with where Johnny went, or learn about an apple structure for science.

The man of the hour

Alas, I am not in the general education classroom anymore. Sometimes I miss planning for every subject, there are so many possibilities. Now I just need to focus on reading, writing, and language skills. Since I love Johnny Appleseed oh so much, I decided to dedicate my Tuesday therapy session to the guy. I'm very excited in case you can't tell.

Since I only have a 50 minutes session, my activities are going to have to be pretty quick (no crockpot applesauce making for me). Instead, since I am still evaluating and assessing, I'm going to focus my assessments around Mr. Appleseed. Read my next few blog posts to see what I am doing and feel free to get ideas for your own Johnny therapy session. I hope you enjoy Sept. 26 as much as I plan to :).

First day at a SNF

Today I went with three other SLP students to a skilled nursing facility (SNF pronounced sniff). I was completely out of my element. With kids I am completely comfortable, I know how to get them engaged, and am able to refocus their behavior. Elderly adults are another story.

The three students and I will lead a combined aphasia/dementia group this semester. Many of these patients have run out of insurance for speech therapy services so they come to a weekly group to help them engage in communication. Each week we plan a thematic lesson to help them remember and try to get them talking to each other.

This week we decided to have a Classic Film theme. Since my one true love movie-wise is Gone with the Wind, I had to bring in my stuff to share. I printed off pictures, shared a framed photo that my sister got me for Christmas, and played a few important quotes on my audio recorder. It got me really excited about lesson planning and I'm lucky that I get to do this as a job :).

However, like I said, I am completely out of my comfort zone here. I'm still learning the fine line between chatting with them and having them take me seriously. I was telling my friend Shannon that I now know what it feels like to just be pushed into therapy without any guidance. When I stood up to lead the group I was at a loss for words. I'm much better at the one-on-one interaction. Today I sat next to the loveliest woman with Alzheimer's. She got such a kick out of "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" that she had me laughing the whole time.

I'm really grateful I have this opportunity to work at a SNF because it is a good introduction on working with elderly patients without having to be doing individualized care. Since I am still learning, it is a lot easier having a group there with me for support. Also, since it is just once a week for 2 hours, I have a lot of time to plan and focus on my kiddo. (Speaking of, the lesson went GREAT last night, he loved, loved, loved bowling and the experiment "Fireworks in a Cup")

Sorry if this post was short and boring, I'm off to a concert but wanted to check in! I gotta get my creative juices rolling for next week so hopefully I'll post a few more activities this weekend. Have a great weekend everyone.

*Bragging section* So since I had a pretty crappy week I figured that I'm allowed one bragging moment... right? Especially since I started feeling like I was the worst SLP in the world until today. 1. Today my supervisor told me that I wrote the best SOAP notes (treatment notes) that she has ever seen from a first year clinician. 2. I got 100% on my neuro test. Maybe I will survive after all :)

Gorgeous Gone with the Wind-- loove it! 

Fireworks in a Bottle

Materials:

• Soda bottle
• Vegetable oil
• Water
• Alka-Seltzer tablets (thanks Bayley!)
• Food coloring

So in contrast to Tuesday's experiment "Lava in a Cup" we are going to do "Fireworks in a Bottle." I found this experiment on Mommy-labs.com. This how is it supposed to turn out:

We can only hope that I can actually get it to work today

First, I'll have the child read and follow the instructions. As we are watching the experiment, I'll tell him to remember the lava experiment and be thinking about how this is the same and different. Afterwards, he can fill out his science sheet:

Just like last time, the child can fill out the first, then, finally sections. Then, since we have done a similar experiment, he will compare and contrast at least one part of the experiment. After he is done, I will save the science sheet and add it into his science notebook.

Bowling for Words

Nothing makes me feel better than to check another thing off my to-do list, so instead of being a Negative Nancy all night (just for that lovely post) I decided to get some work done. 

I have a therapy session again tomorrow. Since I'm still trying to see what my child knows, I have to run some more assessments. However, probing spelling patterns & morphemes is so boring. And if it is boring to me, I can't imagine how the poor kid feels. 

So once again, I started my brainstorming ways. I knew after yesterday that I would need to figure out my client's knowledge in regards to past tense -ed. There were a few misspelled words on his science experiment worksheet. But, how do you probe past tense -ed without just asking a kid to spell words. Well...

I was sitting in class this morning and came up with idea of using my handy-dandy bowling pins. Then I realized that I would need velcro to glue base words onto the pins. So I called my poor boyfriend and, instead of even saying good morning, I hurriedly said, "Need velcro, don't have time, in class, gotta go." Poor Mark. 

Anyway, my plan is to have my client bowl and he has to change each word he knocks down into its past tense form. For example, he knocks down walk, so he has to write walked onto his bowling pin worksheet. 

Since I want to use these pins over and over again, I couldn't just velcro each card directly onto the pin. Instead, I cut up a page protector sheet and made little clear envelopes for each pin. I put the sticky velcro part on the pin and attached the fluffy velcro piece onto the clear envelope. Then I stuck the cards into each slot. To make the base word cards, I just cut index cards into thirds. 

Here's how the pins turned out

Here is the bowling worksheet I made. I had a bit of trouble putting a line in each pin for him to write the word so I plan to just draw it in when I print it out. 

Grad School Blues

*Whiner Alert: this post might not be cheery or full of sunshine*

I look back to little, sweet, innocent Jill-from-the-past and want to smack her. "Why did you apply to grad school?" "Where did you get this grand idea to fork over time, money, and energy on something that, so far, has not given anything back?" And the best question: "Why do people spend so much money and time applying to graduate school because, really, you are paying to go to hell."

These are my thoughts on and off every few days. When I applied I imagined that it might be like undergrad. Maybe a little harder and maybe not as sunny but still doable. And yet everyday I feel like I've lost control of something. This is a constant inner dialogue: "Yay, got my lesson plan done! Oh wait, I have a test to study for? Oh what, I have 15 more hours this week of TAing? My lesson plan isn't right? Oops, I forgot about that paper. Shoot, we need to have already started on our research project? Sure, no problem, I'll help with the aphasia study this week. I didn't know we needed to read that. No! I forgot to bill my client. Whoops, didn't realize I needed to be meeting objectives already. Geez, I did really bad on that test. Crap, I forgot to get dressed this morning!"

Well, maybe not the last one but, you get the idea. And here is the kicker-- I've only been in school for a month. Imagine crazy, neurotic me in a few months time. My poor bunny is even feeling the effects. I'm doing that whole "guilty mom" thing where I feed him every time I see him to make him happy.  Poor, fat, lonely bunny.

I can tell you, especially those undergrads that are hoping to apply this year, there are the rewards. Therapy sessions are great, the education is so interesting, and my fellow classmates are awesome. I think my biggest issue is myself. I'm used to being the best or, if not the best, at least on top of things. And the thing is: my life isn't even hard. I go to school with moms and people who work almost full-time jobs. But, here I am, with just school, TAing, research, and therapy to worry about and still can't get it under control. Let's be honest here, it isn't normal to cry (snotty nose and all) during class, right?  I swear I sometimes get the urge to get out all my tests from last year and run around campus yelling, "I used to be smart! I used to be smart!"

On second thought if I ever find little, sweet, innocent Jill-from-past again, I'll hug her and give her a to-do list. Obviously she had the faith and determination to get it done.

First Day!

I don't have much time to write a post because I have plenty of other things to do but I thought I'd do a quick update. The first day went well! I think that my client likes me and responded really well to everything. He especially loved the ball game and science experiment. Best moment: as we were leaving I asked him if he had fun and he said "Can we do it all again on Thursday?"

I left the session feeling a little down because I wanted to be perfect but, luckily, I recorded the whole hour and after relistening to it, I feel like I actually did pretty well. You know when you say things and in your head you get a "palm meet face" feeling? I definitely felt that a few times. One time in particular... we were playing the ball/categories game. We were on the being a kid category and my thumb landed on red (meaning I had to say something I disliked about it). Of course I said "The thing I disliked about being a kid was when grown-ups told me what to do!" I then realized that I, as an adult, expect him to do exactly what I want him to do.

Speaking of being a kid though. We were in the same being a kid category and I joked that I would have to really think back to what it was like being a kid. He looked at me confused and said, "Aren't you a kid?" I said, "No, I'm a little older than kids." And he said, "You don't look like an old lady."

Anyway, to wrap things up: I have a lot of learning to do especially with writing SOAP notes and figuring out my objectives. However, I feel like we really connected and it'll be a lot of fun working together this semester. I got a lot of good ideas about what he likes so I'll try to mold those things into every activity-- yay for "get to know you" games!

We all need a little something to laugh at after a long day of school/therapy