the “has” column has been successfully filled in, move on to the “likes” column. I have experimented with erasing the words from the circle-in-circle chart as they were transferred to the branch chart, but I felt this robbed my students of some of the exercise’s more important challenges. It’s best if they think and observe throughout. If there’s just one word left inside the circle at the end of the lesson, you’ve taken away a potential learning moment for them. However, this is an individual call. If your class is more challenged by this exercise, then make the lesson more manageable. It’s more important for your students to succeed.
Once all three columns of the branch chart have been successfully filled in, you can choose to take a “reward-time” mini break. Go around and admire your students’ work, giving them a sticker, a gold star, or whatever reward you’ve established in your classroom. You could even take a stretch break. I found this not to be a good idea with my kids, but if you have a group that can stay focused, this would be a logical place to take a short break. The connection still needs to be maintained between the graphic organizers and the sentences we’re about to build, so really, no more than fifteen to twenty seconds. This is all up to you, though. You know your kids better than anyone.
Once you’re all refocused, distribute the handouts that are lined on the bottom for sentences and blank on the top for illustrations (printed from http://fhautism.com/arc. html). They now have on their desks this new, blank sheet of paper, along with the filled- in graphic organizers. Some kids might become a little overwhelmed with all of this paper and information in front of them, but it’s important that the graphic organizers stay on their desks for the sentence-building phase.
Tell the children it’s time to make the first sentence. The first time, model it for them, using the branch chart as you do so. Point to the words on the branch chart as you slowly say them, forming your first sentence. Show the students the physical relationship between the words on the chart and how they go together to form a spoken sentence. This will help them read the chart and form the sentences using the chart themselves.
Say, “Let’s make a sentence from the first column, using the word ‘can.’ ‘The cat can jump.’”
After the sentence is spoken, write it on the chart paper.
Then, have students write the same sentence on the first line of their papers.
Ask the class if someone can now make a sentence from the second column, using the word “has.” Making only one sentence from each column eventually will give the kids a feeling of authorial autonomy—they choose which sentence they want to form. They can choose any of the three words to make a sentence. Once a sentence is formed from the second column, write it on the chart paper, and have the students copy that sentence onto their papers.
Finally, have someone form a sentence from the third column.
You should now have written three sentences:
1. The cat can jump.
2. The cat has a tail.
3. The cat likes milk.
Now it’s time for the final part of the sentence-building exercise—the illustration. This is a key component to further connecting the students to their writing. We want them to understand that these are not just jumbles of random words scribbled on a piece of paper. They have meaning, and the illustration helps engender a deeper understanding of this connection. Toward that end, the illustration must reflect the information in the sentence. It’s okay to be a bit strict here, mostly because it’s a drawing—not words—and the pressure decreases at this point. For example, if I see an illustration of a cat not drinking from a bowl of milk—or a cat missing a tail—it’s easy for me to correct the students and guide them in the right direction.
Get the free PDF of the lined paper at at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.
You should now have three full sentences and beautiful drawings to illustrate the words. This marks the halfway point of The Cat lessons. The second half of The Cat lessons is structured the same way, except you’ll begin a new worksheet and work with new sentences. Just like the ones I’ve described thus far, there will be four variations of the worksheet and then a sentence-building exercise, using the same graphic organizers and lined paper.
Don’t forget about the off days; the supplemental activities are crucial for keeping the kids interested in the topics. It is also a much-needed break, and it helps students associate the topics—and reading in general—to good feelings. The lessons will be challenging and sometimes frustrating for them, but I hope they will become fun. The supplemental activities aren’t anti-lessons; they are integral aspects of the curriculum that can make or break the program’s effectiveness.
Having tried lots of different writing and sentence-building techniques and graphic organizers, I found this combination to be the most successful with my students. The concrete, visual transfer of the words from one graphic organizer to the next and then to sentences was a progression that my students could follow. It also provided many opportunities for conversation, which is always to be treasured in the autism classroom.
Best of all, it’s a perfect group lesson! Any time you can employ a group lesson with these kids, you should. Not only is it good for building social skills, it cuts down enormously on the teacher’s behavior management workload. Sure, it’s more difficult to manage a group of children with autism, as opposed to teaching them one-on-one. I have found that a lesson plan like this, during which the students are almost unanimously engaged, helps with behavior management.
Still, the social and behavioral benefits are usually secondary to the lifelong benefits that reading comprehension skills will provide your students. The better they can process written language, the more they can learn. The more they can learn, the more choices they will have in their lives.
Get the free print PDF of the cat photo and this page at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.
Materials:
Worksheet 1 (Variation 1), pencils, and boxes of crayons for each child
Color Variation 1:
Brown CatYellow Table
Before the Lesson:
