ALIST Spotlight-- Ann-Marie Small, Driscoll Elementary Centerville

Recently we held a panel discussion at the Regional Center focused on team collaboration between classroom teachers and SLPs. Ann-Marie Small was one of our SLP panelists from Driscoll Elementary in Centerville City Schools and after hearing all of the wonderful things she does to facilitate her student's language development we just knew we had to feature her on our ALIST Spotlight! Check out the post below to see how Ann-Marie uses AAC, Core Words, and Organization to help her students find their voice.

AAC
The first step to helping students find their voice is providing them with the necessary Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) supports that meet their individual needs. During her weekly Speech Group, Ann-Marie makes sure all of her students set up with their AAC ready to go.

Each week the group focuses on a different Core Word so each AAC support is prepped with the needed words before hand.

To help with AAC preparation ahead of time, Ann-Marie provides a clipboard for the classroom staff to add needed vocabulary words to throughout the week. Then during her AAC programming planning time, Ann Marie grabs the clipboard and is able to quickly get materials prepped.

Ann-Marie also shares with staff and families the Core Word of the Week through handouts and door displays.

Core Words
To start the Speech group, Ann-Marie has students practice the core word of the week through using the AAC supports and reading a story. This lesson's word was "find" so students practiced telling one another to "find the elf" in the book and telling the group when they "found" the elf.

The next part of the lesson was practicing the use of the core word in the context of an interactive activity which related to the book. Students had to "find the elf" throughout the classroom.

They even had the chance to take turns hiding with the elf for classmates to find them!

Repetitive practice and finding using fun, engaging activities to practice new words is a great way to help students generalize. Ann-Marie also offers opportunities to review previously learned words through books in her cozy reading corner.

Organization
Planning so many engaging activities for students each week requires a lot of organization and a lot of materials! Ann-Marie does a great job of storing materials so that they are readily accessible at a moments notice to engage students and to support learning of new concepts.

 

To keep students on track towards meeting goals it is important to have organized progress monitoring as well. We love how Ann-Marie uses color coding, shipping labels, and reinforcement charts to keep her data organized.

Thank you so much to Ann-Marie for allowing us to join her Speech Group to see all of the wonderful supports she uses for students. We are excited to share these great examples with our other teams!