INCORPORATING TOOL FACTORY TO GIVE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS A VOICE

Lesson Plan- Based on Backwards Design Model
Target Group: Primary Preschool for Children with Disabilities

The Big Ideas:
Enduring Understanding:
All human beings have a story to tell. We have an innate drive to tell our story. We all want to be heard…but what if we couldn’t be heard? What if we never wake up from the nightmare of screaming for help into space? What a sigh of relief it is to finally wake up. For many children, this is not just a nightmare while they sleep…this is a nightmare while they are awake! Tool Factory will finally allow our kids to share our sigh of relief.
Essential Questions:
What is sound?
Can I control my voice?
Can my voice get me what I want?
Am I in control of my voice?
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Addresses:
II.B.1. Child is able to use language for different purposes.
II.B.4. Child demonstrates knowledge of verbal conversational rules
II.C.1.Childs speech is understood by both the teacher and other adults in the school
II.D.4. Child uses a large speaking vocabulary, adding several new words daily
II.E.8. Child attempts to use new vocabulary and grammar in speech
V.A.2. Child uses words to rote count to 30
V.A.8. Child verbally identifies without counting the number of objects from 1-5
V.C.3. Child demonstrates use of location words
X.A.1 Child opens and navigates through software programs designed to enhance development of appropriate concepts
X.A.3. Child operates voice/sound recorders and touch screens
X.A.5. Child recognizes that information is accessible through the use of technology
Evidence of Student Understanding: Evidence of individual student understanding will be obtained at the end of each activity. Volume changes will be individually monitored and graphed during each activity (a car going around a race track, completion of a photographic jigsaw puzzle, a balloon blowing up, and a creature flying in the sky). Observational assessments will be based on spontaneous vocalizations.
Lesson Preparation:
Prepare visual aids of independent steps needed to perform the activity. Include vocabulary words to introduce computer, microphone, mouth, and lips.
Materials Required:
Computer, microphone, and edibles for reinforcement of successive approximations.
Specific Objectives:
As a result of this lesson student will understand that they can increase and decrease the pitch, tone, volume, and rhythm of their voice. Students will gain confidence in themselves and their ability to be in control of their vocal cords. Students will progress from simple sounds to words to demands and requests. Children will learn to communicate their wants and needs through the use of words hence decrease the aggressive behaviors that stem from frustration and anxiety for not being able to express their wants and needs.
Accommodations for students with special needs: Behavioral shaping, edible or tangible reinforcers, Shaping techniques, and visuals of individual steps.
Lesson Sequence:
Hook: Use the overhead projector to invite the students to participate. Demonstrate the use of the microphone and how it accomplishes the goal of each activity. Increase and decrease the voice volume. Ask the students:
Who is making the car move? Who is making the balloon bigger? Smaller?
Why am I using a microphone?
What is coming out of my mouth?
When does the car move faster? When does the balloon get bigger? Smaller?
Where is the sound coming from?
Today you will use a computer, microphone, and your mouth make sounds. Today you will learn how to change the sounds that you make. Today you will also learn that you are in control of what comes out of your mouth.
1)Use visuals to show students step-by-step instructions. Model picking up the microphone, putting microphone close to mouth, opening mouth, closing mouth, opening mouth with sound coming out, closing mouth with an absence of sound, opening mouth with sound coming out and looking at computer, closing mouth with the absence of sound and looking at computer, opening mouth with longer sound sustained and looking at computer, closing mouth with the absence of sound and looking at computer, etc.
2)Ask one student to demonstrate first sequence to the class. Immediately deliver the student’s individual reinforcer. Continue delivering reinforcers immediately after each step.
3)Ask a second and third student to demonstrate the sequence of events to the class. Immediate deliver their individual reinforcer upon successful completion of each step.
4)Allow each student to practice independently on the classroom computers.
Closure: Throughout the day hold up different letter of the alphabet and/or pictures. Ask students to attempt to produce the sounds for each letter or the beginning sound for each picture. Use errorless learning/teaching procedures to prevent errors and stimulate attempts at vocalizations. Use individual reinforcers for all attempts made.