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Simply Special Ed

Resource Downloads & Teaching Advice

Academics Behavior Blog Communication Writing

Student Writing with Communication Boards

Most students have writing goals, and most state testing portfolios require them… but what do you do if you have a student who can’t do the typical writing goals? How do you adapt and support them to reach goals? With core communication boards!

Topic Boards are a great tool to use with students who do not write with paper and pencil, and need choices for their writing. Having a topic board to help the student build a sentence works just like a core board or communication board.

The student will look at the topic board and point to build a sentence. The smaller pieces of each word will be cut out for students to build the sentence on the blank sentence sheet or a teacher can build it as they point.

Using these topic boards to create sentences allows the student a lot more freedom than fill in the blanks (which actually do not count for writing on state testing portfolios, especially access goals for MCAS ALT)

Why did I create this resource? I was a first year teacher who had to complete SEVEN MCAS-ALT portfolios, all of them required a writing goal. My students could not write by hand, and fill in the blanks did not count for the MCAS. It had to be their OWN ideas fully. I made these topic boards as a large scale word bank and worked with my students on building sentences…. even if they weren’t full sentences, they counted! I had this activity approved by the MCAS ALT team in 2013 and all of my students passed with flying colors!

This resource gave my students a structured support for discussing a topic! and guess what? They all got 4’s on writing on the MCAS ALT that year! I loved watching their independence with it and seeing their success! It’s perfect for your writing goals this year!

You can download the Topic Boards here.

Related Posts:

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    How To: Communication on the Go
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    DIY Bulletin Boards for Therapy
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    Home Choice Boards for School Closures
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Hi amazing teachers!
I'm Alyssa Shanahan -- a former Elementary Special Ed & Life Skills teacher. My classroom focus was always to keep things simple, increase communication, and build independence. Simply Special Ed's goal is to help teachers and students reach their full potential in and out of the classroom!

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