Pairing Picture Books and Apps to Contextually Address Language Objectives

OSSPEAC ConferenceOctober 2016Sean J. Sweeney, M.S., M.Ed., CCC-SLPThe Ely Center/speechtechie.com

Disclosures

• Receive royalties for 5 apps developed with Smarty Ears Apps.

• Contractual relationship with Mindwing Concepts, create blog content and presentations related to products such as Story Grammar Marker®, receive honoraria.

• Employed by Ely Center, LLC (Newton, MA).

• Presented for various local and national organizations on tech integration.

• Nonfinancial: creator of blog SpeechTechie, contribute columns for ASHA Leader.

Support for using Picture Books in the Literature:

• The act of reading books aloud interactively and using scaffolding to support children’s use of more advanced syntax, vocabulary and critical thinking is itself an activity which addresses clinical objectives (Beed, Hawkins, & Roller, 1991).

• Clinicians can also select books that lend themselves to pre- and post-reading activities that extend the context of the story. These can include such strategies as art activities, story generation, discussion webs, and dramatic play (Hoggan & Strong, 1994).

• Using books in therapy supports discourse comprehension and production for narrative and expository text (Westby, 1990), as well as building metacognitive strategies such as recognizing text structure (Beck & McKeown, 2003).

Models for Pairing Books and Apps

• Post-Book Dramatic Play- Acting out elements related to a story can be used to target sequencing skills, sentence formulation and overall story comprehension, and enhances children’s ability to explain ideas (Putnam, 1991). Apps can provide visuals that scaffold language and sequencing during the process of play, or rehearse low-tech play.

• Post-Book Art Activities- Reading picture books interactively with students can provide a context for drawing or creation within similar contexts. Models within books can influence the content and language use of students while creating a visual response (Bartelo, 1984). Apps provide an avenue to target language while creating visual artworks simply and quickly and omitting some of the time-consuming aspects of drawing or crafting.

Models for Pairing Books and Apps

• Post-Book Discussion Webs/Graphic Organizers- Visual diagrams map elements of a text or topic to develop categorization and association skills; webs can also be employed to have students respond to higher-level evaluative questions (Alverman, 1991). Also create low-tech concept maps or organizers, providing a context for topically-related discussion.

• Post-Book Story Grammar Cueing- Teaching students story elements such as character, setting, initiating event and conclusion has been shown to improve narrative comprehension and formulation (Davies, Shanks & Davies, 2004).

Redefinition

Technology provides the opportunity for new,

previously inconceivable tasks.

Modification

Technology allows for significant task redesign.

SAMR Model of Technology Integration (Puentadora, 2008)

Augmentation

Technology acts as a direct tool substitute,

with functional improvement

Substitution

Technology acts as a direct tool substitute,

no functional change

Examples:

Electronic flash cards or books

Examples:

Apps that keep data or record audio

Examples:

Creation of multimedia books/projects, sharing products home.

Examples:

Apps that provide simulation of removed events. Collaboration across groups. Communication through tools such as Skype.

Select read-alouds that go

beyond the “here and now”

…Giving students experience with using “decontextualized language” in talking

about the ideas related to the book (Beck & McKeown, 2001)

“What might you see? hear? feel? smell? taste?”

“A passenger is getting on. Maybe she’s on the train because she’s going to work.”

See Night Train (Stutson) and the app Toca Train

Use stopping points to address story

elements and ideas as they are encountered (rather than when the book is completed).

(Beck & McKeown, 2001)

“Anyone who looked at Gilbert’s home would think it was perfect.”

“What do you like about his home?”

“The cat has a broken leg. Hmmm maybe he broke it when he jumped off a wall.”

“What does heartbeat mean?”

See Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet (DiPuccio) and the app Dr. Pet Play

Use open, scaffolded questions with follow-

ups, along with constrained questions.

(Beck & McKeown, 2001)

Constrained: “What’s Llama doing in the classroom?”

Open: “Why do you think time is going s l o w for Llama?

See Llama Llama Holiday Drama (Dewdney) and the app Bag Game for a “pretend” gift exchange, during which similar open social questions can be

used

Engaging students in analytic, cognitively

challenging talk promotes vocabulary

development and story comprehension.

(Dickenson & Smith, 1994)

Cognitively challenging talk: -analysis of characters and events -prediction of coming events -text-reader links (connections between story and real-life experiences) -talk about vocabulary -summarizing extended chunks of text -clarifying comments made about the story

Kitten’s First Full Moon (Henkes) provides context for:

-discussion of why the kitten thinks the moon is a bowl of milk -prediction of how she’ll try to get it -a connection to recent supermoon and eclipse (with photos?) -targeting Tier 2 vocabulary such as persistent. -summarizing a complete episode narrative during and after the story -Pairing with apps such as NASA LER

Resources Supporting the Use of Picture Books in Therapy (See Resource List)

Vocabulary Set

WWP Level C, Set 1: Sing it Out Loud (words

about performing)- popular, rehearse,

audience, performance

Selected Book

Lithgow and Payne, The Remarkable Farkle McBride

SGM® Structure

This humorous book describes an easily-

frustrated boy’s process of selecting the musical

instrument that is right for him, and can be mapped as a Complete Episode

Narrative

Social Thinking® Concepts

Size of the Problem, tie-in with Superflex’s® Glass

Man character

WWP Level C, Set 9: Words that tell do’s and don’ts-bother, respect, damage, follow, assist,

damage

David Shannon No, David!

This or any of David’s misadventures serve as a series of actions; could be

mapped as an Action Sequence or Abbreviated Episode, or using multiple

story maps to show perspective taking

Expected and Unexpected Behaviors, Social Behavior Mapping

WWP Level C, Set 4: The People’s Government-issue, leadership, poll,

citizen, ballot, government, mayor

Eileen Christelow Vote!

This book provides the “story” of a mayoral

election and also contains many expository elements

mappable on List, Sequence, Cause and

Effect maps

Tapping into the student’s interest in politics, the book also relates to

JustMe vs. Thinking of Others Thinking, The

Group Plan, Important vs. Unimportant

WWP-Vocabulary

Sample Sequence of Vocabulary, Discourse and Social Thinking® Targets

Additional Resources• YouTube has many picture books in “read aloud” videos

• EPIC! Books for Kids App (Free, sign up for Educator Account) is a great source of e-versions of trade books.

• Book Creator- Create your own picture books. Shares to iBooks for “page-turning” experience. Also see Story Creator (Free)

• Consider researching “Best Picture Books” via web for any year- previous years will be less expensive. Also Blogs about Picture books such as Teach with Picture Books.

• Google or Pinterest search “Picture books about ____.”

• Education section of App Store, Blogs about educational apps (see Smart Apps for Kids, Teachers with Apps, Yapp Guru) are great resources of potentially FIVES-friendly apps.

Fun book with“Speechie”

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FIVES-

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Aligning “old” and “new” visual tools

Thanks for coming!!

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Pairing Picture Books and Apps to Contextually Address Language Objectives Sean J. Sweeney M.S. M.Ed., CCC-SLP Resources Supporting the Use of Picture Books in Speech-Language Therapy

• Books are for Talking, Too! by Jane Gebers (Pro-Ed)

• Contextualized Language Intervention: Scaffolding PreK-12 Literacy Achievement by Teresa Ukrainetz (Super Duper)

• Conversations with Conjunctions by Catherine Harkins May (Pro-Ed)

• I Get It: Building Social Thinking and Reading Comprehension through Book Chats by Audra Jensen (Think Social Publishing)

• Story Grammar Marker™ and Thememaker™ from Mindwing Concepts, Inc (see also myriad resources on Story Grammar and Expository Text Structure)

• Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck, Margaret G McKeown, Linda Kucan

• Storymaking and More Storymaking by Robin Peura-Jones and Carolyn DeBoer (Super Duper)

• Visualizing and Verbalizing® by Lindamood-Bell

• Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

• The books4all blog at all4mychild.com

Resources on Tech Integration

• The FIVES Criteria by Sean Sweeney- see bit.ly/sweeneyfives

• Dr. Reuben Puentadora’s SAMR Model of Technology Integration- see bit.ly/samrasha

Sample Book-App Pairings

Post-Book Dramatic Play: Acting out elements of or related to a story can be used to target sequencing skills, sentence formulation and overall story comprehension, and enhances children’s ability to explain ideas (Putnam, 1991). Apps can provide visuals that scaffold language and sequencing during the process of play.

All Through My Town by Jean Reidy, with visually rich scenes for description and an emphasis on verbs can be paired with Dr. Panda’s Toy Cars ($2.99), a simulation of driving cars around a town and performing their functions, thus also a context for categories and describing actions within narrative.

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Sally Goes to the Mountains by Stephen Huneck, prompting the description of settings in nature with a cognitive twist (the narrative turns out to be a dream), pairing well with Toca Nature ($2.99), an interactive “sandbox” allowing for the creation of a natural environment and interaction with animals according to conditional relationships. Smelly Locker: silly dilly school songs by Alan Katz, in which humorous lyrics set to commonly known songs describe the schema of school and its categorical and descriptive details, as paired with My Playhome School ($2.99) or Toca Life: School ($2.99), open-ended play apps that can be used to recreate the situations in the books as narrative play even for older students. A Chair for My Mother by Vera WIlliams, a charming narrative about the value of items, with many concepts about money, combined with Storest ($2.99) providing both traditional and innovative ways to “play store.” Post-Book “Art” Activities: Reading picture books interactively with students can provide a context for drawing or creation within similar contexts, and models within books can influence the content and language use of students while creating a visual response (Bartelo, 1984). Apps provide an avenue to target language while creating visual artworks simply and quickly and omitting some of the time-consuming aspects of drawing or crafting. Body in the Group, by Ryan Hendrix, Kari Palmer, Nancy Tarshis and Michelle Garcia Winner, illustrates the social cognitive aspects of physical proximity for communication. The book can be paired with Pic Collage (Free), which can be used to construct a visual of characters being “in” or “out” of a group as related to the context of the story. Beach Day by Patricia Lakin and Scott Nash, a book with minimal text, prompting much language about the materials needed and used in the narrative settings of a park and beach, paired with Pic Collage (Free), an app which can be used to add many pictures to a background image in order to describe associations between a setting and its key elements. I Wanna New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow, a vocabulary-packed story with alternate text in the form of written notes (prompting inferences about story elements) is another book that pairs well with Pic Collage to create a bedroom visual. Shortcut by Donald Crews- this suspenseful complete episode narrative operates according to a visual/spatial schema that can be used to target advanced concepts, especially when paired with Google Earth and/or Doodle Buddy (both Free) to “map” the story. Todd’s TV by James Proimos, exploring the potential overuse of technology in the home through a problem-solution structure, can be paired with TeleStory (Free), which prompts storytelling and explanation by creating videos with “tropes” or themes such as newscasting, musical competition shows, and spy or space dramas. Not a Box by Antoinette Portis, a fun exploration of imagination and play, can be paired with Doodle Buddy to make a “future picture” of making a project with a box, offering rich language experiences. As my clients chose to make a robot, Toca Robot Lab ($2.99) provided a great way to “preload the imagination.” See also Moonbeeps: Gizmo

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(“The best toy you can give your child is a cardboard box,” $.99), for an amplified play experience. Post-Book Discussion Webbing/Graphic Organizer Creation/Story Grammar Cueing: Visual diagrams can be used to map elements of a text or topic to develop categorization and association skills; webs can also be employed to have students respond to higher-level evaluative questions (Alverman, 1991). Apps use a touch-screen interface to create visual webs, and also can provide a context for topically related webbing and discussion. What Are You So Grumpy About? by Tom Lichenheld or Just One of Those Days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Rebecca Doughty provide contextual examples of daily problems to be used with the Size of the Problem strategy (see The Incredible 5-Point Scale by Kari Dunn Buron and The Zones of Regulation by Leah Kuypers). This strategy can be developed with use of Keynote (Free for Apple Devices) and Pic Collage (Free). The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, a visual treasure trove of pictures to explore, can be paired with Kidspiration (free/$9.99) to create a sorting activity around the key concept of “important vs unimportant” (also with the play app Dr. Panda’s Veggie Garden, $2.99). The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis, a sequential and categorical narrative, suggests a visual retelling easily produced in “whiteboard” apps such as Explain Everything ($2.99). There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro features a silly cause-effect chain of swallowed items; Puppet Pals ($2.99 for necessary Director’s Pass edition) provides a simple means to narrate the story by incorporating pictures of story elements. Vocabulary in Context: Children’s comprehension and use of oral vocabulary precedes their ability to read/write more advanced words. Building vocabulary in context aids ability to access more complex text (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002). Based on Isabel Beck’s approach to “Robust Vocabulary Instruction,” the app WWP- Vocabulary (World’s Worst Pet, Free) can be paired with books corresponding to the related vocabulary sets in the app- e.g. The Remarkable Farkle McBride (Lithgow), Vote! (Christelow), or No, David! (Shannon) .

Stepping into Chapter Books: Clinicians can leverage the context of commonly assigned chapter books through technology resources to listen during drive-time (YouTube, Overdrive or Hoopla with a public library card, or purchase on iTunes in a pinch). Map story elements with Kidspiration or construct visuals with Skitch and Doodle Buddy (Free, examples provided related to Iron Thunder by Avi and The SOS File by Byars).

References:

Alverman, D. (1991). The discussion web: A graphic aid for learning across the curriculum. The Reading Teacher, 45, 92-99.

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Bartelo, D. M. (1984). Getting the picture of reading and writing: A look at the drawings, composing, and oral language of limited English proficiency children. Plymouth, NH: Plymouth State College. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 245 533).

Beck, I & McKeown, M. (2001). Text Talk: Capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences for young children. The Reading Teacher, 55, 10-20

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

Beck, I & McKeown, M. (2003). Taking advantage of read alouds to help children make sense of decontextualized language. In A. VanKleek, S. Stahl and E Bauer (Eds.) Storybook Reading. Mahweh, NJ: Erlbaum.

Beed, P.L., Hawkins, E.M., & Roller, C.M. (1991). Moving learners toward independence: The power of scaffolded instruction. The Reading Teacher, 44(9), 648-655.

Davies, P., Shanks, B., & Davies, K. (2004). Improving narrative skills in young children with delayed language development. Educational Review, 56, 271-286.

Dickenson, D.K. & Smith, M.W. (2001). Long-term effects of preschool teachers’ book readings on low-income children’s vocabulary and story comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 29, 105-122.

Hoggan, K.C. & Strong, C.J. (1994). The magic of "once upon a time": narrative teaching strategies. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 25, 76-89.

Puentedora, R (2008, December 22). TPCK and SAMR- Models for Enhancing Technology Integration. As We May Teach: Educational Technology, From Theory Into Practice Podcast. Science @ NASA Podcast. Podcast retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/as-we-may-teach-educational/id380294705

Putnam, L. (1991). Dramatizing nonfiction with emerging readers. Language Arts, 68, 463-469.

Sweeney, S (2010). The FIVES criteria: For evaluating and integrating simple technology resources in speech and language interventions. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/44503715/Fives-Booklet.

Westby, C (1990). The role of the speech-language pathologist in whole language. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 21, 228-237.

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