My Favorite Videos for Teaching Compare/Contrast with Older Students

Compare/Contrast Videos

The skill of comparing and contrasting comes up over and over again within our ELA core standards.
It is utilized in reading, writing, and science and technical subjects. This is a vital skill to teach our
students and can be challenging for those with a language delay.  I love incorporating videos into my
lessons, especially for my older students.  I found these great videos to help teach the concept of
compare and contrast while keeping my students engaged!

Career Videos

For my high school students, I like to have continuous conversations regarding their transition plan
and what they want to do after they graduate.  I love integrating career exploration into therapy to
give them a better idea of what is out there. I also love teaching comparing and contrasting as a skill
to use in decision making which can also be challenging for our students.  That is how I came up with
the plan to use the videos from career one stop in my comparing and contrasting lesson. I know I
have mentioned this website before, but it really is one of my favorite go tos for my high schoolers.

Career One Stop

Animal Videos

I also love using the animal showdown videos from National Geographic for Kids.  I also incorporate
predicting into this activity and we can make guesses and justify why we think our animal will win.  
Afterward, I use this template to have them write a paragraph to compare and contrast the two animals
that we learned about.

 Animal Showdown

Compare/Contrast Paragraph Template

I love using Venn diagrams when I introduce the concept of compare and contrast and have the
kids fill out their own while they are watching the videos.  

My students were super motivated by these videos during this lesson and it also sparked some
great conversations regarding future careers.  I hope that these videos go well in your sessions too.
Let me know how it goes.

Happy Comparing and Contrasting!

Time For Work

Today I met with a student who graduates soon. He has Asperger’s and struggles with social skills and non-verbal language. We reviewed his transition pan. He isn’t planning on college, but instead plans on getting a job right away. This started freaking me out. I start worrying about if he is ready. I worry how he will do interviewing and interacting with co-workers, employers, customers, etc. Everything started feeling more urgent and I felt like the skills we are working on will be more impactful in a work setting than they have been at school.  That is why I wanted to share the resources that I am using with this student to make sure he is prepared.

1.  I was recently introduced to a great website to help students explore career possibilities. The website is https://www.careeronestop.org/Videos/CareerVideos/career-videos.aspx. We are able to see how much you could make, what degree you need and what skills are important for this career. It also states the future of the career and the job market for it right now. This is a great starting point for students thinking about looking for employment or deciding on a major/focus if they are going to go to school.

2.  We are also practicing mock interviews.  Really, it is a good idea for everyone to practice interviewing, especially the students that we work with.  Here is a link to work on interviewing skills from Career One Stop: https://www.careeronestop.org/GetMyFuture/Employment/interviews.aspx . 

3.  I also wanted to continue working on soft skills with him.  I love this soft skills curriculum that includes a section on communication from the Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/youth/softskills/ . 

I find these areas to be more pertinent the closer my student’s get to graduation. How do you help your students who are about to graduate? What resources do you use?

Community College for Individuals with Disabilities

Our district has a work program for our older students. It is an awesome program and the teachers who run it are phenomenal! I love that the student’s get opportunities to go out and get real work experience. They also have a class that pairs with it that teaches employment skills such as soft skills, interviewing, how to fill out an application, etc. It’s vital to practice for our students. We recently took these students on a field trip to our local community college. We were given a tour of the campus, we received an overview of the available programs, and the students were informed on how to get their IEP accommodations to roll over to community college classes. They also were informed on how to take their placement tests. The student support specialist at the disability services told us that placing even one course higher on a placement test can save a student almost $400. That is a lot of money for these students. I looked into what information they were tested on and found what related to my speech and language goals. I made a checklist to review with my students who are planning on going to the community college. I am using it as a tool to help us plan our goals and help my students buy-in to what I am teaching them. I am trying to get them more invested by showing them how this will impact their lives long term. I also started teaching testing terms to prepare them before they go in and take the test. If you haven’t taken a trip like this one with your students I highly recommend it. Reach out to your local community college and see if you can set it up!

Download the free Checklist here:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Community-College-Speech-Skills-Checklist-4512573

It’s Graduation Time! Now What?

I have spent the majority of my years as a Speech-Language Pathologist working with high school and transition-aged students and I am rarely optimistic when it comes time for them to transition out of school either after the 12th grade or upon their 22nd birthday. According to the disability statistics by Cornell University, “In the year 2017, an estimated 37.3 percent (plus or minus 0.29 percentage points) of non-institutionalized, male or female, with a disability, ages 21-64, all races, regardless of ethnicity, with all education levels in the United States were employed”. This got me thinking about what I could or should be doing to better help my students. I decided I needed to do more research and get my student’s more actively engaged in their planning. That’s why I decided to start this blog. I want to research better ways to engage my students, pick more relevant goals, and most importantly increase their chances of success after high school. I want to look past just helping them access the curriculum and help them access employment and successful adulthoods. I will share my research here in hopes of helping other SLPs and other individuals with disabilities that are facing similar challenges. I would love comments, suggestions, research, or anything else relevant you feel like sharing. I hope to hear from you soon.