Auditory Processing of Higher-Level Language Skills & Comprehending More Complex Auditory Information (Sequencing, Concrete Details, Subtle Clues, Social Language) {Review}

As this is my first post for 2013 let me just start off by wishing you all a Happy New Year! 

I will be reviewing 2 items from Great Ideas for Teaching that can be utilized to target auditory processing skills for those with higher level abilities. 

Auditory Processing of Higher-Level Language Skills ($32) is meant to assist students in learning to interpret events, gaining an understanding of concrete and subtle interpretations, and helping to grasp the main points of each event. Students who have may have trouble working through Auditory Processing of Higher-Level Language Skills should check out my review of Auditory Processing of Early Language Comprehension Skills to determine if it would be a better fit.

While looking at an image, students are read a story about the picture. Various questions that gauge specific comprehension skills are then asked. Questions are related to sequencing, context clues, inferencing, as well as time and spatial concepts. 

The review questions are simple and straightforward, requiring students to recall important details from the brief passages (e.g. What is the horse's name?) Questions get progressively difficult as they prompt students to form their own conclusions, separate subtle information amongst stories, make predictions, and retell the story. See below for sample pages. 

               

Comprehending More Complex Auditory Information (Sequencing, Concrete Details, Subtle Clues, Social Language) ($32) includes questions that target similar skills as Auditory Processing of Higher-Level Language Skills with an emphasis on sequencing. Images are provided to students as they listen to a two or three part story. There is an abundance of questions provided for users, which I personally appreciated as it saved me some preparation time. Take a look below for a few sample pages. 

I use both books with my students to aggressively target note-taking skills. Middle school is a time to develop and hone the skills needed to succeed in high school, college, and beyond! Instead of having students listen to me read each of the stories, I require them to jot down salient information. Once their notes have been taken, they are encouraged to recap the passage using the information they have recorded. Afterwards, I have a student read the passage back to me while I take my own notes on the whiteboard. This models how students should be taking notes themselves. As a group, we compare their notes with mine and discuss ways to improve upon their notation skills. 

Another important skill I impress upon my students when note-taking is the use of symbols and abbreviations. It was surprising to see how many of my kiddos were trying to write down the sentences verbatim. Text messaging language is a frequent example I use to drive home the benefits of using shorthand. I also found a handout from the University of North Dakota to be a helpful way to introduce and review abbreviations.

There are an infinite amount of resources available for us to utilize with students, but there is also an infinite amount of ways to utilize the resources we already have. Auditory Processing of Higher-Level Language Skills and Comprehending More Complex Auditory Information (Sequencing, Concrete Details, Subtle Clues, Social Language) are both easy to modify and extend into lessons targeting critical thinking, memory, visualization, and so much more!



Disclosure Statement: Great Ideas for Teaching, Inc. provided resources for testing in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed in this review are mine. No other compensation was provided.   

Auditory Processing of Early Language Comprehension Skills {Review}

Frequently asking for directives to be repeated, delays in response time, difficulty following complex auditory directives, decreased comprehension in noise (the list goes on). According to ASHA's technical report (2005),             "(C)APD (central auditory processing disorders) may lead to or be associated with difficulties in higher order language, learning, and communication functions." Auditory Processing of Early Language Comprehension Skills is a useful resource from Great Ideas for Teaching Inc. meant to target the deficits those with processing disorders present.

Pages are perforated for easy tearing and photocopying

This 60 page workbook contains 30 reproducible black and white illustrations designed to improve comprehension skills.

While looking at pictures, students listen to a story pertaining to the illustration. Questions that gauge students' abilities related to comprehension, execution of directives, use of context clues, memory, inferencing, time, spatial details, etc. are provided (see below).

Despite being advertised as an activity for younger ages (6-9), students of any age who lack the aforementioned skills can benefit from these lessons. Activities can easily be expanded upon by requiring students to provide written instead of oral responses, as well as prompting students to provide supporting details to rationalize their responses. The activities in Auditory Processing of Early Language Comprehension Skills are straightforward, yet target a multitude of skills.

For those with skills that are a bit more advanced, Targeting Auditory Memory and Processing is a workbook from the same author that addresses auditory memory in addition to vocabulary, prepositions, verbs, etc.

Reference:
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005). (central) auditory processing disorders [Technical Report]. Available from www.asha.org/policy.

Disclosure Statement: Great Ideas for Teaching, Inc. provided resources for testing in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed in this review are mine. No other compensation was provided. 

Middle School Confidential: Real Friends vs. the Other Kind {Review & Giveaway}

I think it's pretty obvious by now that I'm enthusiastic over the Middle School Confidential (MSC) series of graphic novel apps, as I'm devoting another post to it!  Real Friends vs. The Other Kind is based on book 2 of the MSC series and I must say, I am pleased yet again!

As the title suggests, friendship is the focus of Real Friends vs. The Other Kind, an issue that is very relevant to middle school. Readers will read about common problems as they relate to respect, peer pressure, fairness, rejection, breakups, and making friends.

Questions & scenarios are posed without being "cheesy

Newly added are the interactive quizzes that can be used to assist students in understanding why certain choices are better than others (see below).

Language skills such as figurative language, perspective taking, sequencing, processing, problem solving, foreshadowing, and social thinking can all be targeted with this easy to use and engaging application.

After purchasing this app  ($2.99), users can download a free 25 Leader's Guide that accompanies the MSC series that contains discussion questions and activities addressed in the app.  

App Compatibility:

Real Friends vs. The Other Kind is Compatible with NOOK, Kindle Fire, nabi, Android tablets, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Take a look at Real Friends vs. The Other Kind in action:



David and Annie Fox (creators) have graciously provided me with a promo code for you to download Real Friends vs. The Other Kind and use with your students!

***UPDATE***

David and Annie have given me 2 more promo codes making it a total of 3 codes that I will be giving away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure Statement: I was provided a copy of this app by the developer. No other compensation was provided. This review includes solely my opinions. 

Middle School Confidential: Be Confident in Who You Are {Review}

Middle School Confidential 1: Be Confident in Who You Are is a stellar graphic novel app I couldn't wait to get my hands on. It is an engaging comic that brings readers into the lives of middle schoolers who are simply trying to figure things out. Issues such as bullying, blowups, looks, popularity, stress, peer approval etc. are all addressed.

Readers get a glimpse 6 middle schoolers (colored)

Jump to any of the 8 chapters

What I love:

• Not only does this graphic novel address hot-button, relatable issues middle school students face in their daily lives, they also offer strategies for dealing with them.
• The layout deviates from the typical picture books for those in elementary school and thus makes it more appealing to adolescents. 
• Stories involve kids talking to other kids and doesn't come off as "preachy"
• Chapters are broken up in a manner that allows for users to work on and address issues and concepts over a period of time, not all at once. This gives users time to process what they've heard. 
• Users are able to view the full page or view it panel-by-panel. The zoomed in panel view allows for prediction and foreshadowing to take place.  

Users can view the comic via full page or zoom in and view each panel

• Each frame is accompanied by music and sounds. No narrator here, the user is the reader. 
• It's a great jumping off point for deeper discussion on the issues addressed in the comic. Important language skills/concepts such as perspective taking, foreshadowing, problem solving, can all be targeted.

Bottom Line: This is app is a gem and worth more than the $2.99 price tag!

App Compatibility:

Be Confident in Who You Are is Compatible with NOOK, Kindle Fire, nabi, Android tablets, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Take a look at this demo provided by Apps for Children with Special Needs


Disclosure Statement: I was provided a copy of this app by the developer. No other compensation was provided. This review includes solely my opinions. 

The Grumble Noise {Review}

The Grumble Noise is one of those apps parents and educators scoop up the minute they hear it's free.  As it turns out, that is exactly what I did! This app contains beautiful illustrations, interactive touch screen capabilities and a captivating storyline.

Choose from two options located in the home-screen

 Readers can choose to read the story themselves or have it narrated.

Primary image

Image after one click

Upon touching the screen, interactive elements are elicited. Users can hear characters snoring, dragons roaring and mysterious grumbling. Images such as facial expressions and body movements can also be altered with a simple touch of the screen.

Image after one click

  
                   Primary image

Image after two clicks

I really enjoyed the interactive nature of this app. The sound effects and animation make reading "The Grumble Noise" enjoyable. However, there are a few things I would change. One being the text size. It would be great if users were able to enlarge the text to their liking, as I personally found it too small. Also, the narration of the story is a bit over-exaggerated. My adolescent students would not appreciate the rate or tone, however it works well for younger children.

At the middle school level, I would use "The Grumble Noise" with students who are lower functioning  (referred to as "Life Skills" students). These students would benefit from the simple storyline and engaging interactive components. Important skills such as foreshadowing, perspective taking, problem solving and even decoding can all be targeted with this free app (for a limited time).

How have you used this app with your students? 

App Compatibility
This app is compatible with iPad and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Disclosure Statement: I was provided a copy of this app by the developer. No other compensation was provided. This review includes solely my opinions. 

Too Loud? {Review}

Although I’ve been spending time with preschoolers this summer, I frequently think about my middle schoolers (crazy isn’t it?) and the beginning of the academic year in September. Recently, I have been trying to brainstorm potential tools and/or methods I can implement to improve management of my speech groups. In my earlier post I discussed the use of a stopwatch to help students become more independent in their time management abilities. That got me thinking about what can be done to manage students’ loudness. There have been frequent instances where I’ve had to remind excitable groups to “keep it down” or individual students to bring their voices down. One student, lets call him “Dennis”, has a very difficult time judging his vocal volume. Don’t worry, the first thing I checked was to see if he passed his audiological assessment, and indeed, he has. Consequently, his peers tell him to “stop yelling” or on occasion “shut up” (kids can be harsh). 

This brings me to today’s post. It is a free app called TooLoud? The developers advertise this app as a tool to assist in determining environments that are potentially harmful to your hearing. For a classroom teacher or clinician this provides a great visual that aids in student management of group or individual loudness levels. A numerical value measuring the decibel (dB) is displayed along with a live line graph and sliding bar that indicates the environmental increase/decrease in noise.

Live line graph provides real-time representation of noise

TooLoud? can be calibrated to establish a baseline, as it recommends you set its slider in a room that measures 25dB. 

The app prompts you to calibrate in a silent room

Levels of loudness that are deemed “dangerous” or too loud are indicated by a red line graph and bar. Additionally, a warning will appear on the screen.

When the app detects it is too loud, red will appear, along with this warning

To serve as motivation, I plan on offering a reward to individuals or groups who are able to stay out of the “red” for the duration of their therapy session. TooLoud? can also be used to have students “catch” or point out when their peer is in the red.

Not only do the visuals provided by this app help students to monitor and manage their own loudness, but they serve to increase their awareness about noise in general. After using this a few sessions my hope is that “Dennis” and his peers will be more cognizant of not only their loudness, but safe listening habits

App Compatibility:

TooLoud? is available for download to the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. For those of you have a projector in your possesion, the iPad can be easily connected and projected onto a screen/wall. Unfortunarely, I have an Android operating system on my phone and am unable to access this app on it.  I guess I’ll be using my iPad for now!