Active Learning Study Group - September 2017 This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Introduction & Viewer Survey Chapter 2. Forum Question Answered Chapter 3. Materials Chapter 4. Position Board Case Study Chapter 5. Discussion Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start Chapter 1. Intro & Viewer Survey [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired Outreach Programs Content: Active Learning Study Group September 28, 2017 from 3:00-4:00 PM (CST) Presented by Charlotte Cushman, Education Resources Manager Perkins School for the Blind Charlotte.cushman@perkins.org Kate Hurst, Statewide Staff Development Coordinator TSBVI Outreach hurstk@tsbvi.edu right-side graphic: logos for Penrickton Center for Blind Children, Perkins, TSBVI Description End: Kate: Good afternoon. Hi, everyone, welcome! I'm Kate Hurst. And I'm Charlotte Cushman. We're awfully glad that you have joined us today for the active learning Study Group. We've got some information, housekeeping‑wise we want to share before we get started, but let me just say that I'm so thrilled to have so many people from so many different places joining in today. This is just a really wonderful opportunity for us to-- to meet and share about active learning. And-- and that's one of our dearest goals is to have all of us connected who care about active learning. Charlotte: Absolutely. Great to see a lot of returning friends who were with us last year as well as new people, so welcome, everybody. Kate: Excellent. Just a couple of things, we do have four more of these webinars scheduled for the school year. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Webinar Dates for 2017-2018 Content: • November 30, 2017 • January 25, 2018 • March 29, 2018 • May 17, 2018 Description End: The first one-- or the next one, after today, will be November the 30th, then we'll have another one January the 25th, and one on March 29th and then the final one will be May 17th. And we have a variety of topics that we're going to cover. This year, we're not going to follow just one book or look at one tool. We're really going to talk about a lot of different things related to implementing active learning, for older kids, for kids with CVI, things about how to set up your classroom, organize your day, just a lot of different topics. So I hope that you will tune in for all of these. If for some reason you should miss an active learning Study Group, because you have other obligations at that time, all of these will be archived and on the-- available for later viewing and all of them will be listed on the active learning space dot org website, so they will be easy to find. Charlotte: We want to remind folks to register for each webinar separately. I think that can be a little bit confusing. Just because you are here today, doesn't mean that you are registered for next time. We want you to come back. Kate: If you have problems you can contact me or Charlotte and we will be happy to facilitate you getting registered or any other problems that you might have with our-- with our-- accessing our broadcasts. Also, all of our broadcasts are available for ACVREP credit and SBEC credit in Texas. I think that many of you discovered that you can share this and get credit in your home states as well. You will be guided to complete an evaluation using a special code that we will provide at the end of the broadcast, so please stay tuned and get that code. You will enter that code in the evaluation after we receive your sign‑in roster and check you as attended, we will send you a link to go on and complete the online evaluation. You will use that code and that will give you your credits. So please be sure to do all of those things, because we want you to get credit for the time you're spending here. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Active Learning Newsletter Content: center photo: Figure 2 Screenshot of the newsletter mailing list sign-up page http://www.activelearningspace.org/ Description End: Also, I want to remind you that we have an active learning newsletter and to join in and start getting this active learning newsletter that comes out, ahhh, six weeks to a couple of months, depending on how busy Charlotte is, you can go on the active learning space website, on the home page and scroll all the way down to the bottom. And all that you have to do is submit an email and your name and we'll make sure that you get it. This also helps us to notify you of any special training events that are going on or updates to the website that you might want to be aware of, because we're continually building more and more and more on to this website and we want to keep you connected to what's new. So please take time to do that. I think you will enjoy the outcome. Now, we're going to pull up a couple of polls. We would like to just gather some information as we start out the year about who is with us. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Poll Content: o More than 5 o 3-5 o 1-2 o I have watched some of the recordings o This is my first one Description End: So the first one is have you participated in active learning Study Group webinars in the past? Then there's an option for answers, more than five, three to five, one to two. I have watched some of the recordings and this is my first one. So go online and vote for-- in the pod that's been pulled up. And let us know a little bit about who is here and who is participating in this. Did you pull that pod up? Charlotte: Yes. Kate: Okay, good. Okay, I think we have quite a few voting. Charlotte: I think the people who have been nor than three or four-- actually, four of them who have been to more than five, I think they should be sitting right here, Kate. Kate: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. It's really exciting that you are accessing some of these through recording and I'm so thrilled that we have such a large number of first timers. Charlotte: Yes, absolutely. Kate: I hope you will come back for more. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Poll Content: o TVI o SPED Teacher o Case Manager/Administrator o Education Consultant o Parent or family member o COMS o OT o SLP o PT Description End: Okay. Our second pod-- our second poll, let me pull that up. Is going to be which role best describes you. And the possibilities-- I need to hide one of these other polls. So I can pull up the right one. Which of these roles-- well, hum. I'm losing, which of those roles best described you? Teacher of the visually impaired, special education teacher, case manager or administrator, education consultant, parent or farm member, certified orientation and mobility specialist, occupational therapist, speech language pathologist or therapist and physical therapist. If you would just select one that best matches your role. We have a large number of teachers of the visually impaired, special education teachers, number of case managers and administrators, a number of family members, really glad to have our parents and family members joining us today. Some COMS, that's great. A few OTs and speech language therapists, really great. I'm sure there are other categories that we might have missed. All of a sudden it occurs to me we didn't put up anything in here for the teacher of the deaf or hard of hearing, I bet we have a few of those out there. If there's something we have overlooked, you can always let us know in the chat, we are curious about who is joining us today. Chapter 2. Forum Question Answered [ Slide end: ] Okay. So one of the things that you guys wanted and we started last year was including information from our public forum that's on active learning space and this-- this public forum is a select tab under the active learning space and you can submit questions there. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Questions Content: Submit your questions on our Public Forum! http://www.activelearningspace.org/public-forum center graphic: Figure 3 Screenshot of question form Description End: Now, Charlotte and I are going to apologize to you right up front because the website software we're using right now is kind of clunky. But wonderful news is, hopefully by the first of the year, we will have the whole system moved over to-- to a better software. It will look a little snazzier, it will be a little bit easier to go back and look at the conversations and the comments in our questions section. But in the meantime, just keep sending them. If you are not sure how to get them up there, just send them to Charlotte or me and we will see that they get up and Patty and others, not just Patty, but Charlotte, myself, other people that are out there doing active learning, folks from Narbethong especially have done a lot of commenting and sharing with that. I think it's a great place to share information and experience on active learning. Charlotte: Absolutely, yeah. Kate: Please do put that up there. Then when we've started doing last year during our Study Group is we started taking one of these questions from our forum and sort of sharing the response with the Study Group. [ Slide end: ] We figure, you know, we've got hundreds of people involved in this Study Group, so there might be some other ideas to share with the person who submitted it. So this question that we're going to look at today came from Jeanette. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Question Content: From Jeanette: I work with middle school aged children and struggle to find affordable age appropriate items that, especially those that light up, make sounds and vibrate. Any suggestions? Description End: She said I work with middle school aged children and struggle to find affordable, age appropriate items that-- that-- that especially those that light up, make sounds and vibrate. And so in response to that question, Patty-- from Penrickton center responded this way. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Response from Patty Content: • Use a wide variety of materials. • Expand beyond typical “toys.” • Look at companies that have "different" types of items like musical instruments, sensory materials, visual materials, etc. • Try some of the following: o Z-vibes, facial brushes, shoe polishers. o Vibrating toothbrushes, seed pod rattles, quack sticks. o Canary sticks, thunder tubes, paddle drums, egg shakers, chimes, (more musical instruments in catalogues). o Light up DNA ball, boing balls, mini light up spike balls, etc. Description End: Jeanette it's very important to have a wide range of materials to work with when using active learning techniques. I would recommend reading the materials section of the website for ideas. I want to underline that because we've added a number of things to that space and I've actually gone back and used it myself a number of times when I'm thinking about, you know, what might I use with a student. It's really-- there's? Great ideas up there. So go check that out. And then she says, you want to include items that expand from the typical toys that you find in the toy store. You know, there are many neat toys out there. But we really want to focus a lot on more everyday objects because, remember, a lot of our students don't have access, visually or even physically to a lot of those everyday objects, that all kids get to come in contact with. So having a lot of those in their environment, it's really an important way for them to be able to learn about the world around them. She says, start collecting catalogs from companies that specialize in different types of items like musical instruments, sensory materials, visual materials and so forth. And she says here are a few suggestions and she runs down a long list that I went in and updated under the materials section under sources. So if you go to www.activelearningspace.org and click on materials, on the left‑hand side you will see a menu, click on sources, all of the places that Patty and the folks at Penrickton go to, to purchase things, are there. I'm going to throw in that we also tend to, in our neck of the woods, in Texas, hit up hardware stores, hit up dime stores, Wal‑Mart, that sort of a thing it's a big one down year. Yard sales, oh, man I'm the queen of yard sales, flea markets, Goodwill, you name it, we go there. [ Slide end: ] One of the more successful things that we've done is we've started putting a box in our break room with a little note and giving some ideas of materials that we could use and asking teachers to just bring them in. And it's amazing what you can get, it's amazing what you can get. So we recommend that you-- that you do some of that. [ Slide start: ] repeat previous slide The age appropriate part, you know, take a look at what the peers are playing with and mucking with. And you can get some amazing ideas. Because, again, what is age appropriate can also be fascinating in terms of texture, sounds that it can make, you know, things that you can do with it. So, you know, really think outside of the box with what you include in it. She says to go a little further, here's some items that have sound and that light up that we use, a mini massager by water dancer, Z‑vibes, facial brushes, shoe polishes, vibrating tooth brushes, seed pod rattles, quack sticks, canary sticks, thunder tubes, paddle drums, egg shakers, chimes. She also uses light up DNA balls, boing balls, I'm not sure what those are, mini light up spike balls. [ Slide end: ] We have used things like the lighted fishing corks. There's a number of different things like that you can find sometimes in like recreational stores that are sort of interesting. The glow-- the glow bracelets and things like that. There's a lot of things that you can kind of come up with that way. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Response from Patty (con't) Content: • Use a wide variety of materials. • Expand beyond typical “toys.” • Look at companies that have "different" types of items like musical instruments, sensory materials, visual materials, etc. • Try some of the following: o Z-vibes, facial brushes, shoe polishers. o Vibrating toothbrushes, seed pod rattles, quack sticks. o Canary sticks, thunder tubes, paddle drums, egg shakers, chimes, (more musical instruments in catalogues). o Light up DNA ball, boing balls, mini light up spike balls, etc. Description End: And as she says, there are hundreds of ideas, remember vibrating doesn't have to be mechanical. An item can vibrate by banging on it or it can be something like a balloon when it's inflated and there's certain sounds made on it, it gives a nice vibration. Sound doesn't have to be battery operated. It can be a ping‑pong ball bouncing on a wooden board. Sight can be reflective paper, yellow on back or things that light up. So hope that gives you guys from ideas. I think if you get in and look at some of the materials, you will also get some ideas from that and, please, send us your ideas or post some in the chat right now and we can add those to the mix. Charlotte: yes. I just wanted to shout out to Iris Maxwell here from Ontario sent in some wonderful photos of some of the materials that she's made and they are now on our website. Thanks and hopefully the rest of you will send some to. Kate: Absolutely, absolutely, also the Nash folks. [Multiple voices]. Penrickton, that goes without saying, so-- Charlotte: Right. Chapter 3. Materials Kate: Okay, Charlotte, I'm going to turn it over to you. Charlotte: I think we're just about ready to start the video portion of our show. We do a little pre-recording because we have a lot of technical issues that happen or sometimes we have had. So we're going to have a little pre-recorded video now. We will come back and have live chat after that. Post in the chat box with questions or comments that you have while we're going along. [ Video start: ] Charlotte: The goal of our webinar series is to continue to familiarize people with the principles, as well as the implementation, of Active Learning. We try to coordinate the content of the Study Group with the Active Learning Space website, by pointing you to relevant content there and we hope that you will spend time exploring the site. We also want to encourage you to send in your questions and to sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on what’s new. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Materials Content: How do you match a child's skill level and needs with specific materials? • Identify preferences • Determine collaborative goals • Offer multiples of a range of materials for the child to play with and explore Description End: As another school year begins, we decided to focus our first session on materials; both how to choose them and how to present them. How do you figure out which materials to use to work on specific skills? How do you match a child’s skill level and needs with specific materials? Choosing materials and equipment requires that an assessment be done on the child and it also necessitates that the teacher or adult be familiar with each item, knowing its properties and some of the different ways it can be used. So, regarding Assessment, let's review. Let’s be sure that we are all thinking about assessment in a similar way. First, begin with an assessment tool, such as the Functional Scheme Assessment. If you’re not familiar with it, you can learn more about it on the Active Learning Space website. You can also watch recorded webinars from a previous year, and these are available on the TSBVI website from 2015 and 2016. It may also be helpful to use the Sensory Learning Kit-- you might know it as the SLK-- as part of an assessment to determine the primary sensory learning channels as part of a Learning Media Assessment. Finally, it's critical to look at a learner’s preferences. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Learner Preferences Content: Screen shot of Learner Preferences form from Active Learning Space website. www.activelearningspace.org/forms Description End: The profile that emerges from these assessment tools will help the team to determine appropriate goals for the student, which is really the starting point for planning what materials and equipment would be best for that individual. You might find it helpful to use the Active Learning Planning Sheet to guide and organize you. [ Slide end: ] It’s a 6-page form that includes the following sections; Identification of a child's likes and dislikes, such as objects, actions, and people; a summary of sensory channels; notes on observations of the child; ideas for specific items to include in instruction; goals, objectives, skills; data for child progress reporting. And you can find this form on the Active Learning Space site, as well. We invite you to share any forms or planning approaches you use! Please let us know if you have anything you’d like to share. Regarding equipment, I wanted to point out that we are making a distinction between “equipment” and “materials”. Equipment refers to what Dr. Lilli Nielsen called “perceputalizing aids,” or the larger pieces that are more permanent and which are often used for positioning or providing access to an activity. Materials refer to individual items that the learner is exploring while positioned on various pieces of equipment. Materials may be attached to a piece of equipment or presented in whatever way allows the child to explore them as independently as possible. We sent out a link to equipment before this study group webinar and we hope that, if you haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, you’ll take some time to familiarize yourself with the different pieces of equipment, from Active Learning, that are on our website. We have a description and videos of most of the major pieces of equipment, and we're looking at adding videos of additional pieces soon. With materials, we’re going to be referring a lot, today, to the section of the Active Learning Space site that's called Materials. We hope you’ll take the time to explore what’s there, and send in any questions you may have. Let’s begin by looking at some factors to consider when choosing materials for Active Learning. If you look on the page that says, "Points to Consider When Choosing Materials," you'll see that we begin by looking at what are the learner’s preferences? As part of the individual learning profile, preferences should be noted, as some learners prefer items that are hard, rather than soft; rough, rather than smooth; hot, rather than cold. Use objects that are interesting to the learner, and limit those that might be aversive. What's the learner’s skill level? Again, it’s important to determine what the learner is able to do with his/her body, especially the mouth, face, hands, arms, trunk, legs and feet. Knowing this ahead of time will help in the selection of materials that are developmentally appropriate. For example, does a child with cerebral palsy hold her hand in a fisted position? If so, materials should be selected that respond when pushed by the fisted hand, such as a seedpod rattle, or beads suspended next to a hanging plate. Similarly, if a learner has more movement in the feet than the hands, placing items near, or under the feet, may be the best option. If a child is beginning to grasp items, it is helpful to choose materials that are easy to hold on to. There should also be a large number of multiple items. Think about how many objects a typical toddler encounters throughout the day. All children need this opportunity to explore, and interact, and play with a wide range of items. This exposure to a wide range of materials, as well as a large quantity, gives the learner the chance to explore and compare. Through play and exploration, a child learns about size, shape, texture, flexibility, and density. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Large Number of Multiple Items Content: • Sometimes goes against training as a TVI or Special Educator • Learners need a quantity of multiple items to be able to explore and compare the properties of the materials left-side photo: Figure 5 Child playing with a bowl containing various balls. right-side photo: Figure 6 Child playing with various types of tubes Description End: The images on this slide were taken from a video on our site, and this was something that the SKI-HI Institute was kind enough to let us share. I encourage all of you to watch it and see how the quantity of similar items, which are also called “comparables,” enables this young boy to explore and discover. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: Figure 5 Child playing with a bowl containing various balls. Description End: In the image on the left he is playing with a large number of small balls. Each one has- is a little different-- ping pong balls, golf balls, rubber balls, balls with holes, but they're all Balls! [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: Figure 6 Child playing with various types of tubes Description End: Similarly, in the image on the right, he is comparing different types of hair curlers. Each one has a different texture, or property, such as ridges or holes. [ Slide end: ] Having them together on a tray allows him to compare the weight, the size, the density; to see how they are all the same and also all different. Having a large number allows him to make these discoveries. When the adult and child are interacting, it’s helpful to have a duplicate set of materials, so that the child can be exploring his item, at the same time that the adult is exploring next to the child. This allows the adult to imitate the child, and to take turns by following the child’s lead. There should be a wide range of materials, reflecting each of the learning modalities, including vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell and movement. It's important to offer materials that address each of the sensory channels. While a child may have a preferred sensory channel, a variety should be offered for the learner to explore. So, what are materials made of? Think about what the materials offered to a child, to play with, are typically made of. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Wide Range of Materials Content: • What is it? • What does it do? Description End: Plastic is the least interesting material, and yet most children’s toys are made of plastic. Think about how to incorporate other types of materials, such as those made of wood, paper, metal, rubber, cloth, leather, string, and also items from the natural world, such as stone, or pine cones, or corncobs. [ Slide end: ] Interacting with a range of materials will help the child to learn about different characteristics, like rough, smooth, big, little, wet, dry, heavy, light. For children with visual impairments, it's especially important to interact with materials that have a range of tactile, auditory, olfactory and gustatory qualities. What does the object do? Think about what each object does, both in its intended function, as well as in any special properties it may have. For example, a metal spoon can be used for eating, but it also makes an interesting sound, when it's banged against something else. A wire whisk can be used in cooking, but it is also interesting to poke fingers inside. Try to find items that have multiple features that may appeal to the learner, so that it might make an interesting sound, but also be easy to grasp or smell. There's a list of attractive objects on the Active Learning Space site on the page called Attractive Objects. It includes objects with Tactually Attractive Qualities; objects with Auditorially Attractive Qualities; objects to Hang Along the Wall; objects promoting concept of Numbers and Parts to Whole; objects for Experience of Weight and Temperatures; objects to Inspire Putting Fingers into Holes; objects that will Change Shape. Okay, so let’s put this all together now. Think about what the learner is working on and what the priorities are. Look at which materials have properties that can be matched to those goals. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Matching Materials to Learner Goals Content: left-side photo: Figure 7 Objects to be used in two-handed separating activity, for example pipe cleaners and pipes. left-side text: Two-handed separating activity right-side photo: Figure 8 Variety of suction cups for pulling off activity. right-side text: Pulling off Description End: In this slide we’ve got two examples from Narbethong State Special School in Australia showing some materials and what skills they address. In the image on the left you can see a number of different types of brushes with long handles that are inside containers. These can be used to work on using two hands, to separate. In the photo on the right you’ll see a bunch of suction cups, and these can be used to practice pulling off. These are posted on the page on our website called “Ideas to Match Materials to Goals,” and you’ll see some other great examples there. So where can you find materials? What are the brest sources. Well, think beyond toys and typical school catalogs. There is a list of sources for materials on the Active Learning site, and we'd love to hear from you if you have ideas of places to find things, too. [ Slide end: ] Our list includes makers of musical instruments, vibrating devices, and other great things. Kitchen stores often have items that are appropriate, like measuring spoons, wire whisks. And many of the best materials aren’t ones you’re going to find in an educational supply store. So, be creative! So, for presenting the materials, let's think about how the materials should be presented in order to maximize a child’s ability to explore and interact with them as independently as possible? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Placement of Materials Content: left-side photo: Figure 9 A wall mounted position board with various items attached. left-side text: Activity Wall (wall-mounted position boartd) right-side photo: Position board with various items attached. right-side text: Position Board Description End: It is important to work with the team on this. The OT and PT should be consulted about best positioning for hand use. Is the learner more able to explore independently when positioned on her stomach, or on back? Standing or sitting? Left or right side? It may be that the learner is best able to access materials using her right hand in a supine position, but perhaps the GOAL is to increase the use of the left hand. This might mean, for example, that preferred items are placed on both sides of a Little Room or a Position Board. Placing a duplicate favorite, or similar item, on the child’s non-preferred side, as well as in the original preferred place, will encourage the child to develop skills on both sides, use both hands, cross midline, etc. At the same time, the child can still continue to explore the favorite item on the preferred side in the preferred manner. For example, the boy in this photo really enjoys the colorful bells, and he is motivated to reach across the midline to play with them. In the photo of the Position Board, on the right, you can get a sense of how close together materials can be. This gives the learner lots to explore and compare, ensuring that there is always something interesting to interact with. The TVI or vision teacher should be consulted about the preferred visual field and distance. While vision may not be the focus of each activity, it is still important to consider how materials can best be presented to optimize the use of all senses. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Placement of Materials Content: left-side photo: An activity vest with various items attached. left-side text: Activity Vest right-side photo: Figure 12 A child laying in a little room with various objects suspended above his torso and feet. right-side text: Notice that the materials are available by the child's feet, as well as his hands, chest and arms. Description End: Another point in presenting materials is to be sure that there are always materials available, in whatever position the child is in. An activity vest, like the one shown in the slide on the left, is a great way to be sure that materials are available right on the child’s own body. If a child has her hands fisted on her chest, an activity vest invites exploration in that position. With a Little Room, materials can be hung over a child’s feet, as well as his chest and arms. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Placement of Materials Content: left-side photo: Child in a HOPSA dress left-side text: Activity Wall next to HOPSA dress track right-side photo: Feet of child suspended in HOPSA dress touching tray of plastic pegs and crinkle paper. right-side text: Tray of pegs and mylar crinkle paper under feet (HOPSA dress) Description End: If a child is in a HOPSA dress on a track, be sure that there are materials available for feet, hands, and mouth to explore. These can be on the HOPSA dress itself, under the child’s feet, on an activity wall, or somewhere else where they can explore them. When possible, items should be presented in a range of locations, as the learner may gravitate to exploring with her feet one day, exploring with her hands another, and so on. When you are designing an activity, remember that positioning devices are not activities! Instead, think about what the activity is, and what piece of equipment would best enable the child to participate as fully as possible. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Placement of Materials Content: left-side photo: Figure 13 Students at Narbethong State Special School in a circle on support benches right-side text: o In this photo from Narbethong State Special School, students are positioned on support benches in such a way that they can interact with each other using a tub of balls. o The placement of this tub in the middle of a circle of support benches is designed to encourage socialization. Description End: For example, in this photo from Narbethong State Special School, the ACTIVITY is group play, with goals such as grasp and release, visually directed reach, responding to interaction of peers, etc. and the perceptualizing aid being used here is the support bench. Note that the support bench itself is not the activity. Chapter 4. Position Board Case Study [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Case Study Background Content: • 10-year-old girl • CVI • Cerebral Palsy • Rare genetic syndrome Description End: So we’ve looked at the importance of selecting materials that match a learner’s goals. We’d like to look now at an example of a student, and what materials were selected by her team to address her goals. We’ll watch two videos: the first one will be of Sara Kitchen, who is an Education Consultant with TSBVI Outreach, and the second is of a student. Okay, here's Sara showing us a position board she's made. [ Video start: ] Sara: Some of the considerations for this particular position board, that... we... made note of, and then employed-- [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Designing a Position Board Content: • Match learner preferences and learner goals to specific materials Description End: This child is very strong, so large elastic was used. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Learner Preferences Content: • Banging objects against each other • Putting fingers in holes • Tangling fingers in things • Metal, shiny things • Mouthing/Chewing • Taking things apart • Vibration • Open and close • Clear containers • Gel beads • Color red Description End: We thought about that she likes to bang objects against each other-- that she needs to, kind of, have more experience with smaller objects, and... putting her fingers in holes. So, there's plenty of opportunities for that, and to tangle her fingers in things. Now the things that we found that she likes; she really likes metal, shiny things. She's very visual and drawn to metal, shiny things. She likes shaking. She likes mouthing. She likes taking things apart. She likes vibration. She likes to open and close. She likes to turn pages in books, and she likes clear containers. [ Slide end: ] And so, we actually have a different activity for her with clear containers and gel beads! [Excited] She loves gel beads! Very visual kid. But for her tactile exploration-- this what we made. One of the things that we always consider when... we're making a Position Board is, "What does it do?" What does the object do? So, it needs to do something that the child enjoys, and then, maybe, something else that the child discover. So, here we have something you can shake. [metal ball pinging] Take apart. You want to take the koozie off. Here we have something-- if you have little fingers, you can get your fingers into the holes. You can also bang it-- stretch. This is fun for mouthing. If you squeeze it, [Clicking] you might get a nice clicking sound. This is really heavy. [Crinkling] The child likes gel beads, so she might like marbles, too. And then you can also find these things-- these nice round things up here that you can slide back and forth on picture wire, which is very strong. This is a little end of- little leather end of something-- mostly for chewing. Another thing that she might be able to compare. [patting] And also red is a color that she really enjoys. This is a vibrating thing, that if you turn it on, it may entice her [vibration] to reach inside... and get it. She can also access just by... pressing it, but we want to encourage her to reach inside. That's a new thing. [vibration stops] Also, underneath is something you can scratch. It's a... [tapping] emory board. Here's an "open and close." [clicking] She likes to open and close. [rattling] Here's some more things you can put your fingers in, and bang. And if you want you, you might... [clank] accidentally put it in-- something you can put in. [clank] And this is another thing you can put your whole hand through. On the other side... we going to get some color. [metal ball rattling] I think she does these for vision; just for context. Here is something, you see the-- these were on tank tops that I got [Indiscernible] Plastic stretchy things. They are further away so that they don't get mouthed as much. They're more for the fingers to encourage reaching out. And then, here's something else fun to play with on the end of that [pop] which just came undone. [laugh] Here's another thing you can put your fingers in. It has interesting texture. This is really nice for being able to compare. It's ring sizer. She could mouth this... and put her fingers in the holes-- even her tongue, if she wanted to. Here is a nice clear container with a... a... bunch of beads that are strung around the inside. So, even if she gets the top off [rattling] they won't come out. And they can be shaken. Here's something you can slide. Curlers you can slide. And you can also put them inside of each other. And they're a nice rough texture. Here's something that might be fun to bang. [metal banging] Sounds different here than it does here... [hollow banging] than it does here. [wooden banging] Here's another fun "hingey" thing. Here's something that vibrates [banging] and it's also silver. And you can also stick your fingers in the holes. Here's something for comparing sizes... [rattling] and nesting. A scratchy [scratching] also red is a favorite color. And sparkly is also very enticing. Here's another thing to encourage fingers in holes, and you can slide it up and down. You can take these apart, if you're so inclined; and... these are pretty safe for a person who likes to chew-- [tinkling] they're pretty large-- and there spoons! What better thing to chew on, then spoons? You can put your finger in the hole and bang this [banging] You can shake it. And... it's pretty tough. So, those are all the things-- and there's probably even for things that you could do with this Position Board that I didn't know about. [ Video end: ] Charlotte: Now we want to show what this ten year-old girl does when she's presented with the board for the first time. This is a short clip from a much longer session. [ Video start: ] [vibrating on tabletop] [indiscernible voices] [soft vibration] Staff: I wrote the library. I didn't write the other one. I wrote Sharon, [Indiscernible] and the library, but I did not do the other one. Right... [coughing] [other student & staff voices] Sara: I think she likes the scratchy thing underneath there. [metal scratching] Student: [verbalizing] [rhythmic humming] Sara: She wants to look inside. [staff voices] [metal clank] [clanking] [other student & staff voices] [vibration] [metal ball rattling in bottle] Sara: Does she still have that red thing in her mouth, too? Lynne: Mm-hmm. [other student & staff voices] Lynne: I think she's trying to put that back there. [vibrating] [other student & staff voices] [coughing] [pop] [other student & staff voices] [metal ball rattling in bottle] [beads sliding in bottle] [coughing] Sara: She's looking at what she's doing. [staff and student reading a story aloud] Sara: Both the hinges open the same way. The Altoids tin and this one. Lynne: Both of them? Sara: The other one's on the other side. Got to use the other hand. [laughing] [staff and student reading a story aloud] Lynne: Crossing midline, using two hands. Sara: When she was playing with Tina, she was holding a bunch of bottle in her hand. She was turning them over and looking at them, while she was turning. We got two hands exploring. Two hands! That's awesome! Lynne: She's looking at it. Sara: Putting the fingers in the holes. You are doing all the things you are supposed to be doing. [other student & staff voices] [beads rattling] [staff and student reading a story aloud] [ Video end: ] Charlotte: We hope that those examples gave you some ideas of things you might try with your own students. [ Video end: ] Chapter 5. Discussion Charlotte: Well, there was a lot of-- a lot of activity in the chat rooms. We wanted to talk a bit about that. Some of you were in room 1, some in room 2. You can't see what people are writing in the other room. A lot of you were really interested in the position board and wondering how it was sitting. We think it was on a piece of dysom, not a sticky mat. Not actually attached to the table. A number of people were asking where they could get information or examples of position boards for a wheelchair. Activity vests. There are lots and lots of ideas on the active learning space website, so we really hope that you will go on there and have a look. And specifically, I think we really wanted, also, to introduce a couple of special guests who are with us today. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Penrickton Center for Blind Children Content: • Patty Obrzut will not be able to join us today because she is doing another training • Joining us are from Penrickton are: • Jessica McCavit, Occupational Therapist • Cindy Bowman, Activities Director Description End: We have two people joining us from the Penrickton Center for Blind Children in Michigan and Patty Obrzut is an OT there. But we're lucky enough to have Jessica Russell and Cindy Bowman with us from there today. Also Tricia from early Narbethong and Lori Enroth, a parent who manages a wonderful active learning Facebook page. So we're-- we would like to open it up to all of you judge US to find out what some of your reactions might have been there to the video and specifically some of those folks that we introduced, if you would like to-- to chime in and let us know what you think, we can look in the chat box. Is that probably the easiest way to do it? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Submitting Questions Content: center photo: screen shot of AdobeConnect Chat box Description End: Kate: Or if any of those folks will raise their hands, we can unmute your mic and let you speak. Charlotte: Great, let's do that. Somebody is asking for the link to the active learning space site. You want to pop that in? Kate: I will, I will. Charlotte: A lot of people were also asking if you would be also have access to the videos. Yes, we are going to post those on the site. So this whole webinar, today's whole session will be posted as a whole before long. But we also were going to have Sara Kitchen who was talking about the position board, how to make it, how they selected the items. That's going to be a video that's posted independently. Then the video of the student herself is going to be posted. So we're really excited, if you are sharing these with the people that you are working with, and that's another reason to sign up on the newsletter because as soon as they are posted, I'll be sure to list them when we send out that newsletter and you will know to go and look for them. So-- so do you want to put the Lori Enroth Facebook page in there. [Multiple voices]. Kate: Let's ask Laurie to do it. Laurie put it in the chat. She knows where it is. Charlotte: That's even better. All right. Another question that came up in the chat room was what about students who are mobile? Because, really, the focus of our discussion today was on students who are-- who are maybe in wheelchairs or not able to easily go and get materials. But I think, really, the key is that for all of these learners, it's about actively exploring, right? Hence the name active learning. It's about you know the adult is not intervening. There was no adult, you know, saying "Hey look and see what's here, look and see what my object is." It's there for the child to explore in that stage of offering and that's really one of the keys. [ Slide end: ] Also, having interesting things around, whether it's on the child's body or somewhere where the child can walk and find it in the station or on a shelf, some kind of area, all of that would be applicable to learners who are mobile as well as those who are just able to access things on their own body. Kate: Let me just throw in here, Charlotte, a comment or two. You know, one of the things that comes up in Texas quite a bit is aligning to the general curriculum. You know, if you look at what's being used in science classes, in-- in-- in literature, what's discussed in literature classes or reading class, social studies, geography, you can get a lot of great ideas for materials to include. And an example of this, I think there's a picture or two of this up on the website, is in one fifth grade class they were studying fossils. So the active learning activity they took a container, with sand in it, and they just put in a variety of fossils in it that they went and got. And for the student to just encounter and explore. And they were very wonderful textures and feel to them and the weight, the heaviness of them. And the thing that was kind of cool that they added on for this student who has quite a lot of vision and is highly motivated by lights and things, they got a little-- headlight, like, you know, explorers wear and put on her. She could shine it down in on the object, she would reach in and play with it. I thought that was just a terrific idea that really aligned with what her peers were doing, they were learning about fossils, they were learning about things. So she could-- at her own level, encounter these and share that experience, too. So I thought that was just a really clever idea but, you know, we saw Chyra and Jack both at Penrickton doing activities around seeds and plants and things. Those came straight out of-- [Multiple voices]-- science activities, art activities, there's a million things in art classes that make great materials for-- for active learning. Charlotte: If you go on to the implementation section of the active learning space site, that's where you would find a lot of those things, the science ones that Kate mentioned and a number of other things that you can just get some ideas. Kate: Yeah. And I also want to point you all towards-- there is a couple of links on the implementation, one called map sticks and one called journey sticks. These actually came from an individual named Joe Gibson who is-- got his doctorate in-- I'm not going to remember the really official title, but basically outdoor activities, recreation and leisure kind of things and he works with adults who are deafblind. What is very cool is that all of the stuff that he does is heavily active learning kinds of things. And I mean he does wild and crazy things like they go out and sled in the snow and sleep on reindeer hides and things like that in Norway. But the other things that he does that I think is so wonderful, he gets-- they take a lot of travel outside. All of your orientation and mobility folks, be thinking about this, they just go out and they explore the out of doors and then gather things from that-- that time of being outdoors and then they come back and they turn it into art. And that is just a wonderful whole-- I mean, you can do a whole unit on things like that, just going out and exploring the world around you. For our students, they don't get the opportunity to do that all that often, so building that into their day is really, really important. Charlotte: So true. We had another question that I wanted to just kind of put out there about what do you do about colleagues who don't buy into active learning. And unfortunately that's a question that we hear a lot. One resource, we hope that you will share the active learning space site with them because there's a lot to explore. But one resource that we recommend is actually on the home page of the active learning space site. It's a little clip from a local news channel who went to Penrickton Center for Blind Children in Michigan and interviewed them. You really you get the men in the suits who are saying, I don't understand why we do this. And a small simulation. And I think it's a nice way, we played it for our board of trustees, you know. It's a nice way to really show people who maybe are not educators or maybe who don't have any exposure to active learning. Kate: Great. Charlotte: Kate, I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the lesson-- the planning sheets. Kate: I will do that. I want to jump in real quick with just a couple of things from the chat that I think are worth mentioning and sharing with you all of you guys. Lori mentions the two Facebook pages that she has, Active Learning for the Disabled is part of Lilliworks Foundation, and [indiscernible]. You can go to Facebook and search for those and get involved, I think that's good. Also she mentions if you are interested in books and equipment, the authorized dealer in the United States is-- is www.lilliworks.org. I'm not sure in Australia and some of the European countries, if any of you know, where you go to purchase your materials and supplies, please put that in the chat so folks can have access to that. And then Rochelle says I have such a difficult time selling my teachers on active learning. So many of them want to resort to plastic battery operated toys, speech output buttons and hand over hands. Is there a good resource for teachers who have never heard of active learning? Yes. Go to the active learning site, go to the principles of active learning, implementation, there's tons of stuff, Patty does whole lessons. You can actually access two days of training that Patty does in little bitty, digestible bites. Begin to explore it-- Charlotte: Maybe I could also say, we have been finding more and more people are using the active learning space site as a way to do in‑services. People meet as a group say after school, say let's just watch this five minute video and have a discussion. Kate: Yeah, talk about it. Charlotte: Sometimes it's kind of a lot to do by yourself, you are not sure if somebody is going to look at it, but it's a nice thing to do together. Kate: We have started an active learning Study Group in campus here at TSBVI, taking a look at certain chunks on the website, saying how do I think about this in terms of my student. I'm really excited about what the discussion, where the discussion goes. Let's see, some of the other things-- that we have here-- Let's see. Amanda Crayton says I have several mobile students, so we made a sensory corner-- Charlotte: In the classroom with a red carpet to identify it. Students learned quickly that this was a place to work, play with materials independently. We have a play cube students can enter with a mirror and an easy to access shelf and two large position boards on the wall. One is rotating based on student's interests and needs. The other has materials based on the current theme. There's a net for bean bags, so we also have beads and items hanging with elastic from that. I mentioned in the chat, Amanda, but we would love to see images from that if you---- [speaker interrupted-- multiple voices] Ideas for more mobile students. Kate: Now I'm going to talk just a little bit that form that we shared earlier. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Learner Preferences Content: screen shot of learner preferences document from Active Learning Space website. Description End: I actually-- you know, I have recognized that I have a tendency sometimes to create forms based on my, you know, crazy imagination. And think, oh, everybody should use this. And I got this novel idea of like maybe I should use it, too, to see how well it works. So I took this form that we're sharing with you and I actually give it a whirl. One of the things that I want to say to you guys is there is nothing sacred about this form. Take it as a place to jump off from and intuit, in fact as I started working with it, I think on the website, in fact I know on the website there is an example of how it's used and this is the one that I did. You will note that there's some additional things there. I found it, you know, pretty good, pretty well set up with the likes and dislikes, I didn't do anything to change that. And then I didn't do a whole lot on the summary information. And what you want to do with the summary information is if you are not sure how this would work, go watch pathways to learning. Patty does a wonderful job of explaining how you look at sensory channels and try to figure that out. So once you kind of figure out the-- the pathways to learning or the sensory channels, you can rank them and what I did with this is that after I got them ranked, it occurred to me that in planning for the student, there was some other considerations. So I added on a little section called other considerations. For example, the student that I had, has a seizure disorder and has quite a number of seizures. So I thought that this was important information for us to include when we are planning to think about is there anything special that's going to trigger a seizure, he's on a ketogenic diet, if he's using food items, what can we use, not use, we have to think about those sorts of things. I went through and answered the questions that stayed pretty much the same. Then when I got down to the last section where it talks about ideas for specific objects to through, what I did is I listed in order of ranking the-- the sensory channels and I highlighted the first three and so as I began to think of things and marked them on the chart where it says is this related to vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell or proprioceptive, of course some of them are going to be related to a number of things, almost all of them will be related to touch in some way. I would go through and highlight the ones that for sure addressed the first three channels, the priority channels. And what they did for me, as I was coming up with ideas, I realized that I had a whole lot of things around touch, but I didn't have as many as I needed initially that really looked at those-- those main three sensory channels for my students, which happened to be taste, smell and hearing. Taste and smell, a lot of times, we don't think about building things in around taste and smell. So I really went back and rethought some of my objects to include, to include ones that had properties related to taste and to smell. And I found it really helpful to me in just sort of planning things out. And I will say that in doing this, I saw this as just the place to get started with the student. It's not the ultimate menu. It's just a place to get started. And as you get started and you start doing the functional scheme assessment alongside, if that's not already done, then they play back and forth with each other. As you learn more about skills, it helps you think about the objects, you know, what can they do with their hands, you know. If they don't have good grasp, are-- are you going to need to think about objects they can get their fingers tangled up in like Sara was talking about. Just playing back and forth between the functional scheme assessment as you begin to do that and this as a jumping off place to begin to refine the objects and keep a chart of it. Charlotte: I was going to say, when you were talking about this as being a place to get started, you had a really impressive list of things that were in there. I think that you mentioned you got some of those from the list of attractive objects. Kate: I did. I also went to Lilli's books in the comprehending hand, she has a lot of suggestions. She has a list of treasure chest ideas. Some of these are up on our website, some are not-- the FIELA curriculum. That is a wonderful resource. If you don't have the whole one, just the manual, you can look through it and get really good ideas that are developmentally appropriate ideas to get you going. What's neat is once you get going, it kind of-- one idea leads to another. Charlotte: Right. Kate: And so, you know, I think that that's really important. And then the other thing that I have to say, I was sharing this with someone just the other day and-- they were like, gosh you've got 70 blanks there, are we supposed to come up with 70 objects? I was like "at a minimum." Lilli says at a minimum 70. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Assignment Content: Send us an example of some materials you use (with an image of the materials) to address a particular goal. We are always looking for new ideas! Submit your ideas to Charlotte Cushman at charlotte.cushman@perkins.org Description End: So, you know-- again, you may not be able to pull all of this together at one fell swoop. That's okay. Start where you can start, add to, you know, Christmas is coming up. Their grandparents, friends want to give gifts, give them a wish list of things. They can be little inexpensive things. They can be things they can clean out of their junk drawer, you know, that's okay. Use those resources and those friends to help you gather these things. Charlotte: We just got the question in the chat box about what FIELA stands for. It's flexible, individual, enriched, level, appropriate. So that's-- that's that. That's-- Kate: This is on the website. But this is the little manual that I was mentioning. There is a-- there is a big binder that goes with this. But just this little manual is pretty inexpensive and it has great, great, great, great ideas. [ Slide end: ] Charlotte: We're just about out of time. So I wanted to invite everyone, I've mentioned this several times, but I really would love to encourage you to send in images of materials that you've got. [ Slide start: ] repeat previous slide And particularly how they address a specific goal. I think that you've seen in the chat box and from our discussions today that it's really beneficial to share these ideas, so we love anything that you send us. My email address I have put in the chat box, on the slide in front of you. Charlotte.cushman@perkins.org. If you don't remember that, go to the active learning website and it's on the forums there as well. [ Slide end: ] Thanks for joining us today, everyone. We hope that you will be back again in November. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Thank you for joining us! Content: Active Learning Study Group September 28, 2017 right-side graphic: logos for Penrickton Center for Blind Children, Perkins, TSBVI Description End: Don't forget to register and sign up on the newsletter and we're delighted that you could be with us here today. Kate: Send in your rosters, complete your evaluation.