My Comprehension of Complex Sentence task cards are a popular item and I have received some requests for more. I created another set that are a little more difficult from the first. They are appropriate for upper elementary to middle school language learners. It is a great way to add 36 more cards and allow for pretest and post test. You can see if they do well with the 2nd deck after working with the first.
They are similar to the first deck. Target words are presented within the context of a short paragraph, three to five sentences in length. The paragraphs are a little longer than in set 1. A comprehension question is asked to target words that are often found in complex sentences. Words specifically targeted include; neither/nor, either/or, instead, usually, unless, if/then, except, both, after, before, while, when, any, until, during, although, early, later, first, last, between, and middle.
I am posting the first 9 task cards so you can test them out. Click on the star image below to get the trial cards. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement or if there are more words that should be added. I always appreciate your feed back. you can contact me by using the comment bubble by post heading. I read comments before they are posted to avoid spam, so don’t be concerned if you don’t see your comment immediately.
The full set can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers. It consists of 36 double sided cards. The right side folded under the left side provides an answer when the card is flipped over. You can also separate the prompt from the answer card for some activities. They make good draw cards for student games.
The In Spontaneous Speech blog is in the process of much needed reconstruction and updating. The adventure started when I recently updated the Social Skills products on my Teachers Pay Teachers Site. This resulted in the free sample products not matching here on the site and needing updating. Of course it then became a cascading effect of changes, some external and some internal. However, I think you will like the changes. I will move on to the other headings later on, and I will keep you updated. Please read on to discover the changes.
First I updated the free product samples on the Social Skills Page, and they are ready for downloading. I started with the Social Skills Page since many of those cards were the oldest and seemed the most outdated. I used new clip art and added additional cards to some of these products.
When you have a chance, download the new free samples and replace your older ones. You can check out the new free samples by clicking on Social Skills on the index strip at the top and following the page down. You will notice the new buttons.
I switched the down load storage site so it should be easier to do downloads. In the past you may have encountered a two step process to get to the down load and sometimes may have received a message that the site had reached its maximum downloads. This was another complicating factor of the old infrastructure. When I started many years ago, I used Keep & Share, Photobucket, and a few other places as data storage sites. I had links going to 3 or more places and some of those places have since added restrictions. It made it difficult to figure out where problems were occurring if something stopped working. It became quite an undertaking to keep the links going.
Thank you for your product support because you have kept this site going and helped with the improvements since it’s conception. Very little is free in life so I am sure you aware that this site costs a bit to operate. The product sales have allowed me to get to a self hosted site with download capability within the site. This alleviated the need for multiple storage sites and all those links. I have been switching the links as I get to them.
This adventure also started because I started to cringe at some of the cards from those older sets. My clip art was less than stellar. Originally, I made them for my use and didn’t have time for frill. Now I have more time to explore digital art which was another interest of mine.
When I first started making task cards, I didn’t have experience with digital art or drawing tools you use on computers. I began drawing my own clipart because I couldn’t always find the clip art I was looking for. I wanted figures that were relevant to the content of the card and not the same figures everyone else was using. I didn’t want the clip art to depict very young children, because I know some of the students using my cards might be older than average for a grade. I knew older children may get put off by clip art that appears to depict young children. I also needed some very specific actions and objects.
Within the last year, I have acquired a notepad and stylet. I have been making digital art using the free app, Auto Desk Sketchbook. After trying other programs, this one seems to make the most sense to me. I love drawing without buying all those supplies that go with it. I discovered how to use layers, which allows you to revise drawings multiple times without having to start over, which is a real plus for me.
Before I close, a reminder to those who have purchased the full card sets on Teachers Pay Teachers, you will be able to download the updated versions free by just getting another download on the TPT site. They are all listed under the original titles. The card sets in the Social Skills Communication Bundle are all included in the update and can also be purchased separately. To get to the TPT site, click on the picture below.
I am ending this post using the thought process of Bad Thing and Good Thing. Bad Thing: Updating is a real headache and overwhelming after 7 years of building a foundation on trial and error. Good thing: Hosting a Blog has been a great hobby and learning experience. There was something cathartic about writing it all down. It gave me a boost and support at work when I forgot materials going between multiple work sites. I could bring up what I needed on a lap top or iPad. It was a great creative outlet. Finally, it forced me to look at my data files and create a better filing system.
With any such endeavors, there are a lot of chances for errors. Please let me know if there are errors on products so I can make corrections. It seems like a few always slip through. Constructive suggestions are always welcome.
Happy New Year! I hope you get off to a good start for the rest of your school year in 2019. I’m starting out the year with new vocabulary task cards. These cards are similar to the ones I made a couple of years ago using 4th grade vocabulary lists. This time I used Tier II Vocabulary lists from the 5th and 6th grade levels. I used as many words as I could that made sense within the context of the paragraphs I wrote. If you make it to the bottom of this post there is a free trial set.
They can also be used with older students who need supplemental help with vocabulary development. They do not have pictures that older students would find childish or refer to grade levels on the cards. There is a vocabulary list included for instructor reference.
Core State Standards put a strong emphasis on vocabulary words that occur frequently in academic text. These are referred to as Tier II Vocabulary. Students come across these words when reading Science, Social Studies and English text so not knowing them can make reading and understanding academic text difficult.
I am always trying to figure out how I can make the biggest impact on my students in the classroom and I think concentrating on vocabulary at the later elementary to middle school level can make a big difference with their comprehension. These cards use the words within short paragraphs so they address comprehension within text as well as giving context clues toward the word meanings.
I am going to give you a chance to try them out with a trial deck of 10 cards. If they work for you, you might want to consider buying the full set on Teachers-Pay-Teachers.
The full set has 2 sets of 16 sheets for a total of 32 sheetsof task cards. There are a total of 120 vocabulary words presented on the cards. Set 2 is a duplicate of set 1 with the following differences. Set 1 has the answers on the right half but they are scrambled and the student will need to find the correct answers from the list. These are marked with Find the Answer. Set 2 has the correct answers provided on the right half and is marked as Answers.
The cards are placed on the sheets so you can choose to make double backed cards. For example card two (vocabulary meanings), folded to the back, would make a good backing for the card containing the (text).
You could also cut right half off and make a double backed card with the card containing (text) and the comprehension questions folded up to make the other side. You could keep all of them together and fold right half back to provide word meanings and answers to the comprehension questions on the back side.
Set 1 with the mixed answers will require a student’s thought process to get an answer. Set 2 provides answers for a flip side if you choose to make the cards part of a learning center and self checking. By making both sets I can differentiate the instruction for different needs and methods of instruction.
I am going to give you a chance to try them out with a trial deck of 10 cards. I hope this helps with your return lesson planning. Just click on the colored lettering below.
February is the month I usually focus on antonyms. You may remember some of my past February bulletin boards that had an antonym theme to them. Some of my language learners still have difficulties with antonyms following 3rd grade which is when the Common Core has them listed for proficiency. A lot of my therapy materials seemed a bit childish for older students and they were tired of them by that point. I decided to create some task cards especially for them. This led me to producing task cards that were at a sentence level and using a little more advanced vocabulary then you would find in the early grades. I still include pictures because some of my students really benefit from visual cues. I like them self checking so that students can use them independently and for homework. As usual, I will post some trial cards for my readers to test out. There is a set of 12 cards.
I have a set of 40 cards at my TPT store if you find them useful and would like more. Click on the button below and it will take you directly to them.
I know finding speech therapy materials for high school students can be difficult. I also know that some students still benefit from having skills broken down into specific learning modules. They get lost when presented passages containing complex sentences and unknown vocabulary. Teachers Pay Teachers is having their annual Cyber Sale so I thought I would take advantage by showcasing two of my products that work with the High School crowd.
Recently, I have been a substitute Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) at a high school location. I found at the high school level it is often more relevant for students to bring their class work for speech therapy. However, the students being served often forget and come empty handed. I try to have activities on hand to make the time productive. I thought I would showcase 2 activities that have worked well with encompassing what they are working on. They are Word Association Cards for vocabulary development and Sentence Sequence Task Cards for complex sentence comprehension and development. There are free samples in the Vocabulary section of this blog for the Association cards and in the Expressive section for the Sentence Sequence Task Cards. If you haven’t tried them yet you should. If you want to get the full sets at my TPT store, they happen to be part of the Cyber Sale which makes them a real bargain. Click on the covers for a direct link to TPT
Our speech students are often behind with developing vocabulary. This affects them throughout all their classes. One way to boost vocabulary is to develop word association skills. They need to be able to compare and contrast new words to integrate them into the vocabulary they already have. I often tell them this analogy: Your brain is a closet with different shelves and drawers holding different words. You try to place things together that are similar such as your socks in a sock drawer. If you just try to memorize words without making connections with other words you know, it is like throwing everything in one big pile on the floor and trying to find a brown sock to match another brown sock. You won’t be able to find or remember what you have when you need it. It seems many of them can relate to this. Therefore categorizing and making associations is an important skill to learn for their academic career. This is a skill that gets better with practice.
High School students are often required to take notes on subjects that use a lot of complex sentence forms. They they need to be able to consolidate information and retain the meaning in their notes. Sequencing events using complex sentence forms is a natural way to get students to produce complex sentences and practice this. These cards present two different activities to address production and comprehension and promote better note taking.
In Activity 1, the students are instructed to use the main details of the three given sentences to form one complex sentence using connecting words such as; and, so, but, because, before, after, when, while, that, and then. In sentence production, students replace parts of the sentence with pronouns to prevent redundancy. They need to consider which information is most important, hold information into memory, think about time sequence, and then manipulate the ideas into one sentence. These skills are used in note taking as well as comprehending complex sentences in reading passages.
In Activity 2 the student is presented sentence examples. The students may have developed some of these while completing the first activity. One of the sentences does not have the same meaning as the other two or is an incorrect use of the conjunction. The students are instructed to find the incorrect sentence. The answer is provided in a QR code in the lower right corner of the card or by using the answer sheet. Students can correct the error sentence for additional practice. Student are often motivated by using technology and appreciate the QR code. It means the cards can also be used for independent practice.
I hope you find these products useful and they free up your time from lesson planning. Happy Holidays.
Readers Notice: This blog has been updated to let readers know the products now have the TPT interactive layer added and are appropriate for distance learning. This allows students to circle or underline the answers or hide the answers if you wish.
