How Do You Use It: Dry Erase

Speech Time Fun has a great linky party on using dry erase.  I'm behind the eight ball and didn't get this post completed by the link up date, but I really want to share with you what I do in my little speech room.  

Many of my students don't understand the concept of time and have problems with attention to task and sequencing.  The dry erase board has come in handy to schedule and sequence our therapy sessions.  With a dry erase schedule of what we're doing with our speech time, students are more focused on the lessons and know what is coming next.  They love checking off the completed tasks and usually have a "cash in" waiting at the end.  As you can see, I'm no artist!  However, the students never seem to notice or care.  

Life Skills

Here's how it works:  The first thing I do upon the student/students entering the room is to write up the schedule of my session.  While I am drawing (or writing) out the schedule , I verbally review it.   For example,  "First we will be working on calendar activities, second we are playing the basket game, third we will work on putting the pictures in order, and last you may add some beads to your necklace."  The Time Timer is a great visual and I show that visual on the white board.  The student checks off the activity when it is completed.

(EET Shamrock Link)

Notice how I don't use pictures for this groups schedule.  They are readers but still benefit from the schedule.  I also love having the lesson plan right in front of me as it helps me to track more goals and stay focused as well.  

Middle Level

Snow Day Sentence Scramble link

 Many of my middle school groups work on syntax and we use the dry erase boards for my monthly sentence scramble activities.   Each student in the group receives a scrambled sentence page and a white board.  Students work independently on their sentence pages and I check-in with each student to provide cues and mark progress.  The student erases the board when he/she is done and passes their card to the next person.  

Can you tell that I like my duct tape designs.  My dry erase boards were looking kind of dingy so I spruced them up with some colored tape.  I found this Scotch Expressions tape turquoise leaf design at Staples.   I use it everywhere to spruce up my office.

I hope you enjoy these ideas and find them useful in your work.  Head on over to Speech Time Fun for some more ideas on dry erase.  

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