A Poem

by Nol K. Martin-tungpalan
When you speak your mind
From genuineness and integrity
Acid tongues matter little
When you speak your mind
From your truth
Respect is earned
When you speak your mind
Without venom
You inspire conversation
When you speak
It reveals some truth about you
Speak your mind from who you are
And not from who you would like
To be perceived
And speaking your mind
Will always be your
Homage to the real self

Rolling Right Along...

This week articulation groups monitored their speech and practiced fluency/automaticity while playing games. As the competition mounted, they needed to listen to themselves and focus on target sounds. Even though they were excited, they still had to speak clearly.

The third and fourth grade language group reviewed the True Story of the 3 Pigs by sequencing events from the story. Then they listened to the traditional version of the fairy tale and compared the two versions using a large Venn diagram. The students wrote sentences describing events from the stories to explain how the versions are the same and different.

Fifth and sixth grade students continued the debate; Books vs. Movies. They completed graphic organizers listing their preference and explaining their reasons. The students continue to focus on providing valid support and elaborating on their responses. They are developing critical thinking skills as well as written expression. Each week they need fewer prompts from the teacher. Mrs. DeYoung is very proud of their progress.

Spotlight on Language Groups

After Thanksgiving break the third and fourth grade language group enjoyed listening to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. They drew portraits of A. Wolf and then composed character descriptions on the computer. The students were developing details in their sentences.

Fifth graders continue to learn about expository structure in writing. They read an article about Hawaii to practice using context to infer meaning of unknown words and used a graphic organizer to identify key ideas, supporting details, and elaboration in the passage.

Students at the junior high practiced stating an opinion, providing support or reasons, giving examples, and making a personal connection to the topic. They were challenged to not only express a viewpoint, but to justify their response.

All of these activities encouraged students to elaborate! We will continue to focus on support and elaboration in the coming weeks.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Mrs. DeYoung will meet with parents during the week of November 30-December 3. Please contact her if you would like to schedule a conference to discuss your child's progress in Speech/Language class. Parents of students enrolled in District 66 special education programs, including speech therapy services, will receive progress reports from the special education office in the next two weeks .

Have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Helping Your Child

Speech-language experts agree that parental involvement is crucial to the success of a child's progress in speech or language therapy.
Parents are an extremely important part of their child's therapy program, and help determine whether it is a success. Kids who complete the program quickest and with the most lasting results are those whose parents have been involved.
Ask the therapist for suggestions on how you can help your child. For instance, it's important to help your child do the at-home stimulation activities that the SLP suggests to ensure continued progress and carry-over of newly learned skills.
Amy Nelson, MA, CCC-SLP kidshealth.org/parent/system/ill/speech_therapy.html

Suggestions for Parents
At Prairieview, children working primarily on articulation skills are given assignments to practice at home. Please listen to them as they complete the homework and sign it to indicate that someone listened to them. Students should return the speech work to school in the speech pocket of their binder.

Parents can help students with receptive and expressive language deficits by discussing stories that they are reading or programs that they watch on television. Ask the child to explain the main idea from a page they have read, or 5-10 minute television episode. Encourage them to list one or two details from the selection. Older students should be able to tell how they feel about what they read/saw or how it relates to their own lives. This will help them to interpret what they read.

Writing Skills

In preparation for the ISAT tests, our district is focusing on written language skills this year. Teachers have met during inservice training sessions to review how to effectively teach writing. Recently district staff received a handout on research-based practices for teaching writing by Steve Graham of Vanderbuildt University. Professor Graham highlighted six best practices for improving student writing:

• Teach Writing Processes: "The first and most effective practice is to explicitly and systematically teach kids strategies for planning, drafting, editing, revising, and regulating the writing process."
• Have students work together. Students give each other feedback.
• Create clear expectations.
• Have students write on a word processor. Research shows that using the computer for writing (and editing) can make a significant difference from second grade onward.
• Teach complex sentence structures. Modeling sentence combining and having students practice using complex sentences in their essays improves writing.
• Establish writers' workshop where students are provided a supportive environment to engage in the writing process on a regular basis.

The small group setting of speech and language groups offers a natural opportunity to develop written language skills. Over the next several months, Mrs. DeYoung will be utilizing these practices to improve written and oral communication with many of her students grades 5-8.

Halloween Happenings

This week speech and language students enjoyed reading Halloween Mad Libs stories to practice oral reading while monitoring their speech production. Many of Mrs. DeYoung's students played holiday Bingo; forming sentences and definitions for Halloween words. Students in the self-contained class made potions and performed experiments to predict if various substances would sink or float and dissolve in water. They learned to form a hypothesis and collect data. Some students drew pictures of friendly monsters and then gave directions to their peers so that they would draw an identical creature. The children had to describe their illustrations and listen carefully to come up with drawings that looked alike. Students at the Jr. High used detailed descriptions and asked clarifying questions to produce similar drawings. Other seventh and eighth graders continued reading and writing activities that were begun last week. They have worked on inferential reasoning, practiced readers' theater, and written rough drafts of their book reviews.

Spotlight on Speech Groups

This week some of Mrs. DeYoung's third grade students have begun learning about methods of inquiry in Science. Mrs. DeYoung reviewed the five senses and had the children describe an apple using lots of descriptive adjectives. They were able to observe, describe, classify, and compare the apple with other foods, using their senses. The group completed a graphic organizer about the apple and a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast apples and apple juice. Students engaged in several language tasks while learning methods of inquiry! Next week they will write a paragraph about apples.
Other third grade students used computer games to identify categories and practice /r/ sounds, while fifth graders completed vocabulary activities that correspond to last week's reading passage. Jr. High students listened to a short story online and answered comprehension questions to develop auditory processing . A different group read a short narrative and used the "Think Aloud" strategy to improve inference skills. Eighth grade students are preparing a book review to be published online.
It has been an exciting and productive week.

Another great website for teachers and students

www.literacymatters.org is a website for students, teachers, and parents that provides information on adolescent literature, content literacy, and technology, as well as student activities and lesson plans. The following article on Listening describes one of several strategies that the site features. There are also several links to other online resources.

Listening
Improving students' ability to listen is a good first step for cultivating strong study strategies. The resources below help students tune in and reduce distractions while listening in class. These techniques encourage students to become active listeners by having them evaluate what they hear and interact with the speaker.

TQLR Listening ProcessTQLR (Tune in, Question, Listen, Review) can help students improve their listening skills—whether they are listening to a lecture, story, or conversation. The four steps of TQLR are:

1. Tune in: Have students prepare by tuning their mind to what they are about to hear.
2.Question: Ask students to formulate questions on what to listen for. "Who, what, when, and where" are good questions to start with.
3. Listen: Encourage students to think while they listen.
4.Review: Have students review what they heard, answer questions, and consider areas that were not clear.

Below we have provided recommended resources that describe listening strategies.

Sites That Matter
The TQLR Process This web site provides a summary of the TQLR process with a list of the characteristics of effective and ineffective listening. www.byu.edu/ccc/learning/listen.shtml
Reading Aloud to Students This is a guide for reading aloud to students, including a description of the TQLR process. literacyleaders.com/Early_Literacy/Reading_Aloud/body_reading_aloud.html
ListeningThis web site provides resources such as a listening guide, an assessment of listening skills, and sample notes taken while listening. www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/ela102030/teach3.html
Strategies for discussion in the classroom This web site provides interactive activities for students to practice their listening skills. members.aol.com/ReadShop/640discuss.html
Paying attention in the classroom Although developed for college students, this web site provides basic advice for strengthening concentration skills that can be applied at the middle school level. studygs.net/classr.htm

Happy Halloween

Find Halloween games, puzzles, word searches, story starters, and more at www.squiglysplayhouse.com/Games/Holidays/Halloween.html

We will be using some of these fun activities and scary stories to reinforce speech and language skills during the rest of October.

Speech/Language Therapy is More Than Just Talk

This week fifth and sixth grade language groups have focused on reading and explaining main ideas from a paragraph or selected passage. Sometimes the main idea may be stated right in the selection, or it may be implied. Students have practiced inferring the main idea, identifying supporting details, and then writing it in their own words. The Lakeview students were challenged to interpret the significance of the details and make further inferences. The children are using all of their language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking.

Other Lakeview students participated in cooperative activities to practice speech skills. Sharing a map of the Chicago lakefront, they gave and followed complex directions.

Third and fourth grade social communication groups watched a DVD featuring students who use good eye contact and body language to show others when they are interested and want to talk. Effective communication involves more than what we say. Mrs. Westra and Mrs. DeYoung co-teach some groups at Prairieview to help students improve social communication skills.

Students in articulation therapy reviewed how to formulate their target sounds and completed oral motor activities to strengthen the speech muscles. They continued to listen to each other and evaluate their articulation.

All of the students have shown good progress during the month of September.

Speech/Language Screening

Mrs. DeYoung has begun observing students at Prairieview in their classrooms to identify children who may benefit from speech and language intervention. She has listened to students read aloud, speak in front of the class, and complete cooperative activities with partners. Teachers or parents may contact her to request speech and language screening for any child in the building.

Auditory Processing Disorder

The following article for parents and more information about APD is found at www.kidshealth.org

What is Auditory Processing Disorder?
Auditory processing disorder (APD), also known as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), is a complex problem affecting about 5% of school-aged children. These kids can't process the information they hear in the same way as others because their ears and brain don't fully coordinate. Something adversely affects the way the brain recognizes and interprets sounds, most notably the sounds composing speech.
Kids with APD often do not recognize subtle differences between sounds in words, even when the sounds are loud and clear enough to be heard. These kinds of problems typically occur in background noise, which is a natural listening environment. So kids with APD have the basic difficulty of understanding any speech signal presented under less than optimal conditions.

Detecting APD
Kids with APD are thought to hear normally because they can usually detect pure tones that are delivered one by one in a very quiet environment (such as a sound-treated room). Those who can normally detect sounds and recognize speech in ideal listening conditions are not considered to have hearing difficulties.
However, the ability to detect the presence of sounds is only one part of the processing that occurs in the auditory system. So, most kids with APD do not have a loss of hearing sensitivity, but have a hearing problem in the sense that they do not process auditory information normally.
If the auditory deficits aren't identified and managed early, many of these kids will have speech and language delays and academic problems. Symptoms of APD can range from mild to severe and can take many different forms. If you think your child might have a problem with how he or she processes sounds, consider these questions:

• Is your child easily distracted or unusually bothered by loud or sudden noises?
• Are noisy environments upsetting to your child?
• Does your child's behavior and performance improve in quieter settings?
• Does your child have difficulty following directions, whether simple or complicated?
• Does your child have reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-language difficulties?
• Is abstract information difficult for your child to comprehend?
• Are verbal (word) math problems difficult for your child?
• Is your child disorganized and forgetful?
• Are conversations hard for your child to follow?

APD is an often misunderstood problem because many of the behaviors noted above can also appear in other conditions like learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even depression. Although APD is often confused with ADHD, it is possible to have both. It is also possible to have APD and specific language impairment or learning disabilities.

Please contact Mrs. DeYoung if you suspect that your child may have difficulties with auditory processing, or if you have other speech and language concerns.

Week 3

This week Mrs. DeYoung met with students and began assessment with children who are working on improving articulation. Third graders were introduced to ways to be a good communicator:

Listen
Take turns talking
Stay on topic
Look at the person you are talking to
Use facial expressions

4th, 5th, and 6th grade articulation groups are focusing on monitoring their speech production and rating their own speech. They practiced evaluating their articulation using evaluation charts.

Language groups at Prairieview have either reviewed classification skills to identify categories/similarities between items, or used a graphic organizer to identify the main idea of a paragraph. Fourth and fifth grade language groups identified details in the reading passage that support the main idea. These activities help students develop reading comprehension, increase vocabulary and use specific language.

Finally, middle school students participated in cooperative activities to practice effective listening and communication.

As the semester progresses, Mrs. DeYoung will be visiting classrooms at Prairieview to observe and identify children who may benefit from speech and language intervention. Please contact her if you know of a student who you would like to have observed or screened.

Week 2

Dear Parents,
Children enrolled in speech/language therapy services have begun Speech classes and should have brought home a note stating the day/s and time they are scheduled for Speech. Students will be asked to keep Speech handouts or assignments in their binders. I will be giving them an extra pocket for their binder to hold the Speech work. If you have any questions or concerns about speech and language services, you may contact me at (630) 783-5157 or email: mdeyoung@ccsd66.org. I am looking forward to another great year!

Mrs. Marilyn DeYoung
Speech-language Pathologist

Week 1

Teacher's Prayer
Author Unknown


Lord, Please help me,
To strengthen their voices, bodies and minds,
To express their feelings and control them sometimes,
To explore what's near and venture afar,
But most important to love who they are.


This has been a great beginning of the school year. I have completed my schedule and am looking forward to meeting with all of my students next week. Parents with questions or concerns about their child's speech and language skills may contact me at mdeyoung@ccsd66.org.

Mrs. DeYoung

Friends

by Crystal Bowman

A friend is someone who listens,
A friend is someone who cares.
A friend is someone who understands,
A friend is someone who shares.

It's nice to have a special friend
To tell all your secrets to.
It's nice to know that someone you like
Is someone who really likes you.

A friend is someone you can call on the phone
To talk about nothing at all.
A friend is someone who cheers you up
And makes you feel ten feet tall.

Everyone would like to have
A special friend, it's true.
But if you want a special friend,
You need to be one too.

To all my friends at Prairieview and Lakeview,
Have a wonderfully fun summer!
See you soon.

Mrs. DeYoung

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month!

May has been a busy month as speech and language classes are winding down for the school year. Many of the students at Lakeview have been working on research projects and oral presentations for various classes. Therapy sessions have focused on practicing oral communication skills including speaking slowly and clearly, using good eye contact, and organization skills. Students have been encouraged to check their speech production while practicing their speeches.

Mrs. DeYoung has been conducting end-of-the-year assessments at Prairieview. Fourth and fifth graders have been introduced to the" Repeated Words" strategy to identify main ideas. The students search for important words that are repeated in a reading passage and use the words to formulate a main idea sentence. This process helps the children to read carefully and recognize key ideas. They have done a great job expressing topic sentences in their own words!

Parents-
Some of you have received messages if your child is due for an annual review of speech therapy services. Please contact Mrs. DeYoung to schedule an appointment if you still need to meet with her this year. Thank you.

Therapy Activities

Students with language processing goals at Prairieview and Lakeview continue to practice applying comprehension strategies that have been introduced this month during therapy sessions. Third grade learners began listening lab activities on the computer to practice visualizing and following directions. They listened to instructions and drew pictures of what was described. Other students are reviewing grammar concepts and forming appropriate sentences with target sentence structtures. Fourth and fifth graders continue to utilize vocabulary strategies to infer meanings of unfamiliar words in reading passages. They use context cues to think of synonyms, apply the cloze (fill in the blank) strategy, analyze root words, and define new vocabulary.

Seventh graders at Lakeview were introduced to "Fix It" strategies to use when they do not comprehend what they are reading. They read an allegory related to the American Revolution and discussed the underlying meaning of the poem. These students continue to work on written language skills as they answer essay questions about the reading selection.

Finally, Mrs. DeYoung's articulation groups have reviewed story-telling skills and have been reading aloud from picture books to practice reading with expression and clear speech.

Strategic Learning

This week Prairieview speech/language students tried some different strategies for listening, reading, and comprehending. Third graders were introduced to visualization thru "picture stories." They listened to a short narrative read aloud to them and then helped Mrs. DeYoung to construct illustrations of the story. Students had to focus on descriptive details such as spatial words and size concepts to form accurate pictures and be able to draw conclusions. (This required some of the children to learn new vocabulary concepts.) Students were able to summarize the narrative, make predictions, and answer comprehension questions using this strategy. Next week they will continue to use the "picture story" strategy more independently.

Fourth and fifth grade students are reviewing ways to infer meaning of unfamiliar words while reading. They used context clues to understand vocabulary with multiple definitions and identified root words, prefixes, and suffixes to decifer unknown words. Students were also able to use their background knowledge of the topic to infer meaning. While Mrs. DeYoung focused on vocabulary comprehension, the children also were given practice in writing definitions in their own words. For future sessions, students will be encoouraged to explain meanings and to use new words appropriately.

Enjoy Spring Break!

Spring break is a great time to have fun and review speech and language skills. For links to online speech and language activities, go to Mrs. DeYoung's webpage (accessed thru the Prairieview homepage) or try these websites:

Listening activities: www.elllo.org/english/Games.htm

Whacky Web Tales (similar to Madlibs): www.eduplace.com/tales/

Games for vocabulary and grammar skills: www.quia.com/pages/havefun.html

More Strategies

Now that most students have completed the ISAT tests, Mrs. DeYoung has returned to teaching comprehension strategies to improve reading, listening, and thinking. Third grade students are reviewing summarizing and questioning. The fourth grade language group practiced using context cues to comprehend unfamiliar words. Fifth graders are completing listening labs on the computer to develop the ability to recall information and answer comprehension questions. Many of these students have recognized their need to have information repeated and to ask for clarification. Finally, students at Lakeview have been introduced to the INSERT strategy.

The INSERT strategy helps students to monitor their thinking as they read. Students use the following symbols to code the text:

check mark Author confirms what you already knew- "I knew that!"

- Contradicts what you thought- " I thought differently."

? Confuses you- "I don't understand this!"

+ New Information- "I didn't know that!"

Students can write the symbols in the margin of the reading passage (in pencil if it is a text book) or use the symbols while taking notes. This strategy will also help to prepare for class discussions and to check their own understanding of curricular content.

March 3-6

Conferences:
Parent teacher conferences will be next week, March 9-12. Conference notes have been sent to parents of students whose annual reviews for speech are due this trimester. If you did not receive an invitation for a conference and would like to meet with Mrs. DeYoung, please contact her by telephone (630)783-5157, or email mdeyoung@ccsd66.org

ISAT Testing
This week students at Prairieview and Lakeview are taking the ISATs. Mrs. DeYoung will not meet with students if they are testing at their regularly scheduled time for therapy.

Thinking and Problem Solving

Solving online puzzles, riddles, and brainteasers are a great way to increase reasoning and problem solving. Discussing the problem and possible solutions boosts your brainpower and expressive language skills. Here are a few of Mrs. DeYoung's favorite brainteaser websites:

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/braint.htm

http://www.mindbreakers.com/

http://kids.mysterynet.com/

Reading Between the Lines/ Interpreting Text

In preparing for the ISAT assessments, this week language groups focused on interpreting what they read. The students read stories similar to passages on the ISAT and discussed how the author used details to convey meaning. (For example, when a writer describes the character's actions, the reader can interpret how the character is feeling. ) Group members were asked to summarize what the passages said and then explain the significance of the story events or tell why certain facts in a nonfiction article are important. Students with comprehension deficits often have difficulty making inferences in order to understand the writer's intent. Other children may be able to understand implied meaning, but struggle to put their thoughts into words. This activity provided an opportunity for pupils to develop critical thinking and then to express their conclusions.

Parents can help their children improve these skills by discussing reading selections with them and focusing on the inferences. Encourage your child to "read between the lines" to discover what the author is trying to communicate. Discussion questions may include:

• What does the author mean?
• What does this section tell you about the character?
• Why is this fact important?
• What is the purpose of this story? and most importantly...
• What can you learn from this passage?

At the recent American Speech and Hearing Association convention, one speaker told the audience of school speech-language pathologists, " Make the implicit explicit!" It was good advice- not only for those of us who teach students with language disorders, but also for parents who want to help their students comprehend and produce meaningful language.

February 2-6

Artic. Groups: This week students who are focusing on speech carryover skills handed in their January calendars in which they rated their speech last month. They have received new calendars and are setting speech goals for February. Some of the students have found it challenging to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses. They are thinking of specific ways they can improve their communication at home or at school.

Other artic. groups continue to practice self-monitoring. They are making progress listening to themselves and identifying their own errors. Many of these children are beginning to need fewer reminders during small group discussions as well as when they practice word and sentence lists. At this point, students often speak at a slower rate in order to enunciate. Mrs. DeYoung is encouraging some children who are doing well with self-monitoring to increase their rate of speech and speak clearly so that they sound more natural when they talk.

Language Groups: Third graders have enjoyed playing "The Guessing Game" (similar to playing 20 Quesitons) to practice describing critical attributes and forming questions. This activity helps to develop analytical thinking skills as well as improve grammar.

The fourth grade language group reviewed science vocabulary about the animal kingdom. They are comparing and contrasing different types of animals and learning the terminology of classification. Next week students will complete a worksheet using the new vocabulary.

Older students have read a sample extended response and identified the necessary parts of the essay (main idea, text proof, interpretation, and extension). Mrs. DeYoung is showing them actual examples of student writing to demonstrate how they can apply target skills in their own work.

Using Graphic Organizers

"Graphic organizers are valuable instructional tools. Unlike many tools that just have one purpose, graphic organizers are flexible and endless in application. One common trait found among graphic organizers is that they show the order and completeness of a student's thought process - strengths and weaknesses of understanding become clearly evident. " (writedesignonline.com)

Graphic organizers can help students to summarize and comprehend information they have heard or read as well as assist them in preparing to write. All students, including children with language processing deficits, benefit.

Below is a list of ideas taken from http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/readingliterature/graphicorganizers.html on how to use graphic organizers with students.

• Provide a graphic organizer tailored to a specific reading assignment in a content area textbook, such as science or civics. The students can use the graphic organizer to take notes. The notes can be used as discussion starters in the content area class or as study guides for an upcoming test or quiz.
  
• Provide graphic organizers for your students to use as alternatives to book reports. Graphic organizers can be created for comparing characters, identifying the setting, mapping out the plot, etc.
  
• Provide graphic organizers that your students can use to organize thoughts during brainstorming or pre-writing exercises.
  
• Provide graphic organizers that your students can use to create the rough draft of a writing assignment.

Graphic Organizing-A strategy that works!

Making Progress

Artic(ulation). Groups
This week students working on articulation skills reviewed their speech calendars and/or practiced forming sentences using words containing their target sounds. Students have been focusing on their speech production and monitoring their speech while they are talking. Next week they will rate their own speech and identify if they are unclear.

Language Groups
Fifth, sixth, and seventh graders finished reading passages related to social studies and began writing another extended response about the articles. We are practicing writing extended responses in preparation for the ISATs in March. The reading portion of the ISAT requires students to read a selection and then write an essay in response to a question, or prompt, about the passage. Students are expected to formulate a key idea sentence stating their position, provide evidence from the text to support their key idea, interpret the information from the text, and then draw a conclusion and explain what they learned from the author. Mrs. DeYoung takes students through the writing process step by step to develop their essays.

Third grade language groups read and discussed a story. They enjoyed describing the characters and learning new vocabulary. Fourth grade students read about the causes of the Civil War and practiced using context cues to infer meanings of unknown words and define familiar vocabulary.

More on "Think-Alouds"

Language Groups: 5th-7th grade students have continued to participate in "Think- Alouds" to practice reading strategies and self-monitor their comprehension. This week we looked at which strategies they rely on and what other strategies they can also try to gain further understanding of text. Most of the students found that there are one or two strategies that they use frequently, and chose another skill to practice to add to their reading "tool box." Third and fourth graders have written short summaries and focused on vocabulary skills.

Here is a list of the Strategies that we have been practicing:

• Make a Prediction
• Ask a Question
• Clarify something (especially useful for unfamiliar vocabulary or concepts)
• Make a Comment (form an opinion)
• Make a Connection
• Figure out if I need to reread
• Ask myself if I understand what I've read
• Make mental pictures (Visualize)
• Compare what is being learned now to what has been learned previously

Articulation Groups: We begin each session with oral-motor activities and then proceed to practice individual phonemes. Students who are focusing on carryover received letters to take home to parents explaining the carryover unit. Please encourage the children to listen to their daily speech and record their observations on their speech calendars.

Happy New Year!

Speech therapy students who are acquiring various phonemes kicked off the new year with exercises to strengthen the speech muscles and improve control of oral movements. Although we practiced these exercises earlier in the fall, this week has been a good time to review and reassess oral motor skills. Just like with any exercise program, oral motor activities need to be repeated frequently to remain strong.

The children who have been focusing on carryover are being given calendars to keep track of their speech production outside of the speech room. This week students will be listening for times when their speech needs to be more clear. The goal is to become more aware of one's articulation and to take ownership of communication skills.

Finally, Mrs. DeYoung's language groups have completed another Think Aloud activity to apply various comprehension strategies to reading expository texts. The groups read articles related to their social studies curriculum and discussed their thinking. Most of the students were able to identify the strategies they are using. They will continue to self-monitor their comprehension to check for understanding and determine if they need to reread for clarification.

Next week (Jan. 12-16) Prairieview and Lakeview will be administering the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Mrs. DeYoung will not see students if they are being tested during their regular therapy time.