ConnSENSE Product Review
MEville to WEville Extended
with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters
MEville to WEville with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters Program
Literacy and Communication Program
www.ablenetinc.com
Margaret Kardos, MS, OTR/L, ATP
Editor, ConnSENSE Bulletin
muncie@connsensebulletin.com
A few years ago I was introduced to MEville to WEville, a beginning literacy program for students with significant disabilities from AbleNet. I was instantly a fan since it was the first program of its kind; based on research, it offered students with multiple physical and cognitive disabilities the opportunity to participate in systematic literacy instruction. MEville to WEville teaches reading, writing, listening, speaking and for students with communication disorders, using augmentative communication within the context of its well-designed curriculum. The MEville to WEville curriculum consists of three units designed to teach students about themselves, their family and their school. Each unit contains a teacher’s manual with 75 lessons and extension activities; an “Action Dictionary” that serves as a guide for differentiating instruction for a range of needs; specific recommendations for making adaptations for assistive technology users (Big Mack, Step-by-Step); a separate story book; along with a host of reproducible activities designed to make consistent implementation in a busy environment a reality rather than a dream. Each of the 75 lessons
in each unit is broken down into five categories:
- Language development: students learn new words through songs, vocabulary activities and “word wall”. These activities teach students new words and help them to develop their expressive vocabulary.
- Reading and listening comprehension: students learn to comprehend both vocabulary and stories. These activities provide opportunities to listen, read and respond to a range of books and stories.
- Writing: each lesson provides students with the opportunity to express their ideas and to develop their writing skills.
- Reading: students are given the opportunity to read both with support and independently. Stories are created as part of the curriculum and follow a predictable format exposing students to text and text structure.
- Literacy experience: students are encouraged to use the skills that they are learning and apply them in games and activities to enhance the literacy experience. (Erickson et al. 2005).
Since the MEville to WEville curriculum is so well designed, it can be presented in instructional units as small as 30 minutes, or several lessons can be presented over the course of the day, increasing the student’s literacy experience to one that is comparable to those of non-disabled peers. The lessons and activities are designed to actively engage the student in the reading and writing experience, offering hands-on participation that is differentiated for all levels of ability. In addition, many of the lessons offer the opportunity for parents to become involved as students share information about themselves and their families across the curriculum. Being part of their child’s education is a rewarding experience for all parents and often limited when students with significant disabilities do not progress through a systematic literacy program.
So, it may be hard to believe, but as innovative and creative as MEville to WEville is, it has gotten even better. Earlier this year the combined efforts of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Karen Erickson, AbleNet, and Don Johnston were unveiled in The MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program. This innovative new product expands the original MEville to WEville curriculum with the addition of Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters book sets for each of the three units. Building upon the five literacy areas covered in the original curriculum, this new MEville to WEville curriculum adds further enrichment with the addition of three more instructional areas: word study, comprehension, and writing. And of course, there is an additional teacher’s manual containing lessons to support the implementation of the Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters content.
Each of the Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters sets contains three different content related books per unit. The books are differentiated as “Enrichment”, “Transitional” and “Conventional”. The Enrichment book contains the most words and the richest language. They are written to teach students about language and to help them develop concepts of print. The Transitional books are written to encourage beginning readers to attend to the illustrations and the print in the book. Transitional books have fewer words than enrichment books and support the student to use print and picture cues to read independently after several repeated readings. The Conventional books contain the simplest text and the fewest words, many of them high frequency words. The student is supported to read the books independently for the purpose of developing fluency and increasing understanding. The books have a soft cover and contain photographic illustrations depicting real people engaged in the stories. The content and text is appropriate for all
students including those in middle school and beyond. A CD-ROM is included with each set of books that enables the stories to be displayed and read aloud on the computer in a format that is identical to the soft cover books. Being able to view and read the books on the computer ensures access for all students as the books are switch accessible as well. The stories can be read aloud by the computer or the read-aloud feature can be turned off so that the student can read them independently.
As noted, the MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program includes a teacher’s manual that contains detailed lessons for each of the three areas: word study, comprehension and writing for each one of the three Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters books included in each unit. All tolled there are 135 additional lessons in this program bringing the grand total to over 500 lessons in the complete series. The original MEville to WEville curriculum was developed for the K-3 grade level; this additional MEville to WEville curriculum expands it through the 5th grade level; however, I have worked with a number of teachers and have successfully and appropriately adapted it for middle through high school students with a limited amount of additional planning. Since the curriculum was developed to teach students about themselves and their school community, adapting it to include topics such as self-determination, employment and community participation was easily accomplished. The MEville to WEville curriculum has also been very valuable in teaching across contexts and helping to promote inclusion of students with significant disabilities in the general education curriculum. For example, a family tree activity was incorporated into the “My Family” unit and was presented in the general education social studies class during a unit on immigration. The student, who was non-speaking, practiced using a communication device to present a poster to her classmates that she had made for the project; previously her participation in that class had been very limited. Vocabulary to support the project was added during the MEville to WEville instructional time and integrated into the lessons. The units have also used as a springboard for math activities with middle and high school students. By adding some additional gender vocabulary words to the “Me” unit, picture graphs were developed comparing the number of men to women and girls to boys in various school activities. Once you become familiar with the objectives of the curriculum, expanding the themes into other areas will happen almost effortlessly, increasing the range of content and activities offered to all students.
The MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program is a marvelous curriculum that fills a void in literacy instruction for students with significant disabilities. It serves to bridge the gap in reading and writing for students with physical, cognitive and communication disabilities, previously excluded from systematic literacy instruction. For schools that are struggling to find ways to teach all children to read, including those students with the most challenging learning needs, MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters offers a comprehensive, age-appropriate means to achieve this outcome. The MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program is a must for every school district that is serious about meeting its commitment to teaching literacy to every student, ensuring that no child is left behind. The collaborators are to be commended for their efforts and for making this excellent resource available.
Reference
Erickson, K.A., Clendon, S., Abraham, L., Roy, V.,& Van de Carr, H. (2005). Toward positive literacy outcomes for students with significant developmental disabilities. Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits, 2, (1), 45-55.
© 2008 ConnSENSE Bulletin
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