Monitoring Self-Portrait & Name Writing Progress for Pre-K Students

First, I would like to thank you all for the amazing response to last week's post, my classroom virtual tour.  I must say I have been incredibly humbled and appreciative of the kind feedback.  Hearing how you plan to use my ideas in your own classrooms makes all my efforts worthwhile.  There are a lot of great teachers out there and it's been wonderful to hear from you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! 

And now for my apologies....between my 6 year-old’s birthday celebration and presenting at the State Speech and Hearing Conference, last week really got away from me.  No regrets though!  You only celebrate a sixth birthday once and the KSHA conference was outstanding.  I was honored to be invited to present and meet so many passionate SLPs. 

That said, like many working mothers out there, I over committed last week.  Frankly, six years into this dual mother/teacher role, I still struggle to find balance between my professional passions and family commitments. As a result, my plans for this week's post have changed.  I had planned to share how direct instruction is set up and operates in my classroom. 

Instead, this week I will share a simpler (less time-consuming) tip I discovered while monitoring and managing progress of student's self-portrait drawings.  As you may remember, last winter I shared how we break up drawing ourselves into steps via a visual task analysis.  Essentially, we have the students draw themselves each month and track their progress by hanging the drawings in page protectors above our library center.  By adding a signature box on the self-portrait template, you can also use this strategy to track progress of name writing.  

Teacher's Template:  You can access my self-portrait template here.  The smiley face inside the signature box is a visual to help the kids know where to start printing their name.  This feature came from Handwriting without Tears.  (Note: In the examples below, I have cropped out the children’s names.)

Here's the update I made this year.  Before I ask the students to draw a body part, I model it on my own paper.  Each body part is drawn in a different color, so we can accurately gage progress or share specific interpretations with parents and staff. I simply staple my copy to the back of the students' copy.  Take a look at the provided examples.

Even at the lowest student drawing level, do you see the resemblance between my model and the student's multi-colored model?? 

I used to have the students draw in one color and then write on their drawing the names of the each body part. That method took more time and didn't communicate each month's progress as effectively.

Last year's method

The new color-coded approach has worked much better.  As my students get better at drawing themselves, I will change it up and model drawing two or three body parts in one color. Then, I'll ask them to draw those two or three body parts all at once.  It will show their improvement in following two and three step directions, as well as monitor their drawing progress.  

Our ultimate goal is to have an adult draw an entire body self-portrait then have the students draw their own independently at their desks.  It may take quite some time to get to this point, but at least we can monitor their monthly progress.  As you all know, in this field it's important to celebrate the small steps! 

(Extra Credit: While drafting this post, I also realized you could use the same concept when the students practice writing their names by using a different color marker or pencil for each letter.)
 

Thanks for visiting this week.  Stay tuned for next week's post when I'll show you how we work on improving fine motor, attention, writing skills and so much more through direct instruction as I love the way it is set up this year and I think you'll enjoy it too!! 

Encouraging Appropriate Behavior Through Class Incentives

As the school year winds down, my students need extra incentives to participate appropriately and stay on target.  Okay, so who am I kidding...my staff and I do, too!!  We have found just the thing that motivates our afternoon group and keeps them working like the little Buddy Bears we know they can be.  Several of them are really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, a cartoon on Disney Junior. 

In the cartoon, Jake and his friends earn Gold Doubloons for completing various missions. So I created a social story about how we will work as a team like Jake and the Neverland Pirates to earn Gold Doubloons as a class.  

The story goes like this. . .

We work as a team like Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  
We use kind words.
We use gentle touches. 
We listen to our teachers.
We share with our friends, and help each other. 
When we are kind. . .
we earn Gold Doubloons. 
If we earn 25 by the end of the day
we get to see what is in the treasure chest. 

At the beginning of each day, we read the social story to remind the students of our mission. Then the teachers hand out Gold Doubloons for good behavior and kind acts throughout the day.  The Gold Doubloons are gold tokens my wonderful para, Miss Molly found at Hobby Lobby for $3.00.   

As the students earn the Gold Doubloons, they place them in our Jake and the Neverland Pirate Treasure Box.  

My son got the box for Christmas as part of pretend play set.  I bought the set at Wal-mart for $14.97.  

I strategically place the treasure box on top of a high shelf. The students have to use their gross motor skills to climb on top of our large group bench to add their tokens to the treasure box. This puts the children in an organized movement pattern as they place their Gold Doubloons in the treasure box and then return to the activity asked of them. 

When we started this system, I was not sure how it would go.  Would the children get distracted on their way to and from the treasure box?  Would the distraction make the incentive program more trouble than it was worth?  Well, the answer for this particular group of students is "no"!  It is just what they needed.  It provides them with a little movement and sensory input that helps them regroup and increase attention spans. 
  

At the end of each day, we count our Gold Doubloons by attaching them to our paper mache’ treasure box I got at Hobby Lobby several years back.  Each gold doubloon has Velcro on the back to make it easier for the class to see if we met our class goal. 

As it turns out, it is a great one to one counting activity and is highly motivating for the whole group.  If the class earns 25 Gold Doubloons to cover the front of the treasure chest, they get to see what is inside the chest.  Sometimes, it is a small candy for each of them. Other rewards may be mini oreos, marshmallows, pencils, stickers, or a note that lists a special activity the children can play for the last 10 minutes of school. . . bowling, pull tubes, a 10 minute educational video, etc.  

Instructor's Insight: The key to the success of this system is the element of surprise.  Children love to work for the mystery of the unknown.  If I told them what was in the chest, some of them may lose interest.  To make sure the chest continues to stay motivating, I often put choices inside.  For example, “You may choose a smelly sticker or a Hershey kiss today.”  By providing choices everyone continues to be excited because they have the power to choose and it is more likely that they will like at least one of the options in the chest.  

Because I often put choices in the treasure chest, I can also add an academic element.  I have the students sign up for which choice they want.  Wow!! This has been motivating kids that usually resist writing their names.  

Task Box Countdown: Task Box # 8 - Drawing a Self-Portrait

Each month my students draw self-portraits to demonstrate their handwriting and problem solving skills development.  We hang them in slicker sheets above the direct instruction table and share them with parents at parent-teacher conferences & IEP meetings.  

After each month’s drawing, we slip the students' work into the front of the slicker sheet so their most current work is displayed.  We also pass them along to the students’ next teacher when they transition to kindergarten. 

To support their progress and provide them with the same consistent visuals each month, I created a series of eight step-by-step cards.  The visuals give the students a starting place to work from because most of our students do not have the thought process to even begin drawing themselves.  The goal is that the visuals are no longer needed by the time they leave our program.  We use the technique of Mat Man from the Handwriting without Tears   program to narrate the process of drawing of self-portraits.  This allows us to use the same verbal prompts each month.  

Self-Portrait Instruction Series 

Step 1:  Make a mat for your body.

Step 2:  Add a circle head on top of the mat.

Step 3:  Add a face on the head (little curve mouth,
ears, eyes, and nose). What else can you add to your face?

Step 4:  Add two big lines for arms.

Step 5:  Add little lines for hands & fingers.

Step 6:  Add 2 big lines for legs.

Step 7:  Add 2 little lines for feet.

Step 8:  Add personal touches - hair, shirt designs,
eyebrows, shoes, etc.      

Teacher's tip:  Have students write their names in a rectangle box at the top of the page each month to track handwriting progress too. 

Brown Bear Showing Progress Activity

With Parent-Teacher Conferences just around the corner, here's a neat little activity I created to demonstrate student progress.  

At the beginning of the year, we did a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" unit.  We started making a Brown Bear book from MakingLearningFun.com.  Instead of doing the book every day until it was complete, we colored one page each week.  This timeline allows us to focus on the student's progress regarding attending to task and coloring in the lines.  

Each week we model how to color the page and then prompt “fill in the space”.  This is a prompt our Occupational Therapist suggested and it really works well. It trains the children to be aware and look at their paper as they color.  My paras and I write a comment on the back of each coloring page describing how the child colored that day. For example, “Joe resisted coloring. He needed hand-over-hand support” or “Susie found the color she needed and colored the page independently.”   

This is the colored image completed during Week 5.

This week the children are finishing up their books.  WOW... have we seen progress!  Each child is at their own level. Some students have learned to sit at the table and color for the duration of the activity. Others have made significant progress in "filling in the space".  See one child’s progress below.

The three pages above demonstrate the student's progress from Week 1 - Week 3.

The three pages above demonstrate the student's progress from Week 3 - Week 5.

Each child’s book will be put together and stapled to give to his/her parent at conferences. 

Assembled booklet given to student's parent during Parent-Teacher Conferences.

This activity is a great way to start a conversation with parents about student progress and needs. It also serves as a take-home activity for children to review basic colors and practice early literacy concepts like reading color words and tracking from left to right.