"You're Going to Love This Kid!" Teaching Students with Autism in the Inclusive Classroom by Paula Kluth, Paul H. Brookes Publishing, 2003.
When Bob, one of my former students, came to school on the first day of September his classroom teacher, Ms. Shey, was stunned to learn that her twelve-year-old student could not read or write more than a few words. Bob had never received formal reading instruction and, according to his mother, had been educated in a classroom for five years that had only four books! Bob’s teacher, Ms. Shey, immediately began designing curriculum and instruction that would help Bob gain literacy skills across environments and academic subjects. She also began seeking natural opportunities to boost her student’s literacy abilities throughout the day. For instance, Ms. Shey began asking Bob to find a joke or poem of-the-day from a book in the classroom library and write it on the chalkboard each morning. Bob came into the classroom a few minutes early each day to perform this task, giving his teacher a few extra moments to give a five-minute mini-lesson on topics ranging from punctuation to pronunciation to use of literary devices.
Another colleague, a biology teacher supported the literacy development of her student, Shu-li, by asking the young woman to announce the “vocabulary word of the day” to all students in the class. While Shu-li read the word and definition, different students took turns trying to illustrate the word on chart paper. This artistic and collaborative exercise often drew laughter from the class as students attempted to draw terms such as “photosynthesis” and “meiosis”. This exercise, while designed primarily to support Shu-li, enhanced the vocabulary of all learners and was, therefore, eventually used in all of the teacher’s science classes.
Class routines and jobs can also serve as opportunities to practice literacy skills. In one elementary classroom, Maria, a student with autism, was sometimes given the classroom chore of completing the lunch count. Counting the raised hands having to record the right numbers in the right spaces helped to build both Maria’s literacy and numeracy skills. To help Maria engage in this highly-valued classroom job, teachers highlighted important parts of the lunch form and gave her an opportunity to take a “practice run” at reading the menu before conducting the count in front of her classmates (Kinney & Fischer, 2001).
Another natural way to weave literacy learning into the school day is to review a daily schedule with students. Using a daily schedule or time map provides a routine that includes and informs students while providing them with opportunities to communicate, listen, share, and read. Further, many students with autism (and many students without identified disabilities) feel comforted when they are given a schedule for the day and when they know what to expect. As Wendy Lawson (1998), a woman with autism, relates, having information and using routines is an important coping and organizing strategy: “I have been told, ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you,’ but boundaries, rules, regulations and concrete structure provide understanding, and therefore enable an appropriate response” (p. 110).
Reading and reviewing a daily schedule can give everyone in the class an organizational “heads up” while serving as a literacy exercise for those needing extra support. Some students may even want to copy the morning message into a notebook so they can peek at it throughout the day and be reminded of the day’s events. If a student cannot write reliably, he or she might be provided with a written copy of the message before or after the lesson.