Safety Signs

Safety Signs A Literacy Portfolio Interests Initial Conversations Point of Inquiry Informal Assessment Six Contact Session Plans Four Modifications and Analysis Two Artifacts Demonstrating Reading and Writing Final Evaluation Douglas Turner is a fifteen-year-old boy with a severe stutter who suffers from ADHD and ADD. He is currently placed in special education. His family consists of a mother, aged 42, and a father, aged 47. They are African-American. Douglas and his family live in a two-bedroom apartment.

Douglas' father works as a sales associate for a Jewlry company and the mother is a homemaker. Interests Douglas' current interests include Anime, he likes watching "Attack on Titan," music, he listens to a variety of pop and hip-hop artists, and baseball. Douglas mentioned he like being active and many of his interests revolve around focusing on many different things all the time so he keeps from getting bored. Douglas also enjoys making hand signals when he plays baseball in the outfield.

Douglas refrains from things that are too repetitive as he quickly loses interest. Initial Conversations When first talking to Douglas and his mother, I found that Douglas had a hard time concentrating on one thing. His focus was best with things that were quick to absorb and easy to identify. He appeared friendly and outgoing, not shy or resistant, even with his severe stutter. His willingness to communicate as well as the support of the mother makes it so I was able to understand where his problems and weaknesses lied.

Although he has some learning impairments, his willingness to cooperate is a strength I wanted to address in future conversations. Point of Inquiry Douglas did not have issues communicating. The problem and the reason why he is in special education is due to his inability to focus and concentrate long enough to absorb properly the material. This is due to his ADHD and ADD. He is on medication, but perhaps adapting a visual aspect of learning will aid in improving his concentration abilities.

The main thing I wanted to focus on with him is understanding safety signs since he likes baseball and uses hand signals while playing the sport. Signs are a great way to teach a child with ADHD/ADD as it allows children to quickly view and absorb knowledge. Informal Assessment The first thing I assessed with Douglas is concepts of print. Essentially, what I did was sit Douglas in a quiet space within the room and gave Douglas a storybook.

From there I asked a series of questions with yes or no answers. 1. Can you recognize the front of the book? 2. Can you identify the back of the book? 3. Are you able to recognize the title of the book? 4. Can you recognize a word? 5. Can you recognize a letter? 6. Can you recognize a space? 7. Can you recognize where and when you should begin reading? 8.

Can you recognize the end of a sentence? In all of the questions he answered yes so it showed me he understands concepts of print, an important part of safety sign recognition. The next step is if he can identify and name colors. Safety signs often have various colors on them. If Douglas was color blind, in this part of the assessment I would be able to ascertain whether or not he can see colors and if he can properly name them.

Understanding colors and the proper names of colors allows for faster learning of signs as these colors and words attached to the signs will be better retained when Douglas can remember the words and colors attached to them. He was able to name the basic colors and even remembered uncommon colors like magenta and robin's egg blue. He showed interest in naming the colors and identifying them prompting me to think he could be more of a visual learner.

Six Contact Session Plans The first contact session plan involved school safety signs. Essentially, I began a discussion with him about school rules and safety. Then I took him on a tour of his school and showed him where safety signs are located. I then asked Douglas to design his own symbols that resemble the safety signs he saw throughout the school. We then reviewed the special shapes and colors to make sure he retained the information. The second contact session plan involved sorting signs.

I took Douglas, with his mom present, to the surrounding neighborhood of the school. I had a clipboard with a digital camera, a small drawing notebook, and me. I then asked Douglas to spot and draw the signs he saw and sort them into different groups. The categories I gave him were warning signs, direction signs, and stop signs. The third contact session plan involved learning various street signs from various countries. I explained to him that countries have different stop signs.

I then asked him to remember the colors and the meanings attached to these signs. The review consisted of a brief quiz. The fourth contact session plan involved index cards where he drew what was written on the card on the back of each index card. I gave him markers. He chose the colors. He was graded based on accuracy. He scored well. The fifth contact session plan involved signs and symbols that mean go or stop. Numerous symbols mean stop.

These include ref blinking lights, traffic symbols and the yield sign. I asked him what they all had in common and he said the color red. The same was said of green and go signals. The sixth contact session plan involved a final test where he was given a list of safety sign words and a list of pictures. He had to match them accordingly. Then he had to give possible locations for each sign and/or symbol.

Four Modifications and Analysis The first modification came from instances of loss of interest. I had to switch to bigger pictures in order to keep his interest. The second involved taking him outside as the outside kept him from getting bored. The third modification involved use of index card and markers as he could choose which cards to study. The fourth modification came from the symbols session. He wanted to see more symbols so I used a computer, went online, and provided him with additional material.

Two Artifacts Demonstrating Reading and Writing The first artifact was a short review that I asked him to write. This included naming the signs and the locations where he saw them. The second artifact was the index cards. He drew and wrote the safety signs and symbols. He also used colors in order to identify things and read them aloud. Final Evaluation After the initial assessment, I saw where he was weak in certain areas.

From there and through the various sessions, the final evaluation demonstrated vast improvements in his ability to focus and retain information. Thanks to the.