How to Get Hands-On with Professional Development!

How to Get Hands-On with Professional Development! By Maggie Judson , Jeanna Antrim

Leadership, Policy and Implementation

As AAC facilitators for a special education cooperative, one of our primary job responsibilities is ensuring teams who work with students with complex communication needs have access to relevant professional development opportunities. We have employed multiple formats when it comes to providing facili- tated learning opportunities for our teams. We have offered the typical training in which participants sit and listen to a lecture, supplied materials with a brief, in-the-moment training and pro- vided staff with resources for learning at their own pace. How- ever, we found that our teams struggled to put into practice in- tervention strategies discussed during these types of trainings and demonstrated little change in practice and development of skills. We could see the learning opportunities offered were not providing the level of support needed to affect change in practice, so we went back to the drawing board. When we were looking to develop more effective professional development activities, we did what any speech-language pathologist would do - we went to the research! We wanted to ensure that any training we spent time developing and that staff used time par-

ticipating in would encompass evidence-based strategies to support adult learning. We did not want to waste anyone’s time with ineffective professional development! Through our research we found that critical features of evi- dence-based professional development include explicit expla- nation and illustration of the content, knowledge, and practices to be acquired. Furthermore, according to Dunst (2015), partic- ipants should have “opportunities to be actively involved in as many of the in-service training activities as possible as opposed to passively sitting through lectures in workshops” (p. 213). This explained why many of the traditional style trainings provided were not having the impact we were hoping for; there was not enough opportunity to be actively involved, and there was way too much passive sitting! Furthermore, looking at adult learn- ing theory principles, we see that adults learn best when they can immediately use the content taught and prefer learning that is problem-centered rather than just content-centered (Carlson McCall, Padron, & Andrews, 2018). We assumed providing ma- terials to staff for use in the classroom would be an effective

Maggie Judson, M.S., CCC-SLP has over a decade of experience as a school-based speech-language pathologist serving students with complex communication needs. For the past two years, she has worked as the AAC Specialist for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative in southern Illinois. In her work as an AAC facilitator, Maggie provides consultations, evaluations, and direct therapy to students aged 3 to 21, and implements professional development activities for school teams. She earned her M.S from Southern Illinois University Edwards- ville with an emphasis in AAC and has continued postgraduate course work in special education and assistive technology. Maggie can be reached at maggie.judson@bassc-sped.org or on Instagram @basscAAC Jeanna Antrim, M.S., CCC-SLP, has eight years of experience working as a school based speech-language pathologist serving students with complex communication and language needs. She has worked as an SLP and AAC facilitator for the Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative in southern Illinois since 2012. Jeanna earned her M.S. in speech-language pathology from Eastern Illinois University, where she performed research in AAC and autism at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Since then, Jeanna has continued her interests with AAC and serving children ages 3-21 with severe to profound speech and language needs and a wide range of ability levels. Jeanna can be reached at jeanna.antrim@bassc-sped.org as well as on Instagram @basscAAC or @speechwithoutlimits.

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________________________________________________ Let ’ s MAT @ BASSC! ________________________________________________ Special Education Teachers, SLPs, OTs, PTs, SWs, Psychologists & Administrators Come for the information, leave with the materials! Join the BASSC AAC/AT Department for a series of MATerial (make and take) sessions throughout the 2019-2020 school year.

approach, but without the intensive training piece on how to implement the materials, it was not a problem-centered ap- proach to learning. It was lacking that connection of how the materials could be immediately utilized to support students. This explained why just giving materials, without a complete ex- planation and demonstration, was missing the mark for effective professional development. We paired this information with our observations and feed- back gathered through a needs assessment to determine what components and supports staff was hoping to see included in a professional development offering. One of the main points we kept hearing throughout this process was professionals express- ing how frustrated they were with attending workshops and getting excellent information, but then coming back to work and not having the time or resources to implement what they learned. Haven’t we all been there? You spend the day away from work at a great training and leave feeling excited to im- plement the ideas and strategies. You go back to work the next day with all the handouts and information, ready to follow up. But now you are behind with your caseload because you were gone the day before. You do not have the time to research and prep new resources, which leads you to not feeling confident in implementing those new strategies because you do not have access to the resources you saw at the training. So you hold off on implementing the interventions. But once you do finally get planning time to follow up, you run into another problem. You do not have access to all the needed materials to create the re- sources. Your school doesn’t have color printing. You are only allowed a small allotment of lamination for the year, and you have already used it up. You can get velcro, but only if you buy it with your own money. These are the barriers some educators face. And it can have a significant impact on the carry-over of strategies learned at a professional development training to the classroom or therapy room. Taking this information and keeping in mind what the liter- ature tells us about adult learners, we developed a professional development initiative to tackle these barriers by combining learning with resource development. We wanted profession- als to leave our trainings with ready-to-implement materials to create conditions in their day-to-day practice that promotes the use of evidence-based interventions, bypassing barriers and obstacles. This is in line with recommendations stated in The Assistive Technology Trainer’s Handbook. According to Reed, Kaplan, and Bowser (2009), “to increase the likelihood that your participants will implement what you trained them to do … pro- vide the tools they need to implement back in their own set- ting” (p. 92). Our solution was a make-and-take training series that combines clear explanation, illustration, and active learning with hands-on material making to encourage increased AAC strategy, visual support, literacy and assistive technology use in the classroom. This MATerial (make and take) training initiative was designed to provide evidence-based strategies for teachers

Save the Dates! September 20th 8:30-3 November 1st 8:30-3 February 21st 8:30-3 April 24th 12-3

BASSC Board Room 2411 Pathways Crossing Belleville, IL 62221

Leave each session with information, CPDUs, and materials ready to use! Come MAT @ BASSC! Topics include: 9/20/19 - Let ’ s Get Communication: MATerials 11/01/19 - Let ’ s Get Reading: MATerials 2/21/20 - Let ’ s Get Writing: MATerials 4/24/20 - Let ’ s Get Visual: MATerials

Flyers with specific information for each topic & RSVP will be distributed at a later date

Questions? Email: Jeanna Antrim @ jeanna.antrim@bassc-sped.org or Maggie Judson @ maggie.judson@bassc-sped.org

MAT @

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and related service personnel to increase student learning in the school setting by providing hands-on time for making materials that relate to the information provided during the training. In the ‘save-the-dates’ and ‘RSVP’ forms, we say, “come for the infor- mation, leave with the materials!” (See IMAGE 1) That is how we view this professional development initiative - a way to provide evidence-based content easily digestible through the creation of relevant, applicable resources that can immediately be put to use to support students. We structure this training program as a four-part series spread out over a school year. According to Darling-Hammond, Hyler, and Gardner (2018), professional development that is spread out over time, as opposed to a one-time training, is more effec- tive at creating change in practice. While participants can pick and choose which topics to attend, we present the training as a series and share the benefits of attending over time. The topics we selected to address were based on needs assessments and through informal discussion and observation with staff. From this, we identified the topics of visual supports, communica- tion development and emergent literacy as are our top areas of need. These topics are very much interrelated and feed into one another in terms of supporting students with complex commu-

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nication needs. Viewing the MATerials as a training program, as opposed to stand-alone sessions, provides participants with a more complete understanding of best practices and with more materials to implement communication and literacy instruction in their classrooms and therapy rooms. Here is a more detailed look at the content of the trainings: Visual Supports: For the topic of visual supports, we discuss evidence-based strategies such as environmental engineer- ing, token boards and working for cards as they relate to visual boundaries, visual cues and visual schedules. A sampling of the materials created during this session includes classroom de- scriptive labels, visual behavior cards, a first/then board, token board, activity sequence strips, and choice boards. We watch videos of different scenarios and engage in simulated practice of using the visual support materials to assist students in a variety of situations. Communication Development: During the communication MATerial, we discuss core vocabulary, fringe vocabulary, aided language stimulation, and access to AAC systems. Participants make a manual communication board, alphabet board, fringe vocabulary supports, aided language input visuals/resourc- es and core word instructional materials. We then use these resources to practice implementing the strategy of aided lan- guage stimulation, and we generate ideas for targeting core words during routine, classroom activities. We present the area of emergent literacy in two separate ses- sions, emergent reading and emergent writing. Emergent Reading: For emergent reading, we share infor- mation around the importance of reading opportunities for students with complex communication needs, the various ways to adapt a book to meet the needs of a student, shared read- ing strategies and utilizing visuals to support reading compre- hension. Materials created include a manual communication board, alphabet board, adapted book, companion comprehen- sion worksheet, shared reading resources, and a shared reading choice board. In this MATerial, participants bring personal books to adapt to the specific needs of their students based on the in- formation presented. We use these books and the other mate- rials created to practice asking a variety of questions during a shared reading interaction. Emergent Writing : During the writing MATerial training, we discuss emergent writing stages, the importance of providing writing opportunities to all students, alternative pencils and shared writing and independent writing instruction. Partici- pants of this session create a manual communication board, an alphabet board, an alternative pencil flip book, a writing com- panion with various writing and vocabulary supports and a squishy (sensory) book. We spend time getting hands-on with shared writing instruction through the process of predictable chart writing.

To ascertain if this professional development initiative was hitting the mark in terms of increasing knowledge for partici- pants and ultimately impacting the communication skills of stu- dents, we collected feedback information in a variety of ways. Pre- and post-surveys were provided to obtain information regarding the comfort level and frequency with using visual supports, manual communication boards, shared reading op- portunities, and emergent writing instruction in the classroom. Participants reported an overall increase in familiarity and com- fort in these key areas. Moreover, all participants self-reported through post-surveys that the training series increased their working knowledge of AAC, improved their AAC instructional practices, and ultimately had a positive impact on the commu- nication skills of their students. Additionally, we have been able to gauge effectiveness during consultations with participants in their settings, as we have observed staff utilizing the resources created at the train- ing with their students. We have also received emails from par- ticipants sharing they went to work the day after the training and immediately used the materials with their caseload. Fur- thermore, information gathered through a post-survey indicat- ed that all participants had used or were planning to use the ma- terials made at the training with their students. This information is important because it points to the fact that the participants are implementing the strategies and skills shared at the training. According to Reed et al. (2009), “In order to apply information gained in a hands-on training, participants need to begin to use their new skills within a few days of learning them” (p. 92). Exact- ly why we developed the MATerial initiative! Through the use of anonymous feedback forms, participants shared comments that highlight this point as well. “It’s all such good information and so important, but so time-consuming as well, it’s hard to go back to school and find the time to make these items. I love that we walk away with all the materials.” “I love having all of the materials ready to go! The advice giv- en on how to use the visuals is crucial.” “It’s so hard to find time to make materials, but these sessions make it fun and so easy with everything ready to go!” “The biggest takeaway was having the materials to take home and to know how to use them! Each MATerial training follows a similar format organized to answer what, who, when, where, why and how questions around the training topic. For example, the reading MATerial aims to an- swer the wh- questions of selecting appropriate books, adapt- ing books, shared reading strategies, and supporting reading comprehension for students with complex communication needs. After each information lecture, a make-and-take session occurs. Participants have all the needed resources available, such as scissors, hole punches, velcro and binder rings, to create a fully prepped material based on the topic. We then use those materials to practice and get hands-on with the content. Par-

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ticipants have stated time and again how much they enjoy this type of structure during the training. As one participant wrote on a feedback form, “I enjoyed the real-life examples as well as the frequent breaks from the instruction to work on the make- and-takes.” Having time between instruction and lecturing to participate actively, practice new strategies, and frankly, have a break from sitting and listening, helps to keep engagement and concentration up throughout the day! Furthermore, participants often attend these sessions in teams and take advantage of the time during material making to discuss the presented content amongst their workgroups. This allows for teams to brainstorm how they can apply the in- formation back in their setting in more specific, concrete ways based on the individual needs of their students. We see that a lot of good conversation and brainstorming occurs during this time! Another important component of the MATerial trainings is the fun factor! We strive to keep the atmosphere relaxed, com- fortable and entertaining. Personally, we enjoy attending ses- sions that incorporate these elements and feel we are more en- gaged and attentive at those workshops, so we strive to bring that into a MATerial. We play music during the make-and-take portions, we serve snacks and candy, we share funny memes, there are laughs when we describe our real-life examples (and failures!) and there are giveaways! Now, we are not sure if fun is necessarily evidence-based, but for us, it is a crucial way to get everyone relaxed, comfortable and engaged! Which is what we are striving for, because we are asking participants to get out- side their comfort zone to learn about and implement strategies that may be new to them. Doing anything new is hard at first and usually makes us feel uncomfortable. We want participants to feel at ease, ready to try something new and to be willing to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Keeping things fun helps us achieve this goal!

During a make-and-take training, another significant compo- nent is making the materials. We spend a considerable amount of time before the training deciding what materials to include, creating the materials and prepping the materials so partici- pants can assemble them during the workshop in a structured, systematic way. We provide materials in three different symbol sets - Minspeak symbols, SymbolStix symbols and PCS symbols. We chose these as most of our staff utilize one of these symbol sets in their classroom to support students with complex com- munication needs. Participants indicate which symbol set they prefer when registering for the training. Our team then preps the pre-assembled components of the materials, along with other training resources, such as the slide deck, references and resource handouts, in a folder so that everything is organized and easy to find during the training. Creating and pre-prepping the materials is a substantial time commitment. We work in a team to help spread out the workload and follow a checklist to keep us organized as we prep for the training. (See IMAGE 2) During the session, we found it works best to have a variety of instructions available detailing how to assemble the materials. We have pictures of the materials pre-assembly and post-assem- bly as a reference. We have fully created materials available for participants to see how the finished products look. We also cre- ate the materials together with the participants in real time so we can demonstrate how to assemble the materials. (See IMAGE 3) To increase the level of support offered during this portion of the training, we also include step-by-step written directions to further assist in the material making process. We have found that having a variety of written, visual and auditory supports help participants feel confident as they create the materials. Participants of the MATerial trainings leave with a variety of materials created around a single symbol set. However, in real- ity, we know that many professionals utilize a variety of symbol sets in the classroom to address the communication needs of

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their students. Due to this, we send out a google drive link af- ter a training so participants can have access to all the materials in the other symbol sets. By doing this, participants have the ability to apply the information shared at the training with their knowledge of how to create the materials to ensure all of their students have access to the appropriate supports. As one par- ticipant shared through a post-survey, “I am enjoying using the materials and being able to look back to make new ones.” Having read how we structure our MATerial training series and the benefits it has provided to our staff and students, take some time to consider if this type of professional development could be of benefit to your teams. One way to do that is by uti- lizing a professional development planning guide, such as the Quality Indicators of Assistive Technology (QIAT) Assistive Tech- nology Guiding Document (bit.ly/2QU0Nmh) and Planner (bit. ly/2K4Oovk). Systematically reviewing the areas of need for your staff and district through planning guides supports the creation of an effective plan for professional development. If after re- viewing these documents you feel a MATerial training initiative could be a valuable support, there are a variety of ways to imple- ment such a program. We decided to create the trainings from scratch so to tailor it to the specific needs of our staff. We started with doing research, reading articles, watching webinars, and at- tending other high-quality professional development to ensure we were presenting up-to-date best practices. From there, we decided which materials to include and then designed and cre- ated them.

However, that is just one way to create a make-and-take training. There is a plethora of high quality, free webinars and training resources available around the topics of AAC, commu- nication, and literacy that could be utilized to structure a pro- fessional development offering. Some of the resources we find ourselves frequently referencing are the Project Core webinars (bit.ly/31dYQFY), the POWER AAC modules (bit.ly/2K1EWIV), Lit- eracy for All webinars (bit.ly/2yk7CX6), and the Angelman Foun- dation Communication Training Series webinars (bit.ly/31jPFEa). Utilizing one or more of these resources and pairing them with materials to make-and-take is another way to structure a MATe- rial training. Furthermore, there are resource materials available for down- load that could easily be paired with a presentation to incorpo- rate the material component for this type of training. For exam- ple, ConnectAbility’s Visual Engine website has a variety of free visual support resources, such as picture cards and templates for schedules, choice boards and first/then cards, which could be used during the make-and-take portion of a visual supports MATerial (bit.ly/2tKysnr). Saltillo has manual communication boards with alphabet and fringe word supports for download from their website (bit.ly/2EW0mTu), and the AAC Language Lab has a variety of manual communication boards available (bit. ly/2WifqAQ) that could pair well with a MATerial training around the topics of AAC and communication development. The Dy- namic Learning Maps website has a variety of alternative pencils available to download that could address the material making

component of a writing MATerial training (bit.ly/2Mz7fjS). They also have a list of books, organized by grade level, created on the Tar Heel Reader website that could be utilized during a reading MATerial training (bit.ly/2MO4UC7). These are just a few ideas of places you can look to for evidence-based resources that may be a good fit for a make-and-take portion of a MATerial training. When it comes to providing any professional development training, there is the question of cost. Throw in the mix a whole packet of materials and this point becomes even more relevant. In order to pay for the MATerials, we employ a variety of strate- gies. We charge a small fee to help cover the price of materials and the provided continuing professional development units. In order for this amount to offset the cost of the materials, we do a great deal of budget shopping. Dollar stores, stores with teacher discounts, free shipping and sales are our jam! Our goal is to supply as many materials as possible on a tight budget to provide participants the maximum benefit for their time and money. Also, our special education cooperative has a profes- sional development budget which we utilize to help defray costs for our staff members. Overall, our MATerial training series has had good participa- tion, positive feedback, and requests to continue. As one partic- ipant shared, “This was one of the most helpful workshops I have ever attended.”With feedback like that, we are excited to further develop and present our MATerial trainings this school year! We have found that providing the opportunity during a profession- al development training to leave with information, plus a whole set of materials ready to go the next day, prepares participants to put into action the content discussed at the training. We like to end each MATerial training by saying, “It is usually at this point in the day when the presenter will say, what can you do in the next week to implement something from this ses- sion? But, we will not be saying that today! This was a make- and-take, you have the next steps in your hands ready to go first thing tomorrow morning!” Now, not only does this get a laugh, but it drives home the idea that participants leave the MATerial with fewer barriers to overcome due to having materials in their hands ready to go. They can feel prepared and empowered to put into practice the strategies and interventions discussed at the training. Which, of course, is the whole point of professional development! REFERENCES: Carlson McCall, R., Padron, K., & Andrews, C. (2018). EVI- DENCE-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR ADULT LEARN- ERS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. Codex (2150-086X), 4(4), 29- 47 Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effec- tive Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. Dunst, Carl J. (2015). Improving the Design and Implemen- tation of In-Service Professional Development in Early Child-

hood Intervention. Infants & Young Children, 8(3), 210-219. doi: 10.1097/IYC.0000000000000042 Reed, P., Kaplan, M., & Bowser. G. (2009). The Assistive Tech- nology Trainer’s Handbook. Roseburg, OR: National Assistive Technology in Education Network. Retrieved from https://www.natenetwork.org/wp-content/ uploads/at-trainers-handbook.pdf Resources Shared in the Article: Guiding Document for Professional Development and Train- ing in AT. The QIAT Leadership Team (2014), https://qiat.org/ docs/resources/Guiding_Document_Professional_Develop- ment_AT.pdf Assistive Technology Professional Development and Train- ing Planner. The QIAT Leadership Team (2014), https://qiat.org/ docs/resources/PD_planning_Document.pdf Project Core modules: http://www.project-core.com/profes- sional-development-modules/ POWER:AAC modules on PaTTAN: https://www.pattan.net/ assistive-technology/at-for-communication/power-aac/ Literacy for All webinars: http://literacyforallab.ca/videos/ & http://literacyforallab.ca/past-webinars/ Angelman Foundation Communication Training Series webi- nars: https://www.angelman.org/resources-education/commu- nication-training-series/schedule-recordings/ ConnectAbility’s Visual Engine: https://connectability.ca/vi- suals-engine/ Saltillo, manual communication boards: https://saltillo.com/ chatcorner/content/29 AAC Language Lab: https://aaclanguagelab.com/resources?- category=teaching-and-therapy-material Dynamic Learning Maps, alternative pencils: http://www. dlmpd.com/instructional-resources/ Dynamic Learning Maps, list of books: https://www.dlmpd. com/exemplar-text-supports/ Tar Heel Reader: https://tarheelreader.org

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