name. Sa-man-tha. Sa-man-tha. Sa-man-tha.” This is sung for each student that is at school. The graphic shows a CVI-friendly version of the song developed by iHope School. See Image 14 below.
Image 16: Name Song CVI
Image 14: Song board from Singing to Learn Songboards by Caroline Musselwhite, adapted by Gretchen Hanser
Syllable Awareness: Compound Words. Schuele & Boudreau suggest that two-syllable compound words are good targets af- ter segmenting sentences into one-syllable words because they are made up of words that are familiar (2008, p. 11). Start with words that your students already know, and be sure to include words with personal connections. This can be done explicitly, or just integrated into the day, as described in Musselwhite, Wag- ner, & Hanser (2020). Compound Word Game. Ms. Jing introduces several two-syl- lable words that learners are likely to know, such as airplane, birthday, or goldfish. She starts by pretending to hold the first word ‘gold’ in her upended right hand, then the second word in her left hand, then claps two times as she says the compound word ‘goldfish.’ Other students quickly join in. Mai’s helper Ms. Annabeth asks if it’s okay to tap her hands and Mai indicates yes. Ms. Annabeth taps Mai’s right hand as she says ‘cow’ and her left hand as she says ‘boy’, then taps both hands as she says ‘cowboy.’ Syllable Awareness: Syllables in Longer Words Once learners are showing some success with compound words, move beyond compound words, and also include multi-syllable words. Remember that learners do not need to reach mastery on a ‘test’ of compound words before exploring syllable awareness in longer words. Below are examples of how this learning might be extended. Clap Syllables in a Book with Short Sentences. Mr. C used the RAPS books (Musselwhite, 1993, 2016) to highlight the beats in a story. For example, he rapped ‘What should we get for the piz- za to-day? How a-bout marsh-mal-lows? No way!’ This was an activity that Jamal really liked, because he could rest his vision and listen for the beats. Jamal used a drumstick velcroed to his hand to tap the beats, demonstrating syllable awareness.
Roll Call – Name Chant: The ‘Name Chant’ song board (Mus- selwhite, 2019) provides visuals for a chant that supports name identification, letter awareness and syllable awareness. Words: ‘Clap your name, tap your name, stretch it till it’s long. Spell your name, tell your name. Say it like a cheer.’ Mini-Example: High school teacher Anna M. made large blocks with student names to introduce this chant, as all of her learners have CVI. Learners first looked at the individual whose name was on the block, then were encouraged to participate in the chant by indicating the syllables in some way. See Image 15 below.
Image 15: Anna's Name Blocks
This version of the name chant has been optimized to sup- port students with CVI. It is presented in front of a black Velcro board from www.augresources.com to reduce visual complexi- ty by reducing the background. See Image 16.
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