The Amazing Race ECC Community Based Instruction

We had so much fun using The Amazing Race as our Expanded Core lesson! It was a great way to do community based instruction (CBI). You can get all kinds of ideas for The Amazing Race activities online. I love Pinterest so I started there but there are a lot of great online resources to help plan. This particular Amazing Race was for our students and siblings of kids with vision impairments. 

To make this work as an effective ECC CBI, think about your skills and your location. It should be a good challenge but doable (this allows you to focus on meaningful instruction). I selected a mall that was not very large and didn't have an overwhelming amount of pedestrian traffic (this allowed me to really work on OM skills). We also went to a main street that had a good amount of stores and Walmart. 

Of course one of our first challenges was for everyone to learn about the ECC! I bought a ton of those onesie PJ costumes and my staff dressed up  so we would be obvious for our students to find for challenges. That just made things fun and silly for all. 

In addition to the clues pictured in the post, students had to work on their ECC skills such as time management, compensatory skills, a lot of different OM skills (using landmarks, monoculars, directionality) and self-determination. The teams needed to work on communication and team building skills. Each staff member had a lesson plan so that we could provide direct instruction on all these ECC topics. Clues were printed in large print and a Braille copy. 

As always, be mindful of areas that should have some pre-or post teaching. If students have to figure out a ton of items, the main objectives of the lesson get lost. Each group had a (staff) coach who provided some 5 minute instruction as the students played the game. We also wanted to work in transportation skills but it  was a challenge to work in public transportation. We used our school bus and named it the "rendezvous point". The bus was parked somewhere along the route and students had to use their mapping skills to locate it. 

No Amazing Race challenge would be complete without a food challenge. Enter the simulator kits and Oreos! This was for everyone. I bought every kind of Oreo cookie and students had to identify the flavor. It was actually a fun way of doing sensory efficiency because we had to work the other senses for sure!

This could easily be a repeated activity and not just a stand alone one day program. You can even give skill level of beginner, intermediate and advanced. There is so much potential and I can't wait to do it again! It also doesn't even need to be just a blind school camp activity, families can do this as well! Just remember some of the points that I shared so that it is accessible and fun. 

Parent Mobility Resource

I am so excited to share a really great resource with you! Two of our super amazing orientation & mobility instructors have started a website all about OM skills. It has videos and lots of good tips for cane travel. The best part: it's all written for parents! The language and instruction is very parent friendly. 

This is definitely a resource you want to save and use over and over. 

Check it out: http://parentmobility.com

I love the O&M skills tab where they break down O&M skills by grades. It lets parents know according to grade level what skills are appropriate. 

The other thing that I love is that both mobility instructors, Bethany & Linda, are not just instructors but have personal ties to the field. They bring their understanding of the vision impairment community to add to the resources. 

Teach STEM & The Expanded Core: Winter Lesson

Hi friends! This is the first of many new posts about teaching STEM and the Expanded Core Curriculum together. I started running a STEM camp two years ago and have immersed myself in learning about the relationship between STEM & ECC. Good news--there are ton of ways you can teach the Expanded Core and STEM. I'll keep sharing tips, lessons and ideas. 

I use STEM lesson plans for my STEM side of things. My favorite place to hit up is Teachers Pay Teachers. 

I used this lesson plan from TPT:

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-STEM-Challenges-January-2231074. Pay attention to the terms of use when making copies or sharing. The lesson plans for this lesson are only $4 and you can buy digital extras for a good price. There are 3 different STEM lessons in this bundle. Below is a picture of my STEM lesson plan and my ECC plan (we added Braille labels using Braillables when we did the lesson).

The first part of my lesson focused on the Expanded Core areas. We spent some time digging in to learning about winter and sledding. We brought in several different types of sleds/tubes and had students check them out. Students climbed on the sleds, checked out their details and learned how they worked. Then we discussed the special clothing needed for winter (independent living skills), how to access weather conditions (use of AT) and how to get on the sled (orientation & mobility). Social interaction skills are always an important piece of community instruction. We had single person and two person sleds to discuss social pieces. We also addressed social communication (the type of language/words they may hear to need to know) and nonverbal body language. 

Below are pictures of the students checking out different types of sleds/tubes.

Discussion & hands on learning:

·      What is a sled?

·      What is a sled ramp?

·      Tubing vs. sledding

·      Where can you go sledding?

The STEM activities were pretty fun. The sledding lesson went well with the ECC part. The lesson asked for card stock paper to make the sled but we had plenty of Braille paper hanging around so we used that. We swapped standard font sized rulers for our LP/Braille ones. We did a few practice rounds so that our students who had no vision could get the hang of sending their sled (bottle cap) down the sledding ramp. We used tape to mark the sled distance. This makes it possible for our students to measure with their ruler. 

Note: we followed all of the lesson plans for learning the concepts covered in the STEM lesson. I like to use meaningful terms for our students so we are hands on as much as possible. For example, we rubbed our hands together and then palms on the table to learn about friction and we discussed units of measurement that students know for distance.

Here's how I incorporated ECC areas in this lesson:

Expanded Core instruction: Students will strengthen their understanding of sledding.

·      Compensatory skills: concept development of sledding

·      Social interaction skills: people go sledding together; social vocabulary, social etiquette

·      Independent Living Skills: what type of special clothes do you wear for sledding?

·      Orientation & Mobility: body & spatial awareness; directionality, mobility in the snow

·      Sensory efficiency: how does being outside in winter affect your senses?

·      Recreation & Leisure: exploration of sledding as a recreation activity

·      Career Education: understanding the rules or etiquette of the hill; who works at resorts?

·      Use of AT: how can you access weather reports and other information to find out more information about sledding?

·      Self-Determination: developing new skills; making preferences for different types of sledding (tubes vs. sleds/going solo or with friends)

SSTEM is a growing area for all students. Students with vision impairments do not need to be left behind! There are so many ways our students can have meaningful STEM experiences. I love that it also a great opportunity to extend learning by incorporating the Expanded Core. 

Teach the Expanded Core at a Ninja Gym!

Hi friends, you know I like to make the Expanded Core Curriculum as relevant and meaningful as possible for our kiddos so check out this community based instruction (CBI) lesson at a ninja gym! First, it is important to note that I didn't just show up at the ninja gym and to just play and hang out. The ninja gym was part of my short term program, Ninja Jam (a ninja twist on my annual December Jingle Jam). It was such an awesome way of teaching ECC skills! 

Before we headed to the ninja gym, we spent the morning discussing life obstacles. All of the students were divided up according to age. I write lesson plans for my staff so they can lead discussions with important talking points. I also made sure we touched on growth mindset as part of learning how to crush life obstacles. I love growth mindset for my students and my own kids. There is so much we can use from growth mindset as part of ECC instruction. 

Each student completed a worksheet (see picture below). Note: I made sure the font was a size that all my low vision students could see (some had theirs on 11x17 papers and we used 20/20 pens). We made Braille worksheets for our Braille readers (using simple peel & stick Braille labels and old school Perkins Braille writer). 

Here's a snapshot of my lesson plan discussion for my staff:

Can you see how we are working Expanded Core skills for this activity? We are hitting all the areas in this small group activity. 

Next we headed to the Ninja Warehouse in Ogden for an awesome ninja session! This took some planning and pre-teaching on my part. I went to the gym a few times before and thought about how I could take obstacles that were up in the air and make it meaningful. Thanks to the ninja coaches who gave me lots of help! My best tool for teaching about things up in the air: a white cane!

 We divided students into small groups and different stations. Students with no vision had a guide and we did tactile modeling of body positions.

The black & red colors were a bit tricky for some students because there was so much black & red but we managed well. Below is a picture of one of my students who has some vision (but is Braille reader) using her cane to see how high up the Devil Steps obstacle went.

 Then my daughter who was this student's guide runner in a lot of things we have done over the past year went side by side to show where to grab. Another note: I like to use peers whenever possible with typically developing students. I think there is too much of a stereotype that our kids always need an adult with them. I use peers as much as possible.

 We used A LOT of tactile modeling for body positions. We were very lucky to have Karson Voiles (owner of the ninja gym and an accomplished American Ninja Warrior come in and coach us.) He held a lot of positions over and over so students could feel how to position their body (major kudos to Karson because he had to do it a lot!).

 The ECC instruction covered everything from what clothes and shoes you should wear (independent living skills) to concept development (compensatory skills). It was a full ECC day of learning!

We had students with low vision, no vision and deafblindness attend our Ninja Jam. Check out my Instagram (9 More Than Core) to see video and more pictures of my students crushing obstacles. 

I'm not gonna lie. Some obstacles were a challenge for students with no vision such as the Warped Wall. Luckily there were kid sized walls that helped with the concept development. We had students feel the wall (to get the idea of the curvature) and the ledge. Then we did practice runs where I ran along side my students with our hands touching. I yelled "grab it" when we got up to the ledge. It only took these awesome students one practice run and they were climbing the wall like a champ! All of them pulled themselves up and onto the top. I did something similar on the larger version. It just goes to show you that it really isn't about what they see, it's about what they do!

Sample of Expanded Core Skills Covered:

Compensatory: concept development, reading & writing, spatial concepts, speaking & listening, organization

Orientation & Mobility: travel, body awareness, spatial concepts, locomotor skills, requesting/declining assistance

Social Interaction Skills: interpersonal communication with others and instructors; learning socially relevant conversation (why are so many people interested in American Ninja Warrior or parkour training)

Independent Living Skills: discussion of appropriate clothing and shoes for the gym, time management, organization

Recreation & Leisure: learning about obstacles, skills and activities (we had one very low vision student a student at the gym already!). 

Career Education: what jobs are available in this type of area; how to become a coach (and discussion about what make a good coach), following rules, waiting in line

Assistive Technology: We actually had an APPetizer party as part of Ninja Jam where we learned about different apps and how they can help in real life. Students took pictures of obstacles on their phones and magnified them so we could look at details that were far away.

Sensory Efficiency: We definitely had to rely on all remaining senses and vision to be engaged in the activities at the ninja gym.

Self-Determination: There were so many SD opportunities! Students made choices about what they wanted to do, developed preferences, learned about skills and talents for different skills and obstacles, requested assistance or identified where they needed it, made a plan of action (life obstacles).