The teacher:
• outlines the classroom schedule at the beginning of the day:
– uses a visual scaffold to assist students’ understanding of the day’s activities.
The visual scaffold is placed so that students may refer to it throughout the day
and cross off activities as they are completed
– uses targeted procedural language, eg ‘first’, ‘then’, ‘after’, ‘next’ and ‘last’
• provides auditory and/or visual supports to indicate an upcoming transition between activities
• uses auditory and visual attention getters before giving instructions or explanations.
This prompts students to use listening behaviours and to attend to relevant information.
The teacher asks students to actively respond verbally or visually to the attention getters
as evidence of their attention, eg ‘hands on desk and eyes to me’
• breaks down or chunks multi-step instructions to assist students to understand and
remember the steps:
– forecasts the number of steps using fingers as a memory aid, eg ‘I’m going to tell you
two things’ (holds up two fingers)
– tells students to hold up a finger for each step, eg ‘Get your fingers ready’
– gives the instruction, holding up a finger for each step, eg ‘Number 1 (holds up first
finger), put your art work in your bag. Number 2 (holds up second finger), get your
maths books out’
– checks students’ comprehension and retention using a cloze technique eg ‘Let’s
check if you remember, Number 1 put your ... Number 2 get your ...’
• gives instructions in the order that they are expected to occur to reduce the cognitive
load, eg ‘Pack up your desks and then we will have fruit time’ rather than ‘Before we
have fruit time, pack up your desks’
• provides visual supports or an outline of steps for 1-part instructions that involve multiple
steps and occur regularly in the classroom. This assists students to remember and
complete the steps for instructions with multiple steps, eg ‘Pack up’.
• provides a brief review at the end of each activity, referring to the visual schedule.
This assists students’ comprehension and provides a model of recount language. The teacher names
the lesson or activity, refers to the topic or theme and recounts what students did and learned.
PACK UP
1) Put pencils, glue and
scissors in container
2) Put rubbish in bin
3) Put books away
4) Push chair in
Example: visual supports for instructions
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Support Materials for Students with Special Education Needs
English K–6
Speaking and listening
IMPLEMENTATION
