My appearance on Telepractice Today podcast

Some weeks ago, I had the terrific opportunity to talk with Kim Dutro Allen and K.Todd Houston at their excellent Telepractice Today podcast. Each week they bring in someone from the field to discuss telepractice and therapy in general with different themes and always some terrific tips. For example from the most recent episode, I learned from Kim an easy way to show YouTube videos full screen with no ads or suggested videos:

-Go to YouTube and locate/cue up the video you want to watch

-in the URL/address bar at the top of the browser, click between the t and the u of youtube.com and insert a dash or hyphen as in yout-ube.com and hit Return to go to that URL. 

A simple, amazing hack!

In my episode, we talk my history with technology and telepractice, chiefly about becoming an "emergency telepractioner" with the pandemic. It was a fun, entertaining conversation and I hope there are some good tips in there for you too. 

The episode can be found at the above link or wherever you find podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc)

Strategies for Using Picture Books on YouTube

As I have, for now, continued to be doing mostly teletherapy for the past YEAR (that anniversary has been painful, so apologies for the quiet blog), I have found picture books invaluable. Pssst...shhh...largely any picture book you might want has a YouTube read aloud.

One strategy I use is to evaluate what's there, as often several are available. I prefer those that look more slide-show than a person with a book, and also tend to avoid videos with too much zooming. Going full-screen with the video by clicking the lower right icon is helpful.

This facilitates the second strategy- YOU read it aloud. This allows you to pace, pause, and interact with your students (e.g. model think alouds, direct their attention toward illustrations that foster inferences, use questions...). Turn that video sound right off!

So, for example, take How to Catch a Leprechaun by Wallace and Elkerton. This duo's series about catching various creatures has given me a ton of mileage with one particular group. They are not at all game for too-structured conversation, but keep it naturalistic with rich illustrations that have "things to say" that are not described in the text, and they talk! This one may help you in the coming week. There are a number of read-alouds of this book that you can compare to the simple one by PV Storytime. Search the book on YouTube to see what I mean.

There's also the handy The Night Before St. Patrick's Day you can use to do a topic study. Jamboard would be great for constructing Leprechaun Traps, see Julia Dweck's fantastic Rube Goldberg Jam as an example of what's possible (and all her great, very useful work on her LinkTree). EDIT- Julia has just added a fantastic How to Catch a Leprechaun Jam that would be a great post activity for the above book.

"Fails" as Narrative Instruction

The Internet loves a "Fail," which Urban Dictionary defines as [noun, in this case] "a glorious lack of success." From a narrative standpoint, however, a fail is an initiating event, a critical story element to work with in our students' language. Graphic organizers reduce cognitive load and help students identify and internalize narrative structure, which assists with comprehension and production of narrative language. One level I like to work with my students around is the Reaction Sequence, which looks like:

Character
Setting
Initiating Event
Reaction (what the person DOES in response to the IE, note that this is not a Response or Feeling, which is part of the next level of narrative development, often called the Abbreviated Episode)

The Reaction Sequence is sometimes represented as Somebody Wanted But So. You can use SWBS, Story Grammar Marker®, Story Champs, or other approaches such as the Gillams' SKILL for your graphic organizers, or make your own. Good idea to have some sort of consistency in the icons or GOs you use, however.

So, the tech part: humor is great in therapy, but be careful about where you get your fails. I like America's Funniest Home Videos (AFV) as it is super family-friendly. Take this video compliation:




It provides a great 15-30 min activity in having students formulate the narrative of what they see. Of course, use the pause button, and a few other ideas
-Zoom in on character, some students have a difficult time reading nonverbal signals around age and relationship between people (a skill measured in assessments like the Social Thinking® Dynamic Assessment Protocol). Scaffold statements like "a brother and sister" or "a kid who is probably like, 8 years old."
-NOTE that with the above you are working on microstructure such as noun phrases and use of conjunctions (also linking between the story elements: "A group of kids is surfing at a beach WHEN a huge wave comes.")
-Zoom in on setting, many of my students would just say "outside"- scaffold specificity such as a beach, a lake, a hiking trail, and so on.
-Consider adding a pragmatic element with an ersatz barrier task- one student can watch and narrate, then show the video to the group.

May your summer be free of Fails!

Considering your professional development schedule next year? Check out Sean's offerings for training sessions.

On obvious signs and "hidden rules..."

Presenting a video can be a simple use of tech that can establish context, provide visual support, engage students in discussion, and open the door to a related post-activity addressing language skills. A good example is this video which features about 100 unnecessary signs such as:

The video moves quickly, but pause as many times as you want! You can also screenshot to pick and choose signs you'd like to explore (perhaps a good move to work on functional reading). Some ideas on using the video:
-Metalinguistics: what makes the message obvious and unnecessary?
-Social Cognition: the video can be used to have students practice "thinking with their eyes" for the greater context of what makes the sign silly, as well as engaging in humor. Using signs in therapy activities is also a good way to introduce the related Social Thinking® concept of "Hidden Rules" (related to Dr. Brenda Smith Myles' Hidden Curriculum); there are many (more complex than shown here) rules that we need to learn through observation and experience in order to be successful socially.
-Narrative Language: Have students discuss or sketch stories depicting why someone thought these particular signs were necessary. This context would also allow for working on complex language and conjunctions like if, because, and so.

Video Tips from Students, Part 2

In my last post I discussed how sometimes a tip from a student about what might engage him or a group may lead to a great activity. Another example came from a student who offhandedly mentioned that he likes to watch EvanTube, which he said had fun "how-to" videos. I checked it out, and EvanTube is a "family-friendly" channel full of challenge videos, among other things. I discovered a number of them could be done with minimal or simple materials, and thought that the process of figuring out what is needed, the sequence and overall plan would be a good language, social and executive function activity. The two activities I did with my group turned out to be some of the most fun ones I had this year.

The 3 Marker Challenge turned out to align very well with our social goals as a group and Ward/Jacobsen's Get Ready/Do/Done (GRDD) model. We watched the video:



And interactively completed a GRDD graphic organizer that when complete would look like this (note that the numbers next to the do-steps are estimates of time in minutes, and we used a clock to map these out):

You can access this Google Drawings file here and if you like, make a copy for yourself (File>Make a Copy if signed into Google Drive) to use as a template. It was a very fun activity and we practiced a lot of different skills.

The following week, we tried another! First, we quickly did the Yanny/Laurel experiment (which, incidentally now has its own EvanTube vid), which is a good social activity that underscores that people have different perceptions and perspectives (but pssst. It's Laurel). Related to this is the channel's Backwards Word Challenge:



Great again for goals of executive function, social, and humor but also phonology and just listening! Similarly, we did a GRDD activity- I try not to gather materials for students but ask them to do it, and this included finding an app to do the task. You'll find a free one easily! The results were hilarious and all had a great time again practicing some important skills.

DirecTV's "Don't" commercials

YouTube gives you on-demand access to just about anything, including commercials that have a language teaching purpose.* DirecTV's recent campaign consists of stories that start when someone is not using DirecTV, and end with an unfortunate consequence. I actually had a student suggest this series while we were using ads to learn about expository text structure. The cause-effect chain in each clip is very fun to explore, and can be used to target inference, complex sentence formulation or sequencing (you could also screen-shot each condition and make a visual sequencing activity, or place your shots in something like Popplet for sequencing). As the character's situation often changes, this provides good opportunities to explore the story grammar element of setting, do situational analysis with Sarah Ward's STOP (Space, Time, Objects, People) strategy, or even Social Behavior Mapping (see the work of Social Thinking® by Michelle Garcia Winner). Exploring a few of the clips would also allow you to work on main idea, i.e. what overall is DirecTV saying about their service as opposed to cable.

As these ads are off-color and have hints of violence, you would want to use them with an older population (especially the last two, which are a bit saucy). Also be very careful to preview each one before showing, as these ads have been parodied in inappropriate ways, and you wouldn't want to show one of those videos.

A number of the clips are embedded below- email subscribers click through to the post to see them.








These last two are definitely more for older students/teens:




*If YouTube is blocked at your school, apps such as TubeBox allow you to cache (download) any YouTube video for offline viewing, or download to your computer using sites such as KeepVid.

Google on Apple: YouTube

A frequently touched upon theme here on this blog is the usefulness of YouTube as a visual teaching tool, and it keeps evolving as a resource.  For example, recently with the iOS6 update, Apple removed the native YouTube app.  I had previously recommended Jasmine as a replacement, and this is still a perfectly nice app, but Google then produced their own new (free) YouTube app for iPhone and then updated it to be universal for iPad. You can, as always, still see YouTube videos in the Safari app as well.

The iPad app works as you would expect it to, and has a very nice, clean interface as many of the new Google apps do. The nifty addition of voice search (using the microphone in the upper right corner) and sign-in capabilities allowing you to subscribe to "channels" or add videos to playlists, are nice touches.  One of the issues when the native app disappeared is that many people, including families of kids with autism who used the app extensively to provide entertainment to their children, lost the "favorite" lists that were saved in that app and only in that app. With sign-in, all favorites will be saved to your Google account.

Google's New YouTube App

If YouTube is blocked at your school, or you do not have wifi access in your building, you can also consider saving YouTube videos for later viewing using apps such as PlayTube-Offline Player for YouTube (free). Simply search for a video and tap Cache, and the video will be saved for playing within the app, regardless of where you are.  Do keep in mind that caching video consumes storage on your device.

Appy-Picking Month: Videos App

The Videos app that comes pre-installed on your iPad as part of iOS is one that you might want to "pick" for use of videos in your therapy.  This video shows you how to move videos from iTunes to this app, and also another way to bypass blocking of YouTube so you are able to show selected videos from your iPad.

Appy-Picking: Jasmine YouTube Client

If you have updated your iPad to the newest operating system, iOS6 (sorry, iPad 1 peeps, you can't), you may have noticed a few effects of the Apple-Google rivalry.  First of all, the Google-powered Maps app has been replaced with a controversial new app that sorta stinks, and which has prompted Apple to issue a near-unprecedented apology. Perhaps more on this later.  Another change is that the iOS-native YouTube app was removed from the new operating system. Oh, well. That TV icon was getting a little old, and poor Google will be crying all the way to the bank now that they don't have to give Apple a cut of ad revenue.

I have written a few times about the intervention possibilities of YouTube, though I know some cannot access it within your schools (see that link for workarounds).  Google is surely in the process of making their own YouTube app for iPad (there is already one for iPhone/iPod that you can install, but it will be small-sized/resolution-challenged). In the meantime, however, check out Jasmine, a nice, elegant, timely YouTube client that works exactly as you would expect it to work:

Keep in mind that when downloading Jasmine, you will receive an "age-restricted material" warning.  YouTube certainly can be racy, so don't ever allow kids to search for what they would like to watch, obviously. 

Common Core Connection: 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.2 Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

iPad Essentials: Working around the Barriers to YouTube Access

YouTube scares a lot of people, who rightfully worry about its Wild West of content and the often pragmatically inappropriate and soul-crushingly rude comments left in response to videos.  It is not a resource that kids should really be allowed to explore without boundaries.

At the same time, I do think it is a shame that so many school districts have chosen to block this and other resources rather than teaching kids to use them responsibly, and holding them accountable for when they don't. Doing so prevents educators from accessing many videos that have educational and language-enhancing purposes (see a previous post on this here, if you want specifics). YouTube also has a "channel" just for teachers, and blogs such as The Kid Should See This provide great examples of videos you can use to elicit language.

Unfortunately, if your building blocks access to YouTube or does not allow you access to wifi on your iDevice, your YouTube app is pretty much useless while in that zone. However, there is a way to access those particularly choice videos for therapeutic use, it just takes a few steps and some forethought. Here's what you do.

1. Identify a video of interest and while on a computer (not your iPad), copy the video's URL:

2. Go to KeepVid in your computer's browser and paste in the copied URL and hit Download at the end of the blue bar (not the giant red download, that's a ubiquitous ad, LOL):

3. Wait for the potential video files to pop up and download the MP4 by clicking on it. Again, ignore the giant Download button:

4. This will download the YouTube clip as a video file to your computer, usually to the Downloads folder. Now to get it onto your iPad. Open an email account that is accessible on your iPad (added to your Mail app. Accounts can be added to the Mail app using the Settings app under Mail, Contacts, Calendars). Gmail accounts work well for this process. Attach the video file to an email and send it to that account that you can access on the iPad. This may take a minute.

5. On your iPad, while connected to wifi, check the email account and locate the email. Tap the video icon in the email to download the video to the iPad. Then, tap and hold to bring up the option to save the video:

6. Now, go to your Photos app.  The video will be saved there (not in the Videos app, which is for iTunes content), and you can play it whenever you need to, regardless of YouTube blockage or wifi connection.

[Edit: You can also import/drag your video file into iTunes on a computer, plug in your iPad (you don't need to sync), and drag that video as displayed in iTunes onto the iPad icon in the left sidebar.  The video will then appear in the Videos app.]

A couple of caveats:

-Videos take up space. You'll want to be aware of this, and delete from your iPad if necessary, as well as from your email account and computer.

-KeepVid is Java-based. If you run into trouble with it, try running a Java update (through Software update on Mac or by Googling "Java Update" on PC). Also make sure your browser is updated or KeepVid might not function correctly (see part B here).

-This process will not work if the YouTube user has disabled embedding and downloading.  

Happy Work-arounding!

Animonths- Explaining + Animation = Explanimation

When interactive whiteboards (IWBs) first arrived on the scene with their accompanying software, one of the best aspects was teachers' easy access to recording features so that they could preserve each lesson as a video file and share it later via their webpages or other means.  This assisted students who needed information repeated, and also made really good use of the visual teaching capabilities of IWBs.  It also is extremely motivating for students to be able to use this technology themselves in order to explain or apply a curriculum concept, and then hear/see their work and evaluate how well they did!

This kind of "screen recording," or "Explanimation" technology is now available through a number of easy-to-use apps.  In this post, I am going to highlight two I really like, though there are others that are popular and well-reviewed.  I was excited to see this technology applied in a very user-friendly app geared toward use with younger children, Doodlecast for Kids ($1.99, iPad only). In the words of Tickle Tap Apps "Doodlecast combines your drawing and voice to create short videos."  Check it out in action here:




Applying a language lens, this app has many potential uses:
-My graduate student intern and I have found that this app has been very motivating to several articulation students working at the sentence and carryover levels.  We use it in combination with articulation word lists and have the students make up sentences and stories using their target sounds.
-I have also found this to be a really useful tool when working with targets such as multiple meaning words, figurative language and vocabulary.
-The app has a built-in lens on setting and emotions, as the home screen allows you to pick settings such as "water" or "sky" such that those are pre-drawn on the screen, and you can add to them.  These aspects contribute to the app's usefulness as a narrative development tool.

There is now an older brother of Doodlecast For Kids, Doodlecast Pro ($3.99, iPad only) Though Doodlecast for Kids is recommended for ages 3-5, it's applicable for much older kids, and I have used it with middle school students. expands the functionality of Explanimation technology greatly by allowing you to insert images into the animation and adding more customizable tools.  As a result, you can take an image on any topic (see our Essential Tech Skill Tip regarding using Google Images on iPad) and draw and speak about it.



Both Doodlecast for Kids and Doodlecast Pro let you save the video to the iPad (it will be in the Photos app/Camera Roll, not the Videos app) for easy review/sharing at a later time. Videos can be uploaded to YouTube directly from the Doodlecast Pro app, or within the Photos app for videos created with Doodlecast for kids.

For a free app that is similar to Doodlecast Pro, try ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard or Educreations Interactive Whiteboard.  I do like that Doodlecast lets you save to your iPad where ShowMe, for example, only lets you export to their website.

So, readers, what do you think of Explanimation? What other uses do you see for this technology in Speech-Language Pathology?  Let us know in the comments.

Animonths on SpeechTechie: PBS Kids Channel

For awhile now, I have wanted to do a series of posts on resources that utilize animation for speech and language therapy, so I decided that February and March will be Animonths on this blog! I have so many things I wanted to write about in this category and February is a) short and b) a month in which we have a week-long vacation in which I probably will not post, so I figured it could stretch across March as well. I thought about referring to that as the month of "Farch," but that just sounds unpleasant.  So, Animonths!

Why is animation a topic worth highlighting? Well, first of all we know that animation is attention-grabbing eye nutrition for our kids.  I did not say "eye candy" because in my opinion, animation can be used to present contexts that help our children to grow in their use of language.  In a way, animation is language, as it conveys movement (verbs) within and across spaces (concepts) for different reasons (causality) to tell stories (narrative) that reflect relationships between characters (social interaction).  So across these months, we will have posts that show how different animated or animation-producing resources, accessed through technology, of course, can be put to use to engage students and address speech and language goals.

To start, did you know that PBS Kids has a YouTube channel? This curated channel contains all kinds of short story- and information-based segments from PBS shows! Use Clifford to work on telling stories, or Sid the Science Kid to connect with curriculum content.

YouTube blocked at school? You can still take advantage of it.  Click on any video on PBS Kids while at home.  Highlight and Copy the URL (web address) as seen in blue below:

Go to keepvid.com.  Paste the URL in the search bar.  Don't click that big red button that says Download- that's just an ad.  

Wait a short time and see the video files that are available for download (colored links). Pick the MP4 one- usually all computers have a program that will play an MP4. Download that file and you will be able to play it on a school computer (email it to yourself- can even view on iPad that way -or transfer using a flash drive).

I look forward to sharing more resources during Animonths!

Social Thinking and Current Events on YouTube

Kids with communication and Social Thinking™ difficulties appreciate discussing how public figures commit social foibles.  I recently explored these ideas with a few middle school groups in conjunction with some YouTube clips.

Both of these mini-lessons arose naturally out of the groups' discussion and interest, which is one reason why YouTube is such a great tool- I was able to pull up a video at a couple of taps (on my iPad) to deepen the context and guide some discussion and thinking that I probably wouldn't have been able to elicit without the video.

The first story we touched on was the recent controversy about the Red Sox pitchers who were exposed for drinking beer, eating fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games.




After watching this brief video, the kids had more of an idea of the story, and we were able to do a quick story map using Story Grammar Marker™ icons.  In our discussion we linked this to social thinking concepts such as expected and unexpected behaviors, "Team" vs. "Just Me" thinking, and keeping one's body with the group.

Recently we had election day and we got to talking about the presidential campaign.  Like many, I had gotten a huge kick out of the extremely inadvisable Herman Cain national campaign ad in which his campaign manager was shown smoking a cigarette. I showed this to the group without giving them a cue as to what the "wrap-up" of the ad would be. Their response was hysterical.  First of all, it was clear they were being good "social detectives" and "thinking with their eyes" about what they had seen.  They described it as "RANDOM!"  We had been working with the graphic novel "Social Fortune and Social Fate" and this linked well with one of the strategy codes suggested in the text- TAC: Think About Choices.  This "code," like that in a video game, unlocks the skill of thinking about what the consequences of one's social actions will be, which it was clear that the Cain camp had not done even a little bit in the matter of this ad (let's not get into other choices Cain allegedly made, all politics aside).  

Interestingly, a few of the kids reported that the "punchline" of this ad was not really the candidate's fault.  This exposed some faulty social thinking and an opportunity for a teachable moment about schema.  How does an ad end up on the air?  It goes through many steps including previewing and approval by many, many people, including the candidate.  It seems like someone should have caught this and made a better "choice," right?

First World Problems

The beginning of the school year is a great time to talk about essential concepts around being part of a group(see the Social Thinking® approach)- whether that group be a pull-out or private social skills group, or an entire classroom.  One of my favorite resources in this regard are the opening lessons of Think Social!, the character of GlassMan (for younger students) and The Incredible 5-Point Scale.  Through discussion and rating of a variety of problems, students can learn to respond in an expected way to things that come up in group settings!

I recently stumbled upon the First World Problems Rap on YouTube, a funny, visual, and kid-relatable context for opening and continuing a lesson on evaluating problems.




Be sure to check out my strategies regarding using YouTube at school (even if it is blocked)

Also, click through to see a printable Incredible 5-point Scale of Problems and info on how it can be used to build narrative language in conjunction with the SGM.

In the meantime, please forgive my less-frequent posting as I am dealing with my own #firstworldproblem: a WiFi issue at home, hopefully to be resolved today. The Horror!

Superbowl Commercials and Language Therapy

The Superbowl approaches this weekend- what a great topic to engage your students as you sneak in some language strategy teaching! The game itself is often, well, boring, and besides the food, the other thing about Superbowl Sunday that people love is the commercials, often expensive productions that cost even more to air. Commercials are short pieces of discourse that use specific structures and strategies to convey their messages; these correspond to text structures that our students need to master to access curriculum text: (story/narrative, list, sequence, compare-contrast, description, persuasion, etc- thanks to my pal Maryellen Rooney Moreau for making this connection some years ago). For example, last year's entry from Doritos is a funny context to focus on sequence or, on a more complex level, problem and solution (basically a story structure):



Or, probably the most famous Superbowl commercial ever- a perfect comparison of IBM's monopoly on personal computing to a totalitarian state (try making a comparison web on this, or simply a sequence again to provide the background knowledge, along with a little sequence of Apple's history):



I first started using commercials to review text structures some years ago on VHS tape- what a pain compared to accessing the video resources on the web today! Here are some ideas and strategies for using some commercials in your teaching:

• Obviously, we never want to show anything that we haven't previewed ourselves!
• Start with YouTube- anything you might want to use will be there! If you search for "superbowl commercials 2010," you'll find a whole bunch from last year, and you can search for other years as well. See my post on YouTube if you are concerned about distracting links or if it is blocked at your school- also, avoid showing comments below videos to students.
• Check out a bunch of food or soft drink-related ads- they are usually pretty family-friendly (don't even bother with any GoDaddy ads)- with an eye to what structures they can be used to teach. Do you see a list? A sequence? A description? A story?
• If you don't have time to pre-watch a bunch of ads, consider a post-bowl lesson. While you are enjoying your 7-layer dip, watch the commercials with an eye toward text structure. They are sure to be on YouTube within 24 hours, if they aren't already.
• Check out Yummy Math's lesson plan on Superbowl Commercials for a different take on the topic!
• Lessons on Superbowl ads can be a great precursor to having kids script and create their own ads for a product for language practice.

Enjoy the game, and let's hope for no "wardrobe malfunctions" this year!

iMovie for iPhone 4

Huh, I just realized this is my 101st post! Cool.

I have been a big fan of iMovie on the Mac ever since I had to learn it really quickly and stressfully to produce a slideshow for my Dad's retirement party. Ever since then I have found it, in its various iterations (we are now on iMovie '09) to be a pretty intuitive way to produce a nice movie. At my elementary school, I became known as "the slideshow guy," and that moniker has followed me up to middle school, though in truth I usually use iPhoto to arrange the photos and music in a way that looks much harder than it is. When Apple announced they were releasing a version for iPhone, I thought that seemed logical and a great idea.

I gave the app ($4.99 at the app store) a try last night, using some of the snapshots I have taken this year to update families in my weekly emails home after private practice group sessions. It was, again, way easy to use. You can pick from 5 "themes" that affect how the photos or video are displayed, with accompanying titles and music. Problem is, I could not get the title editor to come up though I tried following the directions exactly. Anyway, I am sure I/they will figure that out. You can use the theme-based music or anything from your iTunes library. It was midnight and I made this while lying in bed (ha!) so I didn't persist in trying to make anything too fancy. I LOVED that I could upload it directly to YouTube, skipping the plug-into-computer steps necessary with Flip video and other pocket video cameras.  This is a montage of photos related to therapy, including:
-A "goodbye" picture a student drew for me. I love it because he so clearly associated me with Story Grammar Marker, which shows that he "got it"
-A picture I sent to a parent to show how we were using Thememaker magnets to learn the difference between the text structures of List and Sequence.
-Several images on how we were using The Incredible 5-point Scale in therapy
-A map of a local Dunkin Donuts I made before a group community trip in order to talk about the "schema" and expected behaviors for that location.



Language Lens
Movies like this one are much simpler to make than you think! A short movie can emphasize work, concepts, and events to parents or students and would be very motivating to watch. iMovie for iPhone can be used to produce social stories and scripted role-plays, or to provide video feedback on session behaviors. It's a great tool for SLPs!

What about you?  What is your experience with iMovie and using video in therapy.  How would having iMovie on your phone be helpful to you?

You might also be interested in:

A Picture is worth a thousand words.

Race some HotWheels!

I am amazed with the creative ways the YouTube technology has evolved.  Clicking within videos and linking to other videos based on those decisions creates a kind of "choose-your-own-adventure" experience, a strong context for cause-effect language.  Check out The HotWheels Custom Motor Cup Challenge, a YouTube series that allows kids to choose cars, enhancements, then follow their race!  This could be useful for all kids, but would be especially motivating for difficult students.

Language Lens:

• Watching and reviewing the races would be a great way to elicit temporal/sequential (recounting what happened) and causal (why it might have happened) language. 
• A simple T-chart could serve as a graphic organizer- What we chose/Results- over multiple trials, and help students see the causal connections of their choices.

That's Not Cool

That's Not Cool is an interesting resource. I am noticing that a lot of the educational interactives (and ads like this one) about online safety and cyberbullying are taking a strikingly frank approach. This may challenge our own comfort levels as teachers and clinicians, but is likely to get through to kids. That's Not Cool is definitely for older students, and will have elements you may want to avoid, such as scripts for dating teens who are dealing with a boyfriend's request for nude pics (!). However, there are also great interactive videos dealing with lighter aspects of establishing boundaries, both virtual and real-world. The "Two-sided" videos present YouTube (therefore, not viewable at every school) clips side-by-side showing differing perspectives on a situation. Students can then click within the video window (That's So Cool) and choose a course of action and follow the story to its resulting conclusion. The "Text Monster" topic, particularly, would be appropriate for all students starting to explore dating relationships, especially those with language and social challenges.
Yes, the stories are told using sock-puppet characters- here's one on an escalator!

Language Lens

• That's Not Cool's two-sided stories can be a great way to explore story grammar, with an emphasis on which plans lead to which consequences, particularly (but not only) for students on the autism spectrum. This could be a good context to use story maps or Story Grammar Marker.
• For students with social cognitive deficits, these activities lend themselves to discussion of social thinking aspects such as expected and unexpected behaviors, a key concept in Michelle Garcia Winner's programming. I do find that my teen social skill group members often want to discuss dating challenges, and I have had at least one client enroll in group specifically "to learn how to talk to girls."

Visible Thinking

Visible Thinking is a terrific teaching resource from Harvard University promoting the use of activities called Thinking Routines to develop students' higher-level thinking skills. Language is, of course, a manifestation of thinking, so all of the Thinking Routines promote language skill development. The routines are game-like, structured discussions (if you are familiar with KWL charts, these are basically Thinking Routines) that take place around a topic or visual context (e.g. a YouTube video, map, or picture) and lead students toward operating on higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. I often would turn to a Thinking Routines activity when I found something visually interesting, such as a book cover, and wanted to use it to elicit language within a session. A good example is the "Headlines" Routine:

"This routine draws on the idea of newspaper-type headlines as a vehicle for summing up and capturing the essence of an event, idea, concept, topic, etc. The routine asks one core question:
1. If you were to write a headline for this topic or issue right now that captured the most important aspect that should be remembered, what would that headline be?"

This article on the blog Infinite Thinking Machine provides more examples of how Thinking Routines can be used in relation to YouTube videos, such as this one:



Language Lens

• Thinking Routines are great discussion structures when you are working at the discourse level with students.
• The prompts in each routine are often related to the classic "main idea and details" type of goal, but also move students toward higher level thinking.
• The elements within each routine generally link together in ways that foster complex sentence formulation skills.

Free English Lessons Online

Web resources designed for ESL/ELL education are often just as helpful for students receiving speech and language services. For this reason, Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL is a nice resource for SLPs as well. Free English Lessons Online is a great example of the value of these types of sites, and of the principle that while a search for sites useful to speech and language pathologists often yields nothing, an awareness of language-based tasks can uncover great treasures! Free English Lessons Online is a British site that presents YouTube (therefore, not usable in some districts) videos along with questions and discussion guides. Overall it is an excellent and creative use of YouTube for educational purposes. Here is an entry related to the BAFTA film awards-

Language Lens

• Much of the site lends itself to response to wh-questions, but also use of more advanced comprehension strategies such as connections, questioning, summarizing, etc.
• The video clips and other resources are in story or information form, and would be great contexts to explore story mapping and expository text structures.