Being the speech therapist and not seeing the children all together at the same time in a classroom, but rather individually and in small groups, I had to modify the unit by working on the project in many steps and at different levels. There was also a lot of repetition of lessons as I had to present it many different times to different groups. For the older or higher level children, there were different expectations and standards from those of the younger or lower level children. I also had to break down the tasks into small parts that would be able to be completed in a 30 minute session. For the final project, instead of the children choosing any pet they would prefer to research, the children chose the breed of dog they would prefer and completed the essay on that.

Instructional Objectives

Students participated in a survey casting a vote for their favorite pet. Students completed a bar graph survey including the questions relative to the data collected. Students had to identify and explain the reason for choosing their favorite character in a given story, write a report on important facts relevant to their chosen pet, present an oral report using the written report as an outline, and demonstrate ability to work cooperatively in a small group.

I recommend leaving plenty of time to complete the project, especially if you are only able to see small groups of children at a time.

Student Work Samples

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