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worksheets. You could use one of the extra worksheets to do this modeling, but I find it more effective to write on the board, where I can use larger, easier-to-see handwriting. Even with this, some students still won’t be able to copy the full sentence; that’s okay. If they write only the first letter, praise them for trying, and then maybe have that be the focus of an individualized lesson later on. Conversely, some students will be able to write the whole sentence independently, without looking at the board. This is more unusual, but in my experience, it became less so as we progressed through these worksheets.

      Don’t forget—you’re always going to be dealing with a huge range of skill sets. That’s why these worksheets were so successful for me. Everyone was allowed to get SOMETHING from the experience. The kids in the middle of the pack (the majority) got the most.

      The rest of the lesson is self-explanatory. You move through the remainder of the sentences in the same manner—read the question aloud, get the answer spoken aloud, and immediately transcribe that spoken answer into a written sentence, with the students following your model. When you get to the end of the sentences, you allow the kids to color the pizza (or whatever the food or extra item is on the worksheet you’re on) as a reward. This, like so many things, falls under one of the basic teacher tenets: if you make it seem like a reward, it becomes a reward.

      Then give lavish praise, pass out stickers, and display the children’s work on the bulletin board.

      You will do the whole thing again in two days. One worksheet, with its four variations, will take you a week and a day—Monday, Wednesday, Friday and the following Monday.

      When you’ve finished the fourth variation of the first worksheet, you will do the first variation of the sentence-building exercises. This lesson will be implemented on the Wednesday after the fourth variation of the first worksheet. In other words, every fifth lesson will be a sentence-building exercise.

      The sentence-building exercises concentrate on building your students’ observation skills and corralling those observations into conversation. Not unlike the worksheet lessons, that conversation is then transformed into written language. However, this time, that written language will be plugged into a successive pair of graphic organizers and, ultimately, into actual sentences. Each sentence-building exercise will have two variations, one to follow each of the two animal worksheets. The first cat worksheet, with its four variations, will be followed by the first variation of the first sentence-building exercise, also about a cat. The second cat worksheet, with its four variations, will then be followed by the second variation of the first sentence-building exercise.

      The goal of each sentence-building exercise is to build three sentences describing the animal in the picture and to illustrate those three sentences. Like the worksheets, it’s about repeating the predictable lesson structure, so it’s familiar and the kids get comfortable. When students are comfortable, they are open to learning, but they also stay alert because the details within that predictable structure are always changing. I will take you through each detail of the lesson’s structure, with scripted suggestions for each lesson. The fullsized photographs of each animal and the two graphic organizers you’ll need for each sentence-building exercise are found at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.

      Before you start teaching this lesson, you’re going to draw the two blank, graphic organizers on chart paper (I prefer chart paper to writing on the board because you can save the completed lesson charts for your records or for future IEP meetings). The first graphic organizer is a circle-in-circle chart, or a general-to-specific chart. It consists of one small circle inside a larger circle. This is what it should look like:

       Get the free print PDF of the branch organizer at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.

      This second graphic organizer is a branch organizer, with three subtopics/categories. It should be drawn on the chart paper to the right of the circle-in-circle organizer. (Always emphasize a left-to-right progression when teaching reading and writing.)

      The branch organizer is going to look like this:

       Get the free print PDF of the bear photo and this page at http://fhautism.com/arc.html.

      After you’ve drawn both graphic organizers, the next step is to hold up the picture of that lesson’s animal for the children to see. Since the lesson is going to start with a “conversation,” it’s best to gather the children in a less formal, circle-time-style arrangement. The first question you’re going to ask your class is, “What animal is this?”

      If no one is able to identify the animal, that’s fine. You can cue an adult aide to answer the question, or you can even answer it yourself. Once the word “cat” has been spoken aloud, write the word “Cat” in the smaller, inner circle of the circle-in-circle chart, like this:

      Your next goal is to write down nine observations about the cat in the bigger part of the circle, in the form of words or short phrases (usually no more than two words). The nine observations should fall into three different categories, with three observations in each category,

      The three categories are can, has, and likes.

      In the lesson plan, I provide three sample observations for each of the three categories:

      can jump run say meow

      has a tail four legs fur

      likes milk fish cat food

      You will start the lesson with spoken language, trying to elicit these observations from the children. Start with the “can” category by asking, “What can the cat do?”

      The first few times you attempt this, you’re probably going to be met with stony silence and blank stares. Persevere! They’ll get better at it. There’s also no need to worry about that stony silence—you, as the teacher, know exactly how the conversation should go and which observations need to be made. Chances are it’s going to be rough at the beginning. Yet, even if you (and your aides) have to do all the talking in the early stages, that’s fine. The kids are still hearing the language and watching spoken language being transformed into written language and, ultimately, coherent sentences.

      If students do not answer, prompt them. You can say something like, “Can the cat fly?” If still no one answers, have an aide answer or answer yourself: “Can the cat jump? Yes, the cat can jump.”

      Write this first observation in the larger circle, like this:

      Throughout the exercise, continue to prompt with leading questions/conversations such as, “The cat likes to drink this white beverage. We like to pour it over cereal. Sometimes we like to put chocolate in it so we can have chocolate________”

      The lesson plans will provide the nine observations you need to make the lessons work. Those plans will serve as an instructional foundation you can rely on. The words I provide you with have been pre-selected to create manageable sentences—the ultimate goal. In the beginning, it’s hard for children who have autism to generate their own conversation. As the kids get better at this activity, they might come up with observations and sentences even better and more creative than those provided by the script. That’s great! The script is just there as a “back-up.”

      Once all nine observations have been spoken aloud and written down, the circle-in-circle graphic organizer should look like this:

      Make sure the outer circle is large enough to contain all the words. Do your best to keep the

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