Unique Learning System

Unique Learning Program has really upped its game this school year.  Some of the new features include:

• More file formats for the supportive files including Power Point, Classroom Suite and Saltillo.  
• Unique GPS (which stands for Goals, Preference and Skills) which is an assessment system 
• addition of Core Materials for all levels
• addition of Transition Materials for all levels
• addition of a Transition Passport to the high school level
• Online Checkpoint (i.e. quizzes)
• Unique Support Center - online help for teachers and others
• online library of adapted books in many levels

My future wishes for Unique Learning Program:

• improve online accessibility including but not limited to
• switch access to all online materials
• low vision support in the form of
• larger symbol options when using print materials
• auditory scanning with switch access to materials
• ability to change formatting of online materials in terms of size of symbols, color of symbols (black on white, white on black, color on yellow, etc) and font sizes

• more attention to "Participation Level"/"Level One" (students with severe cognitive challenges) in all materials and resources *especially in the transition portfolios and math materials* (Materials continue to be designed for mixed ability classrooms/inclusion classrooms, meaning those of us severing primarily or only students with severe/profound disabilities still will be unable to use many materials without significant adaptations)
• a least one theme related switch accessible game a month 
• four-five "Measure It" recipes a month with all or most "low choke hazard", "nut-free" and "gluten-free" (most special education settings cook weekly and most have one or more students with choking precautions or food allergies)
• at least four writing activities and science experiments per unit that can be used "out of the box" with students who have severe/profound intellectual disabilities
• attention to AAC instruction, especially on the "Participation Level" (i.e. ability to customize communication boards and symbol training in addition to sight word training)
• access to materials on iOS and Android platforms
• a four year rotation of themes instead of a three year (because my students stay with me for four years due to our state guidelines)
• a broader range of themes so that all areas of the curriculum are touched upon in the theme rotation (in three years of teaching Unique we have done US Civics and History many, many times, but rarely do we do World History or Ancient History)
• a even broader range of support materials to include Tobii Communicator, Test Me, Score Me, Choose It Maker, Proloquo2Go, Clicker5, Interactive Whiteboards and (I know this is a stretch) Dynavox and Boardmaker
• activity exchange to share materials made by teachers/therapists
• automatic updating of AAC systems using Symbolstix to include boards related to monthly themes, core curriculum and transition materials

November Unique - Geography

This is an ongoing entry -- please contribute using comments.

This month's Unique Learning is about geography. The elementary level is focusing on city and country, the intermediate level on transportation in the USA, the middle school level is focusing on the five regions of the USA and the high school level is focusing on working in the USA.

Here are some resources that may be helpful to using adapted the November Unique Learning for learners with significant, multiple disabilities.

General Online Resources:

• Regions of the USA Power Points at Pete's Power Points
• Animals on the Farm Movie
• Your Neighborhood Game
• Community Helpers Theme
• Community Unit
  

English/Reading:

• Transportation Mini-Book
• Transportation Songs and Poems
• Reading Comprehension about Occupations
• Community Club Community Workers
  

Math:

• Ed Helper Maps
  

Social Studies:

• Geonet Online Regions of the USA Game
• Explore the USA: New England
• Explore the USA: Mid Atlantic
• Regions of the USA
• Mixing Geography and Fun Ideas (has ideas for all areas of the curriculum)
• What Do You Like? Career Exploration
  

Science:

Adapted Physical Education/Gross Motor Skills:

• gather hats of various community workers and have a relay race that involves racing to the otherside, putting on the hat of a worker and returning passing it off to the next person who repeats the action
• draw flames on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk and spray out with water bottles, race to see who can finish first
  

Community Based Education:

• visit and possibly interview people with disabilities at work
• visit and interview community workers
  
• visit community locations for a tour - grocery store, hospital, library, post office
• visit the chamber of commerce and hear about why people visit your area
  

Domestic and Self-Help:

• practice putting on uniform shirt for community works and doing the buttons
  

Fine Motor Skills:

• sort photos or mayer-jonhson picture communication symbols by community worker or region or the country or city vs. country
  

Arts and Crafts:

• Transportation Crafts
• Preschool Education Tranportation Crafts
• buy or sew inexpensive message bags then paint and decorate to be like your favorite community worker
  

Cooking:

• Northwest Recipes
• Flavors of the South
• Southern Food
• Mid West Living Recipes
• Midwestern USA Recipes
• Northeastern USA Recipes
• Make a pizza compass
• 
  

Unique Dreams

I couple of months ago I shared my thoughts about using the Unique Summer Curriculum with my middle school moderate special needs class. Now that my intensive special needs high school class is finishing up our first full unit in the Unique Learning System here are some of my thoughts and wishes. (For the record, although we are a high school class we are using the middle school level of Unique.)

Wonderful:

• print, copy, laminate and go materials
• pretty looking products
• knowing other teachers across the state and country who are using the same curriculum
  
• being able to access materials from any computer
• less time spent on theme unit design (but just as much time spent on lesson planning and more time on adaptation)
• the possibility of data collection
• the connection to our state standards
  

Wishes:

• key symbols available in a format that can be imported into Boardmaker or another photo editing program, especially since students with visual impairments may need larger symbols to access the program (my class needs 3x3" symbols at the smallest)
• when the lesson plan for the "access" or most intensive level of special needs calls for pressing a switch it would be nice to have the symbol to place on the switch available to print out in the common sizes/shapes of commons switches (2.5" and 4" round)
  
• recipes that keep in mind students who may have common allergies (nuts, soy) or have swallowing concerns (no raisins, popcorn, or similar choke hazards in the recipes or at the very least one low choke hazard recipe a month (I didn't use any of the recipes this month!)
  
• a little more attention to the flow of the simplest level of story/chapter readings because some of the chapters made absolutely no sense in the simple format (I had to re-adapt on the fly or read both levels)
• more advanced knowledge to teachers on what is coming up in units, I planned this months unit about citizenship because that is what the Unique Materials told me was coming, however any middle school teacher who used this unit can tell you in reality the unit ended up being about Abraham Lincoln, I would have planned differently had I known; also I would like to decide what my one field trip this year is and tie it to a unit, but I am hesitant since I am not sure what Unique really means by the titles it has put on the units (not that we didn't love learning about Abe Lincoln, because we had a great time)
• more very simple science experiments (one is not enough)
  
• some very simple art projects
  
• life skills activities that fall into domestic, community and social and leisure categorizes of learning, these should be kept concrete and simple
  
• more very simple math problems (sequencing, patterns, basic money, very basic time telling, etc) (We ended up making some very cool books about Penny Patterns using picture symbols of heads and tails of pennies for math.)
• science, math, art, life skills nicely integrated into the unit, not all lumped at the end so I need to revise the order I present the lessons.
• pre-made materials on Classroom Suite, Choose It Maker or similar for those who really need to use assistive technology to access the curriculum
• multiple levels of all lessons with all adaptation included (i.e. the "Ron's Rules" was not accessible for my learners because it requires students be able to point to small symbols for the answers, so I had to create larger symbols to use on eye gaze boards and rocking plate switches, yet in other lessons these larger symbols were created for me)
  
• suggestions for material adaptations for low vision
• more integration of AT overall
  
• overlays for common mid-tech AAC devices (Go Talks, Cheap Talks, AMDi devices)
  
• essentially I would love a "severe" or "complex" special needs strand within each grade level that addresses students who are accessing the general curriculum while working on cause and effect, simple choice making and basic life skills while keeping in mind the significant medical and physical challenges these students face

Lincoln Links

For those working on the Middle School level of the Unique Learning System this month.

Academics

• Lincoln Printable Book at Enchanted Learning
• Wilderness to the White House at Scholastic.com
• Abraham Lincoln Classroom Activities
  
• Whitehouse
• Lincoln Facts
• Simple Quiz
  

Interactive Websites/Power Points

• Abe Lincoln Project Page
• Abe Lincoln Power Points
  

Science

• What are the odds? Lincoln's Coffee
• Green Penny Experiment
• Penny Experiments
  

Math

• US Penny Booklet
• penny rubbing and penny rubbing addition
  
• Lincoln Math Puzzlers
  

Cooking

• Pancakes with Log Cabin Syrup
• Lincoln Recipes
• Abe Lincoln's Cherry Pie
  

Arts and Crafts

• Lincoln's Hat Craft
• Log Cabin Craft
• or Log Cabin Craft
  
• Abe's Log Cabin (directions also on Adapted Learning)
• Penny Pendant
• Finger Puppets
• Paper Plate Hat
• Lincoln Puppet
  

Sensory

• sensory bin filled with pennies (not for kiddos who will mouth them)
• sensory bin filled with Lincoln logs, build with them and use switch toys to knock them down

Pre-Voc/Voc

• sort coins/wrap coins, especially pennies

Unique Learning System - September Extensions - Government

This Post Still In Progress!!!!!

Adapted P.E.

• giant safety sign images (from Boardmaker or Google images) and make a Safety Sign obstacle course - following the orders of the signs (stop, bear left, yield, slow)
  
• go on an outdoor or indoor safety sign scavenger hunt
• have a patriotic parade
  
• have a Citizenship Walk, collecting pledges of hours of charity work (perhaps for Veterans) for laps walked (or rolled) around a track over the course of a week
• recycle basketball - shoot empty soda/water bottles into recycle bins
  

Life Skills/Vocational

• Survival Sign Matching
• Survival Sign Bingo (download from Adapted Learning)
  
• make the Pupcakes (link below under cooking) and deliver to an animal shelter
• sort cans, bottles and paper for recycling (part of the Rachel Carson and Citizenship lessons)
  
• turn in soda cans for a refund (in certain states) and use money to buy supplies to make care kits for veterans or troops

Sensory

• red, white and blue rice in a sensory bin (how to dye rice)
• fast music/slow music with instruments - play fast patriotic music and slow patriotic music (consider using a visualizer on a big screen to show the music as well) and have the student play the music fast/slow
  

Music

• ilovewavs Free Patriotic Music
• Patriotic Icons Music
• America's Library Jammin' Jukebox
  

Arts and Crafts

• dye rice red, white and blue and use to make shakers, mosaics and put in sensory bins
• America Crafts
• red, white and blue tie dye to make class shirts to wear on field trips/CBI/CBE or to use as smocks for crafts (cut up the back for easy on/off)
  
• DLTK USA Crafts
• make recycled paper
  

Online Activities/Weblinks

• Congress for Kids
• Ben's Guide to the US Government
• Ben's Guide to Citizenship
• Ben's Guide to the Flag
  
• Tar Heel Reader
• Liberty's Kids
• America's Story
• Kids Recycling Zone
  

Multimedia (Video Downloader Site) - For VOD (Video of the Day) or Friday's at the Movies
(Does some amazing soul want to make the You Tubes into a Classroom Suite Activity? Most You Tubes are also on Teacher Tube.)

• Schoolhouse Rocks - How a Bill Becomes a Law (You Tube)
  
• Schoolhouse Rocks - Three Ring Government (You Tube)
• Schoolhouse Rocks - The Preamble (You Tube)
• Fifty Nifty United States and Lyrics (You Tube)
• 50 States in Rhyme (You Tube)
  
• Animaniacs - Wakko's State Song (You Tube)
• Rocko's Modern Recycle Song (from SpongeBob) (You Tube)
• Reduce it Reuse it Recycle it (You Tube)
  
• Recycle Guys Music and Videos (free online)
  
• Learn the 50 States (teacher tube)
  
• American Tail Double Feature
• This is America, Charlie Brown
• Scrambled States of America
• Liberty's Kids
• School House Rock's Election Edition
  

Cooking

• All American Apple Pie (Crisp or Sauce)
• Cherry Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream and Blue Berry Sauce
  
• Red, White and Blue Jello Jigglers
• American Flag Cake
• American Dog Treat Pupcakes (great for a mostly NPO class!)
• Rice Crispie Treat Sparklers
  

Math

• Make an American Flag - count out the stripes and stars (work on counting, 1:1 correspondence, patterns and shapes)
• Bingo Dauber Papers (bingo dauber papers are great for teaching 1:1 correspondence, visual spacial intergration and fine motor skills

Reading

• Rachel Carson at Scholastic
• Tar Heel Reader

Social Studies

• Create a classroom Bill of Rights and Classroom Citizen Responsibilities - make it look like the real constitution using coffee or tea (coffee and tea are, of course, wonderful multi-sensory experiences)
  
• USA Worksheet Set (with Maps)

Science

• Rachel Carson at Scholastic
• Recycle Guys
• Kids Recycling Zone
• Recycle Round Up
  

Commercial Software

• Aimee Solutions - My Country
• Survival Signs Software
  

Interesting News from News-2-You

The News-2-You folks made some big announcements today for all of their products: News-2-You, Unique Learning and SymbolStix.

News-2-You

• More activities at the Fun Site (and praise be to heavens Joey's Date and Weather Activity is back! My class was lost at the end of the year last year when it suddenly disappeared two weeks before school was over! Every day we would get to the part where you need to dress Joey and I make the same (tired and for that matter stolen from my former student teacher) joke, "Oh, no! Joey is NAKED! Quick! Put some pants on him!" I do hope Naked Joey never goes missing again!)
• More Level 3 Worksheets (that is the highest level)
• Weekly Power Point
• More links to pictures, websites and videos (less blogging for me!)
  
• More communication boards and AAC Device Overlays (Go Talks? Please say Go Talks!)
• More word strips for communication

Unique Learning

• Progress Monitoring (Pre/Post Checks, Content Monitoring)
• Guiding reading and leveled books
• One click download
• Further alignment and integration with News-2-You
• Dolch/Fry combined word lists for high frequency words

SymbolStix

• SymbolStix Online subscription service to download 12,000 SymbolStix Symbols available this fall for a starting price of $99 (I hope I get to try it out and review for this site)
• Tobii SymbolMate software to create printed materials using SymbolStix symbols (AAC boards, games, schedules, books, etc)

TLWMSN Comments
I am worried about content in News-2-You, but more so in Unique, for the learners with very significant disabilities here are some things I hope to see added:

• The addition of an Access Level/Sensory Level/Entry Level to all the grades that address things like cause and effect, sensory awareness, early cognitive development and other skills our learners may be working on
• Extremely relevant and concrete vocabulary, perhaps use of photos with SymbolStix to teach the symbols
  
• Links to online activities on this level
  
• Some way for teachers of those with more intensive special needs to share adapted materials; we know we will likely have to do the adapting ourselves, but it would be nice if we didn't also have to create the web spaces to share what we adapt.
• Activities on the cause/effect or simple 2-4 field choice making level made in Classroom Suite, Power Point, Switch It or Choose It (and if it is Classroom Suite it will need to come with Classroom Suite Player, the others have the players available for free)
  
• Perhaps some kind of partnership with a company like Aimee Solutions that addresses students with this level of need and offers things like error-free switch writing activities and repeating line books for use with a Big Mack switch (I will be using the Aimee Solutions My Country Software Set to supplement Unique's September government unit.)
  

Using Unique?

Some of us at the TLWMSN Ning have been discussing the best way to share adaptations, ideas and extensions of Unique Curriculum materials for learners with severe special needs. Should we use the Ning? A new Unique Curriculum Ning? A wiki? Adapted Learning? A Google or Yahoo Group? Something else? What do you thing? You can comment here on this post or log onto the Ning.

Also here are the Unique topics for this school year so we can start planning (especially for alternative assessment):

School Year 2009-2010

Subject	K-2	3-4	5-7	8-12
September: Government	This is My School	We Have Leaders	We Live in the United States	I Am a US Citizen
October: Life Science	Animals in Their Homes	Animals and Plants Around Us	What is an Ecosystem?	Knowing our Ecosystem
November: Geography	City and Country	Traveling Around	Getting to Know the United States	Places to Live and Work
January: Physical Science	See It, Feel It, Describe It	Sorting for Recycling	Combining and Cooking	Everyday Energy
February: People In Society	I Live in a Community	Communities Near and Far	It's a Big World	Who are the People In the USA?
March: Science and Technology	Tools at School	Technology in the Community	Technology in Our Lives	Tools That Help Us Every Day
April: Citizenship	We All Work Together	I Can Make Good Choices	What is a Good Citizen?	I Work in My Community
May: Earth Science	I Can Help the Earth	Water, Water, Everywhere	Caring for Our Good Earth	Recycle and Reuse Our Resources

Unique Learning System (and a Downloading Tip)

I have been using the Unique Learning Systems (free) Summer Curriculum with my life skills middle school class and we have been enjoying it immensely. I love the automatic differentiation of materials (although convincing students who can write to do so when others are cutting and pasting their answers proved to be a bit of a stumbling block at first). The students like the topics and the extension opportunities that have been created just for them.

I do have some worries about using the curriculum this coming school year with students who have more significant disabilities. Quite a bit of adaptation is still going to need to be done, inspite of the different levels of the curriculum. Some of these adaptations will need to be done no matter what curriculum is used, such as finding or creating object symbols, adapting materials for learners with low vision and using adaptive tools (i.e. switch scissors) to finish the work. Some of the curriculum will never work for learners with severe physical challenges for example most of cooking activties contain ingredients which are swallowing hazards. However, hopefully as more people begin using Unique they will share customized materials on Adapted Learning and other sharing sites.

One tip I have is to use the Firefox extension Down Them All to download the PDF files in the curriculum. Down Them All allows you to check off all the PDF and then have them all download at once, saving quite a bit of time. Hopefully Unique will at some point allow us to download entire units at a time, but until then Down Them All is a good solution.

Free Unique Summer Curriculum

Unique Learning System, the standards aligned special needs curriculum from the folks who bring us News-2-You and SymbolStix Symbols, are offering their summer curriculum for FREE! The unit is on science and is definitely worth checking out even if you aren't teaching this summer.

All you need to do is register and then you can download all the bands (grade levels).