Visual Spelling for Students with Dyslexia

Last year, I learned TONS about learning visuals in my classroom.  I now use more than I ever would have imagined, but let me tell you, IT WORKS!  From re-doing my class library labels to include pictures, to teaming with my Special Ed team to utilize Boardmaker, I have found first hand, how a simple visual helped not only my students in special education classes and my students with autism, but also ALL STUDENTS!  Really!  :)

So now, it should come as no shock to me that visuals work well for my kiddos with dyslexia, too.  After finding this video recently, it was a big "DUH!" moment for me!  How smart, and how simple!  Here, take a look:

Genius!  What a brilliant (and awesome!) mom!  I know as teachers, we would love to have all that "at home" support! 

Besides the visual pictures, I ADORE her "color coding" the chunks.  This concept, to change colors, has been in many things I've read lately.  One thing I'm planning on implementing in my classroom to coincide with this is to change colors on each line of my teacher "notes" that I have students use on the board.  Making a word bank?  Change the color of each word!  Writing sentence stems?  Make each stem a different color!  Having students copy a definition?  Write each line in a different color (regardless of the end of the sentence or not).  Looking at/ Making/ Composing/ Taking Apart/ Reading words?  Have your students with dyslexia trace each vowel in a color to help them visually!

 

I love how the little things like this video, can spark an idea that can be transferred into other classroom aspects.  I'm so excited to try all of these ideas (both hers and mine!), and I'm so excited to see if adding just a little more effort on my part can make a big difference on my students' end!