First of all, what is shared reading??? |
Shared reading is an evidence based practice that supports students of all ages and exceptionalities engage and interact with books. Shared reading is especially effective for those students:
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Who is Tar heel shared reader for?
Tar Heel Shared Reader supports the implementation of shared reading for school-aged students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) who do not read connected text with comprehension above a 2nd grade level.
Tar Heel Shared Reader combines two resources:
1) Library of age and ability appropriate books in Tar Heel Reader, and 2) A new shared reading interface that supports adults in engaging students with significant cognitive disabilities more actively and in constructing meaning from texts. These texts are aligned with grade level content and standards in order to improve and increase interactions while supporting improved academic success. |
Using the Communication SymbolsThe onscreen symbols are intended to support communication and interaction during shared reading. They may provide support to students who do or do not use speech to communicate.
The symbols in Tar Heel Shared Reader are picture communication symbols (PCS) used with permission from Tobii Dynavox. The symbols can be turned on or off. If you have a student who has a personal communication system that uses a different set of symbols, you might want to turn the symbols OFF in Tar Heel Shared Reader. |
If you have a student who cannot rely on speech to comment during shared reading and does not have a personal communication system, turn the symbols ON.
During shared reading, demonstrate how to use communication symbols by pointing to the words that match the things you say. You will not point to a symbol for each word you say, but point to symbols that match your spoken comments when they are available. This is called aided language input. The goal is to show students how the symbols can support communication. The goal is NOT for you to model a comment that you expect the student to repeat. |
If your students have their own communication systems, provide aided language input on their systems instead of using the communication symbols in Tar Heel Shared Reader.
Quick Start Guide |
Shared Reading ModulesThe professional development modules can be taken as an online course or facilitators can download materials to present these topics to groups.
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