Essential Instructional

Strategies for Students With

Special Needs
Literacy: Oral Language

EDUC 4584 Special Education Part 1

By: Brenna McConnell
Student Number: 0554898
Due: June 21, 2013

The Expert Panel on Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students with Special Needs
has highlighted the important aspects of teaching students with specific and diverse needs. As a
classroom teacher, we are understood to be the key educators for a students literacy and
numeracy development (Education for All, 2005). Although many teachers are involved in the
educational development of a student, it is the classroom teacher spends the majority of their
time instilling basic literacy and numeracy skills. Research has shown that a significant lack of
progress has been seen with special needs students who are not immersed in a research-supported
instructional program (Education for All, 2005). For the purpose of this paper, I am going to
take an in-depth look at how evidence-based oral language instruction strategies are essential in
producing successful, educated students.
Essential Instructional Components for Oral Language Development
Literacy development is an important part of the education of the whole child.
Instructional strategies need to be developed on an evidence-based basis because each child
enters the classroom with a unique background knowledge and a variety of core literacy skills
(Education for All, 2005). As the classroom teacher, it is our responsibility to assess each
student on an individual basis and accommodate each students individual needs in the
development of instructional strategies. It is also important to begin with a students strengths
and build-upon their prior knowledge using age-appropriate and instructionally-appropriate
materials (Education for All, 2005).
Although all aspects of literacy are important, the development of essential oral language
skills is the basis for the development of reading and writing skills. Research has shown that
students with gaps in their oral language may have subsequent literacy problems, particularly in

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reading comprehension and in written communication (Education for All, 2005, p. 94). Oral
language skills are very complex and for most children, oral language skills develop naturally.
For students with special needs, language development can be a slow, laborious process. These
language difficulties not only affect their educational progress, but can also have a profound
effect on their social lives.
The Expert Panel on Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students with Special Needs
identified many helpful strategies to engage and foster the development of oral language skills.
One of the most influential strategies is the promotion of oral communication. Unfortunately,
students who struggle to communicate often avoid attempting to communicate for fear of failure
(Education for All, 94). Hurst, Scales, Frecks and Lewis (2011) have found that allowing
students to sign up for reading aloud is helpful for reluctant oral readers who may not feel
confident in their oral reading capabilities. This oral reading activity allows each student to have
a choice of when they would like to sign up to read; what text they would like to select; and an
opportunity to practise before presenting to the class. Although no student is forced to
participate, they have found that there are strategies that make all students feel comfortable.
These strategies include: allowing a student to sign up later in the term to allow for lots of
practise time; the choice of a short, easy to read text that they are interested in; and the program
sets high expectations for peer response and the appropriate behaviour that should be seen while
a classmate is presenting.
In addition to promoting oral communication, there is also an understanding that teachers
need to highlight the key aspects of language and point out new vocabulary to their students
(Education for All, 96). The National Reading Panel (2000) review of 47 research studies on
vocabulary instruction outlines a list of instructional strategies that can be used to teach
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vocabulary both directly and indirectly (Education for All, 96). Arter and Nilsen (2009) have
suggested the use of Lemony Snickets popular Series of Unfortunate Events as an excellent
resource to teach students the meaning of words but also the underlying processes of language
change. These strategies allow for students to use strategies to decode the meanings of words
they have never seen, and become creative writers by using new and unique vocabulary (Arter &
Nilsen, 2009). An easy way to get students involved in their own learning is allowing them to
discuss the words and meanings they remember from the book with their peers. The students can
also create posters that illustrate the new words or phrases they have encountered in one of
Snickets books. Their poster can also include a Snicket-style definition, which is typically
wordier but lots more fun than regular dictionary definitions (Arter & Nilsen, 2009). This
activity is an effective teaching strategy that will help at-risk or low-achieving students by
allowing them to explore the components that make a good definition, instead of only focusing
on simply knowing the definition of a new word (Education for All, 2005).
To help students increase their expressive language skills, the Education for All (2005)
document encourages teachers to create numerous opportunities for conversation; ensure that the
topics of conversation are of interest to the student; and to react positively to what students have
shared. The Grand Conversations in Primary Classrooms document outlines the importance of
moving away from gentle inquisitions, which are primarily teacher-led, and into grand
conversations that allow students to shape the content and route of the discussion (Capacity
Building Series, 2011). These conversations are very effective when using wordless picture
books and books with limited texts. Wordless picture books allows students to make
connections, draw inferences and make predictions, and to express personal thoughts, feelings
and opinions, without being distracted by the linguistic challenges the text may present
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(Capacity Building Series, 2011). These grand conversations also provide students with
pragmatic skills that may help them in real-life situations. Students who may be experiencing
difficulties with pragmatics may be recognized by their tendency to monopolize the conversation
and their difficulty interpreting verbal and non-verbal communication (Education for All, 2005).
An important part of grand conversations is the modeling of conversational skills that the teacher
needs to instill in their students (Capacity Building Series, 2011). Initiating this type of deeperlevel conversation involves a scaffolding process. The teacher will begin by modelling
appropriate conversational skills and taking a hands-on role to assist students in practising
appropriate turn-taking and discussion techniques (Capacity Building Series, 2011). Eventually
the students will use these skills independently, with little input from the teacher.
Listening seems like a basic task that students develop naturally, but in reality, listening
is an acquired skill that requires practise. Students need to understand that listening is also an
active process that they need to be involved in and that there are specific behaviours that are
essential in ensuring a student is listening well (Education for All, 2005). The Lets Talk About
Listening document created by the Capacity Building Series (2009) outlines some activities that
will encourage listening comprehension. Students can present a tableaux to re-create the keyideas or scenes referred to or described in an oral text (Capacity Building Series, 2009). This is
an excellent alternative for students who may dislike summarizing what they understood in
writing. To encourage listening, teachers can also facilitate an inside-outside circle that
designates one circle as the speaker and the other circle as the listener. The speaker shares
their response to a given question with the listener and the listener is expected to summarize
what the speaker said and then add their own response. One circle rotates and the process is
repeated once again.
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In order to help students with their receptive language skills the teacher needs to be very
flexible when using instructional strategies. The Education for All (2005) document explains
that teachers are responsible for keeping a students attention when presenting information;
introducing new concepts using media, concrete materials, gestures, etc.; varying the complexity
of spoken instructions; and adjusting the speech of speaking and level of language. Starling,
Munro, Togher and Arciuli (2012) developed a study that examined the modified use of oral and
instructional language when working with secondary school students with language impairments.
Students with language impairments often struggle to process, retain and apply new information
when the teacher instructs the class using complex language and exclusively oral instructions
(Starling et al, 2012). The study showed that when teachers were provided with instructional
language modification techniques, the students showed improvement in Listening
Comprehension subtests (Starling et al., 2012). These language modification techniques
included: breaking down large amount of information into small, visually distinct sections;
providing descriptions for instructional vocabulary; repeating and rephrasing key information
and instructions; and providing a visual planner on the board to decode complex texts (Starling et
al., 2012).
Conclusion
There are a variety of instructional strategies that can be implemented to support special
needs students or students who are at-risk. Classroom teachers need to be creative and willing to
think outside the box when it comes to engaging their students. One instructional strategy may
work for some students, but maybe not for all. It is our responsibility to engage each and every
one of our students to ensure consistent success.

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References
Arter, Lisa Maxwell & Nilsen, Alleen Pace. (2009). Using Lemony Snicket to Bring Smiles to
Your Vocabulary Lessons. The Reading Teacher, 63(3): 235-238.
Capacity Building Series. (2009). Lets Talk About Listening. The Literacy and Numeracy
Secretariat, 10: 1-4.
Capacity Building Series. (2011). Grand Conversations in Primary Classrooms. The Literacy and
Numeracy Secretariat Special Edition, 18: 1-8.
Hurst, Beth, Scales, Kathleen B., Frecks, Elizabeth & Lewis, Kayla. Sign Up for Reading:
Students Read Aloud to the Class. The Reading Teacher, 64(6): 439-443.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2005). Education for All: The Report of the Expert Panel on
Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students with Special Education Needs,
Kindergarten to Grade 6. Retrieved from
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/speced/panel/speced.pdf
Starling, Julia, Munro, Natalie, Togher, Leanne & Arciuli, Joanne. (2012). Training Secondary
School Teachers in Instructional Language Modification Techniques to Support
Adolescents with Language Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Language,
Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 43: 474-495.

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