As my student progresses through the Building on Patterns Curriculum Kindergarten Level, I create braille reading books to send home for my student to have practice reading books.
For instance, in lesson 28 ‘from’ and ‘us’ is introduced. One of the passages in the student book has the following lines to read:
it is not from me
it is not from me
it is from us
do you like it
I call the above book “From”. I turn each of those lines into a page in the book and illustrate it. If the student has some vision, I tend to use visual images…tactile images if the visual images are meaningless. Sometimes the visual image will also be “enhanced” by adding texture to it. In lesson 29 introduces the color brown and the contractions ‘more’ and ‘of’. I combined two of the passages to create:
The above book is called ‘More’. Sometimes I add words to revisit contractions learned or toss in words learned (i.e. ride, we) to review them. The books now serve several purposes:
- braille reading practice with contractions learned
- connecting the image with text
- the student can now read ‘a book’
- reading practice at home with the family
In the examples on this page, the tactile one of the two figures matches the Patterns curriculum with no punctuation nor capitalization. The one with the visual image of the wrapped present has both capitalization and punctuation, as the student is in the 1st grade and knows this is how sentences are supposed to be. To not have them trips her up.
Materials
- braille paper
- brailler
- binding for book
- illustration, with materials dependent on amount of vision a student has
Procedure
- Create a braille book with illustrations based on the lesson the student has been reading. These can be tactile or visual or both.
- Have the student read the book through in school.
- Send the book home for additional practice.
Variations
- Invite the student to help to create the books.
- Share with other students.
- Create a classroom library where the student can read these books for fun and review.
