Using µShape Coding¶ to teach grammar 30th June 2011 Dyslexia Action conference
Susan Ebbels Moor House School, Hurst Green, Surrey, UK www.moorhouseschool.co.uk and Division of Psychology & Language, UCL
Dyslexia and language impairments Approx Approximat imatel ely y 50% 50% of of child children ren diagn diagnose osed d with with dyslexia have language impairments and vice versa (McArthur et al, 2000) Lang Langua uage ge impair impairmen ments ts ofte often n affec affectt the the abil ability ity to to understand understand and form grammatically correct or complex sentences Shape Shape Cod Coding ing can help help child children ren lea learn rn the the rule rules s of English grammar
Visual
coding systems
Implicitly based on following hypotheses: 1. Childr Children en with with gramma grammatic tical al diffic difficul ultie ties s have have not not learned language implicitly in the normal way 2. They They can can lea learn rn lan langu guag age e using using taug taught ht strat strateg egies ies 3. The They have have visu visual al stre stren ngths gths 4. They They can be taugh taughtt lang langua uage ge thro throug ugh h the these se visual strengths
Shape Coding 1. Codes parts of speech with Colour Pattern Scheme colours (with a few modification m odifications) s) 2. Codes phrases with shapes (drawn in black). 3. Codes verb mor phology with arrows
Shape Coding - c colours olours Colour Pattern Scheme colours (with a few alterations) Noun / Pronouns
(boy, table, I)
Det / Possessive pronouns
(the, a, my)
Verb
(push, melt)
Adjective Preposition Adverb
(hard, sad) (in, through) (quickly, carefully)
Coordinating conjunction
(and, but, or)
Subordinating conjunction
(because, if)
Shape Coding - s shapes hapes Phrases Phrases group grouped ed with with shapes shapes and and linked with colour, a question and a symbol
What doing?
V erb
µSubjects µSubjects¶¶ and and µobjects¶ µobjects¶ have different shapes Who?
What like? How feel?
Who?
Adjective Phrase
What?
What?
Phrase
NP: Object
NP: Subject
Where?
Extr Extra a sha shape pes s
Prepositional Phrase What happening?
How? When? Aux or Modal
Clause
Shape Coding Ben
was putting an apple
The apple
is
in a bowl
tasty
The sad boy is putting his tasty apple
in her bowl
Narrative Plan Plan ideas ideas in in the the relev relevan antt shap shapes, es, e.g., e.g., Sett Settin ing: g: Where Where,, When, When, What What like like? ? Main cha charact racte ers: rs: Who Who? Acti Action ons s / Even Events ts:: Wha Whatt did? did? Makes Makes links links betw betwee een n narr narrat ative ive and and grammar grammar
Narrative Where? Who?
When?
What happened or will happen? 1. 2. 3. 4.
What like? How feel?
How is Shape Coding introduced to new children? 1. SV sentences
Who
is what doing
2. Teach each that that can have have >1 >1 word word per per shape shape and and the the correspondence to the question word is key to coding John
is
cleaning the car
John
is
putting the car in the garage
3. To reinfo reinforce rce the the meanin meaning g of the the shapes, shapes, give exercises exercises where the shape changes according to the meaning John
is
4.
sleeping
and What, but
vs.
John
is
tired
answer questions of Who or belongs inside other shapes
5. Specific Specific shapes shapes inside inside hexagons hexagons (verb phrase) phrase) depend depend on on the individual verb and need to be learned with the verb.
Examples of verb types sleep put push pour go fill feel
or feel
with
Basic
sentence Templates
Learning vocabulary To really know an item of vocabulary you have to know its 1. Phonology 2. Meaning ing, incl inclu udin ding a) multiple multiple meanings meanings (use (use colours colours to show different different meaning meanings s which belong to different grammatical categories) b) if it is an irregular irregular plural plural (double (double red line) line) or past past tense tense (verti (vertical cal arrow at the left) or past participle (horizontal arrow pointing left)
3. AND be able able to to use it in in a sente sentence nce,, for this this you you need need to know its a) Part Part of speech speech (use (use the the colou colour) r) b) Argument Argument structur structure e if itit is a verb verb (use (use the the shapes) shapes)
For example light = not heavy, easy to lift This box is light light = object which helps you see when it is dark The boy is touching the light light
= make something burn The boy is lighting the fire
Part 2: verb morphology
Subject verb agreement Double Double red line line used for plura plurall nouns Double Double blue lines lines used used for for plural plural verb
The man
is
happy
The men
are
happy
The man and the lady
are
happy
Verb
tenses
Vertical
arrow = finite verb (in the middle=present, left=past tense) he
eats
he
ate
zig-zag at right end = progressive participle he
is
eating
he was
eating
horizontal arrow arrow pointing pointing left = past past participle participle he has
eaten
he had
eaten
Intervention: verb tenses Ebbels (2007)
PAST
PRESENT
walked
walks
was walking
is walking
drink ank
drinks
was drink ing
is drink ing
Coding used to rein reinfo forc rce e which hich form form of the word is present and present and which is past is past Signing also used with verbs to indicate tense
Teaching past tense to class Sta Start wi with ti time line Establ Establish ish posit position ion of µprese µpresent nt¶¶ and and µpast µpast¶¶ Think Think of words words whic which h could could be used used for past past times times e.g., yesterday, last week, this morning, 10 years ago List List verb verbs s in pres present ent progre progressi ssive ve versu versus s past past prog progres ressiv sive e Intr Introd oduc uce e simp simple le past past tens tense e Class Class ide identi ntify fy tense tense of diff differe erent nt verbs verbs in isol isolati ation on or in sentences Class Class cha change nge words words/se /sente ntence nces s from past past to to prese present nt ten tense se Clas Class s corr correc ectt adul adult¶ t¶s s bad bad sent senten ence ces s Clas Class s cor corre rect ct own own fre free e wri writi ting ng
Unaided free writing Percentage of verbs used in past tense when required 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Se t Jan Feb
A
B
C
E
F
G
H
I
J
Uses of morphological coding Teaching Conc Concep epts ts of ten tense se and and agre agreem emen entt Grammatic Grammatical al rules rules e.g., e.g., every every clause clause must have one one tensed tensed verb verb = ³every cracker must have one down arrow´ Need to have have an auxiliary auxiliary (³diamond´) (³diamond´) to carry carry tense tense (³dow (³down n arrow´) arrow´) with a present or past participle Consisten Consistency cy of tense tense throug throughout hout a piece piece of text text (³arrows (³arrows should should be in the same same place place ± middle or left of of blue line´) line´)
Correcting wo work Use Use cod codin ing g sys syste tem m to to mark mark work work This This enabl enables es chil childre dren n to to ³see´ ³see´ thei theirr own own mistak mistakes es Increa Increases ses indepen independen dence ce as as can corre correct ct own own mistake mistakes s
Points to note Shap Shape e Codi Coding ng is is a too tool, l, not not a pro progr gramm amme e You You need need to to grad gradua ually lly with withdra draw w the shape shapes s to get get automatic use or understanding of the grammatical structures: Activities
with shapes
Activities
without shapes, but bring shape templates back to check answers
Activities
with no use of shapes
Evidence of effectiveness Comprehension of
Lely, 2001)
µwh¶ questions and passives (Ebbels & van der
Comp Compre rehe hens nsio ion n of of dati dative ves s (Eb (Ebbe bels ls,, 200 2007) 7) Use Use of pas pastt ten tense se in in wri writt tten en wor work k (Ebb (Ebbels els,, 200 2007) 7) Produc Productio tion n of of verb verb argum argument ent struc structur ture e (Ebbe (Ebbels ls et et al., al., 2007) 2007) Compre Comprehen hensio sion n of coor coordin dinati ating ng conj conjunc unctio tions ns (Ebb (Ebbels els et et al., al., 2011) 2011) Ebbels, S. and van der Lely, H. (2001). M eta-syntactic eta-syntactic therapy using visual coding for children with severe persistent SLI . International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 36(supplement), 345-350. Ebbels, S.H. (2007). T eaching eaching grammar to school-aged children with Specific Language Impairment Impairment using u sing Shape Coding . Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 23, 1, 67-93. Ebbels, S.H., van der Lely, H.K.J., and Dockrell, J.E. (2007). Intervention for verb argument structure in children with persistent SLI: a rando mized control trial. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 50, 1330-1349. Ebbels, S.H., Mari, N., Murphy, A. & Turner, G. (2007). Can we improve comprehension of grammar in secondary-aged students with l anguage impairments? A randomised control trial of therapy for coordinating conjunctions. Poster presented at ³Lost for Words: W ords: Lost for Life?´ conference on SLCN in older children and young people. 15-17 June 201, City University London, England.
More information Email:
[email protected] Website (CD of resources & References): www.moorhouseschool.co.uk/shape-coding-course Discussion group + info re future courses: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shapecoding/ or email:
[email protected]
