I don’t know about all of you but I struggle to come up with creative and exciting speech homework. It also drives me crazy when students don’t return their homework! I am going to share with you my homework procedures/ideas and hopefully you will be able to use some or all with your own students….
First things first, each of my students received a folder in the beginning of the school year. They also got a sheet with their speech days/times and goals to keep in their folders! Something I started in January after our winter break was a Speech and Language Homework Card. Each time a homework sheet is signed and returned, my students get a star on their chart. Sometimes they even earn 2 stars, depending on how challenging the homework was. For each five homework assignments returned, they earn a prize from my “prize box”!
The homework card and chances to earn prizes has certainly helped with getting homework assignments back signed!
Here are some examples of homework my articulation and language students receive:
1. I have ½ a sheet of paper with 3 or 4 questions. My questions are based on the season or upcoming holidays. It makes it much easier for me to keep organized and also goes along with my weekly speech lessons (which are also normally season/holiday related). The HW sheets normally take no more than a few minutes to create, print and copy. I print two on each sheet and simply cut it in half so each student gets one. This saves paper and also makes it look like a lot less work for the students! Here are a few snapshots of those HW sheets…
2. Word searches! Word searches! Word searches! Over the past few years, I have collected many different articulation, seasonal, and generic word searches. It is also as simple as searching on Google to find them. I also love this website which breaks them down into easy and difficult http://bogglesworldesl.com/wordsearches.htm. If you are feeling very creative you can use this website to create your own word searches! It is very simple and perfect for your articulation students! http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp
3. I love so many of Super Duper’s books and games. Here are a few I use not only during therapy but also as carryover/homework. I love how quick and convenient it is to either make a copy or print a page from any of these books/games. The best part is, my students think they are all so much fun to do for “homework”. “Artic tickle stories” is a great book! It is similar to “mad libs”. I make a copy of a story (according to the student’s speech sound) and of the word list. Students fill in the blanks (adjectives, places, etc.) throughout the story using their word lists. They loving coming to speech and sharing their silly story (more practice! Woo hoo!). Hidden pictures is a game I recently added to my speech room. I absolutely love it! I use it with many of my older elementary students. The best part is it comes with a CD to easily print out picture scenes for homework. For my younger students, I send home pages from the hidden pictures book. It is easier and has less pictures to find on each page.
4. I love to make crafts and come up with cute things for my students to make! It is so much fun to do hands on activities and have students use their own creativity. For example, last month my students made Valentine’s Day booklets. This past week they made shamrock pages with various St. Patrick’s Day words/phrases. The two great things about making crafty projects during speech sessions are: my students get so excited to show them off and they work as homework!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and are able to use some of the ideas! Everything mentioned in this post are strictly my ideas and opinions! Thanks everyone!
