Robin SweanyED 58412/1/16

Evaluation Of Teaching Material

Name of Material: E.E.T. (Expanding Expression Tool)

Describe Material: EET is a multisensory method for defining and describing objects/entities to help students organize language and expand their oral and written language expression. The method uses a mnemonic device, along with visual and tactile information, to help students remember and organize information about items described. EET basically teaches kids how to give informative descriptions and definitions. The kit includes:

Instruction manual Classroom EET strand for whole class or individual instruction Card deck with Teacher Icons, Writing from Prior Knowledge and

Autobiographies/Biographies Prompt Cars, and Picture Cards Classroom poster containing EET icons Student stickers for written projects with the EET Foam Dice with EET icons

The EET strand has seven colored beads, each representing a different language element. Students learn a chant or song about the colors and language elements to describe objects/entities as follows:

Who makes it: EET was created by Sarah Smith, a speech and language pathologist, in 2007.

Where It Can Be Purchased: www.expandingexpression.com

Cost: $249 for base kit. Additional items may be purchased.

Evaluation of Materials:I have used EET with elementary students with great success. It is a simple tool that gives immediate results after just one lesson. First I ask students to describe an item (usually a pencil). They often write one to three sentences about a pencil, usually something like this:“A pencil is something you write with. It has an eraser.”

Then I introduce EET and at the end of the lesson, we rewrite our description of a pencil using the EET tool. It usually goes something like this:“A pencil is a tool for writing. You hold it in your hand and write on paper with it. It is long and skinny, and is made mostly of wood and graphite. It can come in many colors, but is usually yellow. It has an eraser, the main part of the pencil that you hold onto, and a pointy end made of graphite. You can buy pencils in a store, and you find them in schools and homes. Pencils have to be sharpened with a pencil sharpener to work. There are also mechanical pencils that never need sharpening.”

EET is a really amazing tool, and I would highly recommend it for students of any age, but especially elementary. It helps students who always complain that they “just don’t know what to write” by giving them a template to follow. And the fact that it is multisensory really lends itself to special education.

Evidence Based Practices and Disability chosen: EET can be used with students of any age and ability level, and on any topic. Because it is a multisensory tool, it works well for students with autism and learning disabilities in reading, as well as for students with speech and language impairments. A student example is shown in the pictures below. The first writing sample was taken before learning EET. The student was asked to write a description of a banana, a guitar, a chair, a clock, and courage. The second writing sample was taken after learning EET. The student was asked to write a description of the same items, using EET. The average number of words written in the first sample is about 9. After learning EET, the average number of words written in the second sample is about 55!

Student writing sample before EET Student writing sample after EET

SHOW AND SHARE DATA- Faith 4 year old preschool

The x-axis represents the 16 students in the preschool class. The y-axis represents the number of details the preschoolers included when describing items both before being introduced to the EET (darker line) and after using the EET (lighter line). Every student in the class increased the amount of details when using the EET.

Utilize technology for learning:SMART Technology has several SMARTBoard lessons for EET at this link:http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?q=%22Expanding%20Expression%20Tool%22

Videos about EET can be found at the following links:Gestures and EET song video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AIcZe3Pmz4

A 4-year-old describes an apple before and after EET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr8EXEzN5CU

An elementary school video about using EET in their school:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pvAQgSb-T0

Assistive technology for specific needs of individuals with autism, learning disability in reading, or speech and language impairment:Text to speech softwareWord processorsSpellcheck/word prediction softwarePencil gripsSpeech to text softwareCommunication boards or software