College Students Help Alter Books for Elim Students

March 30, 2012

Why would students from Governors State University dismantle books for Elim? Because they’re rebuilding them into laminated interactive books for teaching students of various ability levels. Barb, Chris, Jessica, Mike, and Albert all worked together to construct interactive books so that Elim students receive the hands-on learning they need.
 

Barb describes the beginning process as being introduced to a software program called Boardmaker (Mayer-Johnson). Boardmaker lets you create printed material using Picture Communication Symbols.  The volunteers adapted the text from the pages of the book using the picture symbols printed from the computer.
 
The volunteers were working on an alphabet book featuring animals. Barb states, “we cut out the letters and pictures for the books.” Mallory Lyall, Assistive Technology Assistant adds, “After the picture vocabulary is cut out, we glue it on the pages of the book. In this book, we also added the alphabet letter to use as an alphabet-matching activity. Forexample, P is for ‘pig.’ Finally, we reassemble the book, add the letter and matching picture as moveable pieces on each page.”
 
The final product is a storybook that is adapted to allow any student the literacy experience of that particular book, whether they have reading skills or not.

 
If you are interested in volunteering at Elim, please be aware that it has the potential to change your life, just as it has for so many others. Please check out Elim’s website at www.elimcs.org for listings of more volunteer positions or other ways to get involved.
 

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