Environmental Print

An Integrated Lanugage Arts Program for Nonreaders

Reading Level Nonreaders
Grades / Interest Level K - 12
Product Code SERIES ( MR #061848 )

A full school year’s curriculum.

Environmental Print brings a comprehensive, standards-based language arts curriculum to students with significant cognitive disabilities. It is also appropriate for students with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities who have been unsuccessful with phonetic or sight-words-based reading programs. Fully scripted, the program integrates forms of environmental print such as road signs and indoor signs into the story lines of books about adolescent characters.

Developed for both verbal and nonverbal students, the program includes a wide variety of manipulatives that allow students to demonstrate comprehension and content mastery. The text in books and activity sheets is supported by SymbolStix from News-2-You, making the program accessible to nonreaders of all ages.

Environmental Print provides lessons and activities for a complete school year. Each of the 16 books is supported by 10 fully scripted lessons that cover language arts standards while teaching three common signs or other forms of environmental print. The lesson cycle features the book first so that all signs are learned in the context of their environment. Signs are then taught individually using a variety of manipulatives and role-plays. Once students learn the signs featured in the book, subsequent lessons focus on story comprehension. The signs are then generalized outside the story. The final lesson for each book focuses on assessment and progress monitoring.

Program Themes

Environmental Print teaches 48 signs, first through the context of a book and then generalized through a poster of a community scene and suggested community-based instruction activities. Each book and poster focuses on three signs in one of four environments:

Streets and Roads
Community Places
Work Places
Restaurants

Language Arts Standards

Environmental Print lessons focus on teaching and reinforcing key language arts standards. Skills taught and assessed include:

Concepts of Print
Main Character
Character Traits
Setting
Main Idea
Cause and Effect

Differentiated Instruction

Intended for use in classrooms for students with moderate to severe disabilities, Environmental Print integrates differentiated materials and activities throughout the program. The program’s 16 books are offered in two levels. Both levels use the same illustrations to tell the story, but Level A has only one line of text per page, while Level B has two lines per page. Level A allows students to focus on the main idea of the story, and Level B provides students with additional details. Further differentiation occurs within the scripted lessons where questions are tailored to allow for both verbal and nonverbal responses.