One Unit Every Goal

As a new high school SLP, I was spending too much time prepping for therapy. I was constantly flipping through workbooks trying to find worksheets and activities for my students. I spent tons of time at the copier, and my office was a disorganized mess. Once I prepped the therapy, I had to actually do the therapy which brought up new problems. I had a lot of mixed groups, and it was so stressful when each student had a different worksheet or activity to do.

Then one day, the Every Goal Unit was born, and it revolutionized the way I provide high school speech therapy. I knew that I had stumbled upon something great. Since I was positive I'd be making my Every Goal units for my personal use, I thought I should share the units with others. Within a few months, I opened my TeachersPayTeachers store.

What is an Every Goal Unit?

The concept of the Every Goal Unit is simple. Each Unit begins with a high interest informational article. Next, you'll find activities that target all (or at least most) of the goals you target in a middle, junior high, or high school setting. Each of the activities directly relates to the article. Always included activities are: main idea, details, critical thinking, sequencing, narrative, pragmatics, grammar, and vocabulary.

During a typical therapy session, I read the article with the students. Then, I give each student a worksheet that targets one of his/her goals. Or, I will read the worksheets to ask students questions based on their goals. When I have fluency or articulation students, I will have them read the article or complete the narrative portion of the units. Sometimes I utilize my unit for a week, and sometimes I use it for up to an entire month!

Peek Inside an Every Goal Unit

The Article

First up, the crux of the unit - the informational article. Each article is written about a high-interest topic at a lower reading level.

Please note that not all Units are currently updated with color photos and magazine-style layout.

Comprehension Activities

The next parts of the unit focus on comprehension. You'll find activities for main idea, details, critical reasoning, and sequencing. I try to keep these four sections contained to two pages, so if a student is working on comprehension, I can give them a single front/back worksheet to work on during a session.

Narrative Activities

Next up - narrative activities. The narrative actives are formatted to be completed as written activities, but more often than not, when I use the narrative activities in my speech room, I have the students complete the activity verbally. The narrative activities are also excellent for working on articulation and fluency. Narrative activities vary with each unit and may include: compare/contrast, storytelling, or exposition tasks and often include graphic organizers.

Grammar

Grammar worksheets may target a specific skill - multiple meaning words, combining sentences, pronoun use, etc. Some units include sentences or paragraphs that require revisions.

Pragmatics

One of the biggest challenges I face is mixed groups of students with language goals and students with pragmatics goals. That’s why every Every Goal Unit includes several pragmatics activities that relate to the informational article.

The skills that I target in the social skills portion vary from unit to unit. Often included activities are figurative language and problem solving activities. Other examples of actives are working within a group, perspective taking, conversational practice, and role play.

Vocabulary Unit

Last, and certainly not least, is vocabulary. The vocabulary portion is an entire unit in itself, and it always features 5-8 Tier 2 vocabulary words. It always begins with a context clues activity using the highlighted words/sentences from the informational article. Next, students use what they learned from the context clues to match the target words to their definitions. Typically another short activity is included next - analogies, synonyms/antonyms, illustrate a sentence, etc. A "fill in the blank" activity is next followed by a page where students generate a sentence using each word. Finally, a vocabulary post-test is provided to test your students' knowledge of the words they have been learning. The post-test includes "fill in the blank" and sentence writing activities. The vocabulary unit typically takes 1-2 30-minute sessions to complete.

Bonus Material

I periodically add bonus material. For this Thailand unit, I included an activity where students plan a trip to see different areas of Thailand.

How can I get my hands on an Every Goal Unit?

You can find Every Goal units in my TpT store. Units are available as single units and money-saving bundles!