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A little history... | |
 | The Reading Activities Project for older Students, better known as R.A.P.S., was initiated by Southwest Human Development in Phoenix, Arizona. The goal was to create stories for children age 8-13 with significant developmental delays. The resulting R.A.P.S. book, published in 1993, was edited by Dr. Caroline Musselwhite. It had 10 community-based stories with six endearing characters and was used with great success. This original spiral-bound book is still available and can be ordered from Learning Magic. |
The R.A.P.S. characters began to come to life with the release of the R.A.P.S. #1 CD about 1998. Multimedia was used to make three of the stories more accessible, and at the same time give the characters voices we could hear. Additional supporting stories and materials enriched the R.A.P.S. experience. | |
Announcing a new R.A.P.S. #1 ! | |
Now Learning Magic, Inc. has worked with Dr. Musselwhite to create a new, expanded version of R.A.P.S. #1, including improved graphics, new photos, and a wealth of new activities and other options for supporting the three stories. This all new version of R.A.P.S. #1 has been updated to run in IntelliTools Classroom Suite®. | |
What's in the new enhanced R.A.P.S. # 1 CD? | ||
| The CD provides over a hundred activities to support three stories from the original printed R.A.P.S. book. The three core stories supported on this CD are: | ||
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| Cash For Trash | Pizza Today | Looking Great |
| Each of the core stories has associated activities divided into four sets based upon a balanced literacy approach. The four activity sets are "Guided Reading", "Self Selected Reading", "Word Study" and "Writing". | ||
Guided Reading | |
| The Guided Reading Set includes the core story book, an IntelliTalk 3®-based activity with the story's text, and a recipe that relates to the story. | |
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| Cash For Trash Text | Guided Reading Pizza Recipe |
Self Selected Reading | |
| The Self Selected Reading Set consists of four easy stories which further support the core book. These stories typically include a Noun Story (eg. cake, decorations, balloons), Adjective Story (e.g. pretty hair, long hair, short hair), Verb Story (e.g. dancing, eating, listening) and a Preposition Story (party at a restaurant, party in the garden, party in the pool). | |
| The four self selected reading books are written in two formats to encourage participation by the student. The first format, Tell Me More Stories (e.g. pizza toppings), includes a button which when clicked will tell more about the subject. For example, the book Trash Everywhere has a page with the text "Trash on a Hill". If you then click the Tell Me More button, you will hear "That trash is disgusting! That trash could leak and get into the water supply." |  |
| A "Tell Me More" story | |
| The second format, Comment Stories (e.g. Party Hair), includes two buttons with either a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" graphic. When clicked, random positive (thumbs up) or negative (thumbs down) comments are given (e.g. cool, awesome, dang, oh no). Students can turn the pages and click the buttons for these stories using the mouse, switches, or a provided IntelliKeys® overlay. |  |
| A "Comment" story | |
| In addition to these standard self-selected books, the RAPS CD also includes the same stories in a Click and Go format where a single switch click on each page will advance the story. This second set of stories is specifically designed for those students who struggle with access. | |
Word Study | |
| The Word Study Set includes numerous phonic activities (e.g. making words) and phonemic awareness activities. Sample phonemic awareness activities include tongue twisters, spelling activities, sound play and sound substitution activities. | |
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| Tongue Twisters | Who's Got It? |
Writing | |
| The Writing Set is made up of a wide range of writing activities including poems. Writing activities include errorless writing, where children can develop an "ear print" for writing while participating in a high-success activity. Transitional writing activities are also included where the student takes on the construction of their own writing, but picture support and often a small word bank are included to provide added support. Additional writing activities include fill in the blanks activities. Students can use the alphabet or enter text via a communication device that is connected to the computer to complete blanks activities. | |
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| Errorless Writing Invitation | Pizza Review Fill-in |
R.A.P.S. Extras | |
 | These folders contain materials to support learning, including a number of .pdf files with symbol support and "how to" files. These off-computer activities support the on-computer activities to scaffold learning for students AND teachers. Guided Reading Extras includes an Assessment folder of maze and closed activities for each story plus directions for those assessment activities. A Communications Displays folder includes Boardmaker and .pdf communication displays for: 4 location, 8 location, 9 location, 9+ location (Go Talk), 32 location (words only) and 32 location (words and pictures). Symbols for choice making and repeated lines are also included. |
| A Comprehension folder includes activities that provide instruction in predicting, sequencing and listing items. An Extension Activities folder provides additional activities to support phonemic awareness; music, art and cooking; story text: story recipes and social scripts for each story. Additionally there are folders of Pull Off Symbols, Songboards and much more. |  |
| Looking Great Lyrics | |
 | Word Study Extras includes folders of light tech versions of the several of the computer activities (e.g. word play and tongue twisters). |
| Word Study Light Tech | |
| Writing Extras includes folders which provide writing ideas and strategies for supporting both on and off computer activities using overlays light tech and light tech frames. These materials are useful in doing the activity first in a light tech form, then modeling the writing for students and then transitioning to the same activity on the computer. |  |
| Light Tech Overlays | |
Download Samples and Further Information |
| In summary, the new R.A.P.S. #1 CD includes a wide range of on-computer and off-computer activities. Also lincluded are PDF's that provide lesson plans on how to present activities that both provide scaffolding and also encourage as much independence as possible for the student. Computer activities run in IntelliTools Classoom Suite® (needed components: IntelliPics Studio 3® and IntelliTalk 3®) or the IntelliTools Classroom Suite Players (included on the CD). You will also need Overlay Maker 3® to print or edit overlays. |
| For more information about the contents of the CD, download the Overview document below. |  |
(PDF file) An overview of the R.A.P.S. #1 2006 CD |
| You can check out three of the activities from the R.A.P.S. #1 2006 CD. These activities run in IntelliPics Studio 3® (Party Hair) and IntelliTalk 3® (Hair Comments Pics and Funky Hair.) All three are associated with the core story "Looking Great", in which all six of the R.A.P.S. characters talk about how they will prepare for going to a party. "Party Hair" is one of the four Self Selected Stories built around "Looking Great", and it is the adjective story of the set. "Funky Hair" is a Word Study activity from this core story set. "Hair Comments Pics" is one of the Writing activities. | |
| All three sample activities are contained in the .zip file you can download. You must first decompress this file, and then import the activities into IntelliTools Classroom Suite. For help in downloading, decompressing, and importing, consult the Goodies Download Tips, which also apply to this file. | |
| Download the three sample activities from R.A.P.S. #1 2006 CD right here! | |
 | For more tips, insights, and additional activities to use with R.A.P.S. #1, visit Caroline's Corner. This is your hotline to the expertise of Dr. Caroline Musselwhite! |
