Schedules, Schedules, Schedules

Wow, it's been a long day, but I promised myself I'd try to make one post a day, so here I go.  Please forgive me if the post is a little scattered!

Schedules can be one of the most important pieces of your classroom.  They provide cues for students that indicate where they are going and what the expectation will be.  Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule on how to create and use these!
Each student has their own level of need and support.  Here are some different examples of the schedules I have in my classroom this year

Picture schedule - yellow icons indicate activities that take place in my classroom; blue icons mean to go to the other teacher's room for math/science.  Purple indicates an item that takes place outside of our pod.

This is a picture/word combination schedule.  This student relies mostly on the words, but uses the pictures in case of confusion (there are matching visuals all over the room).  Student checks off items as they are completed.  I tried this kiddo on a word only schedule, but she needed a little more support than that for independence.  I hope to move her back to words only in a couple of months.

This student is a reader, but was unable to understand the checklist schedule.  We decided to pair icons and words and make the schedule a pull off schedule.  The student matches each icon to it's location throughout the room.  The plan is to fade away the icon in the next month.

This student's schedule appears to be the same as the first shown, but at closer look, it's a little more complex.  This kiddo needs not only pictures, but also some color coding.  Each icon has a matching color coded visual somewhere in the room.  The student has to match picture/color.

This student is a reader.  He just reads the schedule and follows independently.











As you can see, there are many ways to create a schedule!  We've been in school for 6 weeks now and I'm still continually assessing each kids understanding of the schedule that they are using and adjusting as necessary.  Every kid started out with a picture schedule like the top one shown.  I then adjusted according to their needs.  Some students got more color coding.  Others had icons removed or reduced. . .
The key is, always make sure you are using the schedule to increase independence!!!  Also, EVERY kid needs a schedule, no matter how high functioning they may be or independent they may work.

OK, that's my current schedules. . . what do you use???