The Description Express

The Description Express toolkit is a resource to support the explicit teaching of oral and written description and comparison skills. Designed for K-6 students and older children with limited language skills, students with disabilities, or students from non-English speaking backgrounds, The Description Express can be used by teachers, speech pathologists, education assistants and parents or volunteers (under teacher supervision).

The toolkit uses an explicit teaching approach to address semantic organisation skills, including categorising, describing and comparing, to support word learning, applied to 5 themes (animals, food, furniture, clothing, transport).

The Description Express pack includes:

• a comprehensive easy to follow User's Guide

• scripted explicit lesson examples for teaching different semantic skills in small group or whole class contexts

• 13x palm-sized description icons

• 90x coloured theme-based picture cards

• 5x description rulers (1 for each theme)

• 10x A4 write-on-wipe-off differentiated description scaffolds

• 5x A4 write-on-wipe-off comparison scaffolds

• 1x A4 write-on-wipe-off Frayer Vocabulary template

• 5x description board games (1 for each theme)

• tokens, a feely bag, and a numbered dice