The Expanding Expression Tool is a hands-on way for students to think about things they want to write about and how to describe them. Each bead on the strand stands for a different way of looking at the item. For example, the Green bead (with the smiling face) represents "Green - Group" or what group the item belongs to. The Blue bead is for "Blue - Do." It stands for "what does this item do OR what would you do with the item". The White bead with the eyeball on it represents "what does it look like" while the brown wooden bead means "what is made of". The Pink bead is for "Pink - Parts" (what it is a part of OR what are its parts). The plain White bead represents "White - Where" for where would you find it or where does it reside. Finally, the Orange bead with the question mark stands for "What else do I know".
Here is an example of two descriptions of a football. One is written by a group before using the EET and the other description is by the same group after they used the tool.
Mrs. Pokey and I have had success using the Expanding Expression Tool. In fact, we're going to be working with a fifth grade class tomorrow. We have four English Language Learners in the class, so Mrs. Pokey and I will be pushing-in to the classroom tomorrow and working with the whole class along with their teacher, Mrs. Cookie. (Yes, she makes marvelous cookies!) Mrs. Cookie has a whole bag full of Mexican jumping beans. I can't wait to work with the students tomorrow afternoon on how to describe their jumping beans! (I was in the classroom this morning talking with Mrs. Cookie. The whole time I was in there, the beans were jumping in their little clear plastic boxes. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click!)
To find out more about the Expanding Expression Tool, please go to their website at www.expandingexpression.com. I also found few good YouTube links to share with you.
The first one is from a school district in Ohio:
The second is from Expanding Expression:
I also found some good PDF's about EET online. They're worth downloading and reading. I hope you'll give EET a try with your students, too.
PDF from the 2012 Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Convention
PDF from the 2011 Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Convention
