Prior to beginning this book, it is important that students have been exposed to tracking and tactile recognition skills and can identify the braille alphabet letters.

An important part of this book is a "Lesson" just for teachers who are beginning to teach braille or those that have not taught it in a while. It will help you to refresh your "braille brain."

 

For students, BrailleBlazer:

• is meant to be used by anyone, at any age, who is beginning to read braille.

• was designed to be very flexible to meet the needs of many different students, with varying abilities, including those who may be having some difficulty learning to read braille.

• will help to develop tactile skills.

• contains different activities to help develop various skills needed by a new tactile reader, starting with tracking and tactile discrimination.

• helps students become familiar with basic words and become confident readers. 

• teaches beginning braille reading vocabulary. Introduces Alphabetic Wordsigns and Strong Contractions, which are specific to braille reading.

• uses elements of basic reading skills (Dolch sight words and Fry word families). The words were selected from a list of first-grade level words.

• introduces “Sneaky Contractions.” These are braille contractions that are common to a beginning braille reader's vocabulary (ex., name, braille, mother, father, etc.). These are words that cannot be sounded out, but simply need to be recognized.

• uses much repetition of the introduced words so that students who are learning to read braille can get continued exposure to basic reading vocabulary.

• includes numerous types of reading exercises, such as: Tracking, New Words, Review Words, sentence Reading, Sentence Jumbles, Paragraph reading, and Reading Comprehension, to make lessons more motivating and fun.

• includes 284 consumable braille worksheets help to develop tactile skills which are important for congenitally blind students, as well as dual media learners (former print readers), of any age.   ​

  • 284 braille worksheets are single-sided, double-spaced

  • worksheets are 3-hole punched and can be sent home for extra practice

• is an excellent beginning reading workbook that will help students learn to read braille. It will be beneficial no matter what program they may be using in the future. 

 

Structure of lessons:

• Begins with information for teachers who are new to teaching braille and a refresher for those who haven't taught it in a while.

​

• No word is ever used until it has been introduced.

• Every word is introduced as a “New Word.”

• Tracking of the “New Word” precedes every “Reading” activity.

• Introduced words are scattered throughout sentences in the book, to give the student continued practice on learned words. 

• Punctuation is not used, to allow for consistency in word recognition.

• Capital letter signs are only used with proper nouns (names).

• Reading “Paragraphs” allows you to find out if students understand what they are reading, rather than just calling out words.

• There are many review sections throughout the book, so that the student will get repeated practice in reading words that were previously presented.

• There are numerous suggestions on how to use this book for writing practice, as well as reading.

• At the end of the book is a Reading/Writing Review section, so that you can see which words students have mastered.

• as with UEB Practice Sentences, this book can be used to create a serviceable IEP for new readers.

 

A Contraction and Word Progress Chart helps you keep track of words that the student is familiar with or needs continued practice on.

 

A chart of all braille contractions is included, as well.