To be eligible, each Student/Teacher and Family/Student team must follow these simple guidelines:

1. Show Us Your Success!

Every challenge submission needs to be supported by proof. Fill out this month’s Google form to enter. This can be photos, documents, videos, or even links to social media reels, stories, highlights, or Google Photos albums. 

2. Submit by the 1st, Win by the 5th!

All proof must be uploaded to the portal by the 1st of the following month. The raffle drawing will happen by the 5th, and winners will be notified via the email used for the submission.

3. One Month at a Time!

You can’t submit for the next month until the previous month’s entries close. (Give a cheer to our hardworking MSB gerbils who keep everything running smoothly!)

4. More Entries, More Chances to Win!

The number of complete submissions equals your number of entries in the raffle. 

For example:

   – Joe Smith & family complete eight challenges, which means that  Joe earns eight raffle entries.   Easy, right?

For every student you enter, you’ll be entered into a separate monthly drawing for a $50 value prize and each entry means more chances at the year-end $250 prize!

For example:

• If Penny Jones & her family complete and submit ten challenges and Penny has a teacher complete three entries, Penny gets 13, and her teacher would get 3! 
• If  Damion Doright has 0 entries from his family but his Paraeducator submits 3,  His teacher does 2, and his  RSP does 1, that means Damion gets six entries, and each member of that service team gets the number they submit for the teacher raffle.
• Don’t be like Tommy OopsIForgot—no entries mean no raffle tickets!

5. Grand Prize Alert! Every month, you submit at least one entry, and you’ll be entered for our June Grand Prize drawing worth $400! (Each student can earn up to 9 family entries and nine teacher entries for the year.)

**And most importantly, HAVE FUN!** Contact the MSB Outreach Team (OutreachECC@mdschblind.org) if you need support, resources, or just a little help along the way.

April

Sensory Efficiency Skills

Sensory Efficiency refers to how well an individual receives, transmits, and interprets information about people, objects, and events in the environment, using all sensory systems. Learning is dependent on how one receives information from their 5 senses of taste, touch, hearing, smell, and vision (Allman, Carol B., et al. ECC Essentials: Teaching the Expanded Core Curriculum to Students with Visual Impairments. APH Press, 2014).

I can engage in active listening to gather information or complete a task.

How will we get there?

Know. Understand. Do. A framework to guide learning activities.

Know (K): Tends to be binary. Either you know it or you don’t. Examples: Facts & Dates, Definitions, People & Places

Understand (U): Is a continuum; from novice to advanced. Examples: Big Ideas, Essential Questions, Generalizations

Do (D): Show they understand and the application of skills/content.

Resources

• Michigan Department of Education Low Incidence Outreach – Sensory Efficiency https://mdelio.org/blind-visually-impaired/expanded-core-curriculum/sensory-efficiency
• Perkins – What is sensory efficiency? https://www.perkins.org/resource/sensory-efficiency/

To submit to the monthly ECC Challenge:

1. Complete activities and experiences featured in this month’s ECC Challenge.
2. Complete the Google Form on the TVI Portal OR email this worksheet and a photo to OutreachECC@mdschblind.org.
3. The student and teacher will be entered into this month’s raffle!

Tell us what you KUD!

April

Student name:                                                                                  Teacher name:

Vocabulary

• Sound cue
• Sound clue
• Active listening
• Auditory function
• Localization
• Discrimination

K: Can the student define these words? ☐

U: Can the student explain the relationships between these words and gaining educational or environmental information? ☐

D: Can the student use these words in conversation/writing or teach/share with someone? ☐

Objects/Materials

• Audio books
• Videos/video lessons
• Various sound effects
• Recorded conversations

K: Can the student tell you what these are or how they are used? ☐

U: Can the student tell you how these materials relate to accessing or gathering educational or environmental information? ☐

D: Can the student use active listening to gain information from these materials? ☐

Concepts/Activities: Use to teach words, objects and concepts

K: Does the student know how to control the volume or rate of speech when listening to the various items listed above? ☐

U: Can the student label/identify the people, locations, objects, and/or emotions used in the various recordings listed above? ☐

D: Can the student identify the main points or summarize what they heard? ☐

Experiences: Connect words, objects, and activities to everyday experiences

• Take notes on a classroom lecture and compare to those of a peer, then evaluate what you missed.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of an audio description for a video.
• Have a peer, family member, or teacher evaluate your active listening skills in a conversation. What do you need to improve upon?
• Set a goal and create a plan for an area of improvement in your listening skills.

ECC @ Home: April Challenge Activities

Student Activities:

• ☐ Create a list of smells/scents that you prefer and ones you don’t.
• ☐ Sort clean and dirty laundry by smell.
• ☐ List the sound/smell cues/clues along a familiar travel route.
• ☐ Listen to a song, list all the instruments you hear used.
• ☐ Try a new food, evaluate the flavor/taste/smell.
• ☐ Match your socks/outfits based on feel only.
• ☐ Have a parent or teacher evaluate your listening skills. 
• ☐ Evaluate the effectiveness of a tactile graphic.

Family Concept Practice:

• ☐ Have a family blind taste test and see who gets the most foods/drinks correct.
• ☐ Have your child smell various spices and see if they can name them.
• ☐ Have your child describe various clothing/fabric textures to you. 
• ☐ Take a walk around the block and list all of the sounds/smells you encounter. 
• ☐ Play “Name That Tune” or “What’s That Sound?”
• ☐ Stand on the corner and have your child state when they can hear a car and what direction it is coming from. 
• ☐ Have your child orient/turn to your position/voice. 
• ☐ Go to the store and let your child pick a deodorant they like based on smell. 

Family Only Activities:

• ☐ Attend the Literacy Brunch-  11am On April 5, 2025
• ☐ Attend the See Beyond Festival on April 26, 2025. 
• ☐ Try an AT loan through MDTAP Loaning Library 

Resource Links (do not count as entries if completed):

• ☐ Watch the Moment of Outreach Video: Sensory Efficiency.
• ☐ Email:  OutreachECC@mdschblind.org for help! 

DETAILS:

Submission Deadline For April:  May 3

Prize Drawing: $50 Amazon Gift Card

Questions or Support Needed?   OutreachECC@mdschblind.org