Saturday, 21 July 2012

Reflection




Last Post!


I thought I knew something about Assistive Technology! Boy, Howdy! There is always so much more to learn; like devices and apps and apps and APPS for the iPad, iPod Touch and the iPhone. Now I want at least four iPad's for my classroom. THANKS,  BARB! I will have to sell a kidney,  shake the kids down for lunch money, or at the very least, fundraise like mad to get them!

Fundraising ideas:

Bake sales
Refundable collections
Raffle
Odd jobs
Scholastic Bonus points
Whine to the principal




I thought I knew a lot about the reading process - well, actually, I do! I just hadn't thought about it in terms of neuro-physyology. My understanding of the processes has certainly expanded and I even understand the need to do a task analysis when you're thinking about Assistive Technology - you really do need to know where the task breaks down for students to match the most appropriate tool to that student.

I have even learned some new skills like BLOGGING! Can't say I would ever create one on my own, but, never say never!


I have already downloaded a number of apps on to my iPad that I know I will use in my classroom; Pictello, Story Builder, Sentence Builder, Rainbow Sentences, Reading Raven, Ansel & Claire’s Adventures in Africa, SeeUSay, Prizmo.... and I am sure there will be more. The iPad has the potential for so much learning to happen AND the children are ENGAGED; in fact I have already seen how much they love it in the few months that I had mine in the classroom last year. I also got to witness the world of communication open up for one of my students with autism. Now her parents went out and bought one for her personal use once they saw what she was doing with the one in the learning centre - I have a problem with this on principle - what about the families that can't afford to buy one! That aside, with Quiloquo,  this child's communication rate skyrocketed! So I see the potential for Assistive Technology for regular program and adapted program kids as well.
Money is the only issue!

So I leave you with this....



Hope everyone has a great summer!





Writing Task Analysis

Check the link... Thanks to Amy, Anne, and Jean!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012: Writing Task

Writing Task Analysis - Making the AT Match - Another task analysis!

 EGAD! STAY TUNED!

Assistive Technology for writing:
  • Solo and Write OutLoud and CoWriter - Word prediction software - strongest word prediction software but needs to be loaded into thaw zone or you can copy info in from the web and save personal dictionaries- Good luck convincing your tech.
  • Classroom Suite
  • Draft Builder (Solo)
  • Inspiritation 8 or Kidspiration - Lower level content skills - writing prompts
  • Clicker 5 - picture cues - visual support - cognitive delays
  • Read Please
  • Fusion Keyboards, Writer + - so derigeur!
  • Writing with Symbols - gives you the structure-cognitive or dev. delay - highly supported writing and reading
  • Dragon Naturally Speaking - 3gigs of ram - $2000 - don't recommend it - difficult to set up
  • Kurzweil or Word Q cdn made-with demo-French and English
  • Cloze Pro
  • Start to Finish books - Don Johnson
  • Ap - ps Typo

Typing versus handwriting - a huge issue especailly with SOME teachers. I don'tnderstand their thought process on this one!

UDL Toolkit






 
Here are five FREE tools that I looked at today.

Literactive
- Guided Reading books of Nursery Rhymes, as well as on the  themes of Home and Self, Family, Animals, Friends, School, Poetry and Spelling. Read aloud with highlighted sentences and includes a few activities with each book.
    – Learning activities – Over 100 games for matching, memory and sequencing
                                                   – Blackline Masters – ABC, abc, and pre-writing


Vocabulary Spelling City
  
– create word lists, play game, handwriting practice, printable worksheets and teacher resources take test (free basic membership) If you register and pay for Premium Membership ($49.99/year) – many more features available.



National Library of Virtual Manipulatives:      

available in English, French and Spanish
strands include number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data management and probability for grade levels Pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12
lots and lots of activities




Multimedia and digital storytelling:

-        Voice Thread – capture audio for on-line digital story telling – presentations, share digital media, comment,
-       Pro-Version available free for teachers
-
      Free iPad app



ReadWriteThink Student Interactives                               

     – Tools for students to help them accomplisha number of tasks.
      – Categories include organizing and summarizing (22 resources)inquiry & analysis (7 resources), poetry (7 resources), writing and publishing prose (12 resources), and learning about language (10 resources)
      – Grade levels K-12.

Monday, July 16, 2012


July 16, 2012 – Assistive Technology

Today we reviewed Kurzweil 3000:


AMAZING program - INCREDIBLY expensive - prohibitively so! I did enjoy playing with it though. Lots of people had difficulty downloading it though - not me!

With Kurzweil you can download any text  and then work with them as Kezi files. Can add dictionaries, convert to audio file, change reading rate, create voice recording, writing support-tons of features!

Good for LD, CAPD, attention, comprehension, auditory memory, short term memory, vocabulary, test prep, and special needs.

We played with Sticky Notes and Bubble Notes - lots of uses for these: referencing other text, indicating important information in the text, questions or quizzes, reminders, indexing, links to other media, illustrating, definitions, further descriptions, etc.

Kurzweil is UDL all the way!




WHAT'S IN YOUR UDL TOOLKIT!






Friday, 20 July 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012: The Reading Process - Thanks, Amy!

T

Thursday, July 12, 2012


Top Ten Apps for Readingand App Matching Activity

Prepared by: Amy Lewis and Martha Lee

App Description
Area of Support in Reading Process
Associated Reading Difficulties
Reason for App Selection
Implementation of App into Classroom
Reading Raven $3.99
-Progression self paced lessons – pre-reading to reading full sentences.
-11 types of games and activities.
-Speed and tolerance dynamically adapt to motor control ability.
-Categories: reading, phonics, letters, spelling, writing, vocabulary, early learning, special needs.
Orthographic Processing:
-letter recognition
-letter formation
Phonological Processing:
-Sound–symbol correspondence
-Rhyming and initial sound awareness
-Onset and rime
-Sequencing (word knowledge)
Language Processors:
-Sight word knowledge
-Vocabulary
Memory:
-Word building (spelling)
Graphomotor:
-Printing and letter formation
-Visual-motor integration
For students who need opportunities to practice:
-letter matching
-letter tracing
-letter recognition
-word matching
-vocabulary
-word beginnings
-word building (spelling)
-word recognition
-reading aloud (voice recording)
-word tracing
-word families (rhyming and beginning sounds)

-Wide range of skills is targeted.
-Linkage of letter name to sound and letter formation
-Appropriate for grades primary and grade 1 (regular program) and for remediation up to grade 2 or for a special needs child
-Appropriate for those who are chronologically or developmentally aged 3-6

-Used as a Center activity (4 iPads and headphones required)
-With earphones, it could be used as part of an individual child’s program due to loud auditory feedback for correct responses.
-practice correct letter formation
Comprehension Therappy$24.99 (Lite- free)
(Tactus Therapy Solutions)
Targets auditory and reading comprehension of single words.
3 modes –Listen, Read & Listen and Read.
Customize array size - select from 2,3,4, or six photos.
-10 categories of nouns (food, objects, places, people, body parts).
-3 levels of difficulty
-Aphasia friendly interface
E-mail results – for teacher or communication with home.
Language Processor:
-Sight word knowledge
-Vocabulary
Orthographic Knowledge:
-alphabetic knowledge – letter identity
-spelling
Phonological Processor:
-letter sound associations
-order, identity, number of sounds in a word
Visual Processors:
Visual memory
Visual matching
Memory:
-retrieval and recall
-word meaning
-visual memory
Executive Function:
-Attention
-Associations

Helpful for people with receptive dysphasia, attention deficits, and for vocabulary development. Helpful for apraxia and practice of speech production
Repeated play and practice may improve memory of objects and words and association of objects and words

-Works in both auditory and visual modalities to improve comprehension, word and picture associations, and vocabulary development
-Used as a Center activity (4 iPads and headphones required)
-With earphones, it could be used as part of an individual child’s program (IPP, Resource or Speech)

Rainbow Sentences$7.99
Help child construct grammatically correct sentences using colour coded visual cues. (who, what, where, when, why)
Learn to recognize the parts of sentences; nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc
Three levels of play; each level has 55 sentences.
6 levels of sentence complexity
Voice recording available – work on developing receptive and expressive language skills
Pictograph lessons
Save and e-mail sentences.
Meaning Processors:
-gestalt for sentence comprehension
Sequential Processors:
-syntax
-grammar
-sentence structure
Semantic Processor:
-Word Meaning
Language Processors:
-vocabulary
-oral language
-comprehension of phrases – (article + noun + verb)
Executive function:
Attention
Concentration

Sentence construction; ordering phrases
Grammar
Sentence Structure
Oral Language development; simple sentences progressing to more complex sentences

Students that need support with executive function:
attention and sustained engagement – completion of each round-earn a puzzle piece; intermittent schedule of reinforcement-moves to five complete sentences for a puzzle piece
-Used as a Center activity (4 iPads and headphones required)
-With earphones, it could be used as part of an individual child’s program.
Audio can be switched on and off
Colour coding can be turned on and off
Words or word groups can be moved
Ansel & Clair’s Adventures in Africa $4.99
-interactive adventure of a space alien and a robot.
Features quests, puzzles & games in three locals-NileValley, Sahara Desert & Serengeti Plains
-Offers hours of exploration
-Collect and arrange photos in a travel log
Utilizes a thematic and contextual approach to teach geography, history and science, vocabulary and reading
Focus on a number of non-fiction concepts – migration, camouflage, nocturnal, herbivoire, predator, vertebrate and cold-blooded.

Language Processors:
-Auditory processing
-Comprehension
-Vocabulary
Sensory Processing:
Auditory perception
Orthographic Processors:
-Alphabetic knowledge
-Word knowledge
Memory:
-retrieval and recall
-word meaning
-visual memory
Executive Function:
-Attention
-Associations
-Sustaining Engagement

Print impaired (non-readers) - text is read to you with paragraph highlighting.

Students with a demonstrated preference for non-fiction.

Readers who need enrichment.

Focus on non-fiction
Encourages children to think and ask questions through Ansel’s critical questioning.
Combination of still life (real life) photography and animation.
Game format promotes engagement.


With headphones, this app could be used during reading or science period for regular program and special needs students
SeeUSay: Language Based Assistive Learning $1.99
Speech program where sounds and words are modeled (44 sounds and complete Dolch word list)
Practice alphabet, rhyming, writing and spelling and word recognition (complete Dolch list).
Word or sound is seen in text form then you tap on the text to hear and see the word said (able to record yourself)
Orthographic Processors:
Visual discrimination
Sensory Processors:
Visual-motor integration
Sensory motor process
Phonological Awareness:
Phonemic awareness
Letter-sound associations
Meaning Processors:
Context associations
Vocabulary
Executive Function:
Attention
Modulating effort
Sustaining engagement
Memory:
Short term
Muscle memory

Students with phonological difficulties that can not distinguish speech sounds.
Auditory processing difficulties.
English language learners of all ages
Students with craniofacial anomalies or speech production difficulties
Uses a multisensory approach (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) with an emphasis on articulation to teach the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, and sight words
Quiet space in classroom – that may afford some privacy
For individual use.
Teacher check ins
Autism & PDD Grammar (Lite) (Free)
Five stories about Buddy Bear that addresses a grammar feature.

Improves communication skills, practice of grammar skills, comprehension,
Assists children with autism, joint attention, reciprocity and early language
The answer format is multiple-choice with an easy one-tap or click-and-drag response. Correct responses are reinforced with lively animation and sound effects, and an audio narration of the proper grammar form:
teaches verbs, nouns and negation
Reading remediation. Simple, predictable language, open ended questions, engaging animation and sound effects
PCS Bingo- (free) practice vocabulary, articulation, and rhyming

Meaning: Vocabulary, recall, phonological awareness, syntax, working memory, orthographic processing
Children with Autism, Down Syndrome, and speech and Language delays
Great for mobile activity during reading workshop
Customizable categories,
What’s that sound? (free) 500+ sounds and photos of things, machines, nature, cars, animals.
Auditory processing and association, auditory memory, Making connections to real life.
Children ages 4+ . Children with Asperger or autism
Higher level than most apps that show basic sounds. Social interaction with peers
Absolutely fabulous pictures. Options of 2 or 4 pics to choose from.
ABA Therapy Images Mobile (free)
Which image doesn’t belong activity
Visual stimulation, categorization, comprehension, visual organization
Children with autism
Choose and talk about what attribute an object does not belong in the group shown: colour, shape, theme etc.
3 topics: people, objects, transportation. Begins with simple matching and gets progressively more difficult.

Pic a word- (free)
Words are given a visual to assist with reading and expression of thoughts


Sequential processing, emotional, self control and regulation
Children who struggle with speech and auditory processing. Helps with executive functioning skills (allows expression of needs)
Improves social and communication skills. Teaches word assoc. along with visual pictures of everyday items
Helps express emotional needs.
Great pics, easy to use. Can change # of pics per page… 2 or 4