Article Review - Learning From Text by David L. Edyburn

Learning From Text 

I really connected with this article from the first paragraph. For the past couple of years I have been exclusively in a primary to grade three setting, teaching students how to read. Through the Early Literacy Intervention program and Reading Recovery. The majority of my experience has been teaching student how to read rather than reading to learn.

Since I am teacher in a small school, I often see the same students multiple years. They say that students’ ability to read at the end of grade one is one of the biggest predictors of academic success though their schooling years.   My role is to provide that remediation support to try to build on their literacy skills where they can be successful in class. I have often thought, should the remediation support that I am providing to a student be changed to compensatory support. When it does the balance of support starts to skew away from remediation. In the meantime, the student is still struggling to meet the outcomes because of their difficulties with reading. Frustration and behaviours starts to develop and then what once was a positive learning experience becomes a negative. The article suggest that when remediation does not work compensatory strategies need to be put in place. Remediation and compensatory support, should be provided in unison. This I believe would negate some of the students frustration and negative outlook toward reading. 

Article Review - Take the Pencil Out of the Process by Leslie Broun

Take the Pencil Out of the Process

This article explores the difficulties students with ASD and other disabilities have with pen to paper tasks. As educators, we see many students throughout the grades with less than desirable handwriting and printing. I think the first reason that would come to mind of why their writing is illegible is that they did not take their time. I am guilty of that for sure, but as this article explains, it may not even be possible for that student produce the quality of handwriting or printing that you expect.

I have heard of dysgraphia and dyscriptia, but have never had a student with that diagnosis. I have taught students with fine and gross motor difficulties that certainly showed in their wiring. Usually the first adaptation that is offered is a pencil grip or a specialized pencil. This will sometimes fix the problem but like some ASD students referenced in the article, no amount of practice will help.

Studies recommend early substitution of a keyboard to help when producing legible print is interfering with their performance. As the article stated physical writing difficulties and cause other learning barriers to appear, such as behaviour, adverse perception towards writing activities and lower quality of work just to name a few. I certainly can see many of these behaviours present in student who have difficulty with writing. Intervening early could right the ship to ensure the students learning meets their potential. 

Google Read & Write

Google Read & Write

After exploring Google Read & Write on Chrome this week, it has really opened up my eyes on how powerful a tool it is for students. It seems that often, students use multiple AT to support their learning needs. This inevitability causes trouble that further inhibit their learning. Google Read & Write provides multiple areas of support all-in-one. The one aspect that I found unique and interesting was the "Simplify Page" option. I have never seen that done before. The ability to simplify a page, clearing all the "clutter" and distractions would be extremely valuable to so many students. Students with attention difficulties, come to mind first but vulnerable student too. This would protect a student for clicking on potentially harmful or inappropriate ads and links that often surround a webpage. 

 

Day 4 - Writing Task Analysis and AT for Writing

Today was another eye opening class. It brought to light the complexities of writing. Before then, I never really thought about all the skills needed to complete that task. As with reading, writing requires you to simultaneously execute multiple task without even thinking about what you are doing. If there is one area of the task that is weaker than the other or  that you are unable to complete independently it can have a profound impact. It can impact the quality and quantity of work that a student produces. Often we see this when students pass in work and when we go to review it, we say to ourselves, "that's not what I expected from that student."

It can be a difficulty task in narrowing down how to better assist the student in achieving their writing potential. Often it comes to providing the student with assistive technology to support their writing. Many of the tools that we looked at today, would help the diverse writers that we have in our class. Low-tech tools such as pencil grips are simple but can be just the support the student needs to relieve their barrier in writing.

Other more high-tech tools and software that were explored today target our student who have a learning disability in writing. This includes software and apps that are available over multiple platforms. Apps that help emergent writers, like Clicker 6, that allows students to write using visual symbols.  Word prediction apps and extensions like, Co-Writer and Google Read & Write supports students who have difficulty encoding. Voice recognition apps like Dragon Dictation and Siri supports students who are physically unable to manually write and to write quickly for others.

As a group we explored writing apps and extensions that support students via Chromebook. The Chrome store provided many apps and extensions supporting a variety of writing needs.  Below is a wordle that we created highlighting some of the apps and extension that we found.

Day 3 - Reflection on the Complexity of the Reading Process

Today we had a chance to explore the complexity of the tasks that we need to do when reading. Last class we were given the opportunity to do a task analysis of the reading process. I did this rather quick thinking that I covered everything that we do to successfully read. Well I was way off! The amount of tasks that we need to complete simultaneously, while completing other tasks is mind-blowing. It's now wonder why many students have difficulty reading and learning to read. There are so many things that good readers need to do that if you struggle with one of them, the task of reading can be very daunting.

One comment that stood out to me today was, "Language is innate but the reading process is learned." Meaning that humans learn language naturally, it's a process that is automatic in our brain. While reading is a task that is developed my human, hence it is not automatic and is learned. Like anything that is learned, many factors play an important role in determining your success or not.

Day 3 - Reading Remediation Apps/Extensions

Reading Remediation Apps/Extensions

Below are just a few apps that are related to reading remediation that could be used in the class to support students learning. While all platform provides a number of apps the Google Play and iTunes store offered a vast amount more than the Microsoft store.

Chrome Store

 Max Phonics Games - This is a comprehensive, multi-sensory, reading and language based program. Games focus on memory, word building, rhyming, vocabulary and words within words.

 Learning in Context: Reading Comprehension - This extension builds comprehension strategies by reading passages, collecting and focusing on vocabulary words and answering comprehension questions.

Google Play

Epic! - This app is on online library that gives you access to thousands of book. Many titles are are audio and read to me books.

 Rhyme: Kids Learn to Read Rhymes - This app teaches students about rhyming, word families and cvc words though interactive games.

Microsoft Store

 Endless Alphabet - This app teaches students their alphabet and increases their vocabulary.

Overdrive - This app allows you to access thousands of books via a library. You can check out a book onto your device and return it when finished. There is also access to audiobooks.

iTunes Store

 Word Wizard - This app focuses on encoding by building on phonics and word families through interactive games.

ABC Magic Phonics: Learning Sounds and Letters - This app focuses on the sound/symbol relationship to build a foundation to transfer into reading.

Day 2 - Task Analysis of Reading

Task Analysis of Reading

• ·        You have to be motivated and attend to the task until completion
• ·        You have to know that the symbols have a connection to oral language and contain a message.
• ·        You have to know that letters together make sounds and words
• ·        You have to know that when words are ordered in a correct way that represent oral language which is structurally correct
• ·        You have to be able to scan with your eyes the page from right to left and top to bottom
• ·        You have to be aware of symbols (punctuation) that can change the meaning or mood of the text.
• ·        When reading you are drawing upon previous knowledge (vocabulary, experiences, etc) to make connections to what you are reading
• ·        While doing so you start to make predictions and comprehend the text in a deeper context.

Day 2 - The Day I was the Floating Head in Class

Today's class was a unique and enriching experience for me. I was able to see first-hand how assistive technology can be utilized to accommodate students' specific needs. In this case it was my inability to attend class because of a medical issue. The inability to attend class did not disrupt my learning because assistive technology lent itself to solve the problem. I attended class in the comfort of my own home via Facetime. The technology surpassed my expectations of how it would work for the duration of the 6 hour class. Leading into the class I envisioned difficulties occurring because of poor wi-fi connections or visual and audio issues. To my surprise, none of these issues presented themselves. Leading into the class, I had a little anxiety. I was worried about how I would participate and how I would present my assignment. Like anything new, there usually some uncertainty. I was able to successfully engage and present my app-smashing definitions.

Reflecting on how the assistive technology that I used could be transferred to schools and classes brought to light a lot of examples. Unfortunately many students face serious medical issues that prevent them from attending classes. Previously when you missed class all you could do was to try and get the notes from a classmate to try and catch up. Or get the teacher to send home a work package of materials to complete independently. While this may be sufficient for some students, for others it really doesn't support their learning. Being able to use a technology like Facetime or Skype allow that student to participate and be an active learner. They are able to ask questions and participate in discussions to enhance their learning that wouldn't occur without this assistive technology. While this was a one day occurrence for me, the AT would be trans-formative for others who are unable to attend class.