kbkonnected:

#elemchat #spedchat #literacy #scaffolding

world-shaker:

An interesting collection of ideas. Here’s the beginning—click through for the rest!

Students of all levels need some scaffolding; they need a plan and some knowledge in order to build a foundation for deeper understanding. There are many ways to approach the task of scaffolding depending upon the age group of the students and the text’s level of difficulty. The following 12 ideas can be modified to meet the needs of any grade or ability level.

Research

Assign a simple research task that requires students to investigate topical information from the text. This may include historical events, cultural beliefs or practices. Students can then become the teachers by presenting the information to the class via Power Point, a poster or Photo Story.

Introduce the Author 

Writers often compose stories based on personal experience. Familiarizing students with an author’s background gives insight into the subject of the text, the author’s style of writing, or the main idea. Show students a video biography of the author or set them off to research the author in the library. Ask students to connect the authors’ experiences back to his/ her writing.

Introduce the Characters 

Provide students with a character list and lead them through getting to know the characters. Equip students with the characters’ traits before they read. Based on what they know, ask students to draw a picture of the character or create a conversation between two or more characters.

I’m attending the Dyslexia Association of Singapore’s Success with Technology workshop and E.A. Daffran just shared loads of online websites that offer assistive technology for (finally!) students from the age bracket of 11-14 and university students. 

IkonMAP offers mind-mapping on a ICT platform (rather than pen and paper…we’re slowly getting past those right?). It’s a very simple mind-mapping programme that has many benefits for the dyslexic student. One area in mind is in the use of:

planning for writing a composition piece.

The wonder of this is that 1) it’s free, 2) it’s easy and 3) it’s printable so you can use it as a reference sheet in class prior to deskwork.

Do check it out. 

it took me a while to ponder whether I should see this.

I did. Go read it. 

This looks a very interesting download. Endorsed by Sir Jackie Stewart (President of Dyslexia Scotland), it aims to

“support the whole study cycle and assist with getting across a spoken or written message.”

It’s a currently big download at 144MB, which is taking me a minimum of the next 15 minutes. To list off a few perks of the software, it has:

1. text-to-speech and speech-to-text recognition

2. A mind-mapping tool

3. Text magnifier

4. Word-prediction (assumingly like those you have in smartphones text messaging).

Will be reviewing it soon once the download is complete. Oh, did I mention it’s free? :)  

Check out a brief 2 minute video on its uses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ymCa4um_l8

Goodnight, wonderful people.

It’s a research paper on how technology is able to refine the writing recursive process of good writers; PLANNING, TRANSLATING (turning plans into written language) and REVIEWING (editing and revising). 

The focus is aimed at poor baseline writers and below in the age bracket of high school and college students, with much emphasis on students with LD (learning difficulties) and the various technological (both advanced and simple) tools to assist students with LD in each process of writing. 

A few interesting approaches I read:

a) using a guided, demonstrated approach in using search engines to gather information for planning a composition. 

b) using word prediction software and speech-to-text technology for student to attain functional transcribing of their plans. Their research indicates a partnering of both word prediction with voice-output technology increase writing accuracy.

c) text-to-speech technology for editing. I’m amazed by the obviousness of this. If a text-to-speech technology cannot read, or misreads your writing, editing is necessary. Brilliant!

Will be trying this next year with my students who are poor writers. This can only add on to what they’re learning in class.

I’m attending. Are you?