Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology is very new to me. In fact, when Professor Lan first brought up the term, I had had no clue what she was talking about. After taking many courses at SMU, each focusing on different groups of kids and how to help them, I try and take strategies and resources that can benefit ALL of my students, not just a particular group. When watching the Podcast presented by Dr. Nelson, I learned several tools that could really help all of my students, especially since my students are learning to read in a different language. This means that the majority of my students is struggling readers and can benefit from these strategies. Top 5 Assistive Technologies I like best:

1. Dry-lighters: I know that this is a very low-tech tool, but I had never heard of them and can't wait to use them in the classroom. So many of my students struggle with doing textbook activities, because they cannot mark on the actual text in the book. This now gives them the opportunity to hi-light in their book and erase when the activity is finished. Students can take the reading strategies I have taught them and apply it at home and in school with bookwork. For instance, I have students box their cognates (words that look like English), star the unknown words, and underline vocabulary from the designated chapter.

2. Quicktionary Reading Pens and Translators: Because I teach an older level of students, I think this is GREAT for all teachers to use at the middle school when it comes to reading to learn, NOT learning to read. I do not think I would allow the translation feature in my classroom, due to the fact that part of their learning is figuring out how to use context clues to their advantage to figure out unknown words.

3. Talking Books: Though they seem to be a pain to create, I think the labor is worth it. Talking books take what would be an individual assignment, and makes it a paired assignment. Many kids really need to hear the words as they are reading them. What would be even better, would be for the kids to be able to actually mark on the screen and "hi-light" with Paint options. Can you do this on PowerPoint? I'm not sure, but that would be helpful as well.

4. Foldable: These can be great for struggling students, because they can take large amounts of information and compact it into one hands on material that contains categories. It makes the information much more approachable and manageable.

5. Graphic Organizers while Chunk N Chew: For struggling readers, a great thing to do is have the kids work in pairs or small groups, and give each student a well designed graphic organizer that lets them monitor and organize their reading. In groups the students can chunk and chew each paragraph. That is they can read silently, then aloud, and then talk about what that section was about while filling in their graphic organizer. All the while, the kids can use highlighters to help them.