Evening # 7

Climbing the Wall

Collaboration

 Teamwork 

Encouragement

Success

A sense of accomplishment!
Pure Joy

These are the thoughts that ran through my head as I watched the video Climbing the Wall. There is no doubt that prior reaching this point, there has been much work done by all involved in assessing the physical needs of this individual in order to create a suitable plan with adequate supports to ensure success. Building rapport among participants is also an essential part of this process and not something that happens over night.  This requires work on the part of all who are involved.  It is very obvious in this video that great time has been put into both components of this process.  The relationship is strong between participants as you can tell by the encouragement throughout and the pure joy for all involved at the end.  

Other words used to describe thoughts on this video

This activity demonstrates UDL principles. Having a definite end goal and offering multiple ways of attaining this goal, while considering potential barriers to learning, educators, support staff and family members can all be part of the planning process.  In doing so, clear instructions and teaching can be delivered and re-evaluated based on progress.  In the end, as long as students are able to demonstrate that they have attained their goal, using strategies, supports and methods that suit their needs and learning style, they have achieved success.

Collaborating with...

 The collaborative aspect of Google Apps for Education has added a whole new dimension to group work in that the stress of having to find time to meet face to face to collaborate in no longer a necessity.  Group work that was once tedious and stressful in it's logistics, has now become  that much more convenient.  Creating a group folder allowed us to each dump in information we felt useful to our topic as we found it and other group members could peruse on their own time.  Google Docs allowed us to all work on the same document as we built it and the chat aspect in google docs allowed us to chat about our product as we worked on it together during class time.  Collaboration, team work, problem-solving and the reassurance knowing that aspects can always be retrieved describe the group work in this assignment. 

Evening #6

Evening # 6...

The Reading Process - Discussing Marilyn Jager Adams' model.

Brain Area Activation

The brain of a struggling reader works differently than that of a strong reader.

The importance of the talking to the student and explaining to them that there brain works a little differently than others and telling them why.  This empowers them and allows them to understand their abilities.  It also helps their self-esteem as students understand that their struggles are legitimate ones and nothing that is their fault.  With this, they are more willing to explore strategies that will help guide their learning.

Clicker Sentences

• For emergent literacy learners 
• Students who have cognitive delays
• Enables students to engage in text – and have them reading & writing
• You can quickly create & model /modify   for individual students’ needs
• You can share them through email or dropbox
• It is a proven literacy support tool.
• It is a cross-curricular tool
• Can scaffold & grow with students
• Students can grow with the app. 
• Software - $800/license  /  App - $30

  Android, Mac/PC, Chromebook/Chrome Web Browser Compensatory

Textbook in iBook

iBooks – eTextbooks

Possibilities - students can:

-Highlight

-Define

-Email

-Notes – can make flashcards / Shuffle

-Definitions

-Glossary

 -Portrait vue – continuous page

-Rotate / examine

-Highlight & Read aloud

iBook eTextbooks are:

MULTISENSORY & INCREDIBLE

All very interactive

Any videos are close captioned

Digitized text can be updated immediately.

Beware of PDF textbooks – not interactive.

Evening #5 - Reading - a complex process.

The assistive technology features that I chose to share at the beginning of the class were 

  


Cruxlight - This is also available in google chrome and is helpful in summarizing key information from an article.

 

Readablity available on Google Chrome.  It is very helpful for students who are distracted easily or have difficulty focusing on the main text within a website.  

Update on Aidan:  He continues to use eye gaze software to facilitate communication.  In the video update, he was pulling his EA’s hand to facilitate communication as well.  

In music, using his eye gaze software he was able to make birds sing.  

In phys ed, Aidan was able to hold a baseball bat and use a walker as well.

Update on Carter:  Carter was demonstrating his ability to fly through the hallway with his motorized wheelchair.  

These updates demonstrated various aspect of their lives and the gains they have made in numerous areas.

Independence

Freedom

Social competency

Chance to participate with others.

The Reading Process (screen shots from class presentation - B. Welsford)

Task analysis on a passage from Hatchet.

In being asked to do a task analysis of the process we were using to read the passage from Hatchet, I think many people, including myself, interpreted it to mean reading this passage in isolation.  

I immediately began writing down step by step what I was doing as an experienced reader.

1. Scanning the text for a general feeling of the passage and clues to assist comprehension.
2. While reading, I began to visualize to assist comprehension as well.
3. I made connections to prior knowledge - again to improve comprehension.
4. Certain sentences had to be re-read for clarification.
5. After reading, I questioned to nurture a deeper understanding.
   
   
   As a group, in a guided discussion afterwards, we began discussing Compensatory and Remediation strategies in reading.
   
   
   The question was posed:  When do we move from Reading Remediation to Compensatory?
   
   
   In order to assess this we must properly and accurately identify where students are struggling.  In order to do this, we need to have a deep understanding of the reading process - which begins with our first exposure to books, literacy and reading.
   
   
   Several things to consider:
   
   
   1- Emotional connection with reading. Was reading a positive experience? 
   
   
   2. Were the children always engaged?
   
   
   3. Were children attending to task? This in itself depends on a variety of factors.
   Is the frontal lobe activated?
   Is executive functioning engaged?
   Are the children emotionally engage?
   Are they focused (have they had a good dinner - not hungry)
   Are they not on any medication.
   Do they have the desire to read?
   Are they motivated to read?
   Proprioception - tactile engaged (Are they holding the book properly and aware of where
   they are)
   
   
   
   
   4. If all of the above are working appropriately, then the visual processing can begin involving:  
   Visual tracking & processing
   Eye control & muscle control
   Efficient visual processing
   
   
   All of these take place prior to the beginning of decoding.
   
   
   5. Then we move to sound awareness & phonemic awareness.
   Developing auditory processing skills 
   Then moving to mapping onto letters giving meaning to letters.
   Automaticity - committing phoneme awareness to long term memory.
   Predicting sounds will follow.  
   
   
   In order for reading to occur, all of these processes must be working simultaneously.
     
    The following videos helped understand the complexities of each individual organ that are necessary to facilitate the reading process.

How the Eye Works

 How we Hear

For the last part of the evening we were presented with a variety of apps specific to iPad, android as well as Mac/PC/Online extensions. These addressed both reading remediation as well as compensatory applications for the reading process.

Bitsboard

Montessori crossword  (3.99)

Book Creator (comics and universally designed

Signed Stories

Tumblebooks (Halifax Regional Library)

Storyline Online

The necessity of compensatory strategies usually surfaces towards the end of grade 3, beginning of grade 4 when reading demands change significantly.