Day 6

Day 6

Class Presentations

Name of Presenter	Notes on Presentation
Christine MacKenzie	Student: She did her AT on a grade 3 student, strong personally and likes to be heard. She struggles to regulate her emotions with her peers. Likes to tell new adults what is supposed to happen. Struggles with organization and wants to please adults she knows. She had strength in reading with comprehension and fluency and all math areas and expressive language and listen comprehension, while she had challenges with fine motor, writing spelling and organization of her writing.  She can read her own writing but struggles with organization and spelling and grammar. Christine made the paper larger (11x17) for her graphic organizer so she could make her words fit. There are issues with her pencil grip. Why Lily: She can verbally tell stories in great detail when speaking and can clearly speak and a wide vocabulary. She is starting to speak negatively about herself in writing workshops. Focus: A way for her to show what she really knows and understands when it comes to the aspects of writing (grammar, adding details, sentence structure, punctuation) Tool: Google Chromebook (easy access from year to year, IPAD taken by other students) Program: Voice Tying Goal: To see if she could provide more details and get more information down when pencil and paper is taken away What Christine Noticed: Student was hesitant at first, keep repeating herself, smiling the whole time. She could find the missing capitals and words in finished product. Complaints from her: the computer was very delayed when she was speaking. She was more frustrated in the natural setting. It is set up in the resource setting with headphones now. Take Away: Learned that simpler is better with speech to text (easy sentences) Sue’s Thought: It was a good reminder that simpler is always better with text to speech and that students need to be trained to use the technology. A lot of people think it is just a matter of pressing the speech button and speaking into the device but there is a lot more to it and to ensure the student uses the speech to text to the best of its capability, they should be trained.
Amanda LeBlanc	Student: Female 17 years old whose first language is French. She recently went through a total change in her education because she went from a school where everyone knew her and her abilities to one where we knew no one. Her strengths are eager to learn, conscientious about school work, polite, hard worker, respectful and takes feedback well.  Her needs are extra time, clarifications, laptop to organize, has school Chromebook, had IPAD at old school. Doesn’t get much resource support because she is such a good student, she goes unnoticed. Her challenges are organization (binder), hard time with math and writing in English, she would choose typing over writing by hand, has trouble remembering multi-step tasks (continue to tell her how to save something) Task: Use Text to Speech feature and to compare hand written work and typed work. Why AT: she has difficulty writing by hand, holding a pen can be hard, typing can be a challenge as well, has clear speech, access to Chromebook daily Her typed sample is much better than her written, better spelling and grammar. What worked: easier to express ideas than pen to paper or typing, no worries about spelling, would be beneficial to get thoughts out quicker. Didn’t Work: More time and experience with program, took a long time to delete words than it word to manually delete words. Need to write out steps for this student to access program (a lot of steps even for me). Would have to do screen shots for her to access it everytime. Had to add the extensions everytime because of deep freeze. (Had to ask the tech guy to take the freeze off and then put the extensions on and then turn freeze back on) It put the number 1 instead of the word. Capitalization at the beginning of sentences was an issue like the presentation before. Wouldn’t put a comma in either, wrote the word comma. Environment: student wouldn’t use the program in the classroom because no one else uses it. Would use the program at home, how do we make (she usually uses her finger to follow) and word prediction (she repeats words a lot) and collects highlights feature program was successful Sue’s Thoughts: A reminder that all students do not feel comfortable using AT in the classroom with their peers. It shows that we are not where we want to be with total acceptance of disabilities in the classroom. More education and universal design is perhaps needed to elevate the stress some students feel using AT in front of their peers.
Katie Gilliis	Student: Grade 4, ESL learner, supportive family but language barrier exists, cooperative and helpful, artistic, poor self-image and lacks confidence, becomes easily frustrated with writing. Her strengths are reading (decoding and fluency), math, oral language expression, generating ideas, listening comprehension, technology (does coding). Her challenges are reading comprehension, written expression and spelling. Her past interventions are ELI, guidance, ESL support, use of pencil grip, Resource (LIPS, Seeing Stars, keyboarding) Sample of Writing: handwriting is difficult to read, some letter reversals, phonetic spelling but not of lot of recall of words from memory, lack of punctuation, not a lot of description or varied use of language. More detail in the planning stage. Making a Match : made a chart, she put his strengths and challenges and what program would work The tool: Google read and write (speech to text, play and word prediction features only): The task: Write the introduction of a mystery story using R&W. The AT allowed him to write as he talks – more expression and description!! Easily able to see where he was missing things because he could use play to read it back. Fun and easier to write what I want to write. He wanted to use it again. What next: continue using keyboarding for writing tasks, R&W for grade 5, purchasing a personal Chromebook/Netbook for next year.  Also struggles with vocabulary and reading comprehension: highlighter, play, and dictionary. Vocabulary and translator from English to Spanish Sue’s Thoughts: This was a great example of how the features of Google R&W are extremely helpful with a lot of students with poor writing output. It showed how we should be more concerned with the thoughts of the student than how they get those thoughts out!
Kareen Knox	Part 1: Student: Rebecca: quiet, eager to please. Her strengths are cognitive smart, wants to do well, likes to read, great vocabulary, spelling, advocacy skills. Her challenges are easily distracted, unsure about tasks, doesn’t readily participate in class discussions, listening comprehension, short term memory, sitting for long periods, siblings diagnosed with ADHD, slow copying speed (because of desire for perfection), why do I have to do this (until she sees the purpose) Diagnosis of Anxiety and a Specific LD Task: Camping Trip Project: planning for trip Before…..difficulty expressing thoughts on paper (20 mins of nothing of paper) Blank sheet in picture. Present her information in Adobe Spark. She though really cool and way better than PowerPoint (we use this a lot). She was interested from the beginning. She caught onto the program very quickly. Students can look for pictures that help tell what they are trying to say on Adobe Spark. She could show her humor in the project by placing money burning and that you have to pay taxes. Why: She struggles in Math and had good ideas and vocabulary and willingness to solve problems. She needed a spark to share her ideas. She is overwhelmed with course responsibilities so the AT had to be easy to use and the pictures boosted her creativity, She is a perfectionist and the AT helped with this. She was interested and more focused in doing the math project. She was PROUD of her final project. What went wrong was introduced new AT during a “high stakes” assessment. Next steps: somethings to organize herself (agenda) Part Two: Student: Jack (hearing impairment). He has difficulties with organization. He likes to talk out loud and wanted to use Google Voice Typing. The first draft did not make sense. He went back and used Inspiration to organize his ideas. What went right: thought the tech was cool and was previously not a fan, he could visually (not mentally) organized his ideas Wrong: Didn’t coach him on how to use it properly. Next Steps: Continue with what I started What I learned: a process of trial and error and match AT appropriately. Ensure the student has buy in. Sue’s Thoughts: I like how the student could show their humor in the project and was able to share her ideas. I am not as familiar with Adobe Spark as I am with PowerPoint so I will have to do more practice before I use it with the students. A good little weekend project this summer – explore Adobe Spark! Perhaps use the program to show highlights of my summer and then return to school in the fall and have students do the same.
Teresa Webb	Student: Grade 5, active and willing participant. His past interventions were Speech and language therapy since age 3, always A & B’s, parents concerned about fine motor and written output. Parents unhappy with what was going on in his education (no resource or interventions). His strength is vast knowledge on a variety of topics. His challenges are minimum for written output, challenge with pencil grasp, provincial assessment and marks are not matching, speech difficulties with articulation, embarrassed with standing out with peers Used the SETT model to determine AT 1) AT: Low tech to teach pencil grasp strategies: After practicing decided a referral to professional to learn more and practice with OT on pencil grasp. 2)  R&W for Google Chrome: A bit unique because using it at home and perhaps private school he is going to be attending in Halifax. Task: write about Kyrie Irving (brainstorm and planning first). He was already familiar with R&W. She tried the speech and text (but not too much because of articulation problems) so focused on word prediction. Amazing results!!!!! Interestingly he would place a “i” as a “I”. Thought it was fun and it could automatically do things for you and there are a lot of words to choose from that I can spell. What worked and did not: Pencil grips are not always the answer, speech to text not an option (perhaps unless explored with SLP) The output is more reflective of his cognitive ability and removed some of the difficulty he faced with the writing process. Next Steps: Handwriting without Tears? OT? Tutor (one to one) to look at exploring the technology instead of the parent, Level B testing Sue’s Thoughts: This student was a great example of how students have so much knowledge they are not able to show when we just focus on pen and paper!  We need to give students the tools they need to show what they know.
Abby Ferguson	Student: Madison, grade 3, vested interest in helping her transfer French literacy skills to English. She is my daughter. Prepare her a little for reading English for next year.  She plays piano, likes reading, doesn’t like practicing at home. She had Childhood Absence Seizures when she was 5 and the medicine causes fatigue. She is out at 7 every night. Her strengths are willing to learn and focus in class. Her challenges are frustrated at home (would like her to become more capable of dealing with things that don’t come easily) and to be rested when learning. Task: increasing her multi-syllable words and reading in English. French reading is good receiving B’s and A’s (recently). There was never a comprehension concern. Raz Kids Program to assess or AT? Why RAZ: interactive, hands-on, portable (easy to use at home), engaging, students can gain rewards, can be done independently, easy to monitor her progression, able to choose a huge genre of books She could have the book read or read it and there was a quiz for comprehension at the end. Teacher can see what age, word count, could see when she logged in or what she completed, what she got right and wrong, easy to monitor. When we got to E using RazKids we started seeing mistakes. You can record her, a running record, can insert the wrong word into her reading, does a printout document of results. 82% - frustration level. We did the Dolch Site Words (52/100), frustrated at the end) Used an app called Site Words. The word is read aloud and child must choose the one from a list of 2 to 6. She moved to Level F, if she didn’t know a word she could click on it and it would read it to her. She became a little more reliant on this feature. She did better when we practiced earlier in the evenings. We stopped at F – 90% accuracy. She went to Level H with the book reading it to her first. We retested the Dolch and got 77/100. Moving Forward: continue RAZ, monitor use of pronunciation function, encourage completion of retelling and quiz functions, not long-term (not a resource kid). Sue’s Thoughts: This was a great example of how technology is great with all students, not just those with disabilities. The more we use technology with ALL students, the more it will be seen as an integral component of all classrooms.
Cathy Longaphy	Environment: ASD and LD classroom for the most part. Program: Google R&W Students Student 1: Grade 12, social skills and reads people very well, knows what he can be manipulative, motivated outside of school, expresses himself well with oral testing, visual learner. His challenges are LD diagnosis, false sense of ability (hard to convince him he needs the support), difficult with sustained attention (1 min then distracted), general limited knowledge, was on IPP then went into various course in grade 10, extremely slow processing speed, difficulty with print literature Student 2: Grade 12, social skills good, works hard at things other than academics. Challenges: LD, was on IPP for math and science till grade 9, attendance issues till grade 9 (success in courses after 9), cognitive processing below average, reading and writing below grade level. Task: Resource room is trying to get away from scribing because might not receive the same support in NSCC, it is not preparing kids for after high school!!!! BIG Scribing as a drop down menu in TINET and shouldn’t be. Results Student 1) 50 minutes for student A to write 4 lines of writing. 5 mins with R&W and incredible difference. He loved the program Student 2) Hated the program after 5 mins, speech issues might have been an issue. Benefits: You can talk and reflect and plan with Speech to Text instead of scribing. Use words might not use because you can’t spell them. Can give students input at any time when they send you a document – don’t need to see them. Text can be read to students and they do not have to depend on anyone. She’s been resistant to the technology because the students were and didn’t want the fight but going to change that. Do Next: Assessments on each student needs in sept to see who would benefit. Show students all the other features of R&W, as well show teachers, have teachers create documents in user friendly form. Sue’s Thoughts: a good reminder that technology might not be the answer with all students. Some students are resistant to technology just because they don’t like anything to do with technology. Does a person just keep trying with these students or more to a different approach altogether?
Damian Pollard	Damian: “We have different students that reflect what tech they use” Student: Grade 8 student, dysgraphia and color blindness, parents are cross at Dal and resistant to technology. He is very aware of his writing issues. Didn’t like speech to text because messes up words (homophones). Doesn’t like a lot of people around him. Like higher level debate, doesn’t like lessening the amount of work (less smart than peers). Very aware of the education system (you can’t mark my spelling) and only stupid kids use supportive tech.  Possible AT:       *Word completion (no go because thinks someone else is controlling his words). *Using assessibility options for his color blindness. He writes red and pink marks on the  side as his fringe so he doesn’t go past in his writing. Like a margin *Used notes (white on black) which made it easier to read. He typed it.                                 *Speech to Text is a no go because he has to go elsewhere. Future: He falls through the cracks, practicing self-advocating (Social Script??) Seating to minimize distractions (glare) but he needs to be in center of class (attention). Parents still want practice in writing. Use the IPAD then use the writing to pencil and paper. Sue’s Thoughts: A reminder of how much home can influence whether or not AT works with a student. Sometimes we need to have parents on board when we need to get a student on board with technology. The home can have a huge impact on how a student accepts technology.
Katie Rogers	Student: Grade 10 Student learns all subjects with her except one. All subjects are IPP. They do a work placement COOP as well and most students hate the academics. He loved the work placements. Polite when speaking to adults lots of responsibility at home. He doesn’t like new experiences and very shy. His strengths are that he rushes through things, works quickly, and works well independently except when needs help. He is always asking for help. He has great advocacy skills. His challenges are printing words at appropriate size, difficulty with comprehension, resistant to try new things hard to break him of habits. Environment: setting includes alternate quiet spaces Task: Writing tasks and spelling a huge barrier. His task is writing about Ark video game (hard time interpreting what he is trying to write – similar to grade 2 student samples) Word Prediction – Cowriter – no grammar or punctuation but more details Google R&W – wasn’t really using the word prediction part Speech to Text with Pages – bit more detailed but not organized. Gave more Google R&W Talk and Type – more successful Did a cover letter for a company (good choice for assignment) with Speech to Text. Used a fill in the blanks for a cover letter. Liked not having to chase them down. Future: not total buy in – but increases his independence writing skills. More practice is need with spelling or grammar. Use the features with ALL the students that is awesome because lessons the stress of other students using it. Sue’s Thoughts: This case showed a different type of learner who embraced things other than school. Sometimes it can be hard to integrate technology into this type of learner’s schooling. We have to remember to tailor the technology to fit the student’s interests. How can the technology help the student with what they are interested in doing in life? In this case – his work coops.
Sarah Jeffery	Student: Grade 8 student, ADHD, diagnosed language based learning disability. Interests – avid basketball fan, loved the fact we were studying him. Frustrated in class very easily, lacks confidence in a big group, easily distracted and disorganized. His strengths: decoding, positive details, wants to help. His challenges are attention, self-regulation, emotional (cries easily), not confident in his abilities. He needs one on one support, graphic organizers, step by step instructions. Past interventions: reading recovery, resource since 3, IPP in all subjects (grade 6), tutoring, guidance for emotional, oxford learning, AT request by parents for next year. Task: Fairy Tale – had to have morale at the end. Watched two fairytales on YouTube and then did a story map and had to write story. Environment: library (shared with other classes) or empty classroom (closet). He doesn’t do any work unless she is there. In the high needs class he often gets overlooked. Spelling error and no capitals. Solution: Blake is very disorganized so loses his work a lot. Changes the subject a lot while working so doesn’t focus on original idea. Asks what your ideas are instead of using his own First thought: Speech to Text (can type and speech is clear) Very slow and also had word prediction on but weren’t using it. Grew very frustrated. Kept telling him to speak in sentences. And realized his speech wasn’t as clear doing this as in real life. Second thought: Decided to use word prediction instead. That is worked but still tried to distract her by talking about band. The more he used it the more his word choice changed and became more advanced. He didn’t know how to spell a word so turned on speech to text and then turned it off again! Awesome! What worked and what didn’t’: the typing worked well because already knew how to do it, the word prediction because it was a computer he wasn’t used to the mouse was sensitive and read words and he found it distracting. He was suggesting to other kids that they should use speech to Text at the end! Wow. Used the flashcards to create vocabulary for government. Sue’s Thoughts: Great story of the student using the technology after you were finished the task! A true example of a student benefitting from the AT. I liked how you were flexible in changing the AT to fit the student’s needs. If the technology doesn’t fit, you must quit!
Jolene Milligan	Student: Grade 10, supportive family, Bridgeway Academy (for kids with LD and ADHD), has ADHD, severe anxiety, had 3 psychoeducational done and all 3 contradicted each other so no specific diagnosis. Her strengths are processing speed, organizational skills, printing qulity, working with younger students. Her challenges are verbal comprehension, psedoword decoding. Past Interventions: reading recovery, psych ed, JUMP math, SpellRead, IPAD apps (good reader, word prediction). She was reading Charlotte’s Webb quite fluently in Grade 4, top student in reading remediation, using iPAD for writing, making friends,  (hmmmm) and then….Kind of presented as if she has a severe brain trauma (phonological memory, reading fluency, reading comprehension, written output, wanted to hang out with younger students instead of age group. In 2017 – her anxiety became debilitating, attends classes twice a week only to complete calming exercises, way from peers, provided a space limited academic expectations Was expecting to go in and save the day with technology she was hoping. School is at a loss. Her Goal is to color and stay calm in class right now. She is now working at early elementary. She writes too hard/cannot do on it on writing tasks. Plan of Action: Get your opinion on some of this technology and explore some things together and create some things together TumbleBookCloud Jr. for entertainment only (listen to the books and watch the videos): does not like to wear headphones and finds the voices to listen to but liked the words/sentences and were highlighted to help attain attention/focus, not a lot of interesting choices Google R&W – all the features – simplify, vocabulary, read aloud (adjusting voice speed/tone), word prediction, dictionary, she was not comfortable with speech to text feature at all. She did not use this independently Cloud Art – did not like, found the words too disorganized and chaotic Book Creator – to do a LD project -  like the options user friendly Inspiration for brainstorming and organizing We ended up using Book Creator. She got pictures with information on them instead of having to write them. When she was asked to write things on her own – she completely shut down. So we switched. She wanted to switch to LIPSENSE – so she continued to just pick pictures. She wrote a couple of things and then used word prediction to complete a bunch of sentences.  At the end of the first day she had a melt down and decided she couldn’t do it anymore.  After the first hour she didn’t say anything at because didn’t want to disappoint the teacher. Sue’s Thoughts: This was a sad case where you definitely needed more time and energy to find out what was happening with the student. I wouldn’t say this was a total loss though because look at what the student did create after she was just coloring! Perhaps more time was needed to crack this one. J
Alison Read	Student: 9 years old in grade 4. Supportive parents , psych ed at age 4 and diagnosed with non-verbal learning disorder and ADHD combined inattentive and hyperactive type. Significantly below peers. Another PSYCH Ed done and consistent results plus an anxiety diagnosis. His challenges are non-verbal clues of his peers, fine motor issues, coping with changes in routine, multi-step instructions, no timers with buzzers or alarms, imparts the illusion of competence with his strong oral skills. Does not like to do schoolwork but maintains a positive attitude. Bare minimum when it comes to writing. He is very involved with waste management of the school. Hard times staying within the lines AT and Task: GAFE  (google apps for education). Very receptive but sometimes wanted to do same work as other students. His emotional state changed how he worked a lot. Using Google Docs – getting more information down but continued issues with spelling and sentence structure. Using Google Slides – Getting more down but same as above. He had a lot of assistance with this project. Can do the research but wasn’t doing the writing on his own (copying and pasting) Google R&W – wrote a journal entry, Speech to Text: still needs practice with punctuation but his output has greatly increased. He wasn’t sure if he should go back and fix it. Not anxious it seemed and very positive about it. Spelled words he  wouldn’t have attempted. Mother’s issues – technology can hinder his progress because the real issues is anxiety. But is the writing a trigger!!! Moving Forward: watch out for his emotional state and make sure it is conducive to working. Continue because it helps him show his true knowledge. Might use it in conjunction with Word Prediction. Creating brainstorming and mind maps with inspiration as well. Sue’s Thoughts:  Emotional states of students can be a trigger to any learning process whether it is AT or not. We need to ensure students have tools to deal with emotional issues they are dealing with as well as academic ones.
Nick MacDonald	Student: Grade 5, compensatory support in past, siblings have learning struggles, outside factors may be impacting his learning, can get lost in the day in the shuffle of the classroom. Expectations of his work from teachers has decreased so has his output. His strengths are oral language, writing fluency, gets along with peers, tries and wants to do his best. His challenges are reading, writing (spelling, quality of ideas, pencil writing, anger issues at school. Past Interventions: ELI, resource support (Seeing Stars, earobics, Explode the code, writing organization, SLP – phonological awareness. In Grade 3 had a PSYCH ED done and LD diagnosis in reading writing and math. Even when given technology now doesn’t produce what he is capable of. Past Technology used: Paperport Notes – speech to text app, and Claro PDF Pro (app) and Read Iris (app) Task: Wanted to check in and see how the technology he was given in grade 3 is now being used in grade 5 – and it didn’t seem to be being used at all. He didn’t have enough training before taking it into the classroom. A grade three student needs reminding to use it. He needs to be more independent in years to come and is not showing that competence now. He relied on the teacher to read him anything and was handwriting most of his material. Focus Shift: He will use speech completion but not speech to text on Google R&W in tech class. So my focus shifted to speech to text instead of claro/iris. He was using repetitive sentences in his writing sentences, not taking risks, he was getting work done to get it done!! Not expanding or extending his ideas New Task: Reintroduced Austin to Speech to Text (a bit of resistance, he wanted to be like peers). Finished Product: issues with capitalization, extending his ideas, What’s Next: create more opportunities of success so he will use it in the classroom. Train the teacher that he will have in AT and universal design! Sue’s Thoughts: This case is sadly a reflection of many cases of resource students. Tools are taught and given to students and then they are not necessarily implemented into the classroom on a regular basis. We need to make sure teachers and students are using the AT frequently enough so it becomes second nature after it is taught in the resource setting.  Sometimes hard to do with teacher turnover.
Allison MacDougall	Student: Grade 4 student, Interests is Technology (IPAD), Globally delayed (effects him cognitively), speech impairment, nonverbal, hands on mechanisms. The environment is a computer lab but is usually free in the afternoon. His strengths are technology, use of PECS (picture exchange communication system), self advocates, problem solver in games.His weaknesses are reading (level A), oral language, independence and writing. Barriers are speech language issue, auditory memory, inattentive. His needs are significant adaptations, AT, social skills, build vocabulary. AT: Google R&W : picture dictionary Because of PECS – she created a picture story of what they were going to do using pictures from picture dictionary and dragging them into a google document. She needed short directions and simple sentences (click on the purple puzzle piece) The Task: to build his vocabulary using Google R&W Day 1 - Starting by highlighting single words was a first daunting to him, so pointed out words. Day 2 focused on highlighting words Day 3- He found a picture and he was able to recognize TREX and other dinosaur names. She was using the play button to read the names of dinosaurs. He was unsuccessful at pressing the play button. He wasn’t successful at highlighting the first word on the page. Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I remember Take Away: Break down steps before reaching the major goal!!! Next Steps: focus on learning the dinosaurs names and highlighting them Down the Road: Use highlighter to build a vocabulary list. She could highlight the words for him and he could go and get the pictures for him. Clicker Sentences would have been good as well. Sue’s Thoughts: Loved the idea of using the picture dictionary feature of R&W for non-verbal students to understand concepts and ideas better! Great use of AT.

Course Reflections, Features & Classroom Use

Feature of the Course	Reflection and  Classroom Use
App Smash	This was a great reminder of all the great apps that are out there for students to show what they know in different ways. It was incredibly fun playing with the different apps and I can only imagine how much fun my students would have playing with them. One of my favorites was Chomp, which was especially easy and would be a great way for students to introduce themselves at the beginning of a course. I also loved Telegami which would be a great app to use for a character sketch in an English or History class. One thing to remember when implementing these apps in the classroom is time – allow the students time to play with various new apps and share with each other different features of each app before using the apps for a classroom assignment. I would have students practice using the apps using a fun topic that they enjoyed before they used the app for a classroom task.
Reading Process	The reading process was a tremendous eye-opener for me. When someone doesn’t have issues with reading it is hard for them to process exactly what a student with reading problems goes through every class, every day, every school year. The simplest of tasks for us, something such as picking up the pencil to write, can be an extremely challenging one for another student depending on their reading disability. It was a reminder that when we as teachers say something like “open up your textbooks” and look expectantly at the students to hurry up already we have work to get through, that we need to slow down and ensure student have everything they need to start the process of reading. The article review we had to complete for this class, Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning: Two Sides of the Same Coin,  also led me back to the reading process and how hard it is for some students. We need to provide students with compensatory strategies in the classroom so they feel as ease in the reading process as they possibly can and so that they can truly show what they know about the content and ideas being taught in the classroom. I would do this lesson with teachers and students to show them the hardships some students face when it comes to the reading process!
Compensatory Strategies for Students	Loved all the compensatory strategies for students to use within the classroom. Some of them were things I am currently using (ReadIris/Claro PDF) and will continue to use because they are great tools to allow students to show what they know instead of getting caught up in the process of reading tasks. The iBooks and Crackthebook app were something new to me and I would definitely utilize them in the classroom. I love the fact that they are interactive and I think they are right along the lines of universal design for the classroom! I wish more class textbooks were interactive, I think it would give students new motivation to look and interact with their textbooks in courses.
Reading Remediation Apps (Chrome Store, GooglePlay Store, Microsoft Store, & ITunes Store)	The reading remediation apps I found in the various stores were also a great reminder of the tremendous amount of apps there are out there in the digital universe. A lot of the times I find myself gravitating to the ITunes Store to find reading remediation apps or basically apps in general. This activity was a great reminder that there are other avenues out there with a vast and terrific amount of apps for reading help.
Writing Process	The writing process was similar to the reading process task above. Even so – it was one another great reminder of the brain processes that go into a writing task and that a lot of students struggle greatly with just picking up the pencil or positioning themselves in their chair. It reminded me as teacher of the less obvious issues with the writing tasks. Again, as above with the reading process, this would be a great resource to show teachers and students exactly how hard it is for some students in the classroom. Co-Writer universal and Word Predication are great tools that can be utilized within the classroom to help students with the writing process so again, they are more involved with the content they are writing instead of the act of putting pencil to paper.
Apps for Writing Issues	The apps that we covered in class to help compensate for writing issues were great and I can see myself using all of them in the classroom with my students. Kidspiration, Tools4Student2, Inspiration, and IBrainstorm were all great for creating graphic organizers with students. Organizing reading with graphic organizer is a strategy that allows students to show relationships between concepts and ideas. Pic Collage is a great app that can be used by students to create things such as book reports or character analysis to name a few. Word Completion is a great tool for students to use who have some phonics and word recognition and their spelling is close. It allows students to have more success in their writing and gain confidence. Co-Writer is a word prediction app for IPADs that can be used with or without a topic dictionary. Students need to know how to spell but can also swipe words at the bottom to the left and it says the word. Clicker Connect Sentences is a great tool for higher needs kids who are emergent literacy learners. It will read sentences to the student and the student can create sentences. All of these apps are extremely useful for student who have writing difficulties and I can see most students enjoying using them – even those without disabilities.
Google Read & Write	This is an excellent resource for student with writing and reading difficulties. We went through the various features of the program and how they could be useful for various students. I can see even students without disabilities enjoying this program. It has a great picture dictionary for new concepts, a fantastic highlighting feature and is able to create great vocabulary books. I will be using this program every day with as many students as possible within the school setting! Great tool!
Writing Supports for Students with Disabilities	In this activity we looked at writing supports for students with disabilities. This activity showed us a lot of different supports that are out there for student – things such as Proloquo2Go and Keystrokes. It was amazing how these tools changed the lives of students and people with disabilities to enable them to communicate with their friends and family! Depending on a person’s caseload, I would definitely utilize these different tools we looked at if they were the right AT fit for the student.
Blog	The blog was a great way to reflect on class learning and ideas presented. This is something I would never have dreamed of using with students before this class. I admit I was extremely timid to create my blog but once I got started, I saw how easy it was! I think this would be a great way for students to share information about what they were learning in their courses and comment on each other’s’ learning. Another way one could use a blog is to have students create a blog about a character they are reading or learning about, a personal diary for the character. One would have to be careful though to ensure students know how to create the blog so that process would not be stressful for them. Perhaps one could go through the whole process (model it) with the students on a white board so they could see how to create the blog. Great resource and will definitely be using this with students!

Final Video that Encompasses Total Class Reflection: 

Dear Teacher