Module 3 – Inclusive Practice with Learning Accelerators and Accessibility tools

Learning accelerators and accessibility tools can help identify and reduce barriers  – literacy difficulties, language needs,additional learning needs. Immersive Reader can be used to support students with dyslexia, EAL kids, or anyone who needs text-to-speech, translation, or visual supports.
The Reading Progress and Reading Coach can provide info on reading fluency, accuracy, and pace. These tools can also increase motivation through interactive, personalised learning. For differentiation, teachers can assign reading passages at different levels in Reading Progress and the Immersive Reader allows individual adjustments like font size, spacing, and language.These tools provide instant feedback, allowing pupils to work at their own pace.

You could use this in SSE by collecting evidence on how many pupils experience literacy or access barriers and then use the tool data to inform targeted interventions and whether the accessibility features are consistently available and used.

Using Microsoft 365 Copilot to create practical classroom tasks has highlighted for me how AI can support me in being more inclusive and efficient in my approach to teaching. One of the biggest benefits I found was the ability to quickly adapt resources to get past barriers to learning. Copilot helped me make instructions simpler, create scaffolded activities and also produce differentiated resources that can support children with different levels of literacy and language. This can definitely reduce the time spent creating multiple versions of the same task to make sure all pupils have access to appropriate learning opportunities.
Another strength was pupil engagement. Copilot made discussion prompts, real-world scenarios as well as interactive activities that were interesting for children. I think having a variety of tasks can help cater to different learning preferences. This would help with greater participation across the class.
Looking ahead, I feel Learning Accelerators and the inbuilt accessibility features within Microsoft 365 have the potential to support our School Self-Evaluation (SSE) process. Inn particular tools such as Reading Progress, Reading Coach, Search Coach, and Speaker Progress could provide valuable data on pupil progress while promoting independent learning. Accessibility features such as Immersive Reader, live captions, dictation, translation, and text-to-speech can help remove barriers for pupils with additional learning needs, English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners, and those with literacy challenges.
As part of SSE, these tools could help the school monitor learner outcomes as well as evaluate the impact of teaching strategies, and identify areas where additional support is needed.

I spent a bit of time with Reading Coach. I used it myself and got my son to trial it too. The novelty of reading into a computer was a nice start to it but it did get frustrating for him too. It did have the unintended consequence of getting him to speak up when reading and to be more concise in his pronunciation which was a bonus (it was a bonus for me too!)
Barriers to this learning in my classroom would be the availability of technology to use it. It would need a quiet space for the child to read, and it would be dependent on our poor wifi in school.
Pupil engagement in this learning using IT in my experience has always been positive to start off with and then has suffered a decline going forward. We used times tables rockstars in our school and class and after a honeymoon period, the level of engagement dropped.
Differentiation would be useful. Getting children to read the same passage is always useful so you can do a comparison on a class level. Aside from this, reading at a child’s own level is very beneficial to fluency and confidence so this tool would be useful for this.
Adjustments needed? Perhaps I need to be more open minded to the possibilities of Reading Coach. I think maybe it might be a nice tool for parents at home with their children as it provides a good record of what their reading and keeps a nice log of work done.

I also spent a bit of time with immersive reader and admit I only thought it was a reading support tool just to read something aloud. I wasn’t aware of the line focus or page colour. I’ve used dictation with children who have writing struggles too this year. While of course children do need to write, the confidence and engagement in project work and writing tasks with children really benefited from this.
With regards to SSE, I think Learning Accelerators need further development on a whole school level. We seem to be having a huge increase in Assistive Technology being approved for children. My class a couple of years ago had 4 pupils each with laptops approved and paid for by the department. While tasks were completed with Word and PowerPoint etc., increased use of these Learning Accelerators could further boost learning and the effectiveness of their technology.