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The group of students I am going to refer to is those with dyslexia. The technology resources that would be very useful to use with these pupils are:
Literacy
– Duolingo as it is such a user friendly app. It would be great to use with EAL students but also for those with dyslexia as it is free and children could continue to use it at home if they have access to a tablet. Duolingo adapts to the level of the learner and is used for self-paced learning of skills such as grammar, reading, writing, vocabulary and speaking. I haven’t used Duolingo in school yet but I’m looking forward to using it this year.
– ABC kids tracing and phonics as it is an effective tool to teach students letter recognition, tracing and phonics through interactive games.
– Reading eggs as it is a worthwhile app which helps make learning to read engaging and enjoyable through interactive lessons and games. Rewards are given out and this I feel would really help improve a child with dyslexia’s confidence and self-esteem.
– Immersive reader as it would be very beneficial for these students to be able to use features such as text-to-speech. They would also be able to customize font and background settings to their liking. I think that the syllabification tool would be really useful as it splits words down into syllables in turn making it easier to decode and pronounce unknown words for these students.Numeracy
– Maths duel fight as children are very competitive and they always love learning through maths games on the interactive whiteboard.
– Top marks is a great website to use at the end of a given topic in maths to informally assess the children in a fun way.In order to assist with embedding inclusive technology practices across my school, I feel that all teachers should share with their colleagues what they have learned over the summer while completing their Summer courses. This is a positive way to align with the Inclusive Education Framework’s emphasis on whole-school planning as the Inclusive Education Framework engages the whole school community in reflective practice. It would be great if all teachers made a list of all the resources they have come across and find useful and share it with their colleagues. They could have a Google Docs document which could be updated each year.
I love your idea of using Duolingo to support EAL students. I’ll be giving this a go in future as it is such a child friendly and accessible app. Thanks for the idea!
Student:
Name: Y
Age: 6 years old
Strengths: Enjoys working in a small group, gets very overwhelmed when classroom is very noisy.
Needs: Needs support staying seated for extended periods of time, knows most letter sounds, needs help blending.
Current Skills: Loves art and music lessons. Very creative and really enjoys sensory experiences such as theraputty, aqua beads and kinetic sand.Environment:
Sitting in a small group with two other children. SNA nearby and regular movement breaks. Child has access to a tablet.
Other Resources: Magnetic letters, whiteboards, flashcards. Big books.Tasks:
Learning outcome: To improve comprehension/ reading level and understanding of phonics.
Access to a tablet with the ‘Learn with Homer’ and ‘Light Sail’ apps installed.
On going assessment to determine level of improvement.Tools:
Using the Learn with Homer and Light Sail teaching tools.
Use of voice recordings and songs to enhance the child’s learning experience.
Using Big Books for child to enjoy on their own or with their peers.I feel that the SETT framework is a super way to integrate technology into the teaching of phonics in primary school. The ‘Learn with Homer’ and ‘Light Sail’ apps would be great to use with weaker students as it would provide a fun way for them to learn. Children would really enjoy using the tools such as voice recording and listening to stories and songs through the app. Through the use of these apps children will become much more confident in carrying out independent reading. I really like the way in Light Sail the student has to answer questions which will in turn gauge their level of comprehension so that they are constantly being assessed. Children are by nature quite competitive and I feel that they would really enjoy earning badges for their hard work. Regular conferences between class teacher and SET would be necessary to make sure that the child is working at the right level of instruction. I feel that the use of the SETT framework will ensure that the correct technology is used in order for the child to have a positive learning experience.
I’ll be teaching 1st class SET next year and also will be using Cogi and Balobolka both of which I had never heard of before. Such a great course for high lighting these super resources.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oxKFa7YAK5v9mantbM2Re-8w4egmg187DwtlE-KuQVU/edit?tab=t.0
1. This activity I designed using Google docs is for a 1st class student who has difficulty reading. This short story entitled ‘My Puppy’ is followed by 3 questions with multiple choice options for the answers. I have included a puppy dog emoji face beside the title of the story to help the student with their comprehension of what the story is about.
If stuck the student could take a picture of the text using Office Lens and the text will be read back to them immediately. This is a great option for children who are self conscious about not being able to read as well as their peers. The Immersive Reader tool could be used and the child could use the picture dictionary option to help them decipher the words ‘ puppy’, ‘mat’ and ‘ball’. They could also use the Read Aloud feature to help them with the pronunciation of words such as ‘Jake’ and ‘doll’. They could then use the Grammar tool which will break words into syllables for them.2. In my opinion teachers are absolutely life long learners. CPD is so important in helping us keep up to date with how education and technology is continuously evolving. Over the past 19 years as a teacher I have found that all of my summer courses have been invaluable to me in helping me to become the best teacher I can be.
Hi Pat, thanks for those suggestions. I’ll be checking out both Reading Progress in Teams and Reading Coach. Great that they are both free literacy tools.
Thanks for sharing this template Catherine. I’ll be teaching in SET with 1st class pupils this year and I think that this will be a very handy resource to have to help students who find it difficult to distinguish tall letters from small letters.
I really enjoyed this module which explained how beneficial Immersive Reader is and in particular in a SET environment. I loved the short video which showed the young boy named Karrick learning to read using Immersive Reader and it was so evident in his smile at the end of the video just how proud both he and his parents felt. Immersive Reader can make reading much more fun and I could think of a lot of children in my school who would really benefit from this way of learning how to read while at the same time building their confidence amongst their peers. Resources I am looking forward to using with my pupils this year are: Dictate in Word for pupils who find writing difficult and also Office Lens which will instantly read a given text back to a child who simply cannot read. What a great tool for children with special needs to have access to.
EAL students will get lots of use out of the picture dictionary and the translation features. These features will make learning to read and write in English much more fun and attainable for them. This coming year I envisage myself trying out voice typing and also using Microsoft Teams for online learning for pupils who may have bene absent from school a lot. I will be sure to keep the following quote in my mind from now on, Always remember to look at Assistive Technologies from an individual need’s basis. No one size fits all!’I also was particularly impressed with the picture dictionary option in immersive reader. We have lots of EAL learners in our school and I feel that this will be an invaluable tool for them to use from now on.
I feel that having completed this module the potential of AT in the SET classroom is huge. Many very practical options have been outlined in a very comprehensible way. I had never heard of the SETT model before and I think that it will be a very handy tool to use going forward. We must always consider the Students in front of us , their learning Environment, their Tasks for learning and the Tools available to us and our students being used to help them learn in the most effective way. I really like the way low/no tech, mid level tech and high tech were outlined clearly. We are all using some of these already such as book stands and audio books. Before when I would think about AT, devices such as computers, laptops and ipads came to mind but it is reassuring to know that we don’t always need expensive devices in order for our students to do their best learning. We must consider the individual needs and learning styles of our pupils in order to make informed decisions about what is the best AT to use in the classroom.
I am looking forward to using some of the resources mentioned throughout this module which I have never come across before such as the therapy resources on the ncse website, Dream Space and the Writing Without Tears Adaptive paper from easyteachingtools.com.
All of what I have learned so far will assist me in my planning in the years ahead which will help my school develop a more inclusive environment by using AT in the SSE process.Oonagh I also really liked the way AT is broken down into low, medium and high in this module. It made me think a bit more about the digital tools I already use in the classroom and how accessible they are to us as teachers, especially the low such as whiteboards, book stands and visual time tables and medium ones such as audio books.
Class Plan for Space Week:
Geography: journeys – class will plan a trip to space using space passports designed by themselves.
Landscapes – children will look at videos of what the surface of the moon looks like. They will then make their own moon rocks by crumpling up bits of tin foil. These will be kept in our Aistear area.
Maths: Shape & Space – children will design rockets by using bits of coloured paper cut into circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. They will also make 3D rockets using toilet/ kitchen rolls and cones made out of rolled up coloured paper.
Distance – children will look at a video showing the stars that make up The Plough constellation and they will look at an activity sheet that details how far each of these stars is from the Earth’s surface.
Art: Construction – Children will carry out the fun activity shown in module 3 ‘Looking at the plough in 2 different ways’. (Curious Minds activity).
English: Topic (aliens) – skills used such as questioning – What is it? Where does it live? How does it move?
Observing: How does it look? How does it feel?
Predicting: What would happen if it came to Earth? etc.
Books: The Smeds and The Smoos, The Way back home and The Aliens in Underpants series of books.
Diary entries: Children can write about the day in the life of an astronaut or an alien.
Drama: Role play area – pupils can get in role as an astronaut and act out scenes in their space station or rocket in The Aistear area of the classroom.
PE: Children will play games such as shadow tag, space rangers and guarding the galaxy.
Sinéad, I love your idea of creating a passport for children to visit Space. The children in my Senior infant class would really enjoy doing this activity. Thanks for the great idea.
A resource I currently find very useful in my classroom with infants is the website http://www.sciencebuddies.org. If you go into the STEM Activities you can find some great hands on and child centred experiments around the theme of Space. An experiment my class particularly enjoyed doing last year was Launching home made baking soda rockets. Another good one is Build a paper rocket. I also find my Space themed Aistear corner a great way for children to learn lots of new vocabulary around the topic of Space as they get to participate in role play activities and they experience what it would be like to be an astronaut or to work in a space station.
A resource I’ve learned about through doing this course and I’m excited to use this coming year is the ESA kids website. It seems to be a very user friendly resource with lots of ideas how to capture the imagination of my students and encourage lots of quality learning in my classroom.
The games section will definitely be a huge hit with my senior infant pupils. I often think a game is a lovely way to conclude a lesson. Games I’m looking forward to trying out with my class are: Space clean up. I feel that this game will integrate nicely with the theme of recycling. Other fun looking games are Solar system Explorer, Spacecraft assemble and the Space memory games.
The learn section has lots of lovely lesson ideas such as The Universe, What is gravity? and Our nearest star. There are some great lesson plans for themes such as Day, night and the seasons and Why is Mars red? There are lots of fantastic downloadable activities and worksheets for the children to complete. I feel that this website is going to help make Space themed lessons much easier for me as the teacher to plan and much more enjoyable for my students.
I’m very impressed with the way the website has a Language section which translates the website into a number of different languages. This will be invaluable for children for whom English is not their first language.
Great idea to let parents to know in advance so that they can start sending in materials such as kitchen/ toilet rolls, large plastic bottles to make oxygen packs and any tin foil they have to spare. In my school we are lucky enough to have 2 infant store rooms where we can store Aistear resources and we can add to them each year.
