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<p class=”MsoNormal”>The most effective school are those that have clear aims and objectives identified in a school development plan. These schools usually engage in collaborative planning to achieve their aims and objectives. The Inclusive Education Framework should be used during this collaborative stage to ensure that pupils with special educational needs are considered in the school’s aims and objectives. The framework is divided into 10 important themes with indicators of good practice for each theme.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>When considering a student with dyslexia and dyscalculia in my class I would recommend a surface pro laptop with office 365. The laptop should have an external keyboard and a headset. The reason for this device is its light weight and small size. I would recommend the Immersive reader to be used for any lesson that requires lengthy reading. The Office Lens can be used to photograph pages from the class books. The dictate tool can be used to respond to comprehension questions and any lengthy written assignments. The keyboard can be used for shorter assignment to enable typing practice. Apps such as Book Creator would also motivate written assignments. OneNote would be very helpful for her during maths.</p>
<p style=”background: white; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0cm 0cm 19.2pt 0cm;”><span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;”><span style=”font-size: 14.6667px;”>The SETT model is a flexible tool which can support teachers in identifying the characteristics of the student, the environment, and the required task so that the correct assistive technology tools can be selected. The framework encourages collaboration throughout the 4 phases of decision making. It also provides questions that the teachers can ask themselves during each phase. The first 3 phases of the model do not need to be explored in order or separately, but they do need to be completed before the tools are considered. The framework is a thorough but simple approach which certainly appeals to teachers. If this approach is carried out in the way it is intended, then it is more likely that the appropriate tools will be selected. The framework encourages constant evaluation as the needs of the student changes. I will certainly be using this framework to help me pick the correct tools for the students I am working with. I will collaborate with the new and the previous class teachers as well as consulting any reports the children may have. </span></span></p>
The link to my SETT plan is below.<p class=”MsoNormal”>Using the dictate tool in Microsoft Word to write a creative story. The child I have in mind has been diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia. The child has a great imagination but can never get a story onto paper. The dictate tool would enable her to dictate her imaginative story. She could then use the editor tool to edit her document checking for spelling and grammar errors. The settings in dictate tool will allow her to have. auto punctuation enabled, although this takes some practise. She could then use immersive reader to listen to her story and make sure that it is as she wanted it to sound. With Immersive Reader she will be able to select colour contrasts that work for her. She can also change the spacing of the text and how many lines are displayed at a time thus, removing unnecessary distractions for her. She will finally be able to complete a story without compromising due to spellings.</p>
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<p class=”MsoNormal”>Cosán recognises teachers as responsible learning professionals. Its view is that teachers’ learning should have an impact on their practice and on the learning of their students. Therefore, as a responsible learning professional I have a responsibility to myself and the children in my care to keep up to date with current best practice and evidence-based learning theory. I also need to ensure that my learning is relevant and appropriate. CPD gives me this opportunity. It offers a range of courses during which it encourages me to reflect on my own practices whilst enabling me to learn new techniques and strategies for the classroom. In my opinion, it is an essential part of teaching.</p>
The Immersive Reader and the Dictate tools have the ability to help improve reading, writing and comprehension in all classrooms. They are motivational tools that are easy to use. I was working as part of the SET team last year and I was looking for some tools that would help a couple of the children with written tasks. I found out about the dictate tool that is part of Microsoft Office 2019 as well as Microsoft Office 365. The children found the tool to be a fantastic resource for them and they were able to concentrate on creating a project rather than trying to find out how to spell words. This course has now introduced me to the Immersive Reader tool which I can see will be another fantastic resource, especially for these two children that I’ll be working with again next year. Having the ability to text to make it more readable to the child themselves is so beneficial. The picture dictionary is a fantastic feature for these 2 children. Although these children won’t need to use the translation feature, I can see how valuable it could be.
The Office Lens is a great tool that will allow me to copy text from any resource and make it accessible to the children through the Immersive Reader. The Office Lens allows you to capture an image on a device and then it converts the image to text allowing it to be read aloud to the student using Word or OneNote. This feature will enable me to capture lengthy or important text onto a device, which can be shared to the children’s devices. This will enable them to listen to the text as many times as they need to.
The SETT framework is used to evaluate the assistive technology needs of a student. The framework encourages teachers to evaluate different factors in a systematic way. Firstly to gather information about the Student: their strengths and weaknesses. Then to find out more about the Environment in which it will be used. Next, to find out what Tasks will need to be performed and finally which Tools are best suited to help the student succeed with the task.
Using a Student’s Support File as a starting point the IT team along with the class and special education teachers would identify the strengths of the child and the challenges that this child faces during a school day. Once the team have a good picture of the child, they can then go on to identify all the different locations where the learning is expected to take place. They will look at the layout of the learning area and how accessible materials and equipment are to the child in each area. The team would then go on to look at each lesson. What is the class expected to do in the lesson. What tasks will need to be performed during this lesson. How are these tasks to be performed. Does the child need additional support to perform any or all of these tasks. The final step is to consider what tools are best suited to the task. Does the child have access to the required tools and is the child able to use these tools without support. What other support is available to the child during the task. At the end of a lesson it is always necessary to check if the child has completed the task as expected. This will help the team to make any necessary adjustments.
Assistive technology has the potential to create a level playing field for all our students. From low tech visual timetables and adaptive paper to the mid/high tech of text to speech technology we can allow all the children in our classroom access to the curriculum. To unlock the potential of assistive technology, schools need to ensure that there is proper equipment, planning, professional development, a member of the school leadership team equipped with the proper tools to drive the use of assistive technology. The digital learning framework helps schools to effectively integrate assistive technology into their everyday teaching, learning and assessment practices. The digital learning framework is directly aligned to the Looking at our Schools Quality Framework for Primary Schools. This allows schools to identify areas of their practice that are effective and highly effective but also where their practices need to improvement.
Looking at the digital framework, particularly domain one – learning outcomes. The first standard states that pupils enjoy their learning, are motivated to learn and expect to achieve as learners. I can see that using an app such as reading eggs to support literacy would certainly foster engagement and allow pupils to collect evidence and record their progress, which would make it an effective practice. However it falls short as it does not allow the children to create their own content and therefore is not highly effective. To become highly effective using apps such as BookCreator or WriteReader would be more beneficial to the student and would certainly ensure that they create their own content.