Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I think the interactive games on the ipad/Chromebooks are fantastic way to embed certain concepts for children who struggle with learning in the traditional way. For Maths , maths assistant in Microsoft One Note is a fantastic resource that can be used for the struggling learner, especially in the upper primary setting. Children can practise using the resource and checking their answers to see how they are progressing. This allows them to successfully complete some sums correctly, rather than having a full page done incorrectly. Math Duel is another great resource and I think it is great as all children respond well to a bit of healthy competition. I have used Topmarks , nzmaths and primarygames.co.uk in the past as I find them so useful for informally assessing children on different maths topics.
For Literacy in the early classroom setting I think the use of apps is also so important and gives a different variety to your everyday use of books, pencils and paper. Starfall and Reading Rockets are fantastic apps I have used previously. Reading coach is something I am going to roll out in September. I have just tried it with my 6 year old at home and it is a fantastic way of getting her to read without her thinking it’s school work!
The use of the immersive reader facility is a great way of differentiating for the various levels in your class. The fact you can pull snippets of different parts of a text, take it line by line or get a word broken down phonetically, caters for all different levels of reading capabilities within the same classroom. This is all in line with the objectives of the inclusive Education Framework
I love the concept of Maslow before Bloom and it is so important for us educators to remember this before the start of the school day. The learning accelerator and daily check in the online resource used in that school in Australia is a fabulous way of staying in tune with all the children in your class.
Part 1.
I think the SETT model enforces and gives more structure to what we have already been doing as teachers in our School Support Files. It assesses and gages where individual children are at in their learning and development. It assesses their strengths and weaknesses and works on developing their learning outcomes. Through collaboration with the classroom teacher and the SET teacher, the most suitable environment for that child’s learning success is decided upon, within the limitations of staffing and physical rooms available within a school.
The child’s learning targets are decided upon and discussed with their parents and this can be done collaboration with the various outside agencies that might be working with induvial children. The various levels of assistive technologies available to the child you are planning for can be discussed and this can all be reviewed at termly meetings to see is the child reaching their learning outcomes or what other AT could be put in place to help that child. Through a strong communication network of teachers, parents and outside agencies, the most effective AT tools can be decided upon for the child and reviewed based on their success at reaching their learning targets.
Part 2
By using the SETT model, it is great to give more thought into what works best for the child when trying to teach them various things within the school setting. A child may require various levels of assistive technology ranging from low, to medium to high. As teachers we need to think about the how of how we will teach a certain topic, especially with children within your class who might have learning difficulties and find the old style way of reading and following the textbook very difficult. I, myself am a visual learner and learn well through visual representations and small amounts of text. I think Sharepoint is a fantastic resource for summarizing and pulling the main and most important parts of a piece of text or a chapter. By thinking more about the how of teaching we allow ourselves to try and cater more for the whole audience rather than just the children who have no learning difficulties.
Section 1
I created a simple quiz using Microsoft Forms to answer questions based on the Giant Panda. The children with additional learning needs could be encouraged to copy and paste the text from the quiz into Microsoft Word or One note to make use of Immersive reader option. The children could also right click on the passage and use the read aloud function. This will allow them to fully understand the text before they engage with the questions. There are so many options in Microsoft forms and different types of questions that can be used that allow for various assessment and check for comprehension. There’s also options to allow the children to input their own answers, which again will allow for some assessment by the teacher. Children with additional learning needs could use Microsoft Edge with Immersive Reader to research another animal and use the dictate option to pick out their three most important facts about that animal.
Section 2
The An Cosán Framework highlights the ways that teachers can engage in CPD and the importance of them remaining lifelong learners. It has long been an opinion of mine that I think teachers should be moved around within their school every few years so as to encourage teachers to upskill in their new class level/new role in SET/new role in an autism class etc. It is neither good for the children nor the teacher to remain in the same class level for years on end as it’s less of an incentive to upskill when they feel like they’ve been doing it right for so long. I was moved from Junior Infants to 6th class and while it freaked me out at the beginning, it gave me a fantastic opportunity to upskill and become familiar with various areas of the curriculum I had become unfamiliar with over my years in the junior side of the school. A few years later I was moved into SET and again, this gave me an opportunity to upskill in various programs and now ICT for use in the SET setting.
Immersive reader is a fantastic tool that can be across the school setting and most effectively in SET. For children with dyslexia and dysgraphia it is a game changer for their accessibility to the curriculum. A number of years back when I had 6th class, I had at least 5 children with dyslexia in the class. All were bright children who found nearly all subjects hard due to huge levels of text involved in the textbooks and workbooks.
Using the Immersive Reader option on Microsoft word online would greatly improve the levels of accessibility for the likes of those children who have good comprehension, but struggle with the actual reading of the text. They could also use the dictate option on One Note for answering of questions and engaging with the text.
Another product I would make use of is videos on the Microsoft Sharepoint. For children with additional learning needs this is a great way to condense the content of a chapter and pick out the most important parts needed. Children in upper primary school would find this hugely beneficial and would make accessing the curriculum less stressful and less overwhelming.
There are amazing products out there to use and I look forward to using them this year in my new role of SET.
Assistive technology has a huge role to play in creating a level playing field for all learners going forward. We all learn in a very different manner and children with special educational needs or learning needs are no different from this. Many of the different tools used in classrooms break down the barriers that some students struggle to overcome. Even from the most basic level, children with access to a low-tech visual timetable can flourish when their day is laid out, and the extra stress of trying to comprehend the world around them is overcome.
Last year, I worked with a girl with Downs Syndrome and there was nothing more she loved than creating her writing on the Clicker 8 writing programme on the Chromebook, so she could share her ideas, thoughts and news with her peers. She really struggled with handwriting, despite using the handwriting programme Handwriting without Tears, but this gave her the competency and the confidence to engage properly, and it met her at the level she was at.
There are factors to consider when choosing the programmes and levels of Assistive Technology for individual children. Some children feel very self-conscious using technology and programmes that they deem to make them stand out or ‘different’. It’s important to pick AT that is best suited to the needs of children. It is also good to use AT and programmes that the children can work on independently , where possible, and that is easy to set up at their place of work. Teacher and SNA training is also essential to ensure the child or children can use the technology to get the most out of it and its potential as an assistive device.The SETT model is a great way to assess the individual student’s needs and meet them where they are at. It can easily be looked at when filling in the child’s school support file and what assistive technologies could be used or needs to be used to meet different needs of individual children.
