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School Development Planning is one of ten themes of the Inclusice Education Framework. It stems from an internal review process . A plan of action is then put in place which is reviewed regularly We as educators are responsible for setting priority targets to allow for the inclusion and support of all of our pupils. Inclusion is an ongoing and dynamic process evolving and changing over time but it is the responsility of all stakeholders involved in school to ensure that it is prioritised . The provision of equitable and effective resources can help to improve inclusion within the school.
I am thinking of one of my pupils who has dyslexia and dyscalculia and will be in 6th class in the coming academic year.
The following technology resources may be of use to this pupil.
Maths Assistant in One Note
Math Duel for maths games with a peer
Microsoft Maths Solver App
Khan Academy
A Maths Dictionary for Kids ( website )
iR Primary Games ( website)
NRICH mathematics resources ( website)
Immersive reader
Dictate
Office 365 Platform
Spelling training.com ( website for spelling practice)
TTRS ( reading/spelling/ touch typing tutor)
Microsoft Reading Coach
I have been really impressed with the range of ICT tools now available to meet students needs . As already mentioned ICT is not a strength of mine but as a result of this course I feel more equipped to use at least some of these tools to help my pupils with special education needs. The tools selected, though, must meet the needs of each of my individual learners.
SETT plan for child in 4th class . This child is an EAL learner who is underachieving in literacy and numeracy relative to peers.
STUDENT
Student X is a girl who has learned a lot of language during her past 2 years in our school. She understands a lot and can speak English very well.She has had a very difficult start in life where school and education was not a priority. She loves to colour and take part in art and craft activities. She enjoys using a tablet at home watchiing videos on youtube and playing online games. She likes fashion and clothes too. This child is learning at her own pace in terms of literacy and numeracy. She enjoys hands on , concrete activities in Maths and is gradually building up her ability to decode words and is increasing her sight vocabulary.
Environment S
Student X is seated near the front of the classroom with a child she is friends with and gets along well with. She is near the teacher when extra support needs to be given . Her friend also provides support with tasks and is a valuable peer tutor. She benefits fro frequent movement and sensory breaks throughout the day.
Task
As student X is not functioning at 4th class level in English and Maths tasks need to be tailored to suit her individual needs. Pre teaching of vocabulary in the topic being taught in English /Maths could take place in the SET room. Concepts could be explained here during SET time also.
Tools
Technology could be used to help this child access the curriculum. Immersive reader would be bery useful to read text to the child which she would struggle to read herself. The picture dictionary function could help with comprehension and the translate function could also be used to help with understanding. Dictate would be of huge benefit to this child who has not yet mastered the writing skills needed to coherently put her thoughts on paper. Apps such as Learn with Homer might be useful for home to further develop literacy skills. Primary maths games is a website which could be used to further develop maths skills. Khan academy could be a very useful resource for maths help too for this child.
The SETT framework is a tool used to help students learning with ICT. The possible role of ICT is looked at under the following headings
Student The student has to be at the centre of all learning . An outline of an individual child’s strengths , interests and areas for development as well as priority concerns is at the heart of a child’s school support plan . This information is also useful when determining the role that ICT may have in helping the child to learn.
Environment We meed to note the environments where the child will use ICT , the classroom , the SET room or the home.
Task What learning outcomes is the student trying to achieve? What are we trying to teach this child? What stage of learning is the child at and what needs to be done in order to help the child make progress. Assessment of the child helps us to form this baseline.
Tools What ICT can be used to help the child to learn. On this course we have seen a very wide range of low tech, mid tech and high tech devices which can help the child achieve his potential .
In summary this tool helps to make sure that ICT is being used to meet the individual learning needs of the pupil.
The Cosan framework recognises teachers as autonomous resonsible life long learners. CPD is an important aspect of our job. As a teacher I am reflecting on my practice on a daily basis. I am always wondering if I can try approaching material in a different way or if I can engage puils learning by trying different means. In particular in the area of SET I find that I need pupils to be actively involved in their own learning using concrete materials where possible. So CPD also provides an opportunity for me to look at my own teaching and to see what is working and what areas do I need to improve on. I chose this course because ICT is a weak area for me which I felt I needed to develop.
I would provide a pupil with a mild general learning difficulty in second class with a record of some planting done in our school garden. I would take some photos of the pupil taking part in the different steps of planting carrots which I could save to microsoft word. I would then ask the pupil to use dictate to write the steps of the planting process to accompany each photo. The child could then use immersive reader to read each step of the process back to himself. The child would have a valuable personal account of his involvement in the school garden. This is in keeping with the universal design for learning framework explored in this module. Work is differentiated to the particular needs of the child and ICT is used to help the child engage with the curriculum and to provide a real, personal response to show his learning. It’s also a valuable means of assessment as well as a highly motivating means of engaging a child with special education needs.
I liked the section on high contrast mode and contrasts for the laptop or computer. I have a child in mind who may benefit from this as he has difficulties with his vision. THe different modes may just help him to see material better on screen. I also liked the section on the shortcut keys. This will come in useful in my own use of the laptop. I just tried out dictate there for the first time. This is a relly useful tool. Many children with special education needs struggle with writing and putting their thoughts down on paper. I feel that dictate will take some of the pressure off our pupils to produce a piece of written work especially if they have good language skills.
I have used immersive reader a little already in SET. It’s available on the microsoft edge browser. It’s obviously very useful for children with literacy difficulties. I only used it to read material to the pupils where necessary. I have one pupil who is very interested in the sun and space and he liked to ask questions about them quite regularly. We used to use immersive reader to read some text to him based on these areas of interest to him. The pace that the material was read could be adjusted which was necesssary sometimes.I did not realise that there was a translate option which may be useful or a picture dictionary either. The accessibility keys such as the toggle keys or sticky keys could be useful for children with mobility issues or dyspraxia. At least I have this information available to me now depending on the individual needs of the learner in my SET room. This is a key message of the module. All of this technology is available to use for our children with special education needs but must be based on each child’s individual needs.
I have already been using some ICT in the teaching of special needs pupils but I needed to update and upskill my knowledge. I am hoping to learn about the latest apps or maybe some useful websites to help my teaching. We use TTRS which is a touch typing app for all of the pupils in our school. Time is spent each week learning how to type in class. Typing is a very useful skill for all of our students not just for our pupils with special eduction needs so I think that this is time well spent in our school. We also use WORDSHARK for our pupils spelling skills. It teaches reading and spelling words through games online.A lot of our students enjoy it. It also is very helpful for pupils with reading difficultes and dyslexia.
This module gave me a valuable introduction to ICT for SEN pupils. Having worked in SET for a few years , I felt I needed to upskill in ICT this year for my summer course. I found the Digital Learning Framework useful in that it can be used as a planning tool by individual teachers as outlined in the introduction on page 3. In domain 1 a learner outcome states that pupils demonstrate the knowledge, skills and understanding required by the primary curriculum. Here ICT is a very effective tool to achieve this.
The SETT framework is another useful tool to gather and organise information relating to assistive technology assessment for our special needs pupils. Infromation is sought under 4 headings student, environment, task and tools to guide decisionmaking and planning for our pupils. It will be a good starting point for me as the start of the academic year to highlight where ICT might be useful to develop the knowlledge, skills and understanding mentioned in the Digital Learning Framework.