Just finished going to the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology 2013. It is always a very good conference. Without a doubt the keynote speakers were on top of their game and excellent presenters.
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Literacy is such a vast arena. So when I came across this set of standards I thought I should "pocket it" and share it. I also am applying these standards to my curriculum as I venture into using technology within my program. For the Extended Core Curriculum the bottom two tiers are my "benchmarks". From these I am looking at what my students can use to demonstrate their understanding and to communicate it to the world around them. For the peer tutors the top tier is where these students should be when demonstrating their understanding. My goal is to discover the tools that will allow them to create their message with as much independence as possible. Word cloud tools let you make a picture from a list of words. What I like about it is that it separates the grammar/syntax component of language. For any student, there are times where this is ideal. Go to the links by clicking on the logos. Several YouTubes sites (just search by the logo name) will show you how to use the tool itself. ********************************************** I am going to talk about one way I have used it SUCCESSFULLY with my students. By successful, I mean the students like doing the assignment. All students completed the assignment and met at least some part of their goals. Students demonstrated creativity. ********************************************** Using word clouds for personal information. This is an assignment that exceeded my expectations. The task was to have students describe themselves. (Getting to know you) I divided students into pairs. For my program I had peer tutors paired with Extended Core students. With the peer tutors (regular education students) I created a word bank. The word bank was divided into nouns verbs adjectives. We included school based vocabulary and age common activities along with personal attributes. The bank was put on the wall. Then the peer tutors modeled asking "interview" or "getting to know you" questions. The students reversed it by asking them. The answers were circled and copied onto a work sheet. The pairs went to the Wordle website and wrote the words. Each student was given 10 minutes (Yes being creative does take time! So honor that) to create their word cloud. I wish I had captured the conversation that ensued. Beyond exposing them to guided practice in expressive writing and descriptive writing let alone personal information development, the students let the visual aspects of the written language come to the forefront. Fonts are a true key to who you are. Colors and layout took on higher level thinking skills. Emphasis on certain attributes is equally higher level thought. But best of all, they talked to their partner and the others around them. When I printed and posted them ongoing conversation continued. Even after a full semester, both sets of students look at those word clouds and use them for conversation starters. ******************************************** I have included my "lesson guide" for using it within a project. Here I use it within our monthly placemats. The guide was for my planning so with Showme (last post) it DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT! But you get the idea. ********************************************* I hope Speech Pathologists will consider using these in therapy because it allows you to explore metalinguistic variables and I use the font size for intonation contour practice. I am exploring websites with the students. With our limited amount of time together, we only begin to explore subjects that may be of real interest to your student and you. The first website is Wonderopolis ... yes that really is the name. http://wonderopolis.org/ Wonderopolis has a wonder every day. Have you ever wondered about something? Today's wonder was about emergency calls. One was about the wisest bird. To date; 822 wonders. Each wonder starts with a small video. Then ... make sure you scroll down and do to the text about it. In our classroom, we use iPads to highlight the information and select read to have it read to us. However you may read it with your student or have them read to you!. On the iPad we also select words that are unknown. We hit read so we know how to "say it". Then we hit define and it pulls up a dictionary for "what it means". Then we read it in the sentence (word in context) If you have an iPad at home set it up to do this in your settings. If you have one and don't know how ... Let me know and I will walk you through it. Below I have included how I apply wonderpolis to my program and below that an example of using it. Hi! I am Heather Logan Weiler. I am the person behind SPED TECH. I added this blog because I was lucky enough to have been accepted into and actually complete an endorsement program in Instruction System Design & Educational Technology (ISD/Ed Tech). Upon completing this program, I found I was asked by colleagues to "help" them to integrate tools into their class curriculum or how to get something to work. So I decided to start this blog. Being in special education, I was so surprised at how quickly the regular education curriculum moved. I also saw how many tools were really fantastic; but I just could see how they would integrate in a meaningful way for my students. This blog's purpose is to show how to use tools in the special education setting. I will add links for the tools themselves. It is up to you to learn their basic set up. Word of Advice: PRACTICE at least 5 times before you try it with any group! When I refer to tools, I am talking about websites and or applications and software that you can use in your programs. I also will talk about hardware tools such as iPads, computers, cables, and document cameras. Rule of thumb, if you can pick it up and plug it in or turn it on ... that is hardware. And hardware breaks! So I hope you will check back here from time to time and see how I am using system design with educational tech tools for special education students. My next post will be on PLN or Personal Learning Network. See you then! |
SPED TECHteacher using tools that help students. Archives
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