Assistive Technology Internet Modules

The Assistive Technology Internet Modules provide various modules that give learners a chance to acquire knowledge about types of assistive technology. In class we have been discussing UDL and we are now expanding on this concept by looking at various types of assistive technology, proper use, and how they can be implemented to help meet students needs. The website looked at AT from three different points of view, Assistive Technology Assessment Process in the School Environment, Assistive Technology Consideration in the IEP Process, and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). Each section provided information along with a pre and post assessment for users to assess their learning. Below you will find a brief synopsis of each section mentioned above:

Assistive Technology Assessment Process in the School Environment

• The first module gives background about AT in the assessment process. AT is available to a wide range of students and not necessarily the students receiving speech and language services, which is often a common misconception. The module continues to discuss guidelines  to match students with the proper AT devices. 

Assistive Technology Consideration in the IEP Process
This module revealed the legal regulations under IDEA of 2004 and how they impact students with IEP's. One surprising fact I learned is once a student is being considered for an IEP the team must consider, even if it is not used, AT devices. There is a specific section in an IEP that ask if students qualify for assistive technology. 

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) 

• The final module discusses what devices can be used to turn words into written text. It also explained the difference between text to speech and speech to text which is often used interchangeably but this is not correct. ASR relies heavily on the environment and applications which are sometimes out of the teachers control. If speech is an issue students can be given a microphone so the device can better understand the student. 

UDL Checklist- Changes

In my last post I described and posted the UDL checklist for my Guided Reading lesson. Below you will find changes to the lesson according to the findings on the UDL checklist.

UDL CHECKLIST: 

MY NEW LESSON PLAN (highlighted parts have been changed):

Jenelle King EDG513 Lesson Plan #1

PA First Grade Standard

1. Learning to Read Independently 

1. Demonstrate concept of print, how print is organized, and used in reading and writing task
2. Demonstrate phonemic awareness, the ability to hear, and manipulate sounds in spoken words
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the alphabetic principle, the ability to associate sounds with letters and use these sounds to form words
4. Demonstrate fluency, the ability to read grade level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate and expression 

Behavioral Objective: Students will be able to read the book Fantastic Fish with accuracy and fluency based on their knowledge of sight words from the story.  Students will know the four sight words from the story, you, can, see, and with.  

Materials: “Fantastic Fish” reader, digital reader and book on tape, highlighter tape, digraph worksheet, journals, sight word flashcards, sand 

Procedure:

Anticipatory Set-Teacher will begin discussion about fish by asking the following questions, “Have you ever had a pet fish? Have you ever been fishing? What can fish look like?” Students can show teacher what they know about fish by acting it out.  Teacher will show various real pictures of fish in a powerpoint presentation. In the book, Fantastic Fish, we will see many different kinds of fish. Let’s read the book to discover what kinds of fish “you can see”.

Activity-*The class will be split into four small groups based on reading ability. One group will work with teacher reading the book and the other four groups will be completing one of the lesson components independently. The groups and activities are listed below. Teacher will allow students to experiment with each type of text, book tape, reader, and paper book. 

• Group 1 Fluency Practice-Teacher will practice sight words from the story with students and then ask students to point to them on each page. Students will practice writing each sight word in sand. Teacher will read book to students and then read the story with them using their prospective text or device. The focus of the lesson will be tracking, sight word fluency, figuring out words using beginning sounds. 

Teacher will set timer for each station. Half way through the set amount of time at each station students will hear a beep as a reminder their time at the station will be ending soon. 

• Group 2 Word Study-Students will complete Say, Trace, Write, and Stamp worksheet for each sight word in the story (you, can, see, with). 
• Three different templates will be provided for each group, one template will have each sight word listed at the start of the row. The other template will require students to find the words in the reader using the book and word wall. 
• Higher level students will need to use each word in a sentence. 
• Group 3 Writing-Students will complete a worksheet and list a characteristic of each fish in the story to finish the sentence and draw a matching picture. 
• Two different sets of readers will be provided for each group, one reader will have words description words highlighted and the other reader will be not be highlighted. 
• Group 4 Independent Writing- Students will make an entry in their writing journal about one fish from the story. 
• Students who are unable to write by themselves will use one of the following prompts, “My favorite is…”, “ I like the fish with….because…”. 
• Higher level students will write a three to four sentence story about a fish from the story. 
• Closure- Teacher will echo read the book with the class. 

Assessment: Teacher will observation will be used a method of assessment as well as students completed work at their independent centers. 

Accountability: Teacher will record whether students were able to read sight words in the story while in the group with the teacher by the conclusion of the group session. 

Differentiation: Embedded in the independent group activities with different templates. 

Evaluation: Teacher will be able to evaluate student’s knowledge of the four sight words in the story by their completed work. Students will continue the lesson the next day by rotating to another station the next day. 

Feedback: Teacher will mark students work and return students work. Teacher will praise students for staying on task by telling them to raise their clips

EXPLANATION OF CHANGES: 

I. Provide students with options for perception 

Teacher will read book to students and then read the story with them using their prospective text or device. Teacher will show various real pictures of fish in a powerpoint presentation.  Students will also get the option of how they want to read the story. The story on tape can help auditory learners and students with visual impairments. The digital readers can model reading for students and what they should sound like as they read, fluency and pronunciation. The powerpoint will serve as  a concrete example of what will be discussing and reading about in the book Fantastic Fish. Not all students are auditory learners, many students need visual examples to help them understand. 

II. Provide options for physical actions 

Students will practice writing each sight word in sand. Students can show teacher what they know about fish by acting it out. 

Students were practicing sight words by just using flashcards. I thought using the sand gives students not only visual representation but addresses kinesthetic learners. Jumping, splashing, and fish faces can all be ways for students to model what they know about fish physically. Students with ADHD and other attention disorders have a difficult time focusing and sitting for extended periods of time. Acting out what they know gives them a chance to express themselves. 

III. Provide options for recruiting interest 

Teacher will set timer for each station. Half way through the set amount of time at each station students will hear a beep as a reminder their time at the station will be ending soon. 

By giving students a timer they can see how much time they actually have left. The bell serves as a warning so they will be more motivated to complete their work in a timely manner and be a reminder that their time is running out. 

UDL Guidelines Checklist

As an educator it can be difficult to manage addressing the curriculum, everyday classroom management, and trying to ensure every students needs are meant simultaneously. CAST has designed a checklist describing all three areas of UDL and has broken them down with resources that can be used in the classroom.

Below you will find a Guided Reading lesson I used in my kindergarten class. I have used the checklist to determine several areas I could remediate, according to UDL the next time I use the lesson. In my next post you can find the UDL checklist and how I was able to  add components to my lesson to make it "universally friendly for all students."

UDL CHECKLIST:

LESSON PLAN:

Lesson Plan #1

PA Kindergarten Grade Standard

1. Learning to Read Independently 

1. Demonstrate concept of print, how print is organized, and used in reading and writing task
2. Demonstrate phonemic awareness, the ability to hear, and manipulate sounds in spoken words
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the alphabetic principle, the ability to associate sounds with letters and use these sounds to form words
4. Demonstrate fluency, the ability to read grade level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate and expression 

Behavioral Objective: Students will be able to read the book Fantastic Fish with accuracy and fluency based on their knowledge of sight words from the story.  Students will know the four sight words from the story, you, can, see, and with.  

Materials: “Fantastic Fish” reader, highlighter tape, digraph worksheet, journals, sight word flashcards

Procedure:

Anticipatory Set- Teacher will begin discussion about fish by asking the following questions, “Have you ever had a pet fish? Have you ever been fishing? What can fish look like?” In the book, Fantastic Fish, we will see many different kinds of fish. Let’s read the book to discover what kinds of fish “you can see”.

Activity- *The class will be split into four small groups based on reading ability. One group will work with teacher reading the book and the other four groups will be completing one of the lesson components independently. The groups and activities are listed below.

• Group 1 Fluency Practice- Teacher will practice sight words from the story with students and then ask students to point to them on each page. Teacher will read book to students and then read the story with them. The focus of the lesson will be tracking, sight word fluency, figuring out words using beginning sounds. 
• Group 2 Word Study- Students will complete Say, Trace, Write, and Stamp worksheet for each sight word in the story (you, can, see, with). 
• Three different templates will be provided for each group, one template will have each sight word listed at the start of the row. The other template will require students to find the words in the reader using the book and word wall. 
• Higher level students will need to use each word in a sentence. 
• Group 3 Writing- Students will complete a worksheet and list a characteristic of each fish in the story to finish the sentence and draw a matching picture. 
• Two different sets of readers will be provided for each group, one reader will have words description words highlighted and the other reader will be not be highlighted. 
• Group 4 Independent Writing- Students will make an entry in their writing journal about one fish from the story. 
• Students who are unable to write by themselves will use one of the following prompts, “My favorite is…”, “ I like the fish with….because…”. 
• Higher level students will write a three to four sentence story about a fish from the story. 
• Closure- Teacher will echo read the book with the class. 

Assessment: Teacher will observation will be used a method of assessment as well as students completed work at their independent centers. 

Accountability: Teacher will record whether students were able to read sight words in the story while in the group with the teacher by the conclusion of the group session. 

Differentiation: Embedded in the independent group activities with different templates. 

Evaluation: Teacher will be able to evaluate student’s knowledge of the four sight words in the story by their completed work. Students will continue the lesson the next day by rotating to another station the next day. 

Feedback: Teacher will mark students work and return students work. Teacher will praise students for staying on task by telling them to raise their clips

LOOK FOR MY NEXT POST ON THE CHANGES I MADE ACCORDING TO UDL!

Curriculum Barriers

As students enter their new classroom in September each student comes with a new set of needs. Some students will come with IEPs from previous placements and other students will struggle with certain concepts as the school year progresses on. As the teacher it's important you recognize each students needs and remediate them with tools and strategies you have been equipped  to help each child learn.

Curriculum is to be used as a guide  to help instruct students in a certain subject area. Curriculum companies are doing a better job of providing teachers with more resources to help students who are challenged by the curriculum. However, there still may be some aspect of the curriculum or classroom acting as a barrier for the student. Curriculum barriers are potential barriers in your curriculum that can inhibit a student from mastering a specific concept or may have a significant affect on their learning. For example, a student that has a vision impairment may need to sit close the board, read bigger print, and be presented with information or worksheets on colored paper. As the teacher it's important these barriers are always apart of the planning process as they can determine how well students  respond and learn the material.

The Curriculum Barrier Tutorial on the CAST website gives you the opportunity to read a short synopsis of each students. After choosing one of the six students and a subject, you are to think about the subject and the students needs from the synopsis, and choose materials and methods that may be used for the subject area. For example, written reports or lecture/ whole group instruction maybe used in science. You fill in student qualities and then think about the potential barriers which may be posed in the subject using the materials and methods listed. Using the example previously mentioned, if students are required to write a report on matter in science a student with poor mechanics may have difficulty writing a report. As the teacher it's your job to offer various ways for the student to present their understanding of matter with drawings or a project. Below is an example of a curriculum barrier chart used in a third grade classroom.

My Own Curriculum Barrier Organizer....

UDL in Action

Kristen is a first grade teacher. Her classroom is very diverse in that she has students with learning disabilities,  English language learners, and students who are receiving extra support for literacy. They are learning about the life cycle of a plant. Kristen was able to include reading and science in the same lesson. Students will be reading books about seeds and what plants need to grow. She provided students with several different versions of a similar book as a way to implement UDL in her lessons, print, digital books, audio, and a text to speech device. Not only did she provide students with the supports they needed, everyone in the classroom was allowed to rotate and choose what best fit them. Often times the accommodations are only given to the children with special needs and in Kristen classroom everyone was able to experience the accommodation and make a choice. Click on the link below to see step-by-step how Kristen was able to incorporate UDL in her first grade classroom.

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_modellesson.cfm?tk_id=21&tkl_id=141&disp=introduction

UDL Resources

Universal Design for Learning is described as a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn (CAST.org, 2009). For most students this looks like a typical classroom and not many accommodations are needed for students to reach the objective of a lesson. For others, they need resources just to begin learning or understanding the objective of the lesson. In other words before students can even begin to think or understand the material all of their needs must be meant. Maslow's hierarchy of needs describes how students need basic things such as food, health, etc. to even begin learning. This same theory is true when in a classroom. Imagine a teacher asking you to describe the characters in the story and you can't read the words. Not only are you not able to make connections to comprehend the character’s feelings and why, but you haven't been able to see a single word in the book. In order to help students begin on a more level playing field teachers must use resources outside of themselves to gain students attention and help accommodate their needs. 

Below you will find a few UDL resources I would use in my classroom...

UDL Checkpoint 1.2 Alternatives for Audio
Signed Stories
www.signedstories.com
Stories are told by actors using sign language for students with auditory disabilities. 

UDL Checkpoint 3.1 Activating Background Knowledge
Exploratorium After School Activities 
www.exploratorium.com
This website can be used to spark students interest in learning about a new topic such as weather or magnets. 





UDL Checkpoint 5.3 Support for Practice and Performance 
Earobics Game Goo
www.earobics.com
This website has games to practice literacy strategies. 

If you would to find more resources like the website I listed above follow the link below! 
UDL Resources

UDL and Curriculum

Excerpt from Cast.org FAQ's.... 

Please read and pay special attention to the highlighted area as it pertains to my response

Q 3: How does UDL help guarantee students equal opportunities to learn?

Both IDEA and NCLB recognize the right of all learners to a high-quality standards-based education. The laws preclude the development of separate educational agendas for students with disabilities and others with special needs. They also hold teachers, schools, districts, and states responsible for ensuring that these students demonstrate progress according to the same standards.

Neither law adequately addresses the greatest impediment to their implementation: the curriculum itself. In most classrooms, the curriculum is disabled. It is disabled because its main components—the goals, materials, methods, and assessments—are too rigid and inflexible to meet the needs of adiverse learners, especially those with disabilities. Most of the present ways to remediate the curriculum’s disabilities—teacher-made workarounds and modifications, alternative placements etc.—are expensive, inefficient, and often ineffective for learning.

By addressing the diversity of learners at the point of curriculum development (rather than as an afterthought or retrofit), Universal Design for Learning is a framework that enables educators to develop curricula that truly "leave no child behind" by maintaining high expectations for all students while effectively meeting diverse learning needs and monitoring student progress.

My response:

As a classroom teacher who works with curriculum and teacher guides everyday I have a different opinion. Because so many students are being recognized with special needs publishing companies have begun to make more modifications for students with unique needs in their curriculum. This school year our school adopted the GO Math program and I was impressed with the amount of resources they offered for students with unique needs. They have built in and provided resources for RTI (Response to Intervention). Each tier was given a workbook page, lesson, and a way for the teacher to address student’s confusion immediately in the teacher guide. I think programs will be offering the same type of materials as standard practice in the near future. I will say the programs do not offer resources for students who have more severe needs. This can be challenging for the classroom teachers as they are continuing to be left to their own devices when instructing students with severe special needs.