Friday, October 28, 2011
Great Website!
I stumbled across a fantastic website called Snapps for Kids. It has an amazing list of apps that are great for school or children at home. I will be sure to use this website!
Pictello
What is pictello?
Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using natural sounding voices. Stories can be shared using iTunes File Sharing or via WiFi with other Pictello users through a free account on the Pictello Sharing Server.
from http://www.assistiveware.com/pictello.
Five Great uses for Pictello in your Classroom!
1. Developing Social Stories: You can make any number of social stories such as how to get on a bus or how to brush their teeth in minutes. The great thing about it is that it is portable so the sudent can take it with them and you can have actual video of the story.
2. Writing Stories: How exciting it would be for students to write their own mini-play and then produce it on Pictello! Great for reluctant writers.
3. Create schedules for students who have difficulties not remebering what class comes next or where to find it. There could be a video for each day of the week to remind them of what comes next.
4. ESL Sudents: Students who are just learning english would find this useful you could have videos of words or activites they are learning about
5. Show and Share: Pictello would put a new twist on show and tell or student of the week. The student star could make a video at home or of thier favorite place to share with the class. Would definitly spice up show and tell day!
Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using natural sounding voices. Stories can be shared using iTunes File Sharing or via WiFi with other Pictello users through a free account on the Pictello Sharing Server.
from http://www.assistiveware.com/pictello.
Five Great uses for Pictello in your Classroom!
1. Developing Social Stories: You can make any number of social stories such as how to get on a bus or how to brush their teeth in minutes. The great thing about it is that it is portable so the sudent can take it with them and you can have actual video of the story.
2. Writing Stories: How exciting it would be for students to write their own mini-play and then produce it on Pictello! Great for reluctant writers.
3. Create schedules for students who have difficulties not remebering what class comes next or where to find it. There could be a video for each day of the week to remind them of what comes next.
4. ESL Sudents: Students who are just learning english would find this useful you could have videos of words or activites they are learning about
5. Show and Share: Pictello would put a new twist on show and tell or student of the week. The student star could make a video at home or of thier favorite place to share with the class. Would definitly spice up show and tell day!
5 of the Best Apps for Reading and Writing
Five Fantastic Apps
1. Duck duck moose Wheels on the Bus- Ok this may not be used in the classroom all the time. But it would be good for students with fine motor difficulties. My three year old loved it!!! It kept him entertained through an entire meal at a restaurant.
2. Storycubes- For this app they give your around 6 cubes that are like dice and you give them a shake. On the cubes are pictures such as a sunshine or and animal. You have to take the cubes and be able to tell a story using all of the cubes. This would be reat for story starters, reluctant writers, speaking and listening, creative writing. Love them
3. How would you Feel : Each student looks at an illustration, and either reads the prompt or touches the screen to listen to the prompt. The student then gives a verbal response. After each answer, tap the green (correct) or red (incorrect) button to score the student’s verbal response.
Great for social skills, writing prompts and speaking and listening.
4. ABC Play: This app allows children to explore the alphabet in combination with different sports and activities. Great pictures too.
5. Tumblebooks: Those of you that have used Tumblebooks online will already be familiar with it. Now they are available as an app and include animations. You can purchase many of your favorite children's author books in packs of six. Great for reluctant readers and young grades for read alouds and reading responses.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Assistive Technology Software
Today in class groups presesnted software that is available pertaining to reading and writing. I will mention a few of the main points from some of the software.
Kurzwell: Has an excellent program tool bar . The tool bar is color coded for ease of use. You can scan books, textbooks, tests with approval. Dual highlighting system. Picture dictionary as well as word dictionary. Voice notes good for kids who have difficulty writing. In any article scanned you can insert bubble notes. These can be multiple choice questions that the student can answer when reading. An excellent program but is pricey. We will be given time to explore Kurzwell next class so look for more info here.
My Study Bar Hotnotes- post it notes on your computer. Sunbird portable calendar will give alarms to remind students about tasks. Thunder reader- will tell you what you are doing as you go along, will not read what is on the internet. I like the small tool bar doesn’t take up a lot of screen space. Tiny Spell will ding when you have made a spelling mistake and give you the proper spelling good for students who have fine motor difficulties. Magnifier ,Rapid typing- typing tutor
Read and Write Gold: The was the software we presented to the class. It has many great features including text to speech, pronouncialtion tutor, PDF reader. I thought the reasearch tools were great. They were Cact Mapper, Fact Finder and Fact Folder. For a ton of more information here is our blog address. http://assistivetechgroupies.blogspot.com/
Natural Reader: One important feature it is FREE!! It will read any text aloud.
Kurzwell: Has an excellent program tool bar . The tool bar is color coded for ease of use. You can scan books, textbooks, tests with approval. Dual highlighting system. Picture dictionary as well as word dictionary. Voice notes good for kids who have difficulty writing. In any article scanned you can insert bubble notes. These can be multiple choice questions that the student can answer when reading. An excellent program but is pricey. We will be given time to explore Kurzwell next class so look for more info here.
My Study Bar Hotnotes- post it notes on your computer. Sunbird portable calendar will give alarms to remind students about tasks. Thunder reader- will tell you what you are doing as you go along, will not read what is on the internet. I like the small tool bar doesn’t take up a lot of screen space. Tiny Spell will ding when you have made a spelling mistake and give you the proper spelling good for students who have fine motor difficulties. Magnifier ,Rapid typing- typing tutor
Read and Write Gold: The was the software we presented to the class. It has many great features including text to speech, pronouncialtion tutor, PDF reader. I thought the reasearch tools were great. They were Cact Mapper, Fact Finder and Fact Folder. For a ton of more information here is our blog address. http://assistivetechgroupies.blogspot.com/
Natural Reader: One important feature it is FREE!! It will read any text aloud.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Interactive Games!
Here are some very interactive games for students who need reading remediation. Enjoy!
,
GameGoo- http://earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
helps develop early reading skills starting at the beginning stage with letter identification to the intermediate stageThis website goes from beginner to intermediate. with vowels and antonyms. The graphics will grab students attention.
Smories http://www.smories.com/
These are original stories for kids read by kids. The stories are broken down by age level and includes the words as well as being able to listed to the story.
Natural Reader http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm
NaturalReader is a Text to Speech software with natural sounding voices. It can convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpage, PDF files, and Emails into spoken words.
Into The Book http://reading.ecb.org/index.html
This website is filled with tools to help elementary students use reading strategies such as making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring etc. This website is amazing the students learn about what the stratedgy is, how to do it using an audio book and than allows them to try it on there own. TIt also includes videos of a teacher teaching students. The best thing it is completly FREE!
,
GameGoo- http://earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
helps develop early reading skills starting at the beginning stage with letter identification to the intermediate stageThis website goes from beginner to intermediate. with vowels and antonyms. The graphics will grab students attention.
Smories http://www.smories.com/
These are original stories for kids read by kids. The stories are broken down by age level and includes the words as well as being able to listed to the story.
Natural Reader http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm
NaturalReader is a Text to Speech software with natural sounding voices. It can convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpage, PDF files, and Emails into spoken words.
Into The Book http://reading.ecb.org/index.html
This website is filled with tools to help elementary students use reading strategies such as making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring etc. This website is amazing the students learn about what the stratedgy is, how to do it using an audio book and than allows them to try it on there own. TIt also includes videos of a teacher teaching students. The best thing it is completly FREE!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Reading Task Analysis
Here is my and my partner Joanne's view of reading as broken down into tasks. I think that it is amazing that five year olds can learn to read at all!
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