Clicker 5 and Cloze Pro activities

I really enjoyed today's class. It's not often that teachers have the time to work together and to explore software programs that can benefit our students. I can definitely understand where classroom teachers are coming from when they say that they would like to use technology more often with their students but don't have the time to explore what's available, never mind creating lessons from scratch. That's why I think that it's essential for software companies and educators share the lessons they have developed. I plan to check out the ready made activities for programs, such as Classroom Suite, that we have installed on a number of computers at my school. I think teachers are much more receptive to using these programs when activities are ready to use or require only minimal changes to meet particular students' needs.

The Write Stuff

Our dissection of the writing process during our last class was a real eye opener. It's hard to
believe, when some children come into grade primary who have never held a pencil before, that they can be writing in complete sentences within a year or so. As my partner and I attempted to illustrate in the diagram below, there are a multitude of cognitive, visual, auditory and motor skills involved in this very complex process. For those students with deficits or difficulties in any of these areas, assistive technology can help to bridge the gaps.

Computer software programs such as Kurzweil, Clicker 5, Inspiration and Kidspiration and Cloze Pro can make a world of difference to students who need some extra support in order to communicate their ideas in writing. The following links are for tutorials for a few of these programs:

Write Out Loud video tutorials

Cloze Pro video tutorials

Clicker 5 video tutorials

The Writing Process

Support software for language learning

From computers reading text aloud, to word prediction software to interactive pictures and buttons, language learning in the classroom has come a very long way since my years in elementary school. Students who have been diagnosed with physical disabilities or learning disabilities or who remain undiagnosed but are struggling to meet the demands of a text based curiculum now have options that did not exist a couple of decades ago.

As a Resource teacher, I have seen the pride and excitement in children's faces as they discover that they can perform language tasks independently, thanks to some form of assistive technology. This technology helps us tap into the knowledge and creativity that may have been hidden within the pencil/paper methods of traditional classrooms. I think it is critical that we do everything we can to ensure that our students can communicate their ideas.