Using Existing Tools to Support Diverse Learners

1. Using Existing Tools to Support Diverse Learners Regional Technology in Education Consortia Presentation to Spring CUE Presenting from the WestEd RTEC Julie Duffield, Linda Ullah, and Kent Graeber February , 2004

2. 3 Things We Need to Consider • Need to tailor instruction to meet student needs • Technology as a primary change force • Teachers as the key

3. Sit & Consider Think of the students you teach: • Think of your most capable student • Think of 3 things s/he was good at • Think of a student who struggled • Think of 3 things s/he was good at • How different are those two students? • How different are the things they were good at? Can we expect these two students to benefit equally from the same instructional program? Tailoring instruction to meet student needs - it’s not going away…

4. Good news, good news Good news for kids….. Teachers focus & design instruction Good news for teachers….. Technology is a key to differentiate instruction

5. Differentiated learning • “ is a model of instruction that revolves around the belief that students learn in many different ways.”

6. A Simple Definition A differentiated classroom provides multiple options for: X • Taking in information • Making sense of information • Expressing what students learn CONTENT PROCESS PRODUCTS

7. What does PLB offer? “a framework in which to make differentiated instruction possible.”

8. A Process that features… a teaching methodology that centers on a problem learner-centered educational methods learning from working with problems

9. Instruction is designed around Engagement Exploration Investigation Creation & Sharing

10. Reflection: What are the shared philosophies between PBL and Differentiation?

11. A Thought… • PBL Curriculum offers a framework in which to make differentiated instruction possible.

12. The Case for Technology “Durable learning starts with engagement.”

13. It offers? Universal Design To Support Differentiation, Engagement and Learning

14. Technology enables more than a “one size fits all” Images from CAST

15. Digital media and materials allows for • Digital media and materials allows for • Multiple representations • Different learners use different aspects • Scaffolding can be built in • Other languages can be added • General search tools like Google can be used

16. It is Flexible & Versatile. Stand & Consider: Tale of Two Cities …It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of Tale of Two Cities …It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of Images from CAST

17. Some Tips for Differentiated Instruction Using Technology • Use graphic organizers • Make the text talk (text-to-speech) • Find electronic text • Use Word features • Use portable word processors

18. Using Graphic Organizers

19. Why use graphic organizers Top three reasons • generate ideas (brain-storming, etc.) • organize & display information • aid learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge

20. Why use graphic organizers A few more reasons… • assess understanding or diagnose misunderstanding • can increase recall • design a complex structure (long texts, large web sites, etc.) or communicate complex ideas

21. Who does it help? • Students who benefit from seeing relationships between information • Students who enjoy an interactive process

22. Factors Influencing Effectiveness • Instructional context: Graphic organizers can be effective learning tools when implemented within a substantive instructional context, particularly a interactive/collaborative approach involving teacher modeling, student-teacher discussion, and practice with feedback.

23. Organization of Observations & Ideas • Visual Organizers that allow text & images are good for seeing, reflecting and modifying students’ ideas & concepts and connections among them

24. Text to Symbols

25. Webbing Concept mapping Matrix Flow chart Venn diagram Time line Ideas for graphic organizers

26. Examples within PBL Process • Assessing Prior Knowledge around a problem (e.g KWHL) • Setting Up the Problem (P/S Outline) • Deciding on the Project (Spider Map) • Students Choosing a Topic • Setting Up the Problem/Quest

27. Assessment – e.g prior knowledge using KWHL Chart • KWHL Chart

28. Deciding On The Topic

29. Setting up the problem

30. Exploring and Investigating • Beginning Research (Compare & Contrast) • Note Taking • Summarizing • Making a Content Map

31. Researching for Compare & Contrast

32. Assessment • Pre/Post (KWHL) • Summarizing • Creating a Rubric (Rubi Star) • Demonstrating Understanding(Duck)

33. Demonstrating understanding

34. Graphic organizer generators http://www.teach-ology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/ http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/ http://cbss.uoregon.edu/clearing/index.html#

35. Bonus: Visualization of Processes Commerical –Visual Thesaurus

36. Making the Text Talk

37. What is talking text? • Words on the screen are read by the computer, on command. • In some cases, the words need to be highlighted first. • allows reading of individual words or phrases. • works with word processors, websites, and more. • often called text-to-speech.

38. Who does it help? • Those who could benefit from auditory input to support reading and finding information • Students who struggle with the task of composing grammatically correct sentences; • Those who could benefit from hearing omissions or inaccuracies in their work;

39. What does research say? • If a great deal of effort goes to sounding out words, energy for comprehension is reduced. • Many students improve editing and proofreading. • Hearing one’s own words is rewarding and motivating.

40. Using talking text • in PBL as part of Exploration & Investigation – researching information on the WWW /Internet read aloud –to support different readers • as a differentiation that allows a choice in how to access content

41. PBL Examples • Graphic Organizers (e.g Setting Up the Problem, Scaffolding audio word lists,) • Word Processing (Product, Paper, Summary) • WWW

42. Exploring and Investigating • Research on Internet Low tech- various books at different reading levels, interviewing different folks Internet read aloud – can scaffold learning by providing a multi sensory access to content Supporting “reading across the content areas”

43. Assessment/Reflection • Graphic organizer – children explaining diagram • Doing a “Taking” PowerPoint Presentation etc

44. Demo: Life Cycle • Go to Web Site on Life Cycle • Copy and Paste Text from Web into Word Processing • E.g. Text from the WWW brought into Simple Text and Read Aloud • Change the font

45. CAST Real Player Clip- Life Cycles

46. How to provide talking text Macintosh (10.3.1) Speech Preferences • Finder menu, System Preferences, Speech, Spoken User Interfaces • Set Key to read highlighted text (Command plus L) • Choice of voices & rate (under Default Voice)

47. How to provide talking text Macintosh (10.2 or earlier) • Download free utility called HearIt http://www.ldresources.com/files/hearit.sea.hqx • Install as a control panel and restart. • Set key combination (Hit Control plus \ to hear text.) (Select a key not frequently used by other software.) • Works with highlighted text in any program • Deselect text to stop the talking. • (SimpleText also talks)

48. AppleWorks talks, as well • Open a Word Processing document. • Highlight text and click “lips” or “text to speech” icon in the button bar. • If there is no “talking” icon in the tool bar: • Open Preferences, Available buttons, Word Processing • Drag “lips” into button bar, click “done”.

49. How to provide talking text Windows XP & 2000 - Free downloads • Alive Text http://www.alivemedia.net/textspeech.htm • Text Aloud is another option, also with free download : http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/download.html

50. How to provide talking text Microsoft Reader for Windows and the Text-to-Speech Package • Works with Windows 98, 2000, EP, Me http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.asp