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UDL: Using No Cost and Low Cost AT Tools for Writing
Karen Janowski
Assistive Technology Consultant
Thoughts?
Cause for concern?70% of students in grades 4-12 are low achieving writers (according to NAEP)
More than 7,000 students drop out of school daily and they are typically in the lowest 25% of their class
College instructor’s estimate that 50% of HS graduates are not prepared for college level writing
Cause for concern?
National Commission on Writing reports that employers (both public and private) say writing is critical in the workplace and “directly affects hiring and promotion decisions”
What skills are required to become a proficient writer?
Inspiration document
Group Bulletin Board
bit.ly/infinitec
What skills are necessary for writing competence?
Sustained Mental Effort
Selective Attention
Graphomotor FunctionVisual recall
Motor Automaticity
Regulation
Ideation – IDEAS!!Brainstorming/Topic Selection
Research
Elaboration
MemoryMotor Memory
Active Working Memory
Expressive LanguageVocabulary
Word Retrieval
OrganizationNarrative GenerationPlanfulness/PreviewingSequential approachRevision
Mel Levine’s Work
Where is the Breakdown?
http://flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/276131991/
And what can be done to fix it?
http://flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/276131991/
UDL
http://udl4all.pbworks.com/f/1214179044/UDLWordle.jpg
Multiple Methods of …
Engagement
Presentation
Expression
Proactive
Embedded
Reaches all Learners
Ira Socol’s blog post
Toolbelt Theory
What Word processing tricks do you show your
students?
Titan Pad
Research Considerations
Elementary school children spend 31% to 60% of their school day on fine motor tasks including handwriting.
McHale & Cermak, 1992
Studies show teachers grade papers with better handwriting higher.
Only difference was quality of writing.
Students are less hesitant to reevaluate and edit their written work produced on a computer.
(Graham and MacArthur, 1988, Jones, 1996
Productivity increases (Mayer-Nichols, 1996)
Quality increases (Jones, 1996)
Keyboarding
Discussion
Benefits
Improvement in :
language arts — reading, spelling, and writing ability.
efficiency in using the computer as a writing, editing, and computing tool, thereby maximizing classroom time.
attitude toward writing—less frustration in looking for keys rather than entering information.
Benefits
Improvement in:
motivation
creativity
Rogers, H. (2003). Elementary keyboarding issues.
When?Introduce formal keyboarding BEFORE
frequent computer use
Top 10 Goals of Teaching KB
Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique Technique TechniqueAccuracy Speed
Teaching Keyboarding – When? Why? How?
Studies indicate a dramatic increase in language arts skills as a result of children inputting words and sentences frequently using a computer.
THE STATUS OF ELEMENTARY KEYBOARDING: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY
By Harriet Rogers
The maximum expectation for a one-minute timing:
5-10 wpm for 2nd grade students
10-15 wpm for 3rd grade students
15-25 for 4th & 5th grade students
WPM
Custom Solutions
Custom Solutions for Special Needs
Custom Solutions Assessment
Assistive Technology Assessment:Developing a Written Productivity Profile by Decoste (Don Johnston)
Readwritethink.org
Explore the Interactive Student Materials
Importance of Text-to-speech
Why?
Student Example
Case Study
Research Considerations
Writing Next
11 Key Elements to Improve
Writing Achievement in Grades 4 - 12
Writing Strategies - explicit instruction in writing process
Summarization - explicit instruction
Collaborative Writing
Specific Product Goals - identifies purpose & characteristics of final product
Word Processing
11 Key Elements to Improve
Writing Achievement in Grades 4 - 12
Sentence Combining – promoting more complex, sophisticated writing. Combining two or more basic sentences into one
Prewriting – to generate & organize ideas
Inquiry Activities – experiential, provide engaging activities to develop ideas; compare/contrast, collecting and evaluating evidence
11 Key Elements to Improve
Writing Achievement in Grades 4 - 12
Process Writing Approach - writing for real audiences, promoting planning, reviewing, reflecting, self-evaluation, offering personalized individual assistance, customized instruction, stresses ownership of writing
Study of Models - provides models for each type of writing that is the focus of instruction
Writing to Learn – using writing to learn content
Findings of Meta-Analysis
Three Core Recommendations
Writing Practices that Enhance Reading
Have students write about the texts they read
React, reflect, analyze, interpret
Summarize
Answer questions in writing
Writing Practices that Enhance Reading
Explicit instruction
Writing process
Paragraph Construction
Spelling Skills
Writing Practices that Enhance Reading
Increase Quantity of Writing
Writing improves Comprehension
Writing improves fluency
Writing improves decoding
so, what are we doing to increase writing opportunities for our struggling writers?
Five Paragraph Essay
?
Writing Process
Brain Pop Video
Writing Process
Pre-Writing
Writing
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com
Explore
Writing Tools
Free Text-to-speech
Graphic Organizers
Multimedia and Digital Story Telling
Questions to Consider
What am I currently doing? Is it working?
What can I add to my bag of tricks?
Is this UDL? Toolbelt Theory? RTI?
What will I try with my students tomorrow?
Target at least two new tools to use next week.
Making Connections to the Research
Task Analysis
What skills are needed for this task?
What is the point of this academic task?
Resources
National Writing Project – Teaching Writing