This blog came about as a requirement for a graduate course I am taking, called, aptly, Assistive Technology. I will attempt to explain what assistive technology is, what sorts of technology exists and is available for children, in and out of the school setting. Children who resist writing do so for a reason; there is a struggle within for whatever reason. There are tools out there to help kids. I will explore some of the options.
Wordle is a GREAT program for reluctant writers because it is so FUN!! I cannot wait to use it with my students in the fall. Let me give you an example of usage. I went to a conference yesterday and this was my reflection on it:
Hi there
Am starting this a second time. I am to write a wordle on yesterday's
workshop that I went to at ATF.
As a side note, I worked at ATF during the summers of 1997 and 1998, the first summer on the crew (I was a terrible crew member; I did not
have the proper skill set for it)and the second season as an apprentice stage
manager. It has been quite a while since I have been in there, and it was like being in the show Cold Case walking in there.
I bumped into someone I went to teacher's college with at the University of Ottawa. It was so weird to see here there as it was out of context. Kaelin had been living and working in Whitehorse, but has come back to university to do her master's in counselling. Hopefully we can get together for a coffee or drink while I am here. I still have another round of courses to do before I leave, so I'll try and fit it in. As for the workshops, the first presenter Dr. Thomson was the the talk that I enjoyed the most.
She spoke about social justice, about how important it is to open as many doors as possible for our students.
She gave a case study of Brian Hooper, from Bournemouth, who between 2001 and 2009 made some radical changes to the school that he was the principal of. He put in supports, and addressed needs as they came up in the school.
Here are some articles relating to the case study:
Three things that matter (from Dr. Thomson's talk)
1. redesigning pedagogy (building on concerns, explicit about instruction, rethinking how we teach)
2. redesigning inclusion and social justice
3. rethinking the process of how we do school change/ redesigning school change (ex. strengthening school and community bonds)
Now, if you go into the link below you will see what Wordle turned the text into. What kid would not love that? I can imagine that it would make some children who are reluctant to begin writing feel as though they are 'real' writers.
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