Low Tech Writing Tools

Whiteboards with Expo Markers

Stamps with numbers on them








Colored Pencils

I made a collection of these three things as low tech writing tools with math in mind. For students who have trouble showing their work in small spaces, a whiteboard with dry erase markers is perfect. Students who struggle with writing can also use number stamps to stamp their numerical answers into a provided space rather than than having to write it in with a pencil. Colored pencils can be used to help students distinguish what operations are being used. For example, if a problem is written in red, then subtraction must be used or if green is being used, then the student knows to use addition.

Animoto Book Talk

Here is a link to a book talk video I made about the book, Me and Uncle Romie. Animoto Book Talk Video

Book Talk using Cartoons

I created a cartoon book talk using the program, Comic Life. I talked about the book, Me and Uncle Romie, by Claire Hatfield.

Text-to-speech

Prior to this assignment, I had never used this feature before. I used this feature on a document I created that had a student's IEP goals in them. I have done a numerous amount of IEPs because all of my students' meetings are now expiring at the end of the year, so they were all starting to run together in my mind. With the text-to-speech feature, hearing what I typed actually allowed me to catch some grammatical mistakes that were in my document. For example, I typed his instead of her for a female student. I also forgot to enter a piece of criteria for a goal, and noticed it when I did not hear it played back.

Students who have learning disabilities can also benefit from this feature. In an article from ldonline.org by Dianne DeMott Painter, she explpained how she had a student who had difficulty with decoding. She had the student use a program called Talking Text, which used a speech synthesizer to talk as the student typed each word. If the word was not the one that the student wanted, he had to sound out the word until he heard the correct one or he had to use other references such as a dictionary or an outside spellcheck device.

Using text-to-speech features in word process tools can greatly benefit students of many different populations.

Reference
http://www.ldonline.org/article/5762/

Concordance

Below is a concordance of words for a chapter about characteristics of life. I made this concordance  using lextutor. (I could not find one on Amazon.)

ANIMALS   BACTERIA   BALANCE   BLOOD  BODY   BRACKET   BUDS   CELLS   CHARACTERISTICS  CHEMICAL   DNA  ENERGY ENVIRONMENT EVOLVED FUNGI  GENERATION GENETIC GROW HOMEOSTASIS INFORMATION INTERNAL LIFE LIVING MAIN MAINTAIN MAKE NORMAL NOT  NUCLEI NUCLEUS  OCEAN  OFFSPRING  ORDER  ORGANISMS PLANTS PROCESS PROCESSES PROTEINS REPRODUCE SPECIES WARM   

Concept Map as Part of the Writing Process (Revised)

Here is a concept map I made about the writing process (a revised one). It displays the steps of the writing process. I made this map using Smart Art in Microsoft Word.

Noun Project

Below is my collection of symbols for use of literacy symbols in math. The concept behind my selection is that these are all symbols that I teach my fourth graders. Because most of my students are reading below grade level, word problems and even directions are hard for my students to understand. With these symbols, I could display them and then put words with them so that the students understand what information is being given to them in word problems or what is being asked of them in directions.

etextbooks collection

Here is a link to a textbook for fourth grade reading curriculum (Journeys)
https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys2014/fl/gr4/ese_9780547894461_/launch.html

Here is a link to a textbook for fourth grade math curriculum  (Go Math)-
https://www-https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/math/gomath2013/fl/gr4/ese_9780547945392_/launch.html

Here is a link to a textbook for fourth grade reading curriculum for the end of the year. This magazine prepares students for fifth grade. (Journeys)
https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys2014/na/gr4/ese_9780547953014_/launch.html

This is a link for textbook that helps below-grade level readers in 4th grade. Students are able to write in this textbook (Journeys)
https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/journeys2014/na/gr4/ancillary_9780547896137_/launch.html

This a link to an e-newspaper about Florida History for fourth grade.
https://www.studiesweekly.com/online/resource/flexpaper/16589

Concept Map as Part of the Writing Process

Below is a screenshot of a concept map used to brainstorm ideas for the topic "What did you do on the weekend?'

I used word's Smart Art option to create this map.

Audio book reflection

The book I "read" was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This is the book we are using for my PLC at my school. The process to obtain the book was simple. Audible.com offers a 30-day free trial membership, so I downloaded the book using this site. It used my Amazon account information since Audible is an Amazon company. I downloaded the book to my account. From there, I downloaded the book to my computer and onto my iPod.

It was hard for my rely solely on the audio book because for me to best understand information, I need both audio and visual input. When I held the book in my hand and listened, I would start reading ahead of the narrator. I prefer to se the content than hear it.

Tech-Enhanced Literature Circle

A technology literature circle with my population would consist of the whole class because the class sizes at my school are very small (3-8 students). Each student is provided a laptop, but the process would require a lot of guidance. All of my students read significantly below grade level, so I do feel would have a hard time letting the students conduct the circle. I feel like it would not be as student led as it should be. One way I could allow it to be more student-based is to record myself signing the story and storing it on student computers, so that they can review the story as many times as they need to.

What Literacy Means to Me

(Also can be found in the discussion board) 

To me, literacy means the ability to read, write, and comprehend the words of a language in print.