It's All Greek to Me

Do you ever wonder what it's like to struggle with reading, spelling or writing? When I was visiting my daughter in Greece a few years ago while she spent a semester studying abroad, I had the chance to experience what it may be like for students who struggle with reading.

It had been many years since I had studied the Greek language as part of my heritage, and although I remembered the names of the letters, the sounds of the letters were not automatic. One syllable words were fairly easy; multi-syllabic words were painfully slow and difficult. It struck me that this may be what it's like for students who finding decoding challenging. Fluency and comprehension were out of the question.

I believe it's important to understand the struggles our students experience. Is it possible to put ourselves in the shoes of our students, even for a brief time? Trying to read an unfamiliar language, especially when it looks completely different ("It's all Greek to me!") is one way to simulate the experience. The PBS.org Misunderstood Minds website offers another way to experience learning challenges, specifically reading, writing, attention and mathematics firsthand .
When you get to the site, click on the text pictured to the left. You will have the opportunity to explore the challenges for yourself by choosing activities related to the skills. Next click the "Try It" links. It just might help you feel a bit more sympathetic to the attentional, reading, writing or math difficulties faced by your students. Understanding (potentially) increases awareness; awareness (potentially) improves instruction; instruction (potentially) improves learning.

What do you think? Which activity helped you to appreciate the struggles faced by your students?

New UDL Resources

It's easier than ever to learn about Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
Check these out -

1. A new Universal Design for Learning YouTube Channel


2. Two online instructional modules about UDL available here and described here:

These two online modules introduce the theory, principles and application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to teacher candidates and in-service teachers. They provide higher education faculty with a multimedia, interactive online-learning environment that can be embedded in instructional methods courses. They are designed to be flexible enough to be used as part of an online, hybrid or face-to-face course.

Please share this information with your colleagues.

A Success Story

One of my dreams is to work myself out of a job as an assistive technology consultant. Today, I came one step closer to realizing that dream.

Allow me to explain.

Last week, I offered a two hour workshop to a team of special educators. We talked about assistive technology consideration, guiding principles for technology integration, universal design for learning and free technology resources to support struggling learners. They had a chance to explore the Free Technology Toolkit Wiki. At the conclusion of the workshop, they were given an assignment to identify at least one resource to support their students, use it and then report back when we met again.

We reconvened today and our follow-up workshop started with small group discussions. Educators shared what worked and what didn't (because we know there are always obstacles). They heard each others ideas and got excited hearing how some of the tools effectively reached learners in new ways. A student who hated to write and typically avoided it, used Make Beliefs Comix and had FUN writing. Another student who has signficant spelling issues and can not correct his own work used Ginger Spelling to help him edit his work. Others shared their experiences with Voice Thread, UDL Book Builder and Wacky Web Tales.

The enthusiasm in the room was building. They needed the opportunity to continue to explore, collaborate and think outside the box.

It seemed the perfect time to introduce Word Magnets which I had recently discovered and blogged about. What would this group of K -5 educators do with Word Magnets? It was incredible watching them think up all kinds of creative activities for their students which they then added to an EtherPad, a collaborative, synchronous online writing space.

As we were reviewing the session, one participant asked if there was a way they could continue to collaborate. (Be still my heart!) There was uniform agreement that they needed and wanted to continue to share their ideas, successes and triumphs. Together they came up with a plan for how they could build upon the foundation they obtained from these two workshop sessions. It was incredible for me as the workshop facilitator to see how they were motivated to extend beyond these two workshops to make learning real for them and ultimately for their students. They recognized the skills they brought to the workshop and wanted to prolong the sharing and collaboration.

They accomplished tremendous things. I was just the facilitator. I am so grateful to be a catalyst who can now sit back and watch how they integrate the tools and strategies to support struggling learners in their district.

It was truly a great day. This is why I do what I do, so that teachers and students will no longer need assistive technology consulting because it is embedded in the culture of the school.

Word Magnets - Great Tool for Inclusive Classrooms

Jennifer Dorman (@cliotech) twittered about a resource she discovered today, which sounded intriguing. After spending a few minutes exploring it, I realized I had to share this cool, free online, interactive tool with my readers. Word Magnets is simple to use and perfect for Touch Monitors or Interactive WhiteBoards. How does it work and what does it do?

Word Magnets will take a piece of text and break it into individual magnets which can be moved around the screen, resized, removed, colour coded, grouped, sorted and so on. New magnets can also be added at any point.

You've probably used the low tech version - magnetic letters or words on your refrigerator. Try the new tech version with your students. There's an auditory cue every time you move, add or change the color of a word. Some students will benefit from the multisensory cues Word Magnet provides.

Here are some ideas to get you started in your inclusive elementary classroom.

1. Let your students take daily attendance














2. Categorize or sort - the example below shows sorting by parts of speech














3. Use as a Sequencing Activity














4. Use the Venn diagram background to help students understand relationships
5. Use the separated circles background to help students understand differences.
6. Explore the background options to take the tool to the next level.

I can't wait to recommend Word Magnets and see what ideas other teachers think of. One request for the Word Magnets creators - Please add the ability to save your work. Otherwise, I give this tool two thumbs up!