LESSON PLAN: Assistive Technology in the Writing Process

TOOLS & RESOURCES: 
Software:
AppleWorks. Apple Inc., Available: http://www.apple.com.
Co:Writer. Don Johnston., Available: http://www.donjohnston.com.
InspirationÆ. Inspiration., Available: http://www.inspiration.com.
ULTimate Reader. Cast., Available: http://www.cast.org.
Netscape Navigator. Netscape., Available: http://www.netscape.com.

Hardware:
iMac computers (1 for every 1 or 2 students). 
Available: http://www.apple.com.
scanner with OCR capabilities (optional)
color or b/w printer

Print Resources:
Learning Strategies Curriculum: The Error Monitoring Strategy (The University of Kansas, Lawrence Kansas, 1985)

ASSESSMENT:
The final written product is assessed using the Error Monitoring Score Sheet from the University of Kansas Learning Strategies materials.

CREDITS:
Nancy Amdor, Special Education Teacher, Corning High School namdor@aea14.k12.ia.us or namdor@mddc.com
Assistive Technology team members, Green Valley Area Education Agency #14, Kathy Cross
kcross@aea14.k12.ia.us

TIMELINE & COURSE OUTLINE:
This activity is one of several 3 to 5 day activities using these software's conducted in a secondary special education setting. Similar lessons are carried out throughout the school year as they can be worked into existing lessons in the reading, writing, and general education curriculum. Each student’s lessons are governed by an IEP. Nearly all secondary special education students have goals that relate to improvement of reading and writing, and generalization of reading and writing skills to the general education environment. The use of assistive technology software is used whenever possible.

COMMENTS:
Technology Resources:
The secondary special education teachers attended a summer workshop on the use of assistive technology, and the lessons utilizing assistive technology software for the reading and writing process are in their first year of use in the Corning, Iowa, School District.

Student outcomes vary greatly depending upon specific handicapping conditions.
We have used word prediction software (Co:Writer) with a freshman student who has a skin disorder called epidermolysis bullosa (EB) . This condition has caused digital fusion, and extensive skin erosions and blisters occur which are made worse by friction between the skin and anything it comes into contact with. Use of the software decreases the number of keystrokes needed to write. The amount of friction between his fingers and the keyboard is decreased, thus reducing the amount of injury to his skin while he carries out the writing process.

A sophomore student, whose reading and writing skills were previously measured at approximately the first grade level, was able to write several sentences independently during his first trial on Co:Writer software. The student (and his teachers) blinked back emotional tears when he realized that he was finally able to put his ideas on paper in a form that he could show to others without embarrassment.

Cost of the software titles I used is relatively inexpensive, costing around $400 for a bundle containing all three titles.

Due to my participation in a workshop, I had these software titles, among several others, on loan for the year for a trial period. Each was designed to assist or reinforce the writing process. The software I used in the lessons are those which I believe are the most useful at making writing easier for my students.

School Background Information:

• The population of Corning, Iowa is 1,783 people. Corning is deeply involved in industrial, retail, rural, economic and housing development and is an award-winning participant in the Main Street Iowa and National Main Street programs. 

• Corning High school is home to 219 students. All of the students (100%) are Caucasian and native speakers of English. 

Technology as Facilitator of Quality Education Model Components Highlighted in This Activity
http://www.intime.uni.edu/model/modelimage.html
(Note: This is a unit plan that may cover several days to several weeks. Not all of the elements from the Technology as Facilitator of Quality Education Model that are described below will appear in the video clips used.)

Principles of Learning:
Active Involvement - It is important that the learning disabled student be as actively involved as possible. Typically this type of student has more success when they "learn by doing", rather than passively "hear about" how something should be done or even watch someone else carrying out the task. I attempt to make sure that each individual has a specific task to carry out and that they know and understand how that relates to the overall objective. I always stress to the student that I would never ask them to do something I don't believe they are capable of doing.

Frequent Feedback - The students are monitored while they participate in the learning tasks, and frequent positive feedback is given. These kids have a genuine need for success experiences, and the frequent feedback provides them with reinforcement. These students also have a lower level of self motivation, so the feedback helps them to keep their attention on the assigned task.

Informal Setting - The classroom environment is informal, so as to be non-threatening for the students. Each feels comfortable in expressing their ideas openly and are not afraid to ask the teacher questions as they go about their work.

Information Processing:
Search - Matt Searches the Internet for photos that relate to his career and life ambitions. When he finds them, he is assisted in copying them for insertion into his Inspiration outline for a class project.

Interpretation - Jesse has good background knowledge, but is handicapped in the educational environment by his severe reading disability. In one segment, we scanned in an assignment so that the passages could be read to him by the computer's voice. In that way he was able to access the information from the printed page that normally would have remained uninterpretable by him.

Communication - Reading and written Communication is a challenge for the students that were highlighted. Using the computer software to improve the writing process was a main focus of the lessons.

Democracy:
Thinking Together and Making Meaning - I often use group brainstorming sessions before assigning an independent writing task. The students are getting better at "pig tailing" ideas from the contributions of others. The ideas discussed in group often helps to enlarge the creative repertoire of each individual as they begin the independent aspect of the writing task.

Empowerment and Power Sharing - Teaching the students to use the technology and encouraging them to use it on a regular basis empowered them to be more responsible for their own learning. They began to understand that they were making decisions each time they began a writing task, and they were positively reinforced each time a product was completed. As a teacher, I also like to answer as many of their questions as possible with a response of "What do you think?" or some similar phrase. When they respond with their own ideas I either reinforce or redirect to refine their ideas in as positive way as possible. It shows them that I believe their ideas are valuable. Subsequently, their confidence is increasing and an increase in independence is evolving.

Preservice Teacher Technology Competencies:
Equipment Operation - It was important for me as a teacher to know how to operate the various software so that I knew its capabilities and I was able to adapt it to enable my students to carry out their learning tasks more effectively. The students also had been previously instructed in the basics of the software, and had a general idea of how it worked, and why it was being used.

Adaptive Assistive Technology - I began using the Co Writer and Inspiration software during the 1999-2000 school year after attending a 2 day workshop sponsored by our AEA's Assistive Technology Team. The focus was using Adaptive Adassistive Technology software in the writing process. Although the students have to put in extra time to learn how to use the software, and initially it takes them longer to produce their writing, they all agreed that ultimately it made them better writers and, indirectly, better thinkers.

Word Processing - Encouraging these learning disabled students to use computer Word Processing is important to their success. The students' handwriting is often sloppy and difficult to read, and presenting their writing in a neat and easy-to-read package not only helps the students' self-esteem, it also often allows the classroom teachers to get past their own struggle to decipher student writing to evaluate the ideas that have been expressed. Students are more willing to write if the appearance of their final product is more mature.

Graphic Organizer Software - Students were instructed on the use of Inspiration® as a Graphic Organizer Software to help them to process and organize the ideas they generated or gathered to complete their assignments. When they were able to visualize how the ideas interrelated, they were more able to create outlines and use them to compose lengthy written selections demonstrating a series of main ideas and supporting sentences relating to a central theme. For most of the students involved, they were actually surprised at the length of their finished products, as they had previously struggled with getting just a few sentences or a short paragraph on paper.

Teacher Knowledge:
Knowledge of Student Characteristics - It is important to know the educational and emotional characteristics of the individual students. Being aware of their skills strengths and weaknesses allows me to modify the learning tasks and avoid setting the student up for failure. Being able to "read" subtle facial expressions, gestures, or student behaviors allows me gauge student success or frustration level, and enables me to adjust my own teacher behaviors to avoid potential problems. When in the Resource Room setting, all tasks must be highly individualized because of the wide range of academic, social, and emotional abilities represented. We strive to adapt the skills we teach to make them meaningful for the individual student, and to use them in conjunction with courses they are taking within the integrated general education environment. In the activities highlighted on the video, each student's assignment was slightly different based on their individual needs at the time of the lesson.

Classroom Management - I believe flexibility is a key to Classroom Management. The ability to continually adjust my teaching behaviors depending on the constant verbal and non-verbal cues I get from my students allows me to be effective as a classroom behavior manager.

Student Characteristics:
This is an activity that is designed to be used with students of varying abilities. The achievement levels of students in my program range from the first grade to high school levels, with adaptive behavioral levels also representing a wide range. The software is easily adaptable to all levels, and that is why it is used with such diverse students in my room. I chose the students to participate in the video with me to show adaptations to a wide range of abilities.

How the Activity Has Evolved Over Time:
When the software was first introduced at the beginning of the year, each lesson was designed to use just one of the software titles in isolation. As the year has gone on, and the students have become more familiar with it, I have tried to integrate two or more software titles into the same activity. This allows the students to move from one step to another with the same information and then apply it to more advanced sequential tasks. I hope that as the students continue to gain familiarity with the software, they begin to choose for themselves which software would work more effectively with the task they need or want to complete.

(Learning activity format adapted from National Educational Technology Standards for Students Connecting Curriculum & Technology  http://cnets.iste.org/students/)

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                                                  Last updated: 03/18/08