Assistive Tech Reading Responses
Chapter 7 - Jessica (Letter Example)
We have seen that Jessica's performance level in math is below level, but we are working on developing her skills. She seems to struggle with addition and subtraction, but her ability to identify and count coins could help her work on these weaknesses. Using her strengths to combat her weaknesses will be beneficial in our attempts to catch her up. Because she is included in our general education classroom, other factors such student interaction may distract her. However, we could also use these students as tools to help catch her up. Our classroom has a wide variety of teaching tools, such as iPads and Chromebooks that may help Jessica with extra resources or learning tools. However, I would like your parental advice and opinion on which tools you believe to best fit Jessica's needs. I also believe Jessica may be able to help us in determining which tools she likes to use best. As a short term IEP goal, I would like to set an expectation that Jessica uses some form of technology (either a Chromebook, iPad, or her own device from home) in which she uses a math review app to work on her addition at least 20 minutes every day. Hopefully, but continual practice of this skill she will feel more comfortable with her progress. Overall, I feel that we will be able to help her mathematical abilities grow to a 3rd grade level, like the rest of her peers so long as we continue to monitor and assess her progress.
Sincerely,
Ms. Lehner
Chapter 8 - Amelia (Letter Example)
I believe visually cued instruction may be of benefit to Amelia. Visually cued instruction is a pedagogical approach that focuses on the visual appearance of the material to students, such as the use of videos, photographs, drawings, or symbols. One beneficial tool that I believe will help Amelia is a Photo Schedule. Because she struggles with extended projects, and long assignments, breaking down each assignment into subcategories with pictures and check boxes for each subcategory, Amelia should see herself progressing and assess how much more work she needs to put into each assignment. It should help alleviate the stress she feels from being overwhelmed by long assignments. If Amelia has her own personal device, I believe that the Visual Schedule Planner app may be of benefit to her, in which she can personalize her own picture calendar. Overall, I think this addition to her usual curriculum will benefit her in the long run and help her to avoid her procrastinating habit.
Sincerely,
Ms. Lehner
Chapter 9 - Educators (Letter Example)
As we all know, we follow a Functional Behavior Assessment process, in which we use a multimethod problem-solving strategy that identifies who, when, and where a student is most likely to exhibit a challenging behavior. With this assessment, we have been able to minimize unruly behaviors among our students. However, now we would like to focus on the positive behaviors of our students, so we are looking to implement more PBS, or Positive Behavior Supports. These supports focus on changing your classroom environments to support and encourage good behaviors rather than condone bad ones, so that students can be more motivated to behave in an acceptable manner. Requirements of this plan are as follows: a description of the challenging behavior, an adaption being made to the curriculum to combat this behavior, and a goal of the plan. These will be necessary requirements that will be checked for by administration during our rounds to classrooms. Some assistive technology can be helpful with your plans, and as administration we are here to support you all in finding the appropriate resources. One app that could assist in this area of your instruction is called "Classroom Dojo." It helps students to see what behaviors are supported and also publicly recognizes students if the instructor does not have the time to stop class and focus on them. Hopefully this example will help you all to find what tools you need to implement some PBS in your classrooms. We expect some drafts of your PBS plans to be submitted by the start of next quarter. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
ABC High School Administration