For my assistive technology for students with LDs, I played around with creating a thinglink in conjunction with an infographic I found off the web (see final product here). I was unsure how to begin or what kind of infographic to choose and I have to say, looking around the thinglink website offered a lot of inspiration as did the tool itself. In the end, as our LD lesson focused around dyslexia, a reading disorder, and as my learners are pre-readers, I decided to choose an infographic about basic phonics. The infographic is basically an alphabet chart but with the added value of a pronunciation guide in a visually attractive and cohesive manner, leading to a lower affective filter (the emotional barrier associated with learning a language) as well as lower cognitive demand due to the appealing and organized "look" of the infographic.I would implement this tool by using it as a review of letters, rather than a first step in teaching. I would give all students the link to this infographic on our school's education platform and students could use it at their own pace to practice letters. That way, students only need to review the letters that they have trouble with. The activities provided on the harder letters (vowels, x, and, c) offer extra help in the form of worksheets, games, or songs, so that students with many different learning styles can benefit and be given equal advantage in letter-learning. This is also very helpful for dyslexic students, who, with the videos and games, are offered opportunities to learn visually (non-text), auditorily, and kinesthetically. It would be amazing if you could imbed quizzes and questions that can be tracked to measure student progress as well as student participation at home.
I really enjoyed learning about and utilizing assistive tools that can not only benefit students with LDs but any student who has an atypical learning style. Everyone can benefit from decreased cognitive overload - it allows for increased learning on the really important stuff - the content!
You know I was looking for a colorful chart for pronunciation so this definitely will work. This would have been a great tool when I worked at Sylvan with beginning readers on phonemic awareness and with ELs on pronunciation. Is there a specific age group you feel this tool is more appropriate for (elementary, junior high)?
ReplyDeleteHi Toney. I made it with a young population in mind, especially the songs and activities associated with the letters. But it could easily be adapted for an older population with more age-appropriate links. Or adding some sort of graded component where you can check their progress. With the babies it's kind of hard to do any at-home assessment!
DeleteToby, I think it is a great idea that you incorporated the pronunciation with the letters. That is a great idea for those with dyslexia. Would you give this to your current student group? I know you are working with younger learners now, so do think that you could do this in the classroom to as an activity and then you could play a full alphabet song.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I wouldn't expect toddlers to do this at-home, so it would have to be an in-class activity. With the kids I work with now, they're only just starting to learn letters so I could use this weekly to practice the new letters they learn (rather than creating a new phonics lesson each week!).
DeleteThis is an amazing way to use Thinglink, and even though your example is for early childhood learners, the format can totally work for older students with different content. Imagine an infographic of the presidents of the United States and on each picture there would be a link to a website that gives more information about that president. It's an amazing format for organizing research information. Very cool, Toby!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! Presidents would be a great way to use it too! I love thinglink :)
DeleteToby, AWESOME! Wow, I spent a bit of time on my Thinglink, but looking at yours...wow. Looks like a lot of fun for the kids to do at home with their parents. Super cool. I'm going to try and think harder about how I can try this activity again and make it available to my students who might be able to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy!! I'm glad it inspired you :)
DeleteHey Toby!
ReplyDeleteThis infographic is awesome! And Starfall phonics is an excellent tool. For your young learners this site also offers a pdf booklet containing all of the letters where they can practice writing them, identifying the differences between capital letters and lowercase letters, and drawing pictures of words that start with the letter they are working on. If you remind in class, I can forward you the booklet via email. I printed it out and had it bound at the print shop on campus. It only cost 18 shekels :-)
This activity you created also seems like a great way to get parents involved if they time and to work on students' digital literacy in a safe and constructive manner.
Thanks B (I had no idea who B was until I opened up my computer)!
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