Apps to Support Students with Dyslexia

At the moment the topic of Dyslexia is huge in the minds of educators.  This is because most educators have students who suffer effects of diagnosed dyslexia or are presenting signs of undiagnosed dyslexia in our classrooms today.  

The number of these students are increasing and the support given to schools and educators who are working one on one with these students in general is limited.  As educators all we want to do, is be able to empower our students by teaching them the skills and strategies to achieve, and watch them experience success as they face the demands of a school day.

As a language-based disorder, dyslexia is often associated with speech problems, word recognition and spelling difficulties.  While dyslexia is a lifelong learning difficulty, early and effective methods can decrease its impact and help dyslexic students maintain the same learning level as their peers. 

Within the classroom today technology enables educators to offer amazing opportunities for their students with learning difficulties.  The secret is to be able to source the resources that best meets the demands of these learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

As educators it is our job to enable all students to achieve and perform to the best of their ability, this can be achieved when they are provided with the necessary support, resources and the right environment to thrive in.  

Below are a couple of links that may have just what you are looking for, check them out, assess what is best for your learner, and add to your classroom iPad.  

7 Apps for Dyslexia

50 iPad apps for Dyslexia

NZ has some amazing resources to support educators on their journey to understand dyslexia and approaches to use within the classroom and for whanau.  These NZ Ministry of Education resources can be viewed via the following links...

NZ Ministry of Education - Dyslexia

4D The New Thinking Paradigm

Technology is but one way to support your students with learning difficulties.  A few years ago I worked closely with Tracy my wonderful RTLB - Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour.  Tracy applied the Ron Davis approach to teaching and learning for a student presenting signs of dyslexia and had successful results in reading, writing and above all the students self worth.


Ron Davis Program

An enlightening Ted Talk - Ted Youth...



Dyslexia - Australia

Dyslexia SPELD Foundation

Numeracy Symposium 2013

WOW - my second year in a row sharing with like minded teachers the skills of integrating iPads into the Numeracy Programme.

I was able to share and showcase a couple of new ideas.  One new app that stood out this year was the Te reo Maori app with links to the numeracy project - tumeke.

Also the SMAR model - this I believe is a very valuable tool for all teachers with an iPad in their classroom to check out and ask themselves the curly questions about their delivery and application of iPads into their classroom routines.

Numeracy Symposium 2012

Connecting the Dots... Today I presented the following keynote at the Numeracy Symposium in Dunedin.  Our school has been on a journey integrating iPads into the daily class programme.  It has certainly been a time of implementing ideas, trialling and reviewing what is the best fit for our school.  In areas of managing and uploading apps to integrating the use of apps within all curriculum programmes. 

It is paramount to find ways to effectively implement iPads into the class programme where Teachers will continue to meet the learning needs of the students.  Deliberate teaching is essential and this takes time for teachers to play and learn what apps meet the specific needs of their students.

I have focussed on finding apps that support differentiation due to the various needs of my students.  These apps will also allow students to develop their learning with next step opportunities. 

Within my maths programme I have used the ShowMe app with my teaching groups and independent group practice activities.  They have emailed this evidence of learning to me which I am able to identify gaps and next steps.  Students have taken photos and video footage of their learning and attached this to their Show Me recordings.  This is great when we are making links with maths in the real world around us (Strand and Number Domains).  E.g., Measure 1/3 of the length of D Block, Share 5 wafers between 4 people, How would you measure this area of the quad? etc.

The ICT workshop rotations in my numeracy programme caters for basic recall activities.  Students get 5mins or 3 games of a particular maths game e.g., Maths Bingo, Super7.  The iPads are also used for the study ladder workshop to watch tutorials or complete activities.

After my introduction to the Accelerated Learning In Maths programme last week I was keen to find memory match maths games to focus a target group of students and their learning during the maths warm up and cool down sessions within my daily maths pogramme.With thanks to Carol from Christchurch I have a takeaway from my workshop. I found an app named Math Adventures - this is actually a programme that links with the numeracy stages.Have you been hunting for that unusual request of a 10 sided dice - go no further iRollDice has 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20 sided dice to roll and record.


In preparation for the workshop I came across the following apps which I will be exploring and considering implementing into our daily maths programme.Educreations - an app similar to ShowMe but has a keyboard for neat freaks like me!Hands on Maths - these apps provide a range of digital versions of hands on manipulative tools.  These could be UK based???When presenting with your iPad use an iPad dongle or the reflection app.I have created a google doc for all workshop participants - please add your Take Aways (what did you get from the workshop and plan to trial or implement in the near future) to this doc and any other useful apps / ideas etc for integrating iPads into the daily Maths Programme.  I look forward to collaborating and sharing with you all :)

                         









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Check this out...

iPad Training

Last week I was fortunate to attend iPad training with Online Computers and presenter Staurt Hale -Education Adviser in eLearning.  I came away with some new found knowledge and app resources which was tremendous.

iPads
My biggest questions for the use of iPads in schools is managing the ipad apps and itunes accounts.  I put a discussion post up on the Virtual Learning Network after the training and more than 30 discussion posts were added - WOW!
The other big discussion topic seems to be creating the apps to meet the needs of the individual classroom or manage them in a way that they all host the same apps so they can be used in a pod type style - classroom versus pod!

I believe it is extremely important to give the teacher ownership of the ipad as they are the teaching and learning motivator within their classroom.  Lack of ownership becomes lack of interest!
With my new knowledge and discussion comments to research I will endeavor to create the use of iPads in our school using an ownership friendly approach that will be budget compatible.

BYOD
It was only 2 months ago that I had to reveal my ignorance and ask what the acronym Bring Your Own Devices to School was all about, with the thanks to AnneK I was informed of this new concept.  I learnt more today about this concept and do see how beneficial it will be in eLearning focussed environments.  With the support of school values and ICT Policies there will be great things to come.  Check out Berkley Normal Middle School iPods in schools policies, guidelines etc.

Welcome to the World of ipads

We have just had our senior classes equipped with two apple ipad2 per class.  The secret is now to find the best possible way to use the ipads to the best of its potential for child centered learning throughout the whole school day. I found the following interesting resource that will help us on this new but exciting journey.

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzIxZ2RrNWp0ZDg&hl=en_US



Using iPads in Education: Resources for teachers using iPads in the classroom

http://bit.ly/pIxQ52