AT in the Writing Process

My previous blogs lately have been focusing on AT devices and how they can help students in and out of the classroom. We looked at students with Learning/Sensory Disabilities and how there are high/low tech devices that can improve their learning. This blog is going to look at the importance of the writing process. We are going to break down each stage and determine what is needed to support our students in the classroom.

As we all know to develop a writing process can be somewhat complex and at times confusing for us the teacher. Imagine that you are a student that is trying to understand the writing process. Better yet imagine you are a student with a learning disability that is trying to learn the writing process. It can be difficult and tedious. Our goal as the educator is to make this process as clear and effective as we can. Below there are going to be examples and ideas that you can teach you students in the classroom to help them better understand the writing process.

Step 1: Pre-writing (putting ideas together)

Graphic Organizers:  Great tool that is used in the classroom that can organize a student’s thoughts and create a purpose for writing. Inspiration Computer Software (as looked at in an earlier post) has an awesome tab dedicated to this topic. This is a great research tool to have in the classroom.

Step 2: Drafting (starting to write down a few ideas and form a paper)

Word Processing for Drafting:  a device that works great for students is a talking word processor. A talking word processor can read individual letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. This would work for students that have a reading or writing disabilities.

Word Prediction: as discussed in an earlier post, a word prediction software that can be used in the classroom is WordQ. WordQ works by predicting the next word that the student is typing.

Speech Recognition: like WordQ for word prediction, SpeakQ is used for students who have a reading or a writing disability. SpeakQ will help the student write an paper by using their speech (voice).

Step 3: Reviewing (reviewing your work)

Text–To-Speech: is a software that uses the student’s own words that were inputted into a device (computer) and verbally reads the words aloud. The student will be able to hear what he/she has written.  

Step 4: Editing (time to edit the work you have reviewed)

Phonetic Dictionary: students are editing at this stage in the game. One way for the student’s to edit their work is to use, Write:OutLoud ( link is HERE).This software provides much needed editing strategies. It will help the students to know the correct ways to edit their work.

Step 5: Publishing (final step in process)

Computers- students can use an computer to print out the completed  work. Students can also use the IPAD or PowerPoint to present their work.

This was a lot of information for one blog and you might feel overwhelmed, but trust me you will get it. It helped me to break out the steps and to look at each one individual. I highly enjoyed this blog and can’t wait to see what the next assignment brings.

References:
http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html