ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING
Presenter(s)
Linda Hecker
Landmark College Institute for Research and
Training
1 River Rd South
Putney, VT 05346
Day Phone: 802 387 6735
Fax: 802 387 6762
Email: lhecker@landmark.edu
Overview
One of the greatest challenges to academic
success for students with learning disabilities, as well as other groups of
under-prepared students, is the ability to accurately and efficiently extract
and recall information from expository texts such as textbooks and articles.
This has been well documented in K-12 schools across the nation, and the
problem persists into post-secondary education, with large numbers of students
with learning disabilities assigned to remedial and developmental reading
courses as they enter college (Achieve, Inc. 2005). Causes of poor
performance on measures of reading comprehension are complex, but they include
difficulty with efficient decoding (word recognition) and a lack of instruction
in the upper grades in a strategic approach to understanding complex text (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004).
basic
decoding skills as well as explicit strategy instruction aimed at increasing
comprehension.
One of the most promising avenues for helping
students improve their skills in reading comprehension involves the use of
Assistive Technology to compensate for deficits in decoding, attention, and
memory as well as to scaffold students in becoming more strategic readers.
Faculty at
Our work built on a small but growing research
base that strongly suggests that assistive technology is generally not
effective for students with LD unless it is combined with instructional and
learning strategies that permit students to take advantage of the power of the
technology. The Active Reading Cycle, the focus of this session, is one
example of
Research Base for Combining Assistive Technology
and Learning Strategies
Assistive technology is most effective for
students with LD when it is combined with instructional and learning strategies
that permit students to take advantage of the power of the technology. This
general principle has been demonstrated in research involving assistive
technology for reading For example,
studies of the effects of screen reading software by students with LD have
found positive effects on fluency but not on comprehension without integrated
instruction in comprehension and study strategies (MacArthur et al., 2001).
Preliminary studies by Ellen Engstrom at Landmark
College and by researchers at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
have similarly explored the benefits of combining instruction in
research-proven comprehension strategies such as SQ3R and reciprocal teaching
with text-to-speech software and electronic texts with built in scaffolding
such as maps, illustrations, dictionaries and prompts to employ those
strategies at appropriate times (En!
gstrom,
2004; Pisha & O’Neill, 2003).
The Landmark College Active Reading Cycle
The
Landmark College Active Reading Cycle provides students with learning
disabilities with a step-by-step strategic process for comprehending text
beyond the literal level and storing important information in long term memory.
The process is made more accessible to students with decoding, memory and
attention deficits by being supported at all stages by Assistive Technology,
including text-to-speech, graphic organizer, and the Reviewing Toolbar (in MS
Word). The steps include:
1. Previewing the text
looking for titles, headings, subtitles, captions and graphics in order to get
the overview or “gist”
2. Using the Read function of text-to-speech to
accurately, efficiently decode text and track all lines of text sequentially
3. Using the Study Skills toolbar of
text-to-speech programs such as Kurzweil 3000 or WYNN
to
a. Highlight main ideas, key supporting details,
and new vocabulary
b. Margin note observations
about text structure and paraphrase main ideas
4. Using the Dictionary
feature of text-to-speech to define unfamiliar words
5. Using the Extract feature of text-to-speech to
extract
a. Main ideas and details for a study guide
b. Margin and side notes that delineate text organization
c. Vocabulary with definitions
6. Using graphic organizer software such as
Inspiration to create a concept map of key ideas
7. Converting the graphic organizer to outline form,
exporting into a word processing program to create a written summary
8. Using the Reviewing Toolbar to revise the written
summary
9. Using text-to-speech software to proofread summary for accuracy
This
process has been classroom-tested over the last three years at
References
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Inc. & National Governors Association. (2005). An
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