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Get ready for some fantastic news from Texthelp\u2014your go-to for making learning accessible and joyful for every student.<\/p>\nGet ready for some fantastic news from Texthelp\u2014your go-to for making learning accessible and joyful for every student.<\/p>\n
Over the last decade, I\u2019ve had the privilege of collaborating with Texthelp<\/a> on numerous occasions.<\/p>\n Time and again, they\u2019ve proven themselves as a steadfast ally in our shared mission to make education accessible for all students. I deeply respect their dedication to developing practical, free resources for educators.<\/p>\n They’ve whipped up three incredible guides packed with expert tips to spice up your teaching.<\/p>\n From easy-peasy captioning tricks to making lessons visually vibrant and beyond, these resources are game-changers.<\/p>\n Whether you’re looking to enhance reading skills or make content more engaging for every learner, these guides have got you covered.<\/p>\n Dive in and watch your classroom transform into a place where learning knows no bounds.<\/p>\n 3 Essential Guides for Teachers: Adapting Instruction to Every Student Ability<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t As an accessible technology company, Texthelp<\/a> is always looking for ways to support educators with the diverse learning needs in their classrooms.<\/p>\n To help, our content team recently asked five experts to share their best tips: a researcher, two teachers turned education journalists, an accessibility consultant, and one AT specialist.<\/p>\n They gave us excellent advice, and from it, we created three downloadable guides:<\/p>\n \u2026with more on the way.<\/p>\n These guides include advice for administrators and MTSS teams, loads of research studies, and lots of quick tips for educators who need simple ways to adapt grade-level instruction to the different levels of abilities, backgrounds, and needs in their classrooms.<\/p>\n Below are six of their best tips. To gain more, head over to the Texthelp website to get the complete guides delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n Turn on live captioning in Google Slides as a visual aid in the classroom, even if you aren\u2019t using a slide deck to teach.<\/p>\n Who it benefits, and how:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to set up live captions in a Google slide presentation:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, when you speak, live captions will appear on your screen or smartboard.<\/p>\n For more information about live captioning options in Google Slides, visit the \u201cPresent slides with captions\u201d section of the Google Help Center here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remote Microphone Systems<\/a> were created for people who have difficulties hearing, and are often used as an assistive technology in the classroom.<\/p>\n Casual microphone use by a classroom educator<\/a> should never replace necessary assistive technology support. However, the voice amplification offered by any microphone could be a helpful tool for engaging students<\/a> who have trouble with listening, students with autism<\/a>, and lend a hand with classroom management.<\/p>\n Pair sound amplification with free live captioning in Google Slides, listed above, for added benefit.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n To help learners of all abilities with their reading skills, ask them to record themselves reading a text out loud and then listen back to it.<\/a> This helps struggling readers, beginning readers, and ELLs improve their reading fluency<\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Including visuals in your instruction is a great way to build understanding in all learners, particularly EL Learners and learners with autism, who benefit from the easily understandable additional context of visuals.<\/p>\n To empower learners with one-click visuals while reading, try Read&Write\u2019s visual dictionary tool<\/a>. Learners can click on an unfamiliar word in a text, and the visual dictionary feature will give them a picture to help them understand it.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0How to Create a Dynamic Reading Experience<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Rewordify is a free tool<\/span><\/a> that allows learners to automatically adjust the reading level in any text to adapt any digital content to their ability.<\/p>\n Read&Write also offers a Rewordify feature<\/a>, which allows students to adjust their reading levels wherever they are reading.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Complex texts and grade-level content benefit all learners, but are also not accessible to everyone. One way to normalize accommodations and make content accessible to everyone in class is to play an audiobook while students read along with a physical text.<\/p>\n Another benefit is that bimodal presentation, or providing both audio and written forms simultaneously boosts processing speed and information recall.<\/a><\/p>\n For additional ways to make learning more accessible to everyone in class, visit the Texthelp website’s Tier 1 is for Everyone page<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Shake Up Learning 2023. Unauthorized use and\/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog\u2019s author and\/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com. See: Copyright Policy.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/i>Click To Tweet<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\nThis blog post is sponsored by Texthelp.<\/em><\/h4>\n
3 Essential Guides for Teachers: Adapting Instruction to Every Student Ability<\/h1>\n
by Mary Pembleton from Texthelp<\/h4>\n
Get the Guides!<\/h2>\n
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1. Turn on captions when teaching as another way for students to take in information.<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s easy, free, and super-supported by research<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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How to do it:<\/h4>\n
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2. Teach with a microphone.\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
3. Have students record themselves reading, and listen back to it.<\/b><\/h2>\n
4. Use visuals to supplement instruction<\/a>\u00a0automatically.\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
5. Give everyone the same required readings, and show students how to adjust the reading level.<\/b><\/h2>\n
6. Play an audiobook while having students read along from a physical text.<\/b><\/h2>\n