In my last post I discussed some effective reading strategies that work for ELLs (English language learners). One of the key topics discussed was vocabulary - it is a problem of a vocabulary gap. Casual exposure to words might lead to some incidental learning, but not the meaningful learning needed to bridge this gap. Neither will list after list of words to memorize. In that same post, I also advocated for incorporating visuals with vocabulary instruction.
I can already hear it...But Lisa, adapting reading passages with visuals and incorporating visuals into vocabulary instruction takes up valuable time! Fear not, there are many tech tools out there to help teachers meet the needs of their students using as little extra time as possible, because time is the one thing a teacher can never have enough of.
Read&Write for Google
This is one of my favorite new tech tools. When I share it with teachers, they always ask why they haven't heard about it before.
Read&Write will read text aloud, allow for dual color highlighting, provide text and picture dictionaries, word to word translation, offer suggestions for words with word prediction, speech to text, allow for annotations, and simplify and summarize text on web pages. Whew! That's a lot, and it doesn't even capitalize on my favorite feature.
My favorite feature of Read&Write is the ability to collect text (from documents in my drive or the internet) through the highlighting, and then have Read&Write create a vocabulary list, with visuals, as a fully editable Google doc in my drive. I am not a fan of the text definitions that Read&Write provides because they are not very student or ELL friendly, however, because the doc is editable I can input my own.
Here's what is looks like from a random website:
The output is not perfect, but it saves time. I can delete images I don't need, change the definition to suit my needs, I can also modify how it looks. Because it is just like any other document, with a little tech-savviness and about 2 minutes I was able to turn the vocabulary list into an adapted text.
Overall, I this product is not perfect, but is a versatile tool. The reading capabilities run into issues one webpages with things like formatting and links, but audio support for ELLs is a great tool for any teachers toolbox. The simplification feature is nice, it increases white space and simplifies the text. I tend to prefer methods that keep most of the same text but simplify words instead of removing sentences. But, it is another useful feature.
I wholeheartedly reccommend Read&Write for Google to ever teacher working with ELLs and struggling readers as a tool to help meet their needs, while saving teachers time. It is also new free for teachers, all it takes is a quick registration after it is installed.
For more infomation:
http://www.texthelp.com/north-america/readwriteforgoogle
Chromestore Link
http://rw.texthelp.com/drive/home/RegisterTeacher
~
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My favorite feature of Read&Write is the ability to collect text (from documents in my drive or the internet) through the highlighting, and then have Read&Write create a vocabulary list, with visuals, as a fully editable Google doc in my drive. I am not a fan of the text definitions that Read&Write provides because they are not very student or ELL friendly, however, because the doc is editable I can input my own.
Here's what is looks like from a random website:
The output is not perfect, but it saves time. I can delete images I don't need, change the definition to suit my needs, I can also modify how it looks. Because it is just like any other document, with a little tech-savviness and about 2 minutes I was able to turn the vocabulary list into an adapted text.
Overall, I this product is not perfect, but is a versatile tool. The reading capabilities run into issues one webpages with things like formatting and links, but audio support for ELLs is a great tool for any teachers toolbox. The simplification feature is nice, it increases white space and simplifies the text. I tend to prefer methods that keep most of the same text but simplify words instead of removing sentences. But, it is another useful feature.
I wholeheartedly reccommend Read&Write for Google to ever teacher working with ELLs and struggling readers as a tool to help meet their needs, while saving teachers time. It is also new free for teachers, all it takes is a quick registration after it is installed.
For more infomation:
http://www.texthelp.com/north-america/readwriteforgoogle
Chromestore Link
http://rw.texthelp.com/drive/home/RegisterTeacher
~
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
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