As a Special Education Teacher, I was thrilled when I got my first ActivBoard. I started looking online and found beautiful lessons that I immediately downloaded to use with my new board. I started the lesson the next day and the kids were sure excited. But, I quickly realized the students were becoming frustrated. Some students were non-readers and couldn't navigate through the lesson without me reading aloud all of the text on each page. They struggled to click on the buttons or move the text. They looked at all the pictures and graphics, but the next day when the students remembered nothing, I realized I did something wrong!
Five years later, I have worked my way through making flipchart pages more accessible to students with special needs. Below are a few ideas that may help you in your classroom work with students with special needs!
Non-Reader Students
Encourage students to feel independent while involved in a lesson by using the sound recorder to record your voice reading the text on a screen. This literally takes seconds to do ahead of time, yet will allow students to click on the sound icon and be involved in "reading the page" to the class. Use this an incentive for other students who could record the page ahead of time (trust me, students love hearing their own or their friend's voice).
For flipcharts with audio you've downloaded, re-record the audio in a voice familiar to your students, as this leads to increased interest. I also have found success in having parent volunteers come in and read a page (younger students love hearing their parent's voice).
For deaf and hard of hearing students, use a video camera to record you or someone else signing the content of the page.
Students with Movement Impairments
Ideally, you want ALL students to be able to come up to the board and participate in a lesson, but moving things on a page can be a challenge for many students with mobility/movement issues. You may find that students with cerebral palsy or other conditions affecting coordination may be less comfortable with the ActivPen, as they can often shake so much that they are constantly clicking on everything on the page. Number one rule: LOCK everything on the page that you don't want to move! Be conscious as you are designing flipcharts to put moving items spaced out across the board so that students don't accidentally click on another item right next to the item they want to choose.
Although many students like to find "hidden" items on a page, this can be frustrating to other students who don't know where to click, so use this technique sparingly.
Don't shy away from using hand-over-hand guidance to help younger students learn how to hold the ActivPen and move objects.
Visual Students
When designing pages, we often feel that every space on every page needs to be filled up. Many of our students, though, cannot process high volumes of visual information. As you design flipcharts, think critically about the backgrounds, graphics, pictures, and so on, that you add to each page. Consider where you want the students to focus.
Use consistent themes of colors or backgrounds for a specific topic/subject, as repetitive visual information will help students recall information from previous lessons.
Eliminate those "cute" or "fun" graphics that we tend to add in just because we like them!! Everything on a page should have a direct connection to the information we want students to walk away with!
Sarah Vogt is currently Planet's featured teacher.
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