Timely Tips #28: Are You Ready to Take a Dive? Summer Resources for Parents

As I was browsing around on the internet, I came across a couple of web pages that might be useful to parents and kids to check out over the summer.

The first is from LD OnLine, but the ideas could pertain to any reluctant reader.  The article is called Strategies for Summer Reading for Children with Dyslexia. 

 

The second is from ReadWriteThink, and it’s a treasure trove of parent and after-school resources for language arts.

I’m ready to dive in!

Timely Tips #27: Linguistic Puzzles

Oh, these puzzles are challenging!!

From the website:

“The Linguistics Challenge was a fun and educational activity designed for secondary school students (ages 12 through 18). University students and other adults also find these materials interesting and challenging. The idea is to solve puzzles in languages you have never studied or learned. “

I completed the first one, Agta, after several false starts.  I treated the words as if they were like Greek combining forms–two parts with meanings of their own, but needing to be combined a certain way for a different meaning.  If you want a hint, comment on this post and I’ll give you one!

AlphaTots for the iPad-Update!! Get it for iPod and iPhone!

Update: Since this review was published, Spinlight Studio announced the release of AlphaTots Pocket for the iPod and iPhone. Look for it soon in the iTunes App Store for just $.99 during a limited introductory sale!

From the developers: 

Within days of initial release, AlphaTots became the best-selling iPad alphabet app on the U.S. App Store, passing Elmo Loves ABCs and a long list of Disney and Dora apps on its rocket ride to the top. Within a week, it hit 45 on the App Store’s list of top paid apps and owned the number two position in education for a full week, coming second only to Star Walk — the “Angry Birds” of the education app set. And now, this fun, and interactive learning game is headed for the iPod and iPhone, offering a powerful new learning tool for parents on the go.

(and their best-selling numbers app, Tallytots, will be on iPod and iPhone soon, too).

My grandson loves Spinlight’s app, TallyTots, so I was very excited when AlphaTots came out.  Once again, Spinlight has hit the mark!

There are so many things to like about this app:

• the charming version of the ABC song
• the colorful interactive graphics for each letter, where a child can DIG for pirate treasure, QUIET the croaking frogs,  JOIN the railroad tracks together, KICK a soccer goal, BUILD a robot, and so much more!
• the way the letters that come before or after the chosen letter are displayed to the left and right of the frame
• hearing the name and sound of the letter announced as it displays
• the ability to play with Upper or Lower Case letters, to follow the alphabet in sequence, or to choose random letters

My grandson quickly added AlphaTots to his list of favorite apps! After making the rubber ducky quack, he said, “That’s funny!” He also likes to NIBBLE the gingerbread man and HAMMER the nails.

AlphaTots is filled with fun and learning.  Your child will love it! And it’s just $2.99 in the iTunes store.

Thoughts for Thursday #28: First Wind, Second Wind

Quotes that strike my fancy

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to
find out if they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all
you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes
out of you.”

~~William James

iAdvocate: Free APP for IEP Meetings

I haven’t thoroughly examined this app, but on the surface it looks helpful. The general focus is inclusive education for students on the autism spectrum, but many suggestions can apply to anyone with an IEP. You can see screenshots on the website at Syracuse University, but since it’s free, you can’t go wrong checking it out for yourself!!

The following categories are included:

• Responses to statements by the school district
• Strategies to help develop a workable IEP
• Resources, including court cases, related to inclusion

Confer: A Handy App for Reading/Writing Workshop and More

Tired of  carrying around clipboards, sticky notes, and/or labels  when you are conferring with your students in math or reading/writing workshop?  Created by a  National Board Certified Teacher, Confer is a great addition to a teacher’s toolbox.  With this app, teachers have a handy way to track student progress, organize small groups of kids who need to work on the same skill, and to provide differentiated instruction.

The best way to understand how this works is to watch the developer’s videos.  He gives a pretty thorough explanation and you can see the app in action (and also see his fictional list of students from kids’ books and  Shakespeare)!

Even though I’m no longer in a classroom, I am tutoring, and I’m using it with my clients as a convenient way to keep my notes in one place.  For each student, you can enter strengths, teaching points, and next steps. After you’ve entered a few notes, you’ll have a list you can choose from if other students need the same teaching points/next steps.

What would really make it top-notch for me is if it came with a built-in list of strengths and teaching points as a starting point when organizing students.  Confer allows you to upload your data as a spreadsheet, or email it to yourself as an attachment using Google Documents.

There is a Confer Lite version, so you can try before you buy.

Confer is $9.99 in the iTunes store.  The developer is working on an android version, too.

Tell A Story with Pictello

Pictello is another iPad app (also available for iPhone and iPod Touch) that’s great not only for creating social stories for kids who need them, but also for creating stories and encouraging literacy for all kids.

I’ve been trying to think of a way to put comprehension ‘prompts’ into stories, and with Pictello, I can! For example, on the page following a story page, I can enter a question asking my students to predict what will happen next, or to tell me what just happened.

One of my students created pictures in a drawing program, which I imported to Pictello.  He dictated the text as I typed, and then he recorded it.  The app includes computer-generated voices which can also be used. You can adjust the volume, speech rate, and pronunciation.

To read/listen to a story, just swipe the pages and tap on the pictures to hear the text.  The story can also be played in a slide show mode. Another great feature is that the stories can be shared via the Pictello Sharing Server or through iTunes File Sharing.

I had a little difficulty getting started, but part of that was trying to use the app without checking out the help section first! If you tap the options icon, you’ll get to a page that has a ‘Help’ button at the top.  This gives excellent directions for creating your own social story or book from start to finish.

The developers are working on a downloadable quick start guide, which will be a useful addition, especially for eager-to-get-started people like me!  There is an online tutorial available right now.

Pictello is available in the iTunes store for $14.99.  

Timely Tips #26: Journey Into Dyslexia Film Debuts 5/11/11

From the website:

“JOURNEY INTO DYSLEXIA presents profiles of dyslexic students and adults who share their experiences of struggling in school and then succeeding in life.”

The film debuts on HBO2 on Wednesday.

Dominic Stumps Mommy

My first grandchild was born in July, 2008. He is always doing or saying something to entertain me!

So, as my daughter was getting Dominic ready for the day, he asked her if he could wear his Space Ranger shirt.  She scratched her head in consternation, as he doesn’t have one.

The mystery was cleared up when she dropped him off at my older daughter’s home.  Apparently, when they went shopping the other day, his aunt bought him a Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger t-shirt, but forgot to send it home with him.

Now that’s what I call a good memory!

My Word Reader: Are Bees Smart, or What?

Are Bees Smart, or What? is a wonderful and engaging story designed for students who are old enough for well-developed content but struggle with independent reading.

There are several helpful features built into this app.

• The initial screen has voice-over instructions and a couple of questions to get the reader thinking about the topic.
• Anytime a reader is unsure of a word, s/he can tap on it and hear it spoken.
•  A few words throughout the story are highlighted in blue.  Tap on the word and a picture clue pops up and the word is spoken.
• Any word that is tapped is added to a Word Bag for later review.
• There are ‘listen’ icons which the reader can tap to hear instructions within the app and also on a special help page.

Are Bees Smart, or What? is also a set of reading games targeting beginning word analysis skills such as  initial consonant sounds, consonant blends, blending, and consonant digraphs. Future apps in the series will systematically address short and long vowel sounds as well as additional word analysis skills.

Activities include:

• Learning about the silent ‘k’ before the ‘n’ sound in some words. Eleven photos are displayed and as the app highlights each one, the word is pronounced and then added to the photo. Next the reader can tap on each unlabeled photo to select the five that begin with the silent ‘k’.
• Choosing initial consonants to complete words from the word families at and an.  The student pulls a consonant onto a train car displaying the word pattern.  The sound for the letter and the word pattern are pronounced and then blended into the word.  If a letter can’t be used to make a real word, it disappears from the screen after an attempt is made. I like this feature because it reduces the field of letters to choose from.  When completed, the engineer wakes up and the train chugs on down the track.
• Choosing an initial consonant blend  and adding it to patterns such as ick, ain, ained, ing, and ay to complete words as a mountain climber strives for the top of the mountain.
• Unscrambling sight  words from the story.  The student is able to tap on the screen to select the word to unscramble.  There are tiles near the top that contain all of the letters to make the word. All a student has to do is check the word list for a possible word and start sliding letters around to match it.  Since each word beings with a different letter, that helps limit the choices.
• Matching initial consonant sounds with a picture beginning with that sound.  A cute little frog sitting on a prince’s chair snags each correct answer with his tongue.  Different sounds and pictures appear randomly each time the activity is played.  Wait until you see the princess kiss the frog at the end!
• Reviewing key words begins with a couple of kids trying to break open a pinata. Tap each child a few times and the pinata breaks open and spills out several words.  Each word is pronounced as it is tapped, and then another tap adds it to the Word Bag.
• After several of the activities are completed, the reader is prompted to make sentences with three of the words from the activity.  An on-screen keyboard pops up, and there is a word bank at the top of the screen.  Tap the ‘listen’ icon to hear the directions.

When all of the activities are finished, the student can tap on a short video watching real bees in action.

Wishes for future versions. Remember, I’m not a developer, so I may be wishing for things that are not yet possible, but I can dream! Also remember that the iPad is a great addition to a teacher’s toolbox; it doesn’t replace the need for teacher-student interaction!

• Word Bag: The reader is able to add words to this bag while reading the story, and then listen to them again.  It would be helpful if a definition could be displayed and read aloud.
• Sentence Creation: It would be helpful to have a feature for saving the sentences the student creates, so that the teacher could review them with the student.
• Initial Consonants and Consonant Blends: A menu showing the various word patterns to study would be helpful.  As it is currently set up, unless you restart each activity several times, you don’t know how many variations there are.

The developers were very responsive to questions and suggestions. They provided rationales for what was, and wasn’t, included in the app. You can read more about them on their website, Wrinkled Pants Software. (I LOVE that name!!)

Are Bees Smart, or What? is a clever app that should entice older struggling readers to practice reading and word analysis skills.  I am looking forward to future apps in the series.

It is available on iTunes for $4.99.