Geer Park’s Special Ed Resource Teacher, Jen LeClair, is pioneering a new way for her special education students to use Assistive Technology in their general education classes. Because some of her students struggle with fine motor deficits, Jen and I put our heads together to come up with a way to allow students to take their spelling tests online, without that pesky Spellcheck getting in the way.
Through Google Forms, we created an alternate spelling test sheet. Students hear the spelling words from the teacher, just like the other students, but they can then type their words into the Google Form as opposed to writing them with paper and pencil. The teacher then receives the students’ responses in a Google Sheet, where he/she can check the answers. By allowing more than one response per person, the form can be repeatedly, thus cutting down on preparation time.
Because elementary students do not have access to email yet, Jen copied the link and pasted it into a Google Doc that she shared with her students. She then had them “star” the document so that it was easy to locate. This innovative use of technology eliminates paper while meeting the diverse needs of our students.