The Benefit of Reading Tools:
"Students with language-related disabilities showed positive effects for word recognition, comprehension, and fluency when using digital texts with synthetic, syllable-or letter name-level synthetic speech transformations," (Rose, Hasselbring, Stahl, Zabala, 2005, pg. 516).
CAST UDL Book Builder
Here is a sample book at Gus's Rainforest Adventure from the CAST website.
This technology helps students who struggle with reading,
audio-processing, English language and organization. Book builder is a website
tool that is used for teachers to create, share, and publish digital books for
their students. This website is free and it is easy to get started on creating
a book. The website provides sample books for teachers to get ideas on how to
create their own books much like the one shown in the image to the left. This website
helps to engage students in their interests as well as expose students to the
content that teachers want the students to gain. One of the great
benefits from this software is that it allows the teacher to create readable books
for students. The students will be able to go on to the CAST book builder and view these teacher created books being read to them. This book will also allow students to click on individual words being read to them. The
students are able to re-read books as many times as they need in order to
understand the story.
This program offers coaches to guide students' comprehension and learning. The coaches can be designed to help scaffold students understand key concepts and ideas. The coaches can be designed to ask the students questions through the reading so students can keep track of their comprehension. The four coaches available for students to choose from are Pedro, Hall, Monty, and Terry. In addition, this resource allows teachers to hyperlink words and ideas that the teacher thinks will be important for students to read up on. This will allow the students to click on the link and read the important information that the teacher has noted. Book builder also allows the students to highlight words and important information as they read. Overall, this resource is great for struggling students to help build vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency skills.
In order to find out more, this You-tube video does an excellent job of explaining the software and walking teachers through the steps of the website. The video walks through the benefits and feature of the software: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ4P_9OYUW8&feature=related
This program offers coaches to guide students' comprehension and learning. The coaches can be designed to help scaffold students understand key concepts and ideas. The coaches can be designed to ask the students questions through the reading so students can keep track of their comprehension. The four coaches available for students to choose from are Pedro, Hall, Monty, and Terry. In addition, this resource allows teachers to hyperlink words and ideas that the teacher thinks will be important for students to read up on. This will allow the students to click on the link and read the important information that the teacher has noted. Book builder also allows the students to highlight words and important information as they read. Overall, this resource is great for struggling students to help build vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency skills.
In order to find out more, this You-tube video does an excellent job of explaining the software and walking teachers through the steps of the website. The video walks through the benefits and feature of the software: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ4P_9OYUW8&feature=related
Penfriend XL
Penfriend XL is a teaching aid to help students with
dyslexia, and physical disabilities. This software is easy to use and can
be used on the internet and in word documents. The software actually
has many preferences that can be adjusted to the students needs. Some of
the preferences include lexicon, prediction display, audio, and appearance.
Penfriend XL offers a various amount of features such as: screen reading with text magnification and on-screen keyboards. Screen reading with text magnification allows students to click on the Penfriend XL desktop folder in order to have the screen read to the student in their native language. The program offers Scottish, French, German, Spanish, and US East Coast. As the text is being read, it will automatically open up in a clipboard in order to magnify the text for students with visual impairments. The text will also be highlighted as the screen reader is reading the text. Another feature that Penfriend XL offers is a on-screen keyboard. The keyboard comes in UK English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and US English. The keyboards' color, size, and font can be adjusted to the user’s needs. Overall Penfriend XL is a powerful screen reader with magnification of text in order to increase student’s fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. The software is available for purchase for $279 for a single user license. If you are interested, you can try a free demo at: http://www.penfriend.biz/download-demos.html |
Readspeaker
(11/25/11). Retrieved from: http://a2.twimg.com/profile_images/552785866/ReadSpeaker_Icon_600dpi.png]
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Readspeaker Enterprise is a tool that can be used for
reading. It reads the spoken version of all online content. This software
allows students the opportunity to listen to the text rather then read the
text. This is especially great for struggling readers because the
software helps to build comprehension and fluency.
The Readspeaker enterprise offers a variety of features that are helpful to students such as the expanding player, and player window. The first feature is the expanding player, which allows students to choose the text they want to listen too or allows students to click the play button to hear the whole text. This player is downloaded on to the page to make it easier for students to control what they listen to. A key benefit with this feature is that students can choose to have embedded highlighting; students will be able to see the word that is being read. Another feature of this software is the player window, which opens up into a new window to limit cluster on the student’s web page yet still allows the student to select the text they want to listen to. Readspeaker is all web-based so internet is required to use this software. The software works in any web-browser IE-6 and up. Overall Readspeaker helps students to become effective readers by increasing their vocabulary and fluency. |
Learning Ally
Learning Ally was created for students who could not read
standard print text. Learning Ally holds more than 65,000 digital recorded
textbooks that can be downloaded and accessed on a various amount of technology
devices. Learning Ally makes texts accessible to students with visual
impairments and/or learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Learning Ally's goal
is to have children reach their fullest potential.
Learning Ally allows students to listen to audio books, which will help increase comprehension, fluency, and reading skills. Learning Ally also teaches students how to be good listeners, which will help the students have active listening skills, increasing their success in education. This software is also used to help students' writing skills by providing students with the R.A.F.T strategy and the five senses graphic organizer. The R.A.F.T strategy has the students chose a role, audience, format, and topic to analyze the topic. The five senses graphic organizer allows the students to listen to the text and fill in the organizer according to their five senses. Overall, this software is great to help enhance both students' reading and writing skills. Learning Ally offers three different membership levels. The membership levels are organized by the number of audio books that will be used each year also well as the number of students using the software. In order to provide Learning Ally to about 25-40 students, the software costs $1,100 and allows for up to 100 audio books each year. In order to receive more information about the software go to: http://www.learningally.org/ |
(11/25/11). Retrieved from: http://www.learningally.org/SiteData/images/learning_a/ddb6e47b6f59e13a/learning_ally_audio_app_icon.png
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VoiceThread
(11/25/11) Retrieved from:
http://www.langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/voicethread.png
Voice Thread enables group conversations to be collected and
shared in one place from anywhere in the world. Similar to a slide show, Voice
Thread allows group members to collaborate by leaving comments on slides
containing images, documents, and videos, as well as leave comments. Users can
leave comments using a microphone or telephone, text, audio file, or video.
While users are commenting, they are also able to “doodle” on images, or draw,
to further make their point. Voice Thread also has an embedding feature, which
allows interactive group discussions to take place on any website by simply
copying and pasting the code to the website. Instead of using a notebook,
Voice Thread replicas can be exported so that they can be played offline,
stored on a computer, burned to a DVD, or downloaded as an MP3 file or to a
phone. Exporting costs $2.99 each or 10 exports for $20. This tool also has a
moderation feature, which enables users to choose which comments are shown.
According to Voice Thread, they desire to meet universal accessibility; they
serve the needs of dyslexia, ADHD, mobile device users, kindergartners, old
people, etc. The video feature also enables the deaf population to communicate
with more than just plain text; deaf people can communicate with each other
using sign language and facial expressions. For English students, Voice Thread can be used as a collaboration tool which presents different means of representation and presentation for all students in the classroom in an engaging manner. To better help the needs of users,
Voice Thread creators take input from users to help improve their features.
The Voice Thread.com website is filled with tutorials to help users find a way that Voice Thread can benefit them. On the homepage, there are a couple of tutorial videos; one describing M/5 Commenting and another video describing how users can engage, collaborate, and connect with one another. There are also various quick-start guides to help certain groups of people get started. This is the link provided for the Pro Educator Quick-Start Guide: http://voicethread.com/media/misc/K12ProEducatorQuickStartGuide.pdf. The following link will lead to the other guides, including other links for K-12 educators: http://voicethread.com/support/resources/manuals/
The Voice Thread.com website is filled with tutorials to help users find a way that Voice Thread can benefit them. On the homepage, there are a couple of tutorial videos; one describing M/5 Commenting and another video describing how users can engage, collaborate, and connect with one another. There are also various quick-start guides to help certain groups of people get started. This is the link provided for the Pro Educator Quick-Start Guide: http://voicethread.com/media/misc/K12ProEducatorQuickStartGuide.pdf. The following link will lead to the other guides, including other links for K-12 educators: http://voicethread.com/support/resources/manuals/
ZAP Reader
(11/27/11): Retrieved from: Zapreader.com
ZAP Reader is a speed-reading program found online that
helps users read faster on their computers. This tool is free and it works with
most popular browsers. With the reader, text can be copied into the text box
and read quickly or an entire URL can be pasted into the text box to read an
entire web page. Users are able to adjust the settings to their preferences on
how many words they would like read per minute, how many words they would like
read at one time, the font, alignment, font size font color, and background
color. All of the variations included in the settings can benefit students who
have issues with readability; for those students who struggle to read the next
line in a paragraph, this is beneficial since readers can adjust how many words
they would like to see at one time. The speed adjustment will also help readers
who have issues with fluency; readers can start the words per minute off slowly
to help produce fluency skills, and continue to increase the amounts of word
per minute as their skills progress. Having the option of changing the font
color and background color enables readers to create the most comfortable
reading format for them, which can result in better reading.
ZAP Reader provides a detailed systematic tutorial video on their homepage. Although this tool does help readers, blind readers are left out of this tool. There are no sound features that enable the words to be read aloud to the reader. Zap Reader can also be used on an iPhone Safari browser aka bookmarklet. Zap Reader is also available through Google Reader, WordPress, Blogger, TypePad Blogs, SharePoint Blogs, Yahoo! Mail, Bloglines, BibleGateway.com, and Wikipedia. Plug-ins for Outlook and Word are coming soon for Zap Reader. The following is a link which will connect to the page sharing details on how to add Zap Read buttons for various web pages: http://www.zapreader.com/tools.php
ZAP Reader provides a detailed systematic tutorial video on their homepage. Although this tool does help readers, blind readers are left out of this tool. There are no sound features that enable the words to be read aloud to the reader. Zap Reader can also be used on an iPhone Safari browser aka bookmarklet. Zap Reader is also available through Google Reader, WordPress, Blogger, TypePad Blogs, SharePoint Blogs, Yahoo! Mail, Bloglines, BibleGateway.com, and Wikipedia. Plug-ins for Outlook and Word are coming soon for Zap Reader. The following is a link which will connect to the page sharing details on how to add Zap Read buttons for various web pages: http://www.zapreader.com/tools.php
Natural Readers
Natural Readers is a text to speech software application
that can be downloaded from: naturalreaders.com. Natural Readers allows users to select
different voices and speeds of reading according to their preferences. The
"natural voices" are computerized voices that attempt to follow the
natural speech patterns, prosody, and cadence of human speech in specific languages.
Natural Readers also has books available in digital format. This tool has a trial
option that can be downloaded for free, or purchased for personal or
educational use. The free trial involves a full thirty day access to the
program, the voices, as well as editing tools. The prices range from around
fifty dollars to around three hundred dollars ($50-$300) depending on the
number of voices included in the package. There is also a Mac version of this
software. Various aspects of the software include not only converting text
to speech, but also converting pictures to speech that can be saved as audio
files.
This software can be helpful to students with dyslexia, students with visual impairments, and English Language Learners. Through providing an alternative way for student's to explore the content, comprehension and writing skills can be improved. By allowing students to listen to the material, they can. For ESL students in particular, the different voices offered may be easier to understand. For instance, there is a natural Arabic voice, a natural Spanish voice, and a natural French Canadian voice offered in the programs.
This software can be helpful to students with dyslexia, students with visual impairments, and English Language Learners. Through providing an alternative way for student's to explore the content, comprehension and writing skills can be improved. By allowing students to listen to the material, they can. For ESL students in particular, the different voices offered may be easier to understand. For instance, there is a natural Arabic voice, a natural Spanish voice, and a natural French Canadian voice offered in the programs.
Project Gutenberg
Project
Gutenberg is a valuable resource for free digital books. EBooks for Kindles,
Androids, and PCs are available through this website. Users can choose to
download the books in many formats; ePub, Kindle, HTML, and other simple text
formats are available. The ability for users to download these formats can help
text-to-speech programs accurately and efficiently read these publications. The
website allows for different language preferences to be selected, helpful for
ESLs or anyone who is learning another language. This website also provides
digital audio books that can be downloaded as MP3 files. The books can be
downloaded in different languages that vary from Afrikaans to Icelandic to
Chinese.
The basis for Project Gutenberg involves volunteers who have selected and "digitized" books that were available in print, but not accessible for everyone. The content of this site is free, but only because the copyright is expired in the United States. The books that have been digitized are in public domain. Despite this potential limitation, the eBooks are updated nightly to provide users with the most content possible. Project Gutenberg relies heavily on volunteers and donations, and there are ways listed on their website to become involved. Although donations are not required to use the site, it is asked that frequent users contribute any sum to help with the cost of the project. |
ReadPrint
(12/8/11) Retrieved from: makeuseof.com
Readprint
offers thousands of free online books and there is no cost to sign up. Once
users sign up, they are given a profile page where they can locate their
bookshelf, favorites, reviews, groups, recent activity, following list,
followers list, and other lists. The bookshelf enables users to see what has
been read and what the user would like to read. Bookmarks can also be added to
mark the place in a book. Readprint offers essays, fiction, non-fiction, plays,
poetry, and short stories. There is also a downloadable PDF reader, which
enables texts to be viewed, modified, printed, and rendered. Readprint can help
blind readers by having online books accessed through text to
speech. Students with dyslexia can also benefit from Readprint by downloading
the PDF reader and modifying the text to benefit their reading style and
increase readability. Students who read at a lower grade level can utilize Readprint for their benefit through text-to-speech; they will be able to hear the text,
which can lead to better comprehension rather than trying to read through a
text and failing to understand what they are reading.
Users can search for thousands of books through quotes, authors, or groups. The books do not seem to come up in any sort of organization; however, they are broken up into the various groups stated above (essays, fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, and short stories). Once a book is clicked on, the user has the option of reading the book online, writing a review, adding it to their favorites, recommending it, or adding the book to their bookshelf. If the user decides to read the book online, a table of contents appears so the reader can easily access the section of the book they would like to read. Pages can be navigated through easily by clicking on a “previous page” or “next page” button and there is also a “bookmark this page” button if the reader would like to stop where they are and return at a later time. One downfall of the website is that advertisements are within the text on a page, which could have a negative effect on readability; this is when the PDF reader may be beneficial to download.
Users can search for thousands of books through quotes, authors, or groups. The books do not seem to come up in any sort of organization; however, they are broken up into the various groups stated above (essays, fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, and short stories). Once a book is clicked on, the user has the option of reading the book online, writing a review, adding it to their favorites, recommending it, or adding the book to their bookshelf. If the user decides to read the book online, a table of contents appears so the reader can easily access the section of the book they would like to read. Pages can be navigated through easily by clicking on a “previous page” or “next page” button and there is also a “bookmark this page” button if the reader would like to stop where they are and return at a later time. One downfall of the website is that advertisements are within the text on a page, which could have a negative effect on readability; this is when the PDF reader may be beneficial to download.