All students should benefit from assistive technologies!

In the past, I’ve experienced working with students of all grade level abilities at the secondary level. I've worked with students that are legally blind to students that are seniors reading on a third grade level. What works best for me and my classroom is figuring out the students and what works best for their specific situation. For example, when I taught high school it was often times embarrassing for students to have tests read to them individually. Usually, I would read the test directions and main sections a loud to the entire class. In the case with the legally blind student, he required print of 14pt font. That year everything I did for that class was in that font; making it easier for me and the student because he was not singled out with a different copy of work each day.

I’ve found that this can be most challenging in the middle school classroom. Often because students still need a lot of assistance in class (compared to high school students). I take the same approach with reading directions and main questions out loud, but then I use my planning time to find the student who was unable to finish the test and I finish reading the test to them one-on-one. In some unique cases, I’ve had to pull students aside outside of class and verbally ask questions to them the entire test to “test” their knowledge. I personally feel that it’s more important to test their knowledge then to worry about the means in which they are being tested. Although this is time consuming for me, I feel that it’s best for the student. I struggle with those teachers that fail students because they didn’t finish a test. I’ve never understood the rationale in penalizing a student because they are a slower reader, or want to check answers, etc.

Another aspect of my classroom is organizing the structure of delivery and learning approaches such that all students will be successful. I try to use labs, assistive technology, problem-based learning, inquiry, and other methods of instruction to help students learn, as well as test their skills and knowledge in a subject area. I feel that all students should benefit from assistive technology regardless of their disability or lack of disability.

As a teacher, I believe in giving students every opportunity to succeed. Sometimes this means scarifying my planning time or lunch, but my students know that I care about their success and I think they worker harder in class because of it! I’ve always found it a huge complement when other teachers come to me about a student seeking advice on how to get “Johnny” to do his work because they struggle with the student for a variety of reasons. From my experience, it’s all in your approach with how you handle the students both individually and as a class. When students know that you care about them and their success they will try their best and work hard for you regardless of their disabilities or daily struggles.