Developing Literacy with Highest Needs High School Students

• Use the favourite songs of students
• Download lyrics from internet
• Input into Kurzweil
• Have student read along with the students as song "plays" back in Kurzweil (use highlighting as reading
• Have them repeat the song a number of times
• Eventually fade the text to speech
• The student will eventually read the text back without the text to speech support (even reading one word is considered successful)

SLOW down the text to speech but not too much to ensure they do not lose the connection to what is going on

Students who can't speak:

Use the sequencer to reproduce the chorus

Writing:

• Brainstorm ideas for book
• Graphic organizers, Inspiration or Kurzweil GO with image support
• Students who couldn't spell voice records into the GO their notes according to the picture
• Encourage correct spelling in the Clipart section to get the desired image
• Use word banks as needed (students wrote the words out and the students copied the word into WORD to create Picture and word banks)
• Go to PPT
• Students with developmental delay is paired up with a student with LD to produce a book in PPT on a topic of their choice
• Once the 5 slide story is complete the narration is used to create an audiobook and they can now present it to the class
• Students printed out the stories and read them to each other....without the computer!

SIMPLE, easy to use and accessible AT supporting students with significant disabilities