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Charity Fisher

Teachers Testimonials : TTS Online : Free Text to Speech : Read The Words - 83 views

  • find ReadTheWords.com to be one of the most useful services on the Internet today. Many LD (learning disabled) students struggle with auditory processing.
  • these students are very capable, they tend to favor auditory processing, versus the more common visual processing. It is important that these students learn how their mind works and modify their learning techniques accordingly.
  • 5 students incorporate this service for study of their weekly vocabulary words. We started by making an audio file of the words and definition, and turned it into an mp3 format. The students spent 10 minutes each day on the computer. Each student has averaged a minimum of a full letter grade higher. Two students have received perfect scores for the past 2 weeks.
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  • ReadTheWords.com been created to cater to these students.
  • ReadtheWords.com is an AMAZING SERIVCE for young students.
  • ReadTheWords.com allows me to create listening material for some learners that struggle a little bit. It allows my students to read along with the Virtual Avatar Reader. This saves a lot of time so I can focus on certain children without slowing down the rest of the class.
  • We create links to audio files that read our upcoming events, and we use it to help visually impaired patrons read anything - articles, letters they have received, emails that can be copy/pasted from their email account...the possibilities are endless! On a personal level, I have been using ReadTheWords toolbar plug in.
  • service with my university students who are learning English
  • brings the text to life, and stimulates my second language learners in a dynamic way. I would recommend this program to all foreign language teachers,
  • I have been assisting students to create audio files of study review materials. This greatly helps them decode and analyze the material for comprehension. I have seen a great improvement on test scores
  • Students listen to a piece of their own writing, so they can hear if what they wrote sounds correct. It helps students with comprehension, spelling, grammar and structuring sentences.
  • This service is godsend for many students, especially auditory learners. I cannot even begin to imagine how many people this will help in the future. We just received approval to offer this service to our entire school. (Email webmaster@readthewords.com to get a special deal like we did.
    • Charity Fisher
       
      I believe that the audio could act as a reinforcer of the written word as students read. This could be helpful not only with students who are Language Impaired, but also for students who struggle with reading comprehension.
    • Charity Fisher
       
      This website could be benefitical to students who are Hearing Impaired or Learning Disabled in Reading.
    • Charity Fisher
       
      Thsi tool can reinforce the written word and comprehension.
    • Charity Fisher
       
      Something not mentioned by these teachers is the possible benefit to Autistic and Aspergers students. I can this being used as a reward or incentive because the work could be done independently. Since these students generally feel more at ease working independently, it would a motivator to them.
    • Charity Fisher
       
      This could be a great tool for Language Impaired students, but also Learning Disabled in reading as well. The audio would act as a reinforcer of the written material. Even though this is learning or reading comprehension tool, students may see it as a reward thereby motivating them to read more. This could a aid to any teacher attempting to motivate reluctant or struggling readers.
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    readthewords.com for Special Ed, ESOL, Low Level Readers, Writing and More!
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    Read The Words could be a beneficial tool to students who are Language Impaired and/or Learning Disabled in Reading. The audio can reinforce the written word and increase comprehension. Also, it could be a valuable tool for autistic students who prefer to work independently. They can use this to aid comprehension and also it could be a reward. This tool could also add interest to text for any student.
Clint Heitz

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens - Scientific ... - 25 views

  • The matter is by no means settled. Before 1992 most studies concluded that people read slower, less accurately and less comprehensively on screens than on paper. Studies published since the early 1990s, however, have produced more inconsistent results: a slight majority has confirmed earlier conclusions, but almost as many have found few significant differences in reading speed or comprehension between paper and screens. And recent surveys suggest that although most people still prefer paper—especially when reading intensively—attitudes are changing as tablets and e-reading technology improve and reading digital books for facts and fun becomes more common.
  • Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. A parallel line of research focuses on people's attitudes toward different kinds of media. Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper.
  • Both anecdotally and in published studies, people report that when trying to locate a particular piece of written information they often remember where in the text it appeared. We might recall that we passed the red farmhouse near the start of the trail before we started climbing uphill through the forest; in a similar way, we remember that we read about Mr. Darcy rebuffing Elizabeth Bennett on the bottom of the left-hand page in one of the earlier chapters.
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  • At least a few studies suggest that by limiting the way people navigate texts, screens impair comprehension.
  • Because of their easy navigability, paper books and documents may be better suited to absorption in a text. "The ease with which you can find out the beginning, end and everything inbetween and the constant connection to your path, your progress in the text, might be some way of making it less taxing cognitively, so you have more free capacity for comprehension," Mangen says.
  • An e-reader always weighs the same, regardless of whether you are reading Proust's magnum opus or one of Hemingway's short stories. Some researchers have found that these discrepancies create enough "haptic dissonance" to dissuade some people from using e-readers. People expect books to look, feel and even smell a certain way; when they do not, reading sometimes becomes less enjoyable or even unpleasant. For others, the convenience of a slim portable e-reader outweighs any attachment they might have to the feel of paper books.
  • In one of his experiments 72 volunteers completed the Higher Education Entrance Examination READ test—a 30-minute, Swedish-language reading-comprehension exam consisting of multiple-choice questions about five texts averaging 1,000 words each. People who took the test on a computer scored lower and reported higher levels of stress and tiredness than people who completed it on paper.
  • Perhaps, then, any discrepancies in reading comprehension between paper and screens will shrink as people's attitudes continue to change. The star of "A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work" is three-and-a-half years old today and no longer interacts with paper magazines as though they were touchscreens, her father says. Perhaps she and her peers will grow up without the subtle bias against screens that seems to lurk in the minds of older generations. In current research for Microsoft, Sellen has learned that many people do not feel much ownership of e-books because of their impermanence and intangibility: "They think of using an e-book, not owning an e-book," she says. Participants in her studies say that when they really like an electronic book, they go out and get the paper version. This reminds Sellen of people's early opinions of digital music, which she has also studied. Despite initial resistance, people love curating, organizing and sharing digital music today. Attitudes toward e-books may transition in a similar way, especially if e-readers and tablets allow more sharing and social interaction than they currently do.
Garrett Kerr

ReadWorks.org | The Solution to Reading Comprehension | ReadWorks.org | The Solution to... - 68 views

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    A free site full of leveled text along with lessons and comprehension activities.
Deborah Baillesderr

Online Reading Activities | Read Theory - 57 views

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    "The quickest, most intelligent way to improve K-12 reading comprehension. Read Theory adapts to student ability to provide the perfect reading passages and questions. Our program is completely free for an unlimited number of teacher and student users."
Deborah Baillesderr

Reading Passages | ReadWorks.org - 99 views

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    Reading passages that include a writing and comprehension componenet leveled by grade.
Michelle Parker

Free Printable Graphic Organizers - Freeology - 243 views

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    Amazing graphic organizers to enable students center their thoughts and build comprehension through numerous subjects.
Marc Patton

Center on Instruction - 1 views

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    your gateway to a cutting-edge collection of scientifically based resources on instruction. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, COI develops and identifies free resources that Regional Comprehensive Centers and state, district, and local educators can use in their pursuit of high quality instruction.
Trevor Cunningham

Rewordify.com | Understand what you read - 22 views

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    Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension software. It helps people understand difficult English faster, and helps them learn words in new ways.
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    Decreases the reading levels of articles from various online publications.
Michele Brown

Digital Passport - 81 views

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    Free resource teaching digital citizenship and online safety.  Educators and sign-up and have student accounts.  3-5th grade
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    Thanks for sharing this. We have been cobbling together a variety of sources to teach our fourth graders digital savvy, safety, and citizenship. Common Sense Media seems to have a comprehensive and engaging program.
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    Your welcome. Common Sense Media is a great place to go. As an educator you can create an account for free and then download lessons. It's important to teach students from the beginning about digital citizenship, online behavior, etc.
Dora Gonzalez-Bañales

Simple free learning tools for students and teachers | Quizlet - 44 views

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    Quizlet is a lightning fast way to memorize vocabulary lists. It's like flashcards, but much more fun and interactive.
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    Create your own flashcards or use already-made ones. Can use definitions (or words) already stored on the site. Share with others. Useful for ESL students.
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    Vocabulary tool. Create flashcards, play games, search for word lists, etc.
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    Create flashcards. Play matching games.
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    Quizlet is the largest flash cards and study games website with over 5 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. It's the best place to play educational games, memorize vocabulary and study online.
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    Recently created flashcards for literary terms, every term my students need was there! Fast, easy, efficent use of time.
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    This is a comprehensive flash card study aid site. Make your flashcards to study anything. Add pictures, text and it supports a range of non-alphabetical languages like Chinese and Japanese. You can choose to learn, spell things, test yourself or play games with the information. Browse thousands of sets made by other users without signing in. A free account is required to make your own flashcards. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
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    My students have loved making their own flashcards for Greek/Latin roots on Quizlet!
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    Quizlet is the largest study site in the U.S., providing powerful learning tools and games to over 7 million students and teachers each month.
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    Vocabulary Resource
Marc Patton

calibre - E-book management - 54 views

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    Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories: Library Management, E-book conversion, Syncing to e-book reader devices, Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form, Comprehensive e-book viewer, Content server for online access to your book collection
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    calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books.
Roland O'Daniel

Free Technology for Teachers: Tracking the Oil Spill - Interactive Maps - 53 views

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    Another great/pertinent blog post from Free Technology for Teachers. What a great collection of resources for students to explore in class regarding the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
kmc2247

Scholarship Search Tool and College Scholarship Finder App - 25 views

shared by kmc2247 on 30 May 16 - No Cached
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    Scholly is the simple, comprehensive and accuratescholarship matching platform that has helped students win over $35 Million in scholarship awards. Create an account, and turn the long months of searching for free money for college, into minutes. START SEARCHING! If you're a high school senior, current undergraduate, or graduate student in the U.S.
Sarah Schaller Welsh

Freakonomics » What Should Be Done About Standardized Tests? A Freakonomics Q... - 42 views

  • Gaston Caperton
  • Standardized tests have much in common with French fries. Both of them differ in composition as well as quality. French fries are available in numerous incarnations, including straight, curly, skins-on, skins-off, and, in recent years, with sweet potatoes. Regarding quality, of course, the taste of French fries can range substantially – from sublime to soggy. It’s really the same with standardized tests.
  • Take the No Child Left Behind Act, for instance, a federal accountability law requiring scads of standardized tests to be used in evaluating schools. Do you know that almost all of the standardized tests now being employed to judge school quality are unable to distinguish between well taught and badly taught students?
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  • all schools – kindergarten through college – should employ exit exams allowing us to determine what students have actually learned. We owe it to our students to make sure that they’ve been properly taught.
  • Then there are the questions of what to do with the results. I have actually sat through an extended discussion of how we could use regression analysis to parse out the contribution different teachers made to a group of students’ performance on a set of standardized tests. The answer was, yes it was possible, and could in fact be used to award merit pay increases. But nobody left the room feeling very comfortable that there would be any gain in what we knew made for good teaching.
  • Roughly half of the nation’s students are taking tests under NCLB that are completely free of open-ended questions.
  • educators have a strong incentive to “teach to the test.” In this case, that means teaching low level skills at the expense of the more demanding material that everyone says students need to master in today’s complicated world.
  • But is it fair to give students what amounts to a counterfeit passport to college or work? And do such tests spur high school teachers and principals to aim high with their students? To both questions, the answer is, “No.” In most states today, high school exit tests serve the same role as the standardized tests mandated by NCLB: they try to jack up the floor of student achievement in the nation’s schools. The best high school exit tests would be end-of-course exams akin to the “comprehensive” exams that many colleges and universities require students to pass in their majors before graduation – tests, that is, that would raise the ceiling of student achievement.
  • High-stakes testing has narrowed and dumbed down curricula; eliminated time spent on untested subjects like social studies, art, and even recess; turned classrooms into little more than test preparation centers; reduced high school graduation rates; and driven good teachers from the profession. Those are all reasons why FairTest and other experts advocate a sharp reduction in public school standardized testing and a halt to exit exams.
  • igh school grade
  • point average is a better predictor of college success than either the SAT or the ACT.
Marc Patton

Lingt Classroom | Speak more. Give your students online voice based assignments. - 117 views

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    Free site - create homework where students can practise listening comprehension and pronunciation by recording their own voices. Can incorporate multimedia, archive assignments & student responses. Other features: create oral exams for IB/AP that are easier & faster to administer/assess, targeted feedback to individual responses. Signup required.
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    Create online assignments that make engaging and assessing
    spoken performance as natural as giving out a worksheet.
Lisa C. Hurst

Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans - - 148 views

shared by Lisa C. Hurst on 15 Oct 11 - Cached
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    Free Reading Instruction Resources for Teachers and Parents
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