Thing #5 Part 2 Using Technology To Support Diverse Learners

Since I am a literacy coach, I find the audio support for those children who can't access content due to their inability to read the text to be very beneficial.  Our content area teachers struggle with finding materials at the reading levels appropriate for our more challenged readers, and the opportunity to access text-to-speech materials would greatly enhance the learning envoronment for these kids.  I also like the idea of using the text to MP3 capabilities--we see endless possibilities to remove hurdles for struggling learners with this.  Math or science and social studies tests can be downloaded to MP3 files, and the students could use the MP3 player to listen to the test instead.  I also liked the idea of using the text to speech capabilities to have kids listen to their own writing, to aid in editing it.   Sometimes they fail to see their mistakes on paper, but they might better understand thier errors when they hear their own words spoken back to them.