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IT 365 – Adaptive Technologies Case Study Hayley Jackson

Computer Applications in Education

Adaptive Technologies
At some point in your career, you will be required to modify instruction to accommodate a
student with a disability. There are many types of disabilities, and there are multiple resources
available in instructional technology to adapt instruction for these disabilities. In this exercise,
you will review a real world case to see how these modifications are integrated in a classroom
allowing a specific student in to participate through the use of technology.

You will be working with an edited version of a case study called Picture Writers: Journey
through the Writing Process with Eric Carle from the following Web site:

http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=cases

Do not answer the questions at this link. The site has been edited below for your use.
Answer only the questions on this sheet.

For each question, you should respond in a single paragraph with a main or topical
sentence and three supporting points in each response (all of which need to be complete
sentences and not bulleted points). Each paragraph should be a minimum of 75 words
long, but you may write beyond that limit if you so wish.

Read each scene, explore the links, and respond to the reflection questions.

Picture Writers: Journey Through the Writing Process with Eric Carle
Scene 1
As Marilyn Evanston, a third grade classroom teacher, sat down to mentally prepare for a meeting with
her building's reading specialist, she let her thoughts wander back over the past few months. She was
pleased with her latest third grade science unit on animals and habitats. The students had learned about
the different animal classifications and where they lived around the world. They had been to the library to
research both of these broad topics using the Internet, books, and encyclopedias. Now, she was going to
meet with Juanita Long, the reading specialist, to plan a language arts mini-unit to support the science
learning that her class had been doing.

“What about Oscar, though,” she thought. Oscar had severe learning needs and Marilyn tried to
continually keep his needs at the forefront of her thoughts. Due to his visual impairment, Oscar had
difficulty reading print and usually required the assistance of a transcriber.

Marilyn had high hopes for this meeting with Juanita. The two had had success working collaboratively in
the past and Marilyn wanted to be prepared for this meeting. She gathered as much information as
possible to help with the discussion. She listed both her theme and learning goals for the unit. “I want to
develop a literary study of an author or type of book that will support the class's learning of habitats and
wild animals,” she thought. Marilyn was skilled in integrating instruction, and she knew that there were
many children's resources that would connect to the topic. In reflecting upon her learning goals, she
mused, “Surely there's some sort of writing extension I could tie to the reading.” She was leaning toward a

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IT 365 – Adaptive Technologies Case Study Hayley Jackson
Computer Applications in Education

book, but wanted it to be highly motivating for the kids. She wasn't sure how to support Oscar's needs in
this, though, or connect with the tactile learners in her room. It was also the end of the school year, and
she wanted to accentuate the unit in a way that would allow her to evaluate some yearlong learning.

“Thank goodness for Juanita!” she thought, “I don't seem to be getting very far with this myself.”

Reflection Question:

1. Marilyn realizes how important it is to keep student's learning styles in mind when
planning instruction. What activities do you think will be helpful in addressing the learning
styles of your students? One way to help would be to help select the groups carefully. I would
not put someone with the same learning disabilities in the same group. I do believe that students
learn from each other and this would allow the students to communicate and hopefully benefit
from their peers. Using a projector would also be an activity that will help address specific
learning styles of the students. Also doing many hands on activities would help the students who
are visual learners.

Scene 2
Marilyn Evanston rushed into Juanita Long’s office. She was late taking the children to music which
caused her to be late for her scheduled meeting with the reading specialist. She always seemed to be in
a hurry these days. Juanita greeted her with a friendly smile and immediately put her at ease.

Juanita invited Marilyn to share her "visions" for the upcoming language arts unit. Marilyn indicated that
she wanted to develop a literary study of an author or type of book that would support the class's learning
of habitats and wild animals. She also wanted to keep in mind that it was near the end of the school year,
and she wanted to incorporate some yearlong learning results so that she could evaluate each student's
progress. She talked with Juanita about wanting the students to develop some sort of writing extension
tied to the reading. "It's gotta be something fun and tactile," Marilyn insisted. They also agreed that they
would need to address Oscar's vision and learning needs.

After Marilyn shared her goals for the mini-unit, Juanita felt that she had a good grasp of the direction
they would need to go. Juanita suggested that they diverge from the usual science-related chapter book.
She thought it would be fun to pull in Eric Carle's picture books and have the students use guided reading
to evaluate them. The children had become familiar with the author in their primary classes, and this
would give them an opportunity to revisit the author as a literary evaluator. Juanita also offered to
brainstorm some direct instruction lessons, as well as student-facilitated skill centers, student-facilitated
writing activities, and teacher-guided small group lessons. She felt if she could brainstorm a general
direction for these lessons, she and Marilyn could meet again to develop more of the necessary
components.

"I also have some ideas for incorporating speech synthesis with Oscar," she said. She explained to
Marilyn that it would help empower him as a learner and reader of the Eric Carle books. Juanita also
suggested they use tiered assignments with the teacher guided small group lessons that would be
incorporated as part of guided reading. "You'll be able to group your students by ability in order to instruct
them at their own levels," she added.

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They had not even tackled the concept of incorporating a written project into the unit. Juanita and Marilyn
made plans to meet again in three days, giving Juanita time to organize her thoughts on the guided
reading component, and Marilyn time to brainstorm a more specific writing extension.

Click on the following link for more information about speech synthesis:
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/speech

Click on the following link for more information about tiered assignments.
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/tiered

Reflection Question:

2. Marilyn felt comfortable consulting with Juanita's expertise. How would this type of
collaboration help your instruction and benefit your students? I know that many schools
have teacher meetings every week to discuss certain experiences they may have had with the
students. It is important to remember that taking some one’s advice may be a good thing when
they have been through the same experiences. When doing lesson plans students will also
benefit from the other advice you have been given from the other teachers. When a person has
more experience when working with students it is always a great idea to listen to them and take
their advice.

Scene 3
In her planning period the following day, Marilyn Evanston decided to re-read some of her favorite Eric
Carle books: The Very Quiet Cricket, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Busy Spider, The Very Hungry
Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, and The Mixed-Up Chameleon. She was delighted to discover what a
wonderful science connection they would be for the kids. They really did take place in natural habitats and
incorporated wild animals. Marilyn observed the pictures in the book. Eric Carle told his stories through
pictures. Suddenly, an idea began to form in her mind. She would have the children create their own "Eric
Carle" book-complete with collage art, natural habitats, and wild animals. This would be a fun, tactile, end
of the year project. “What else could she incorporate?” her mind buzzed. They had been learning about
quotation marks. She could easily include that in the project. Their school also had a set of virtues that
they tried to infuse into student learning: honesty, responsibility, respect, compassion, giving,
perseverance, and courage. She realized that the student's books could have a "moral of the story" which
would be one of these virtues.

She did a search on the Internet to see if there was a Website out there related to Eric Carle. A quick
search proved to be successful. To view the Website Marilyn used click here. It contained some
biographical information about him, as well as a link to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She
did an additional search on the Web-based card catalog and was pleased to discover a video titled Eric
Carle: Picture Writer. She made plans to check it out to preview.

For the teacher-directed whole group lesson, Marilyn made plans to read aloud an Eric Carle book to the
class. Together, then, they could map out the organization of the book on a blank graphic organizer
Together they would label the characters, setting, problem, solution, and virtue exhibited by the

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characters. Next, she would map out the three fifteen-minute activities that would happen concurrently
and be tiered: teacher-guided small group instruction, student-facilitated skill center, and student-
facilitated writing activity. For the small group instruction, she wanted to incorporate whisper reading and
empower the children to fill out their own blank graphic organizer map of the same organizer information.
For independent writing, she would have the children write in their journal, but was not sure of the topic.
For the comprehension skill center, she wanted to incorporate a sequencing activity for Two Bad Ants.
She also needed some sort of whole group reflection lesson for the end, but she was out of time and
energy. That would just have to wait.

Click on the following link for more information about graphic organizers.
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/graphic

Reflection Question:

3. How is Marilyn using graphic organizers to enhance the lesson? How will the use of
graphic organizers help Oscar? One of the greatest things I though Marilyn did was allowing the
students to create their own Eric Carle books. She used this graphic organizer as a way to enhance
their lesson. Each step of the book was able to be accomplished by using this organizer. Oscar does
a great job working with illustrations. So when Marilyn allowed them to work with this, he was able to
do this without any problems.

Scene 4
Marilyn and Juanita's follow-up meeting went smoothly. Juanita, the reading specialist, shared her visions
for the guided reading lesson, including her few remaining loopholes. Marilyn shared her research on the
Website and her fun writing extension idea. Together, the two experts worked to mesh the two. They
extended the graphic organizer into one that would also work for the book that the children would create.
Filling in this organizer for their stories became the comprehension routine for the organization lesson.
Juanita also created multiple degrees of detail to the graphic organizer to enhance the tiered assignments
as part of the lesson.

Before the meeting, Marilyn had previewed the video titled Eric Carle: Picture Writer. The video did a
beautiful job of sharing Eric Carle's passion for picture writing as well as his artful technique. They
decided to have the students use guided-notes to enhance the important information shared in the video.
Marilyn would create the guided-note form. They also discussed the Eric Carle Website, and Marilyn
planned to develop a WebQuest for the students to use as they connected with the author.

Click on the following link for more information about guided notes:
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/guidednotesLik

Click on the following link for more information about WebQuests:


http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/webquest

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Together, Marilyn and Juanita worked to develop the lessons for the remaining areas targeted by Juanita:
strong verbs, voice, and quotation marks. It was a beneficial meeting for Marilyn and Juanita, especially
because Juanita could share with Marilyn her new knowledge of guided-reading.

Juanita also shared more specifics for how to reach Oscar. Marilyn had not used speech synthesis
before, and it would be a learning process for them both.

Click on the following link for more information about speech synthesis:
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/speech

Marilyn led the discussion on the written extension of the lessons. She shared that students would be
creating their own collage picture books and creating iMovie presentations of them. She hoped the
students would create a piece of writing that would be worthy of landing in their showcase portfolio. All of
the kids would be given the opportunity to include their finished books or iMovies in their portfolio.

Click on the following link for more information about portfolios:


http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-
bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=udl/portfolio

Reflection Question:

4. A WebQuest was used to help students navigate the Eric Carle Website. Reflect upon your
experiences using the Web to locate information. What difficulties have you encountered that
might be addressed by using a WebQuest? Web quest allows teachers to give an assignment and
then allow the students to independently find the answers. Web quest is a database that made the
answers that were given by each student to be different yet similar. If a teacher uses web quest it will
be easier for students to locate the correct answers. Web quest will help the students use their time
better. If a teacher does not use web quest, she will spend the majority of her time looking up where
the students found the answers they turned in.

Scene 5
Juanita was so excited about working with Oscar on this project. She had offered to take him through the
entire process one-on-one and incorporated speech synthesis. Oscar was also familiar with the popular
Eric Carle books and illustrations, and so catching his attention was natural. She had pulled four
additional children from the class to create a small group, surrounding Oscar with his peers. She knew
from personal experience that this type of instruction was beneficial for all of the children.

Juanita first selected The Very Hungry Caterpillar to begin the direct instruction component of her whole
group lesson. She read to the children the book and together they mapped out the graphic organizer.
Oscar's comprehension was right there with the other students.

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When it came time for Oscar to read his individual book as part of the teacher-guided small group
instruction time, Juanita worked closely with him. Together they incorporated speech synthesis to enable
him to read the text more independently. The other children were busy whisper-reading their other Eric
Carle books. Juanita had tiered this part of the lesson and targeted students with different levels of books.

Juanita was pleased with Oscar's inclusion with the other children. She was also amazed by the speech
synthesis phenomena. It was such a powerful learning tool for him. Technology was rapidly becoming a
tool that was impossible to ignore. It was truly making a difference in student learning.

For four days, the children continued to learn about Eric Carle using guided reading. Many of the children
were in the general education classroom. Juanita, the reading specialist, continued to work with one
particular group of children during the process. It was a team-teaching approach that benefited everyone.

Reflection Questions:

5. List and describe three benefits the students gained from being included in Oscar's small
group. The main concern started out trying to help Oscar with his learning needs. It also helped the
other children in his group. Oscar used special guided reading strategies to help him along the way.
Specific software also helped other students who struggle with reading. This software reads out the
typed text for the students to hear. Secondly, the students benefited because the software that was
helping Oscar, also helped increase the focus and retention of other students. Thirdly I believe the
students benefited because of his ability to understand the illustrations that were natural to Oscar
when reading books.

6. Do you think Oscar's experience would have been as powerful if he would have worked in
isolation with Juanita? Why or why not?

No, I do not think that Oscar’s experience would have been as powerful if he worked in isolation with
Juanita. Although I do think that other students benefited from working in Oscar’s group, he as well
benefited from the experience. Many times Juanita talked about her specific ways of reaching out to
Oscar. I think that some of the ways she helped him would have also benefited the other students.

Scene 6
Marilyn was feeling confident of the success of the unit. The children had tackled learning some
biographical data about the author/artist via a WebQuest using his Website. They had investigated Eric
Carle from a new lens and learned some important writing elements through the process. She smiled to
herself. Now, it was time for fun. She was optimistic she would be able to excite the children about the
next piece of the unit.

She shared with the class the video Eric Carle: Picture Writer to investigate his artistic approach to
painting the pages that are used for his collage illustrations and further connected to him as an author
and illustrator. She passed out the guided-notes form that she and Juanita had worked to develop. It was
her first time applying this strategy to a video, but she felt confident that it would increase students’ focus
and retention.

Following the video, Marilyn explained to her students that they would publish a book in the spirit of Eric
Carle that would incorporate the wild animals and habitats that they were learning about in science.
Students mapped out the setting and characters, in addition with a problem, solution, and virtues to
incorporate through a story map. Students created a ten page "dummy book" (rough draft) of their words
and illustrations, including a cover, title/dedication page, and "about the author" page. After they received

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IT 365 – Adaptive Technologies Case Study Hayley Jackson
Computer Applications in Education

approval from their "editor," they were guided in creating the final pages of their book-words and
illustrations.

As part of the process, students were able to finger paint colored papers with texture on newsprint. These
hand painted pages became the papers that students used to cut out their final illustrations.

Upon completion of the final book, students began plans for their iMovie presentations. They worked in
teams of two to serve as their partner's "cameraperson" and editing assistant. The final results were
beautiful iMovies of books created, written, illustrated, and read by them!

Students were enthusiastic about the final books and especially the creation of the iMovies. Nearly all
selected their iMovies to be included into their school portfolios. Each child wrote out a reflection letter
documenting his or her learning experience that occurred as part of the process.

Click the following link for an example of an iMovie:

http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/~specconn/page/instruction/udl/case/caseb/mov/outofwate
rs.mov

Reflection Questions:

7. Describe three ways in which Marilyn’s use of technology addresses the needs of her class
and allowed all students to participate in the lesson. One way that Marilyn reached out to her
class with technology was with the guided notes. I loved the idea of letting the students know what
they were going to be learning about in class before the lecture began. The guided notes gave the
children a layout of the class. The Speech Synthesis Tool was another great way to use technology in
her class. Marilyn used this as a way to help Oscar but also as a way to help students who struggled
with reading and understanding the English Language. The third was Marilyn used technology as a
way to allow the students to participate is with the web quest. This allowed them to use their time well
and also allowed them to use the information rather than spending time looking for it.

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