By Karol McCool & Alicia Hallex A Literacy support software - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

By Karol McCool & Alicia Hallex

2

A Literacy support software program with tools to help all students become more independent in the classroom.

• Primarily developed to assist students with reading

and writing disabilities, but has the potential to improve learning for all students

• Works with other key programs such as: Microsoft

Office, Internet, PDF, JPG, etc.

• Supports existing curriculum
• Customizable to student needs

• Toolbar can float or be anchored
• Resize icons
• Display or hide text labels
• Choice of 6 Toolbars Templates
• Writing Features, Reading Features, Study Skills

Features, Research Features, My Features, PDF Aloud

Features

• Support Feature for text to be

read aloud.

• Builds Reading Comprehension
• Speech Options:
• Different Voices
• English (Male or Female)
• Spanish
• Edit Pronunciations
• Highlighting
• Choose volume of text
• Change the contrast
• Select only the text you want it to

read

Practice

• Open a new Word document
• Type a short paragraph about

anything

• Choose Play button to read

aloud the text

• Practice using the Play and

Stop buttons

• Try Highlighting just a section of

the paragraph

• Click the drag down menu next

to the Play button to change your preferences

Features

• Read aloud on web pages
• No click required, just hover
• ver the text with your cursor
• Use the dual color highlighting
• Works in only accessible web

pages

• Your speech preferences can be

used on the web as well

Practice

• http://www.cnn.com/
• Select Web Highlighting in Play

submenu

• Hover over links article text to

read it aloud

• Select from Basic,

Advanced or Web Dictionary

• Sample sentences and

descriptions included

• Word and definition are

speech-enabled

• Web=Dictionary.com
• Works with selected text
• Works with and

enhances existing features

• Works with clipboard

text

• Requires internet

connection

Features

• Provides text to speech for

inaccessible web pages or PDF’s

• Select any part of screen

and text will be read aloud with highlighting

• Reads virtually any text

including images, Flash, and PDF documents

• The screenshot takes the text

into a Word document Practice

• Go to www.k12.com
• Open one of the sample

lessons and experiment with the screen shot reader

Features

• Works with Adobe Acrobat

and Reader

• Click and Speak
• Hover Highlighting
• Reads PDF’s within the web

browser

Practice

• Locate a PDF document
• Use Adobe Reader to open

the file

• Use the PDF Aloud Toolbar to

read the file aloud

Features

• English to Spanish
• Single word translator
• Paragraph translation

available

• Multiple translations
• Native language vocabulary

building Practice

• Select a word within a web

page or document

• Click the Translator icon
• Hover the cursor over the

translations to hear it read aloud

• Close the translator and

reopen it without first selecting a word

• Manually enter a word for

translation

Screen Masking

• You can tint your whole

screen with a color overlay

• r just a line with color that is

being read

• Underline width can be

adjusted to your preference

• Can be used for reading or

writing Speech Maker

• Text up to 20,000 characters

at one time can be selected and converted into an audio file e.g. MP3 or WAV

• Voice choice, speed and

pitch choice

• Benefits
• Helpful for auditory learners
• Repeated Reading
• Memorization

Highlighting

• Highlights work in MS Word &

Internet Explorer

• Highlighted info collected by

color, collection time, or position in document

• Highlighted info can be

exported to a new Word document with bibliographical info

• Bibliography can be in APA,

MLA or Harvard format Practice

• Open a passage in Word or a

web page containing text

• Highlight words or phrases with a

commonality and click the color from the Study Skills toolbar you wish to use

• Repeat the highlight process with

at least two colors

• Choose Collect Highlights from the

Study Skills toolbar then click OK

• Highlighted text is now displayed

in a new Word doc

• Graphic organizer can be created using words, highlighted

words or entering words manually

• Columns for vocabulary word, word meaning, symbol for word

and note column

• Clip art can be added for symbol column
• Definitions can be modified for context and translations added

Practice

• Select text from the Wikipedia

page

• Click on the Fact Finder icon
• In the Fact Details window

complete/update details

• Add an image to Fact Folder

from the Wikipedia endangered species page by choosing “add web image” from dropdown menu

• Select Review Facts from Fact

Folder submenu to preview the text/image you saved Practice

• Click the Fact Mapper icon
• Add elements to the new Fact

Map

• Search for and add images by

entering topic in “search” field

• Add a sticky note to map by

saving text in the note area at bottom of screen

• Select the Current View icon and

adjust the layout of map elements

• Export the Fact Map to MS Word

and save the file

• Save the Fact Map

Features

• Builds vocabulary
• Learns user word use

patterns

• Phonetic mapping for

inventive spellings

• Grammar indicator
• Dictionary lookup
• Speech feedback

Practice

• Open a blank Word doc
• Click on the Word Prediction

icon

• Begin typing a sentence and

note the feature attempting to predict words

• Select words by using the

Function keys

• Select words by double clicking
• n them
• Click the Dictionary icon next to

a word and note displayed definition

Features

• Uses a phonetic map
• Can be speech-enabled
• Audible definitions and

sample sentences

• Encourages vocabulary

development Practice

• Open a blank Word doc
• Type 2 or 3 sentences with

misspelled words

• Click the Spell Check icon to

check spellings

• Note visual cues in dialog box
• Click the Play button in toolbar

to read aloud content in the Spell Check dialog

• Click the Change button to

replace misspelled words

Features

• Helps with correct verb

conjugation

• Student can choose from

past, present, or future tense

• f verb
• Provides multiple verb

conjugations Practice

• Click on Verb Checker icon
• Enter a verb
• Choose from past, present, or

future tense of verb checking

• Try different conjugations

into sentence from which you took the verb

Features

• Identifies homophones and

commonly confused words

• Alternate choices are

displayed

• Provides definitions
• Speech-enabled
• Check one word or whole

document Practice

• Open a word document
• Click on the show homophones

icon

• Note that homophones convert

to blue font

• Click on the Sounds Like

homophone icon

• Preview displayed homophones

and definitions

• Click on the Hide homophone

icon to revert all text back to black font

Features

• Standard and Scientific

versions

• Speech enabled
• Printable audit trail
• Undo button
• 5 Memory functions
• In-document calculations
• Value converter

Try it Yourself!

• Click on the calculator icon
• Enter and solve an equation
• Note the audit trail panel
• Use the speech menu within the

calculator to read the equation aloud

• Choose the voice Paulina to

hear the numerals read aloud in Spanish

• In a Word document, convert a

unit of measure (e.g. inches to centimeters)

• Helps with higher order thinking and categorizing
• Advance searches
• Opposites of
• Different kinds of
• Part of a
• Words related to
• Is a part of
• Features