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New Case Study Describes Teachers Infusing Assistive Technologieswith...

Don Johnston, a leader in assistive technologies for students with special needs, released a new case study today entitled, Bridging Assistive Technologies with Daily Instruction for Students with Learning Challenges. This study describes an award-winning 2008-09 writing program used by special and general educators in Fulton County Public Schools, GA to improve the writing scores of students with diverse learning challenges.

Spearheading the effort was Mrs. Elizabeth (Betsy) Rohrbaugh, Assistive Technology Specialist for Fulton County Public Schools and Ms. Velita Cochran, Itinerant Reading and Special Education Teacher at Northwestern Middle School, Alpharetta, GA. They were honored with the 2009 Innovation for Promoting Excellence in the Classroom Award by their local Foundation of the Council for Exceptional Children. Together, they developed the writing program by integrating an assistive technology tool, the SOLO's174; Literacy Suite, with daily classroom instruction. Students participating in the program also received the YES I CAN! Award from the Foundation for improving their writing skills using the SOLO technology.

SOLO is a software suite like Microsoft Office, but specifically designed for the school environment. The writing tool includes supportive accessibility features (like text-to-speech) for students with disabilities and guided reading supports based on the National Reading Panel and Reading Next Report. SOLO guides students to research facts, draft outlines, edit work and accurately cite bibliographies. Co:Writer's174;, a built-in word prediction program, assists students with spelling and grammar difficulties and Read:OutLoud's174;, a text reader, provides students with access to instructional materials found in the general curriculum.

SOLO provides a structured writing approach with access to digital content across the curriculum, said Mrs. Rohrbaugh. When teachers collaborate, they discuss upcoming assignments with the goal of helping each student be successful in their writing and research projects.

Students were supported in their general education English, reading, science and social studies classes as teachers worked hand-in-hand to address their differentiated learning needs using a tiered writing template, peer-to-peer editing process and an authentic C.U.P.S.S (Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling, and Sounds Right) writing rubric created by Ms. Cochran.

Ms. Cochran said, SOLO provides access to general curriculum materials that can be overwhelming for students with disabilities to read and comprehend. Our students like the multi-modality of hearing the text read aloud. By the time they arrive in 8th grade, they are independent learners.

Today, the Fulton County GA Public School District has integrated the SOLO Literacy Suite as a core software component in over 90 schools to serve more than 2700 students who require differentiated learning approaches to be successful in reading and writing.

Ben Johnston, Director of Marketing at Don Johnston, the company who developed SOLO, said,

This writing program represents an effective blend of integrating assistive technologies with daily instruction to support students with learning challenges across the curriculum. We congratulate these educators for their innovative practices and technology implementation and their students for improving their writing skills.

About Don Johnston Incorporated

Don Johnston empowers educators with specialized accessible technologies and supported reading and writing tools for students with cognitive, physical, and learning differences. Since 1980, the company has partnered with literacy experts, assistive technology specialists, speech language pathologists, psychologists, teachers, researchers, and scientists to develop over a dozen assistive technology products. The company also publishes Start-to-Finish's174;, a collection of paperback, audio and computer books for students who read below grade level.

About The Council for Exceptional Children Yes I Can! Awards

http://www.cec.sped.org/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutCEC/YesICanFoundation/default.htm

In 1981, the Council for Exceptional Children established the Yes I Can! award ceremony for the purpose of acknowledging the achievements of children and youth with disabilities. More than 30,000 students have been recognized for their achievements through the Foundation to:

>    Overcome barriers caused by public misconceptions

>    Encourage children and youth with disabilities to seek their greatest potential

>    Increase public awareness of the abilities, aspirations and personal qualities of persons with disabilities

Resource Links:

Read Case Study on Fulton County Public Schools, GA

http://www.donjohnston.com/state/georgia/school/fulton_cty.html

Read about the SOLO Literacy Suite:

http://www.donjohnston.com/products/solo/index.html

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