3.

5 Adaptive and Assistive Technology

Candidate facilitates the use of adaptive and assistive technologies to support individual student
learning needs.

This artifact, the ELL Report and field experience took place at Hembree Springs Elementary
school where I serve as the Instructional Technology Coach. This artifact describes a lesson designed for
a small group English Language Learner classroom. The artifact describes the experience of preparing for
and working with the ELL students, and the tools and resources that were developed and provided to
increase student learning and growth. While the lesson was created and designed independently, it was
not without the knowledge and expertise of the ELL teacher. Her understanding of effective ELL
strategies help guide me through the development of this artifact.

This artifact demonstrates the ability to facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive technologies
to support individual student learning needs in the classroom. Specifically, this artifact prepared
students and teachers for the implementation of a prepared OneNote to provide additional support to
ELL students while in the general education classroom. The students and their general education
teachers were instructed on the use of the OneNote. The OneNote was designed to provide a space for
ELL students to ask for clarification, a place for students to practice targeted skills and strategies, as well
as a section for the general education teacher to stay informed about effective, and research based
strategies that could be used with the ELL students in the general education classroom. Perhaps the
most important tool that students and teachers were trained on was the use of the Immersive Reader
provided by Microsoft. This tool allowed students to translate text and have it read allowed. It also
allowed teachers to provide translated text when needed. This adaptive technology allowed ELL
students to stay engaged in the general education setting, even when they struggled to comprehend the
instruction or the curriculum.

The completion of this artifact was an excellent reminder of the importance of personalizing
student learning. It also reminded me of how little training I received, and how little training most
teachers receive, in ELL instructional practices. Working through this project, and working with through
the IRIS Module helped me to better understand how ELL instruction can support a diverse classroom.
Many of the strategies and skills discussed in the module, including the strategies used during this
lesson, can be used effectively in any classroom to help personalize learning. I think I could have
improved this artifact by working more continuously with these students. While working through this
project, I was reminded of the importance of finding data to support instructional practices, and it is
extremely important for ELL teachers to drive their instruction through effective data. If I could spend
more time with these students, developing activities and lessons based on their data and their individual
growth, I believe it would be an even stronger lesson design.

This artifact impacted student growth and faculty development. This was one of my earliest
experiences working with the ELL teachers while in my role as instructional coach. This was a great
opportunity for me to demonstrate how technology can support the personalization with students in
the ELL classroom. Furthermore, it introduced these students to a new tool, Seesaw, which allows them
to begin developing an online journal so they can demonstrate their understanding and growth over
time.