Using Pen Scanners to Assist Learning
By Dawn Adanti, MACUL Grant Recipient
The goal for winning this grant was to provide students with meaningful opportunities to meet GLCEs and METs through technology and reading comprehension. I am a para-professional at a small alternative high school of about 110 students and 13 faculty and staff members. My students are all high risk and are in my class for various reasons such as attendance, behavioral, and/or academic issues. We also have a teen-mom day-care program. We are part of DCTC consortium that provides alternative education and transportation for nine school districts.
In an alternative educational setting, we have a huge array of learning styles, levels and abilities. Although we follow the same standards, benchmarks and curriculum, we step out of the box and try alternative methods. Our slogan is “An alternative school not an Alternative to school.” Motivation is a key factor for get- ting these students interested in learning and we try to do many things to engage students’ interest. We focus on differentiation and project-based learning, striving to encourage our students not only academically, but also socially.
Sometimes lack of funding hinders these efforts, so winning a MACUL Grant helped meet this need. Wizcom worked with my grant budget so I could purchase a classroom set of 10 pen scanners and 10 sets of headphones. Using assistive technology to engage students is so beneficial. Many of our students are very low-level readers. If a student can’t understand a word, their frustration level escalates which causes another issue. These pens make learning fun and less stressful. This in turn leads to a more successful learning environment and higher test scores.
Pen scanners are amazingly valuable tools for every student in my multi-level alternative education classroom. The use of these pens helps students acquire and apply strategies to identify unknown words and construct meaning in order to be more successful in school and increase reading compre- hension and grade level. These pens easily scan text in order to hear it spoken aloud and obtain definition, spelling, syllable understanding and cor-
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rect pronunciation. All words can be transferred to a computer for further practice. Students use them for reference, to study new terminology and to save something for a later date. The pen scanners have
created a more engaging learning environment. Students use these technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity and to promote creativity.
Many people are not quite sure what pen scanners are, or how they work. Wizcom describes them as “Portable, multi-function, hand- held scanning translators that can scan a word or a full line of text and provide immediate word-by-word translation, including idioms and phrases. Provides audio pronunciation of individual words or full lines of text in selected languages,” http://www.wizcomtech. com/. It scans over a word on students’ schoolwork, tests, novels or any other type of text and pronounces it. If a student doesn’t know the definition of the word, it will give the definition too. So, it is like a portable dictionary/translator in a really cool pen!
There have been many case studies on how well students benefit from these. Check out the case studies from teachers to see how you can use these pens and how well students have done during and after using them:
http://tinyurl.com/Wizcomtech-1145 Michigan GLCEs:
CE 2.1.1 - Use a variety of pre-reading and previewing strategies…
CE 3.2.5 - Respond to literature in a variety of ways… providing examples of how texts affect their lives, connect them with the contemporary world, and communicate across time.
CE 3.3.3 - Draw on a variety of critical perspectives to respond to and analyze works of literature…
CE 3.3.4 - Demonstrate knowledge of American minority literature and the contributions of minority writers.
CE 3.4.1 - Use methods of close and contextualized reading and viewing to examine, interpret, and evaluate print and visual media and other works from popular culture
http://www.wizcomtech.com/eng/catalog/a/readingpen2/
The pen scanners enable the classroom teacher to incorporate both the curriculum of the Michigan Department of Education Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs), as listed in the chart, as well as the Michigan Educational Technology Standards (METS). Even though I am no longer at the same school, I keep in close contact with the middle school teacher, Mrs. Leslie Guizetti, who uses the scanner pens in the classroom. They have been amazing tools and I’m so excited that I won this grant!
Dawn Adanti, MAT, is a Project Manager at Westwood Cyber High School and can be reached at
Dawn.adanti@
wchs.wwschools.net
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