Updating Reading Resources

I am currently in the process of updating my materials related to reading resources for accommodating students with reading deficits for several upcoming summer workshops. You will now notice a new tab at the top of the blog that links to this list of resources which range from;

• literacy development
• audio books
• digital text
• accessibility tools
• content-specific resources

Many of these tools I located by following educational technology enthusiast, such as, Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education, TechLearning, Jane Knight, and Kevin Jarrett. As I preview the tools and identify ways in which they could be utilized to differentiate instruction for struggling readers I always return to Dave Edyburn‘s 2003 article on the Taxonomy of Text Modifications (click here to download). This is a great reference when considering students needs and the function of their difficulty (see table below). For example, a lack of fluency would warrant a number of considerations from audio books, text-to-speech tools, to conversion software depending on the function of that difficulty. Once, I identified the the reading problem and the function of that problem I can turn to my list of resources to identify tools to address the students deficit. As I explore new tools I try identify which strategy it most closely associates with, so that I can easily apply it to student needs in the future.

If you have similar tools that you use for reading instruction please post in the comment section. I greatly appreciate additions to the list.