SnapType can help students keep up with their peers, even when their penmanship holds them back. Students can easily complete worksheets with an iPad and SnapType.
SnapType allows students to load worksheets, as a PDF file or a photo from the camera. You can type on the document and share your work. It is a great solution for kids, and even adults, who struggle with handwriting.
Scanning a worksheet and sharing it with students is the most efficient way to use SnapType with an entire class. The app can also be used by an individual, on the fly, by taking a photo of the worksheet and uploading it into SnapType.
I have created a quick tutorial on SnapType to get you started.
Doodle Buddy
Doodle Buddy is an iPad app. With Doodle Buddy you can draw, write, type, and stamp. This app allows for a large number of educational options.
Doodle Buddy allows you to change the background and text color. This can be helpful for students that need a dark background with light font or if different colored text makes reading easier. The ability to change these items may also be a motivator for students or a starting point for creating a story.
Doodle Buddy has a large number of stamps, some similar to emoji's, that can be used to design a picture to write about or as manipulatives to demonstrate math work.
Work within Doodle Buddy can be e-mailed to teachers or saved to the iPad Photo Album for grading at a later time.
This is a highly versatile app. It has made my list of favorites because it is also FREE!
Spelling practice can be tough for many kids. It can be an agonizing activity for students that struggle with handwriting.
One alternative to handwriting is keyboarding. To help with the visual memory of words, while still using keyboarding, have your students use Spell with Flicker.
Spell with Flickr is a free website that allows users to create letter-by-letter visualizations of words. The website works by pulling from tags of letters with photos uploaded to the photo sharing site Flickr.com.
Students type one word at a time into the Spell box:
Students will then get an image of the word.
You can click on each letter to change the image. Words can then be screen-shotted and added into a Doc to be handed into the teacher.
Consider this fun, simple alternative to help struggling students become excited with spelling again.
Audiobooks
Audiobooks, used at all ages and all grade levels, can be used to improve fluency, expand vocabulary, activate prior knowledge, develop comprehension, and increase motivation to interact with books.
Audiobooks can model reading, teach critical listening, build on prior knowledge, improve vocabulary, encourage oral language usage, and increase comprehension.
Below are a couple of audiobook options available for free:
The Night Light Stories Podcast
http://www.nightlightstories.net/
The Storynory Podcast
http://www.storynory.com/
Podiobooks.com
http://Podiobooks.com
Audio stories make a great Classroom Gift idea:
Burn a CD of Audiobooks from a free audiobook website as a holiday, birthday, or end of the school year gift for your students.
