I was fortunate to meet a cool professional, Katherine B.
Fergus, at the Technical College System of Georgia state conference where we
were both presenting.
Kate is a Program Specialist for the Ohio ABLE Professional
Development Network (PDN), based at The Ohio State University in Columbus,
Ohio. Kate’s areas of interest include critical thinking, curriculum
development, special learning needs, and instructional technology.
She has agreed to share some ideas with us. Here is the first
of a few to come!
“As a professional developer in the realm of adult
education, I am always asked the question ‘But what about my students with
special learning needs? How can I help them succeed in the multi-level
classroom, too?’ This question is, of course, one that many of us face as adult
education professionals – whether it’s asked of us or we are asking it of
others. Because there is such a prevalence of LD in adult learners, whether
diagnosed or – more often – suspected, we need to be sure we are accommodating
these learners in what is often a classroom full of students at different
levels with various strengths and challenges. Here is one of my favorite
resources for differentiation in the adult education classroom:
Rewordify.com
This tip is actually my favorite resource of 2014 and I’ve
been sharing it with people all over the adult education community since it was
introduced to me by an instructor here in Ohio.
Rewordify.com is the most marvelous solution to the
multi-level classroom challenge I’ve seen…maybe ever! What makes this site so
fabulous is its ease of use and the fact that it is completely free for
educators to access! Here’s how it works:
Copy and paste ANY text (I use it for informational
text) from the web, a PDF (if the PDF allows it), or a Word file into the
Rewordify box and BAM! It’s reworded to a lower level for students who struggle
with more challenging text and vocabulary.
Copy THAT reworded text out of the webpage and
paste it into your own document for use in the classroom. Ta-da!
But WAIT! There’s more!
You can create customized worksheets, quizzes, vocabulary
boxes (with or without definitions) with the click of a button and change the
level of rewording and format of the final output – there are six levels of
difficulty/ease and different formats that you can use in the classroom with
your students of all levels!
I really can’t praise the folks who developed this gem
enough – it is an absolutely amazing resource for instructors who have a hard
time finding materials that can be used in a multi-level classroom. It
certainly takes some of the aches out of differentiation! I hope you enjoy it
as much as I have!"
Thanks Kate! More to come soon so keep on the lookout for guest
posts. Kate shared with me that she loves graphic organizers. All you SLN folks
out there know that’s also a passion for me so we’ll talk more about those
soon!
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