Using Technology to Help Others

This lesson is for : Grade 1,Grade 4:

Summary

After reading the book, Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper, students had many questions about students with handicap conditions. Upon discussion of possible limitations, students were asked how they could help a student in first grade that may have some obstacles learning. They chose 1st grade because they have reading buddies in the first grade. Students determined that there are learning disabilities and physical disabilities. To help the learning disabilities, students agreed that creating activities to cover the standards of learning in a fun way may be helpful. Upon learning how to create click and drag activities and container boxes in ActiveInspire, students set out to create activities based upon questions that first graders generated with their teachers covering their sol’s. Next, students wanted to tackle physical disabilities. Students were previously taught coding and creating games using a coding program called Scratch. However, they didn’t know how they could get individuals to play games without use of certain bodily functions. The ITRT introduced them to Makey Makey’s and explained how these could be used as a technology assistant tool. Although students learned how to create scratch games, time was limited to get these done because flip charts were also being created. It was decided that we would allow the students to have fun with two popular games of Pac Man and Tetris. Students were given the task to create objects that would hook to the Makey Makey and make it an assistive technology tool. At the end of the student creations, Fourth grade will get with their 1st grade buddies and have them test out the flip chart activity and the Makey Makey activity.