Standard 3.

4 Adaptive and Assistive Technology -facilitate the use of adaptive and assistive

technologies to support individual student learning needs.

For the Internet Lesson Plan assignment, I created a lesson plan that used adaptive

technology to accommodate and assist my English as Second Language Learners (ESL) to

support their individual learning needs. I designed this lesson based on the student demographics

of my class and incorporated technology-enhanced learning experiences to further differentiate

my lesson for my students and to better support the individualized needs of those students. This

assignment fell in with our argument unit and focused on Ethos, Pathos, and Logos (EPL). The

EPL lesson is the first introduction to argument writing our students see. They began by taking

detailed notes on what Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are. Those notes were taken from a Prezi

presentation, which I then adapted into Google Slide notes. This step was essential for my

students because all the Google Chromebooks my students receive are equipped with the “Read

& Write” Google Chrome extension. This adaptive Chrome extension allowed all students to

have access to translations, image word search, talk to text, and the read-aloud. Students were

asked to complete a graphic organizer as they took notes and to answer guiding questions. After

notes, students then watched a Google Slide embedded with ten commercials and identify the

elements of EPL they saw in each commercial. Lastly, students created a product to sell to their

class. This portion of the assignment was completed in groups. After they created the product,

students worked together to create a commercial that had to use a combination of EPL to sell

their classmates their product. Each group uploaded their commercial to our classroom’s

YouTube channel, where it was then watched by all four class periods. At this point, students

reviewed their peers work by identifying the rhetorical elements they found in their peer’s work.

The did this by completing a Google Form, which was posted in our Google Classroom. The
goal of this lesson was to design and implement a technology-enhanced lesson that used adaptive

and assistive technology to further better individual student learning.

This lesson demonstrates my ability to effectively design and implement a lesson that

betters individualized student learning through the use of adaptive and assistive technology for

diverse student population. In this lesson, technology was used to assist students as they moved

through the scaffolded the material, by using the Read Write Google Chrome extension. Because

the notes for EPL are given through Google Slides, students were able to move through their

notes at their own pace using the translation tool that best suited them. This eliminated the

problem of students getting behind. As students moved through the notes, they were asked a

series of surface-level comprehension questions which they had to answer correctly in order to

move on, which gave students the ability to self-check tier current level of understanding before

moving on. Since these questions were given through Nearpod, another adaptive technology used

in this lesson, students were not able to continue with their notes until they answered the

questions correctly. This allowed me to quickly assess student’s level of understanding and

provide targeted/individualized feedback before they moved on. If students continued to get

Nearpod answers wrong, I stepped in and provided assistance to help students develop their

critical thinking skills as we worked through the questions together.

After creating and facilitating this lesson, I learned the value in giving all students the

opportunity and tools they need in order to complete work individually. This level of guided

independence is important for my 8th graders to get accustomed to before they move to high

school. In the past, I offered more teacher led guidance to my ESL students without having the

forethought of giving them the tools they needed, instead of holding their hands through the

material. In the future, I plan to give tools first and offer more support second.
 The work that I put into this lesson greatly impacted student learning in my classroom

because, through the use of technology assistive and adaptive technology, I was able to give my

ESL students a better chance at independence and autonomy in the classroom. I also introduced

other teachers to this extension and helped further develop communication between faculty and

students. This development can be assessed through the level of independence my students

gained and the number of teachers who now incorporate this technology into their lessons.