Finding the Right Tool at the Right Time for the Exact Student Who Needs it.

So today I have to stop and share a heartwarming experience I had with an ELL student

and using tools that reminded me of the absolute difference that matching students with

the tools they need can make in both their learning, their confidence, and in the way that

they are able to demonstrate their learning.

As a librarian, I also teach Library Technology classes and today was the last day for

students to turn in Memes for a digital citizen project.  Previously I showed them how to

search using the Advanced Search option in Google Images and filter their search results

by usage permissions.  I encouraged students to use Public Domain or CC0 licenses so

that I would be able to share the memes they created on my Flickr page.  Not having to

give attribution makes sharing your work globally so much easier.  Before students turned

their work in, they were to go onto the rubric (which I had read aloud to them on a previous

day) and they were to self-evaluate.  Even though I demonstrated in front of the class AND

created a screencast on how to do this, there were a couple of students who still did not

understand. I am so glad they are comfortable seeking assistance.  Below is the rubric that

was shared with them in Google Classroom.

Sitting down next to this student, I could have read the text aloud to him, but I was going

to arm him with the great tool our district provides--Google Read and Write.  As I was about

to do this thoughts were dancing in my head and I knew Google had a translate feature, so

I thought maybe that would be a better tool for this particular student.  So I asked what his

native language was and he said Arabic. So here were my next steps--it was a not great

step--but this is how we grow, right?

First, M (the student) had the rubric open, I went to File and selected Translate and he

found his language for me.  

Here is an image of what happened.

Selecting Arabic as the language of this document caused all of the
words to be marked as misspelled.  Not what I meant to do.

Since I selected the language for this text, basically all of my English was underlined as misspelled. Oops.  I knew that was not what I meant to do and this student was very patient.  I knew there was still a way.

This is the translated rubric and the red indicates the student's self-assessed ratings.

Then I went to Tools and that did the trick. (see above)

By going to Tools and Translate Document, my words were instantly turned into Arabic.  
I asked the student if he was able to read this and he offered to read it aloud to me.  Instead
I explained how to use the paint bucket to fill in the cells and left him to evaluate how he
rated himself in the four standards we were targeting in this project.  When I came back to
check on him, he had rated himself and I asked how it went and he said, “It was so easy,”.  
You will see the red rows above (his choice of color) on how he evaluated himself and he
was right on target.

*heart melts here*  

Even though there was a read aloud feature, if English is not easily understood, then that
audio feature would not have helped this particular student,  watching my video instructions
in English would also not have helped, but translating was perfect.

As a former special education teacher and a teacher who has often worked with non-native
English speakers, I have always tried to make learning accessible to all.  Many of us know
about many tools, but an opportunity to match a child with the perfect tool at the perfect time
does not always fall into our laps.  This was a lucky day where the stars aligned.  I had this
student show another ELL student how to do the same steps so she could read the rubric in
her native language.

Our technology director, Craig Barnes, is very passionate about accessibility to students of
all abilities and listening to his podcast, Friendly Disruption, that he co-hosts with Noreen
Bush, motivates and informs me with new tools and a gust of empowerment to go and try to
improve the learning lives of children--one at a time.  Today was one of those days.