February 2023 Spotlights

We are excited to be highlighting three more amazing educators from two different organizations this month: ECPS and the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System (FDLRS) for the tri-county area.  These three amazing individuals, as well as many others under their direction and support, have been instrumental in paving the way for all Escambia County students and beyond to be able to access educational curriculum.  All students deserve to thrive and flourish and the use of Snap n Read and CoWriter allows more of our students that opportunity.  These technological innovations benefit all Escambia County Public School students as well as their families.  Please take the time to listen to their interviews with us below.  

Learn More About Snap & Read and Co:Writer Universal

"Snap&Read is a reading tool that reads both accessible and inaccessible text aloud, levels vocabulary, and translates, delivering usage data to teachers for assessing students’ reading needs individually.

• Speak- Click and then click where you want to start speaking, or highlight the text you want spoken and click

• Read Aloud-Listen to text as it’s read aloud across websites, PDFs, and Google Drive. It also reads in other languages.

• Dynamic Text Leveling-Dynamically adjust the readability of text without changing the meaning.

• Translate text into 100+ languages on any webpage. 

• Study Tools-Pull text into an outline, then organize it and add notes.

• Remove Distractions-improves text readability with the Remove Distractions feature. A single click gets rid of distracting content and adjusts fonts, spacing and number of characters per line creating the best online reading experience possible. The Remove Distractions tool also reformats any webpage to read—distraction-free—alongside an open outline. This is very useful for CVI students. 

• Color Overlay/Reading Line Guides-Snap&Read Color Overlay and Reading Line Guides brings focus to text paragraph-by-paragraph and even line-by-line—by masking the reading area, another useful feature for CVI students.

• Picture Supported Dictionary-Clear definitions plus MULTIPLE icon representations enhance meaning. Use tools to better understand definitions—read aloud, Dynamically Text Leveling, and Translation.

• Bibliographer-Automatically cite sources on any webpages

• Screenshot Reader-Instantly get access to text embedded in images, inaccessible PDFs, and Flash through Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

• Readability Analyzer-See the grade level equivalent of the text on any webpage.

• Screenshot reader-If you can’t select the text, no worries, screenshot it. Click  and draw a box around the text, and we’ll do the rest.

• Annotation-Highlight and add text to PDFs then save to Google Drive, One Drive, or download.

• Data Collection-Quickly see how much students are reading and the readability levels of the what they read.

• Simplify-Want to simplify difficult passages and vocabulary? Click  and then click where you want to start simplifying text, or highlight the text you want simplified and click

• Translate-If your primary language is not English, use the “Options” to set your primary language. Then click  and select the text you want translated, or highlight the text you want translated and click

• Capture-Create outlines, organize information, highlight text, and cite sources. Drag and drop from your outline makes writing easy.

Snap&Read works as a Google Chrome Extension for Chromebooks, Mac, and Windows desktops running the Google Chrome Browser, an iPad App (an added benefit is camera OCR with an iPad, allowing for taking a picture of text on a page and reading it aloud, and as a Microsoft Edge Extension on Windows machines. It also will work with PDFs, the Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader, and Bookshare. Online, one can browse any webpage, and use Snap&Read’s toolbar to “understand everything on the page” according to the developers." (Thompson, George, Snap n Read Review, Oct 2022)

"Co:Writer Universal works especially well for students who struggle with certain writing mechanics: word choice and spelling. While students write, they'll get auto-generated lists of potential words that could help them push past mechanical blocks and communicate their ideas. It could also help them discover and learn new words. Teachers might encourage students to identify a few new words they've used in each assignment, and to build a running list to study and learn. Some students could find the constant stream of possible words stifling and distracting. To make the best use of the program, teachers should work with students to customize it to individual students' needs. There's a variety of options to personalize the program, including font size, language translation, word predictions, flexible spelling, and speech recognition. The extension easily connects with the Chrome browser and can be turned on or off as needed. 

Beyond using the word prediction and spelling check, there's a read-aloud feature students can use to highlight sentences or entire sections to hear the text read aloud. Teachers could ask students to use this feature and then, based on what students hear, revise the text for clarity and flow." (Common Sense Media, Co:Writer Universal, May 2020)

References

    Common Sense Media. (2020, May). CO:writer Universal Review for Teachers. Common Sense Education. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from                                                            https://www.commonsense.org/education/reviews/cowriter-universal#:~:text=The%20read%2Daloud%20tool%20is,and%20not%20a%20full%20classroom.

Thompson, G. (2022, October 28). Review: Snap and read. Perkins School for the Blind. Retrieved March 7, 2023, from https://www.perkins.org/resource/review-snap-and-read/#:~:text=Snap%26Read%20is%20a%20reading%20tool,assessing%20students'%20reading%20needs%20individually.