Schoology Special Education

Special education teachers can indeed create their own course and add students to the course. It will appear in students' Schoology accounts just like their other courses.

Create your own course

Pros:

• You control it

• Dedicated announcements / assignments / resources for students

• Can combine students from multiple general education classes into one Schoology course

Cons:

• Not tied to PowerSchool - teachers will have to add students manually, and manage grading in PowerSchool

Steps to create a course (same steps as creating your Sandbox course in the "HPS Gettings Started with Schoology" PD course):

1. Click on the Courses menu at the top of the Schoology home page, and then go to the My Courses link in the far right

2. Click the Create Course button

3. Fill out the information for the course. Be sure to select the correct grading period (ie Semester 1 8/19/20 - 1/03/21)

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Adding students to a course

1. Open the course you just created

2. On the left, click the Members link

3. Click the Add Members button

4. Find and select the student's name (easiest to type part of the name in the search box at the top and press <enter>)

5. Click the Add Members button at the bottom

Note: it's possible to add more than one student at a time. It will remember any student you have selected, even if you go on to search for a different name

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Principals, Teachers, Counselors - any staff role can create their own group and add students, staff, and even parents to the group. It will appear in the group members' Schoology accounts just like their other groups.

Courses vs Groups: Which should I choose?

Choose a course if:

• You need to be a teacher - assign materials that you want to grade, even with a rubric

• The focus is primarily academic work - assigning work, collecting work, providing feedback on work, etc.

• You will be working mainly with students

Choose a group if:

• You need to be a collaborator - ask questions, share ideas, share resources, etc.

• The focus is primarily communication - messages, updates, building community, etc.

• You will be working with a mix of people - students, teachers, support staff, parents

To create a group:

1. Click the Groups menu at the top

2. At the far right, click the My Groups link

3. Click the Create Group button

4. Fill in the details for the group, then click the Create button

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To add members to a group

Go to the group profile by selecting a group from Groups at the top of Schoology, or click My Groups for a complete list of your groups. You can add members to your group by distributing the Group Access Code. Group administrators can locate the access code from the Members area:

1. Click Groups in the top menu and select a group you administer.

2. Click Members in the left-hand menu.

3. Click Add Members.

4. Select member(s) to invite to the group.

   • You will see a selected count in the upper right corner.

   • You can also search or browse for each user, without affecting the previously selected members.

   • If there are multiple school buildings in your organization, you may need to use the filter to search for the school in which the user is enrolled.

   • If cannot locate the user you wish to add, check to confirm whether they are already enrolled in the group. Enrolled group members will not appear in the Add Members search results.

5. If you wish to add members directly (without needing them to respond to an invitation), check the box at the bottom to Add members without invite

6. Click Add Members to finish.

Require Approval

If you would like to manually approve each user who uses the access code before they can join the group, follow these steps from the Group Profile:

1. Click Members on the left.

2. Look for the Access Code (green box) on the right.

3. Click the checkbox to Require Approval moving forward.

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Yes - see Can a course have coteachers? in the Schoology Courses FAQ section.

Pros:

• Students won't have to go to 2 different places

• Coteachers can see and work directly with materials provided by classroom teacher

• Rosters and grades are synchronized with PowerSchool

Cons:

• Can't combine students from different classes

• Extra step to create announcements / assignments for only some students in the class

Yes - Schoology has an advisor role that allows teachers to view the courses, grades, and calendar of assigned students.

Pros:

• Can see all the students courses, calendar, and Schoology grades

• Similar to parent access

Cons:

• Cannot edit / differentiate course materials, grade assignments, etc.

• Views / access is organized by student rather than by course.

To be assigned as an advisor to your caseload students in Schoology, please work with your building administrator to coordinate which staff will be assigned as advisors to which students for the school. The building administrator can send a request to instructionalservices@howellschools.com to make the assignments in Schoology.

Once you have been assigned as an advisor to a student, you will have a Tools menu at the top of your Schoology homepage. In that menu, selecting Advisor Dashboard will allow you to search for your advisees to see their courses, calendar, grades, etc. Note that PowerSchool is the official attendance (in-person classes) and grading (all classes) system for HPS.

Any course material (assignments, assessments, etc.) can be individually assigned to a specific student or to grading groups of students.

To differentiate a particular course material:

In a course where you wish to differentiate an assignment:

1. Click on Add materials to add a course material, or click on the gear icon to the right of an existing material to edit it

2. At the bottom of the editing window are the Options for the materials. One option looks like 3 dots and is labeled Individually Assign. Click on that option

3. A textbox will be added in the editing window, labeled Assign to

4. Type one or more students' names, and/or the name of a grading group, to assign that material to those specific students / groups

To differentiate an entire folder of course materials:

After creating the folder:

1. Click on the gear icon to the right of the folder

2. Select Individually Assign

3. In the Select Students window, click in the box labeled Add or search for students and check the box next to the students you wish to add. You can also click in the box labeled Add or search for grading groups to check the box for the groups you wish to add.

4. Click the blue Next button at the bottom

5. Confirm the assignments by clicking the blue Assign button

To create grading groups

Go to the course where you wish to create groups for differentiation:

1. Click the Members link on the left

2. Move your mouse to the right side labeled Organize Members into Grading Groups

3. When your mouse hovers over the box, it becomes labeled Add Grading Group. Click on that link.

4. Give the group a name, then select the students you wish to add to that group.

5. Click the Create Grading Group button at the bottom.

6. After you create any groups for differentiation, it's also helpful to create a group for everyone else in the course. When you create differentiated materials, one item can be assigned to the differentiation group(s), and another can be assigned to everyone else as a group.

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Schoology is compatible with the built-in text-to-speech functions on Chromebooks. You can hear full pages read aloud with Chromebook’s built-in screen reader or hear parts of a page, including specific words, read aloud with Select-to-speak.

Listen to all text

To have pages read aloud to you, turn on your Chromebook’s built-in screen reader:

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings.

3. At the bottom, select Advanced.

4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.

5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on Enable ChromeVox (spoken feedback).

Note: You can turn Chromevox on or off from any page by pressing Ctrl + Alt + z. Learn more about how to use the built-in screen reader.

Listen to part of a page

To select specific text on a page to be read to you, turn on Select-to-speak.

Part 1: Turn on Select-to-speak

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings .

3. At the bottom, select Advanced.

4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.

5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on Enable select-to-speak.

Part 2: Select and hear text

1. Press and hold the Search key and click a line of text.

2. Press and hold the Search key and drag the pointer over an area of the screen.

3. ​Highlight the text and press the Search key + s.

4. At the bottom right, near the time, select Select-to-speak . Then select a line of text or drag the pointer over an area of the screen.

5. On a touchscreen: At the bottom right, near the time, tap Select-to-speak . Then tap a line of text or drag your finger over an area of the screen.

6. Your Chromebook will read the section aloud and each word will be highlighted.

7. To stop Select-to-speak while it’s reading, press Ctrl or the Search key . You can also select Stop .

Important: Depending on your keyboard, you can press the Search key or the Launcher key for some shortcuts. Both keys work the same.

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https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9032490?hl=en