Post written by Julieta González
As already mentioned on this website, the term SEN stands for "Special Education Needs," and it is used to refer to learners with a wide array of needs that require special support in the language classroom. Hockly (2017) points out that not only effective classroom management strategies and a variety of approaches and activities are being paid attention to, but also an increasing number of technologies that can support SEN students in the classroom are being seen and discussed.
There is a broad variety of tools one can find when it comes to SEN. Let's explore Snapguide, AKA B+C Guides.
On Snapguide, learners and teachers can create easy-to-follow guides. It is a great tool to share knowledge in a step-by-step fashion.
When creating a guide, students can select a title according to the topic they are going to deal with, and then use a combination of photos, videos, and text to help explain how to do what they're teaching. It is worth mentioning that this website can be used on mobiles, tablets and computers; Hockly regards these devices as "assistive," because they include a range of built-in assistive features that can support SEN language students. Bearing this in mind, is there any excuse not to include Snapguide in our classes?
It should be mentioned that this tool may be helpful to students with speech difficulties; the possiblity of adding visual aids and text to their guides can create a concoction that truly supports communication. It is also true that this website could be categorized as social media because students can leave comments and share their productions on other platforms; this could be a good way of making them feel more connected to one another considering the current situation.
Activity that could be carried out using Snapguide:
After students have learnt some of the different uses of the Present Simple, the teacher could use ask them to use this website as part of a project: writing and showing a recipe, step by step. It is true that many times teachers ask students to show recipes for something, so why not use Snapguide now that most classes are being taught online? Moreover, students who have issues with reading text and sequencing steps should find the task easy to carry out thanks to this tool. Pupils also have a variety of examples on the website to see different ways they can adopt when presenting steps to a recipe.