AlphaSmarts

We are starting to use this tool with more of our students with handwriting issues in the regular classroom. You can order them with a keyboarding program and you can order a disk with part of the CoWriter program for word prediction to put into the alphasmart. These add-ons help the student so that they can work from their desk and not be removed to a computer somewhere else in the building that has this software. Students use them to take notes in class rather then getting notes from a peer. They are portable if the student moves from classroom to classroom. Our OT is completing trainings for staff that needs to learn how to operate them. They are becoming very helpful for the inclusion students and we also are only beginning to learn what a great tool they are.

9/21/01

Several schools in my district are using AlphaSmarts to motivate their students in writing. I went to a demonstration, where the teachers participated as fourth grade students in a language arts class. The speaker presented a multimedia presentation about Mars. She included photographs, key words and music to stimulate our interest and background knowledge. Then, she guided us in typing the title Mars on our AlphasSmarts. Next, she modelled writing several words about Mars on the board. We had to develop our own describing words about Mars and then write a phrase. In this way, she led us in writing Mars poetry. We then had to spell check and proofread our work. Each of us submitted our work to the teacher’s work station, formatted our poetry and presented it to the class via the television.

The alpha smart is a great tool for word processing. One way that I have seen them used successfully is to take them outside when gathering data on science or for a math project. If you are brave and your students are very responsible, you could also take them on a field trip so that students can take notes on what they see and learn. They also have a keyboarding program that some teachers use to reinforce keyboarding skills when students finish their other work. I hope you find them useful in your classroom.

If you go to their web site Richard Wandarman has a great resource page, I should say pages. It has a lot of ideas from teachers on integrating the AlphaSmart.