| Blend sounds to form words |
LISTEN AND COMPLETE MACHINE =>a word / a sentence is displayed. In each word (or sentence) will be one or more gap. The child can touch every letter (or word) to listen to the single sound (except the blank space). The he can double tap on the blank space to fill the gap with the right letter (or word) chosen from a custom keyboard to complete the exercise. After that the student can listen to the entire word pronounced and hear a fun sound (like a dog’s bark if ”dog” was the word displayed) |
All of these games should be compatible with a braille display |
We must choose words known by the students they must know the written form and the pronounciation. 5 letters maximum. Fixed width of buttons. Sound feedback when swiping, to switch from a letter to another one (it’s the native behaviour with tables). The kid double tap on the blank space to open the keyboard and answer. |
| Identify letters of the alphabet |
Exercise: A word followed by the corresponding image is displayed (an animal or a common object) =>The screen reader can announce the word. The child has to pick the first letter of the word, from a range of 3/4 letters.A variant could be: a letter is displayed and the child has to select the image/word from a range of 3/4 that that with that letter.Story mode: On the display is shown a letter followed by a common image of a figure whose name starts with that letter. For whom use a screen reader, the letter can be described with a very short story (like ”the word DOG starts with letter D, and its braille code is just dots one-four-five. (sound of a barking dog”). |
Game should be compatible with braille display; option in settings to turn off the ”braille code is dots 1 + 4 + 5” ; or have a harder level that does not include the dot numbers. |
Identify common and proper nouns. It’s difficult to associate meaningful sounds to proper names. |
| Identify sounds of the letters in alphabet |
A letter is pronuonced, and the student have to select the correspending letter of the alphabet from a set of 3 or 4, from a custom keyboard.A variant for advanced levels can be: the child has to pick from a complete keyboard. Blind children with brailler display, can directly write the letter.Exercise 2: the child has to select the word from a set of 2 or 3 that start with that sound.This exercise can also be made with syllables. |
Easy level of this game, the student selects an answer from 3 or 4 answer choices. Harder level of the game is that the student has to select the letter from the onscreen keyboard or types the letter using a braille display. |
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| Recognize that a new word is created when a specific letter is changed, added or deleted |
Display a gap followed by two or three letters, 3 or 4 times. The student can select a letter or drag and drop it, to form a word and if the word is meaningfull, it’s pronounced by VoiceOver. It is possible to display a short definition of the word too. AN ==>CAN AN ==>FAN AN ==>PAN |
This is called ”word families” when only the first letter of the word is changed. Also Ryhming activities. It is important to name these exercises in such a way that teachers instantly understand what educational goal is being addressed. FYI: I like adding drag and drop tech skill to some of these games. It does not have to be every game... |
Drag and drop it’s not necessary. If we want to implement it, we must limit the number of words. |
| Identify rhyming words |
Show a word and a matching image. VoiceOver read the word for VIB students, or if they have braille display, the word is shown on that. Then we show 3 other words and images, pronouncing them. The student have to select the one that rhymhes with the first word. |
Note: When using the braille display, if a teacher wants the student to only have the braille (without VoiceOver talking) then they use the M-Chord command to Mute VoiceOver speech. The directions to mute can be added to the overall game directions for teachers. |
Animals sounds and noises. Really hard for children. |
| Blends CVC sounds aloud to make a word (Consent, Vowel, Consent) |
LISTEN AND COMPLETE MACHINE =>a word / a sentence is displayed. In each word (or sentence) will be one or more gap. The child can touch every letter (or word) to listen to the single sound (except the blank space). The he can double tap on the blank space to fill the gap with the right letter (or word) chosen from a custom keyboard to complete the exercise.After that the student can listen to the entire word pronounced and hear a fun sound (like a dog’s bark if ”dog” was the word displayed) |
FYI: Encourage the student to drag and split tap (instead of swipe and double tap). Dragging teaches spatial concepts and is often easier for young students than double tapping. It is also helpful to learn dragging before learning to the drag and drop gesture/command. |
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| Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words |
A sight word is displayed/read. the child has to select the right animal/object whose image/sound match the word given (the sound is played when the image is tapped).e.g.: DOG is the word given along. 3 images are displayed =>A DOG, A CAT, A CHICKEN. The child has to select the image with the dogEXERCISE 2: An incomplete word is displayed with an image on possibly a sound that can be played by clicking on the image. The child has to fill the gap in the word with the correct letter or sillable, by selecting it from a custom keyboard with a limited choiche.e.g.: AT is displayed. The child has to select the letter C to complete the word CAT. |
This might be a kindergarten level? This is a common activity for learning phonetics? |
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| Identify silent ‘e’ (long vowel) |
Complete simple sentences choosing the rigth word between one with silent ’e’ and one without it.e.g.: (image of a rose/display reader saying ”rose”) this is a (ros or rose) |
The silent ”e” rule is a spelling activity; definitely harder task. I would pair this with other spelling rule activities. |
Really Hard. |
| Words that begin with the same sound |
Show a word and a matching image. VoiceOver read the word for VIB students. Then we show 3 other words and images, pronouncing them. The student have to select the one that start with the same letter of the first word. A variant:We display 3 boxes and some words (VoiceOver can read them when touched). The student have to drag and drop the words that start with the same letter in the same box. (too complex) |
The variant is more complex but a great challenging activity (harder level) or introduced again at higher grade. These activities should progress and build on each other. It is good for students to be familiar with an activity (game/layout) and move towards more challenging content. |
| Use strategies (rereading, predicting, questioning, contextualizing) when comprehension breaks down |
A story is read/displayed. The child can answer to given question writing a simple answer (or choosing from multiple choice). The question have to be more complex in order to force the child to reread or relisten to the story. If the child give the wrong answer, some hints are provided; for example if the first question is: ”who is the subject of the sentence?”, the child may not be able to answer. He can choose to have some hints related to the first question, like ”Who is the person that ate the apple?” |
Incorporate the ’WH’ questions who, what, when, why, where. ”why” is a thinking question and definitely harder. Prediction is another question that is freuqnetly asked (often before the end of the story) These types of questions are on a different level than the earlier questions; students need to be reading multiple sentences to complete this type of question. |
| Decode two syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables |
A word is shown/read; to divide the word in syllables, the kid has to place one or more separator (like ”-” or ”/”) between the final letter of a syllable and the starting letter of the next syllable. (must be provided enough soace between each letter)E.g.: PIZZA is displayed. The child has to place the separator between PIZ and ZA ==>PIZ ZA.EXERCISE 2: A word is partialy displayed, the child has to complete it with a syllable provided in a custom keyboard, by selecting it or by drag and drop it. E.g.: CHICK is displayed / read. In the keyboard are displayed: EN, ED, AN. The child has to select EN to complete the word CHICKENA word is show/read by the display reader; underneath a number of boxes matching the length of the word plus the number of separator (like the ”-” character) needed to divide the word in syllables. At basic level the separator position can be provided, at more advanced levels the child has to place them all by himself. The child has to fill the boxes with the correct syllable division.Another type of exercise requests to the student to find the correct syllable division for a given word between some provided. |
This is another more challenging activity. The second exercise seems to be more geared towards spelling than syllables? Students have to know how to spell the words before they can do this activity. We often teach kids to clap out the number of syllables before dividing words.Again, there are some rules about dividing that would need to be introduced. The activity would need to groups of words (double consonants, compound words) before randomly dividing by syllables. It is a good activity, just more challenging! I like the idea of touching the last consonant to add the divider. It would be nice if the screen (and braille display) could then split that word leaving a space between the two parts? Introduce compound words first? |
Touch the last letter of a syllable to place a separator |
| Identifies all uppercase and lowercase letters |
Display a grid of letters. The child has to choose the ones that are uppercase. It work both for sighted children and those who need a braille display but it can’t work for VIB children that does not have a braille display. In this case we can bound each letter to a proper/common noun that start with that letter to make possible for the student to distinguish if it starts with a capital letter or not. |
For braille students, it does make more sense to pair the capital with words that should be capitalized such as proper name, beginning of a sentence, etc. In braille, making a capital letter just means adding a dot 6 before a letter; it is different than upper/lower case letters in print. I would put this activity under a group of punctuation games. |
When the kid select a letter, he listen to a corresponding word.If the letter is lowercase the corresponding word will be a common nouns, if it’s uppercase will be a proper noun. |
| Orally state the names of the days of the week and months of the year |
STORY MODE: the child can listen to a songs about the days of the week and one about the months of the year and the 4 seasons1. Two day (or two months) are displayed. A gap is shown between or before/after them. The child has to complete the gap choosing the correct missing day (or month) from a custom keyboard, or writing it.2. The child has to place in correct order the days of the week displayed (by drag and and drop them or giving the corresponding number (e.g. Sunday is number 1, Monday number 2....)3. Same exercise as above but with the month of the year.4. Exercise about the 4 seasons:4 image about winter, summer, spring, autumn are displayed. The child has to write next to each one which season it represents |
Great activities! Another weather related activity is pairing what to wear with different types of weather. One tech skill that needs to be taught (and often ignored) is learning to use image descriptions. I actually like the idea of providing an image description of the season (through VoiceOver or Self-voicing) that privides the information that the student needs to complete the activity. Often these activities are skipped and the student does not learn to use image descriptions! |
Exercise 2: good candidate to implement a drag and drop exercise Exercise 4: not sounds but image description. really hard to implement. |
| Answer questions about informational text |
A short story is told and displayed (possibly story related sounds are played).Multiple choice answer are shown/read for each question (possibly with an image). The student have to select the right answer. Another level migth be to write the answer (the answer must be simple, one/two word maximum). |
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challenge: story and questions/answers in the same page |
| Writes some simple CVC words and spells correctly and longer words phonetically |
A word is pronuonced by the screen reader. The child has to write it down, using a keyboard with a limited set of letters. |
Can you add a word scramble? The three letters that spell the word are provided in random order. Student hears the word, then has to spell the word corrd correctly using drag and drop. |
Child must complete 1 or 2 gaps |
| Demonstrates knowledge of beginning sounds by printing correct letter symbols with corresponding pictures |
Exercise: A word followed by the corresponding image is displayed (an animal or a common object) =>The screen reader can announce the word. The child has to pick the first letter of the word, from a range of 3/4 letters.A variant could be: a letter is displayed and the child has to select the image/word from a range of 3/4 that starts that with that letterStory mode: On the display is shown a letter followed by a common image of a figure whose name starts with that letter. For whom use a screen reader, the letter can be described with a very short story (like ”the word DOG starts with letter D, and its braille code is just dots one-four-five. (sound of a barking dog”). |
This is a standard beginning activity. First level: student matches letters. Letter is given and student has to find and select the matching letter from three options. Next activity is finding all the same letters (multiple letters available; good activity to drag all the letters to a specific place.) Next level is student has to match the letter with the phonetic sound of the letter. This is doable if a student has a braille display. |
NOT SUITABLE FOR VIB STUDENTS |
| Recognize and read grade appropriate irregularly spelled words |
A short story/sentence is displayed, with a gap. the child is asked to choose the correct irregurarly spelled word from multiple choice.e.g.: the sentence is ”we can play a card game because we did our homework”.The will be displayed 3 words like: ALREADY, ALLREDY, ALRADY |
This game should come after easier spelling games (see comments about spelling rules above). |
when the word has the focus, will be spelled by VoiceOver or TalkBack |
| Introduction to punctuation and capitalization |
The child has to complete a sentence with the correct punctuation. At basic level he just fill the gaps, already placed in the right spot with the correct punctuation.EXERCISE 2: one sentence is displayed multiple times, but it is displayed just one time with the correct punctuation. The sentence can be read aloud by the screen reader. The child has to pick the sentence with the correct punctuation |
This is a good time to use Self-voicing the sentence can be read with expression as a question, exclamation point, or period. |
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| Identify vowel phonemes (18 vowel phonemes; long and short vowels) in single-syllable words |
First of all, a fun story / some multiple stories to teach or to remember to the child the vowel phonemes.During the story, some exercises are displayed: the child has to select the rigth word between two similar word (e.g.: ros or rose for long and short vowels exercises) |
This may be challenging as VoiceOver will pronounce the word. . . would work fine with VoiceOver muted and using a braille display. |
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| Identifying Nouns |
Some words with the relative sound and image are displayed. The child is asked, alternately, to select which are proper/common nouns.Another type of exercise is to discover and select which are the nouns in a set of words (that include nouns verbs adjectives) displayed and read by the screen reader. |
What about picking the noun out of a sentence? |
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| Identifying plural nouns |
Some words with the relative sound and image are displayed. The child is asked, alternately, to select which are singular/plural nouns.Another type of exercise is to discover and select which are the plural nouns in a set of words displayed and read by the screen reader.One more could be to display a image or read the word of an irregular plural noun and the child has to write or select the right plural form of the word. |
Fill in the blank works well for this activity: provide a sentence with a box where the noun should go. List several options (spelling, plural, singular) that the child uses to fill in the blank. |
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| Identifying Verbs |
The child has to discover and select which are the verbs in a set of words displayed and read by the screen reader, or in a sentence. |
Student can first identify which word is the adjective. Then pick the correct adjective that goes in the sentence. |
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| Identifying Adjectives |
SAME AS IDENTIFYING VERBS but with adjectivesAnother one can be: a root is given, the child has to complete the root with the rigth combination (choosing from a custom keyboard) to form an adjective |
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| Identifying predicates |
A sentence is displayed. The child is asked about which part of the sentence is the predicate, choosing between some multiple choiche answers |
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| Identifying Who, What, When, Why, Where and Which |
A sentence with some gaps is given. The student can write or drag and drop the words (Who, What, When, Why, Where and Which) in the corresponding gap to complete the sentence. EXERCISE 2.: display a short story then display some question about it with the WHO WHEN WHAT... keywords. e.g.: who ate the apple? what did Johnny have for breakfast? when is Kate’s birthday? |
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| Story comprehension True and False statements about the story |
A story is read/displayed. The child can answer to given question writing a simple answer (or choosing from multiple choice if it’s TRUE OR FALSE) |
TRue and false are good. Repeat this activity with FAct or Fiction. |
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| Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel and final sounds in spoken single-syllable words |
Some words are displayed, the student has to select the word that starts or ends with a given sound (pronuonced by the screen reader) EXERCISE 2: a sentence is displayed, with a gap for a word. Then a prerecorded voice says: ”select the word that start (or end) with /c/ sound” and the child has to choose between two or three words; one of them will start (or end) with the /c/ sound |
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| Count the number of sounds in a syllable and the number of syllables in a word |
A word is displayed and the child has to select the correct number of syllables, by choosing from a provided set of multiple answers. |
Again, group similar activities together. This should come before dividing a word into syllables. |
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| Identify characters, setting and main events of a story |
A short story is told. Some questions are asked (who is the main character?, what’s he doing?, ....). The students multiple choice answer, possibly by touching the corresponding object (that have image and sound)Another level might be to write the answer (for G1 student) (the answer must be simple, one/two word maximum). |
Again, group similar activities together. |
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| Read and retell familiar stories |
A short story is given, the child can activate the microphone and read it. The audio file is then checked by a speech to text software to check the pronounciation. (VIB students must have a braille display) |
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Speech to text must be removed.refer to: oral reading with reasonable fluency |
| Retell story using correct sequence |
A short story is told. After that some hint (pronouns, articles....) and images are shown. The child have to place the image in the correct order to recreate the story. |
Sequencing is a critical skill. Often sequencing is done with pictures (good way to teach image desicriptions again). Example: Picture of snowing, building a snow man, adding carrot nose, hat, etc. sun comes out and snow begins to melt. Have boxes numbered 1-4; student has to drag images (with alt text description and fun sounds) to the correct box. harder level would be dragging sentences and putting the sentences in order. Image sequencing might be kindergarten and sentence sequencing G1?) |
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| Distinguishes letters from words and words from sentences |
A set of letters, words and sentences is given. Student has to drag and drop the letters in letters box, the words in the words box and the sentences in the sentences box.EXERCISE 2: Alternatively A WORD/SENTENCE/LETTER is display and the child has to select if it’s a letter/word/sentence |
Again, this covers a wide range of skills; dragging letters to a box is for learning letters, while dragging sentences is much higher level. |
Good candidate to be a drag and drop exercise |
| Statements, Questions, etc. |
A sentence is read/displayed. The child has to identify if it is a statement or a question, by touching the correct button |
Goes with. punctuation |
How the child can identify which are questions? 2 possibilities: 1. by clicking on every word and punctuation 2. by listening to the pronuonciation of the sentence |
| Cause and effect relationships |
A story is read/displayed. The child can answer to given question writing a simple answer (or choosing from multiple choice) about cause and effect. EXERCISE 2: a sentence about cause and effect relationship with a gap is displayed. The child has to complete the sentence by choosing the correct answer between some provided |
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| Build vocabulary |
NOT AN EXERCISE: In almost every game/exercise is possible to give the definition of a word when desired, or at the completion of some task, with fun short stories and sounds. |
Matching Often uses word boxes at thte bottom of hte page. Another visual activity is two columns first column has multiple words and second column has corresponding synonym or antonym. Typically, students draw a line. Any suggestions? |
Not an exercise but it could be a skill that can be trained in every other exercise |
| Use letter-sound associations, word parts, context to identify new words |
A root word is displayed, the child must form a new word with a suffix or prefix provided (he can choose from a set of given suffix and prefix). E.g: starting from the word friend he can form the words: friendly, friendship, friendless, unfriendly |
Goes with Spelling group and blends. |
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| Orally producing singlesyllable words by blending sounds, including consonant blends |
NOT ORAL BUT WRITTEN.LISTEN AND COMPLETE MACHINE =>a word / a sentence is displayed. In each word (or sentence) will be one or more gap. The child can touch every letter (or word) to listen to the single sound (except the blank space). The he can double tap on the blank space to fill the gap with the right letter (or word) chosen from a custom keyboard to complete the exercise.After that the student can listen to the entire word pronounced and hear a fun sound (like a dog’s bark if ”dog” was the word displayed) |
You can record the student speaking but there is no way to ”grade” if the student records the sound correctly. |
OK |
| Synonyms, antonyms, and homophones |
Show a word and a matching image. VoiceOver read the word for VIB students, or if they have baille display, the word is shown on that. Then we show 3 other words and images, pronouncing them. The student have to select one or more words that are synoniyms of the first word. |
yes! |
Ok |
| Identifying the beginning and ending sounds of a spoken word |
Some words are displayed, the student has to select the word that starts or ends with a given sound (pronuonced by the screen reader)EXERCISE 2: a sentence is displayed, with a gap for a word. Then a prerecorded voice says: ”select the word that start (or end) with /c/ sound” and the child has to choose between two or three words; one of them will start with the /c/ sound. |
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OK |
| Identifies the eight basic colors and reads the corresponding color words |
An image is displayed along with the corresponding description. The image must represents an object that in nature is commonly identified by one colour. (e.g. the sun is yellow, the sea is blue). The kid has to select the correct word that reprents the color of the object from a list of multiple choice answers. |
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OK |
| Read word family words |
A word is pronuonced. The student has to select the correct word from a list of similar words. (e.g.: if the given word is ”map”, the list of words from which the child has to choose can be: ”nap”, ”map”, ”cap”, ”snap”) |
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Ok |
| Prints name correctly “on the line” |
NO EXERCISE FOR VIB STUDENTS |
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NO EXERCISE FOR VIB STUDENTS |
| Identify best title for story |
A story is read/displayed. The student can write the best title for the story, filling the gaps, helped by image or sounds. |
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For basic level, the child have to choose from some multiple choice titlesadvanced level children can compose the title word by word selecting from the most appropriate word from multiple choice. |
| Oral reading with reasonable fluency |
A short story is given, the child can activate the microphone and read it. The audio file is checked in background by a speech to text software to check the pronounciation. (VIB students must have a braille display). |
When using the recording option, use the real VoiceOver gesture (two finger double tap) to start/stop recording. |
not suitable for VIB students without braille display |
| Read story with repetition (1 2 sentence patterns with illustrations or sound clues) that provide high support |
A short story (with sounds and images ) is told by a the screen reader. After every sentence, the student can repeat the sentence (a check for the pronunciation can eventually be implemented). |
Support reading is a beginning activity use repeative sentence on each screen, changing just one word, or so. Use sounds to clue the student into what that word is. Example: I like to go, Cars like to go. (car sound). Planes like to go. (plane sound), etc. |
| Reads on syllable and common words by sight such as “the”, “I”, “is” |
A short story is given, the child can activate the microphone and read it. The audio file is then checked by a speech to text software in order to check the pronounciation. (VIB students must have a braille display) |
Many of the activities above can incorporate common sight words. (kindergarten students typically have about 50 60 sight words required to read and spell before movign to first grade. |
Speech to text must be removed.refer to: oral reading with reasonable fluency |
| Writes from left to right and from top to bottom |
A sentence is given, with some gaps to fill. The child has to fill the gaps with some images or words to form a meaningfull sentence. The child can listen to the phrase by sliding his finger across the sentence. If he’s sliding in the wrong way, he’s told to change the direction |
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OK |
| Demonstrate top to bottom, left to right progression |
A sentence is given, with some gaps to fill. The child has to fill the gaps with some images or words to form a meaningfull sentence. The child can listen to the phrase by sliding his finger across the sentence. If he sliding in the wrong way, he’s told to change the direction |
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OK |
| Write about topics that are personally meaningful |
The child can write a text, letter by letter. The text then can be checked by a spellchecker. If any, a short description of the error is displayed or told by the screen reader |
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Really difficult |
| Uses writing (letters, pictures and words) to express own meaning |
The child can select the subject of a sentence (between some provided) by clicking on the corresponding image. Then, he can select the verb between some provided and at the end the predicate between some provided, so he can express his own meaning even if he can’t write. (Kindergarten students) |
Give three sounds prompts and ask the child to write about it. May provide a couple words (in word box at bottom of page) to help student spell. |
OK |
| Orally tells what sound is heard at the begging and ending of words |
Some words are displayed, the student has to select the word that starts or ends with a given sound (pronuonced by the screen reader) |
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Speech to text must be removed.refer to: oral reading with reasonable fluency |
| Demonstrates comprehension of stories by orally retelling or acting out |
A short story is given, the child can activate the microphone and read it. The audio file is then checked by a speech to text software to check the pronounciation. (VIB students must have a braille display) |
Voice record |
Speech to text must be removed.refer to: oral reading with reasonable fluency |
| Understands and follows one and two step spoken directions |
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| Makes predications |
The child can write a text, letter by letter. The text then can be checked by a spellchecker. If any, a short description of the error is displayed or told by the screen reader |
TEach spelling checking tech skills! |
Really difficult |
| Understanding what is “real” and what is ”make-believe” |
A sentence/short story/ object is displayed or announced by screen reader, the student has to decide if the facts/objects narrated are real or make believe. |
Fact or fiction |
OK |
| Understanding “fact” and “opinion” |
A sentence/short story is displayed or read, the student has to decide if it’s a fact or a opinion |
Again, FAct or Fiction |
OK |