Today was a great day. A girl in my class who is very dyslexic wrote a fantastic piece of personal writing for me. In 100 words she told me what it was like to have dyslexia. I wrote and helped with two vocabulary suggestions.
Then we went to GarageBand and, with her writing printed in front of her, she recorded herself reading what she had composed. Finally she put an appropriate soundtrack using the smart instruments within the app.
I was stunned.
Observers from a nearby university who were in my class today researching the effect of iPad on learning and motivation were moved. Her mum, who heard the result after school, wept.
I suppose it's in small moment like that, the ones that don't happen often, you get to see a side to technology that is not only exciting, creative, dynamic and current, but makes an appreciable and fundamental difference to someone's life, self esteem and happiness. I don't think she was any less dyslexic after today but just maybe she felt that for once, she had produced a result that she was genuinely proud of and one that allowed her to express the person that truly lives inside.
The piece of writing is below:
100 Word Story
I looked at the pictures.
Characters I loved; Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy the dog.
I looked at the pictures, not the words.
The pictures were exciting but the words, I couldn't read. They were like a puzzle I couldn't crack.
Others raced to characters; Famous Five, Spongebob, Dahl.
Covers so exciting, but when I opened them I felt lost in a forest of twisting words.
They were like the trees of thorns surrounding Sleeping Beauty's castle.
I knew that there was something great in there but I couldn't find my way in.
That's life with dyslexia
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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