Thanks for this idea. I’d love to work on point and click for students to correct editing errors.
Can you describe how you made your simple line drawing on the computer of the Monarch?
What a neat idea to save an image to use in another document such as a PowerPoint. Once you saved it to an external drive, and pasted it into a PowerPoint presentation, would you be able to use the USB to access the PowerPoint and the image on the Monarch?
I love this idea. My students have enjoyed doing these designs with a braille writer. It would be fun to do using the Monarch . Thanks for the reminder of the Paths to Literacy website for design instructions.
Monarch Lesson: Editing Documents Using the Point and Click Feature
Objective: Students will be able to edit their personal writing by using the point and click function on the Monarch device.
Assessment:
The teacher will observe students as they use the point and click feature to make corrections in their writing. Students will demonstrate their ability to locate the cursor, move it to the desired position, and use the refresh button to update the braille display. The teacher will provide a short writing sample with errors for students to edit, and will evaluate their performance based on the accuracy and efficiency of their edits.
Key Points:
- Locating and opening the document to be edited
- Reviewing the edits suggested by the teacher
- Using the point and click feature to move the cursor to the desired location
- Pressing the refresh button to update the braille display
- Continuing the point and click process until all edits are complete
Opening:
- The teacher will begin the lesson by asking students if they have used the point and click feature on the Monarch device before.
- The teacher will then explain that today, they will be learning how to use this feature to edit their own personal writing.
- The teacher will introduce the lesson objective and provide an overview of the key steps involved in the editing process.
Introduction to New Material:
- The teacher will demonstrate the step-by-step process for using the point and click feature to edit a document:
- Locate and open the document to be edited
- Review the edits suggested by the teacher
- Use the point and click feature to move the cursor to the desired location
- Press the refresh button to update the braille display
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all edits are complete
- The teacher will anticipate a common misconception that students may have, such as forgetting to press the refresh button after moving the cursor.
Guided Practice:
- The teacher will provide students with a short writing sample that contains errors.
- Students will work in pairs to use the point and click feature to locate and correct the errors.
- The teacher will circulate the classroom, providing guidance and support as needed.
- The teacher will scaffold the questioning, starting with easier edits and gradually increasing the difficulty.
- The teacher will monitor student performance and provide feedback to ensure they are using the point and click feature correctly.
Independent Practice:
- The teacher will instruct students to use the point and click feature to edit their own personal writing.
- Students will work independently, applying the skills they learned during the guided practice.
- The teacher will set clear behavioral expectations for the work time and provide a rubric or checklist for students to use as a guide.
Closing:
- The teacher will lead a class discussion, asking students to share one thing they learned or found challenging about using the point and click feature.
- The teacher will summarize the key steps of the editing process and reinforce the importance of using the refresh button to update the braille display.
Extension Activity:
- For students who finish the independent practice early, the teacher will provide a more complex writing sample for them to edit using the point and click feature.
Homework:
- The teacher will assign students a short writing assignment and instruct them to use the point and click feature to edit their work.
Standards Addressed:
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
- ISTE Standard 5: Computational Thinker - Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
Gabe Griffith from the LightHouse and I facilitated a workshop for six patrons on October 9. The goals of the workshop were to:
•Become familiar with the layout, keys and buttons on the Monarch
•Learn how to pan the display and zoom in/out of graphics
•Open a graphic and explore it using the information learned.
Patrons/students had varying degrees of knowledge of Braille and Braille displays, so this workshop was limited to only 6 people and we provided one-on-one guidance and instruction. We utilized the first half of the tutorial on the Monarch along with a presentation and direct orientation in teaching patrons how to find the buttons on the display and use them properly. By the end of the workshop, students were able to navigate the dog graphic we chose as part of the workshop as well as scroll around and zoom in on the 50 states graphic. Several students mastered being able to rotate the graphics as well, which they extremely enjoyed. We are plannning to provide more programming of this kind to our patrons in the future.
I like this idea! My students and I love to do Braille art for the different holidays. We made bats and pumpkins this week for Halloween. I did not think, however, to do it on the Monarch. We always do it on a Perkins. I think this would be a fun way to practice many different skills on the Monarch!
Goal:
Student is able to create, save, and print a document for math class
Steps of the lesson:
- Student powers on Monarch
- Student opens “keyword”
- Student “creates” file
- Student puts name, date, and title of assignment on top of document
- Student uses hard copy braille to read the math questions
- Student switches to math (calculator) as needed to complete math problems
- Student numbers math problems to correspond with hard copy braille problems
- Student saves math file to specific folder on zip drive
- Student returns to menu of Keyword to “print”
- Student moves through the list of printers to find the correctly labeled one
- Student hits space bar until they hear “print”
- Student retrieves work from printer, staples to hard copy braille, and turns in to teacher
What went well?
- Creating the file
- Saving the file
What did not go well?
- Still working on finding and saving files to the correct folder
- I’ve worked with our IT team for TWO MONTHS to set up printing due to our type of printing software. Ultimately, they found 2 unused HP printers and added them to the printing list. They have been renamed to “SchoolName_Vision_HPXXX” so the students know what printer to print to and other teachers do not print to them
Goal: The goal of this activity was to have students practice using the Monarch in order to access a tactile graphic on a USB flash drive through Tactile Viewer.
Students practice skills within the Expanded Core Curriculum, specifically within the areas of Assistive Technology and Compensatory Skills.
Instructions:
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Instruct student to turn on the Monarch by pressing the power button.
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Once the device has been powered on and the student is at the Main Menu, instruct the student to insert the USB thumb drive containing the tactile graphic needed for today’s activity. The USB type A port is located on the bottom of the left side of the device. Remind the student to gently insert the external USB flash drive. If it cannot be easily inserted, it may need to be flipped over and inserted once again. Once the USB flash drive has been correctly inserted into the port, the Monarch will identify which device has been connected.
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At the Main Menu, instruct student to navigate to Tactile Viewer.
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Open Tactile Viewer.
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From the Tactile Viewer menu, select Open.
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Press space with the letter “d” in order to navigate to Drive Selection.
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There will be two options: Storage and the external USB flash drive. Instruct the student to navigate to the external USB flash drive.
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Within the USB flash drive instruct the student to navigate to the PDF titled Favorite Fall Scents Bar Graph.pdf and select this file to open it.
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Provide time for the student to use a method of moving the cursor to a specific area on the tactile graphic (i.e. Point and Click feature). The student will use one finger to point to a location on the tactile graphic and use the other hand to double tap on the Refresh/Action button located in the center between dots 1 and 4 on the braille keyboard. Practice with the student first by having him/her Point and Click on the title. Ask the student to read the title aloud.
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Explain to the student that he/she can also use the - and + buttons to zoom in and zoom out of the tactile graphic.
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Provide the student time to tactually explore the tactile graphic. This will vary depending on the needs of the student.
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After the student has had time to tactually explore the bar graph, ask the student the following questions:
- What are the four fall scents in this bar graph?
- Answer: cinnamon, cloves, cocoa, and vanilla
- How many people selected cloves as their favorite fall scent?
- Answer: 0
- What was the favorite fall scent that people selected?
- Answer: cinnamon
- How many people liked cocoa and vanilla?
- Answer: cocoa (2) + vanilla (4) = 6 people
- At the end of the activity instruct the student that it is imperative that he/she safely eject the external USB flash drive from the Monarch. In order to do so the student can do the following:
- From the Main Menu press the letter “a” for All Applications.
- From the Main Menu under All Applications press the letter “s.” Press space or click on the down arrow to get to “Settings.” Select Settings.
- Navigate to Storage by pressing the space key or down arrow. Select Storage.
- Navigate to Storage until you are at the drop down list for This device. Select This device and then navigate until you reach the external USB flash disk. Select your external USB flash disk.
- Move your up arrow until you reach More Options button. Select More Options button.
- Navigate to Eject. Select Eject.
- The Monarch will then tell you that your external USB flash disk has been safely ejected.
Extension Activity: Have the student compare the embossed/tactile copy of the Favorite Fall Scents bar graph to the tactile graphic on the Monarch. Discuss the pros and cons of using each. Which tactile graphic does the student prefer?
What Went Well? My student was pleasantly surprised to find that her embossed/tactile graph was transferred into a digital format and presented on the Monarch. As a beginning braille reader she did require the speech accessibility feature as she became easily frustrated with reading the braille on the device. However, after the speech was turned on and she was able to rely on her auditory channel to confirm what she had read, she became more confident with using the device. My student was fascinated with the tactile capabilities of the Monarch, particularly the zoom in and zoom out feature and Point and Click.
What Needs Improvement? Creating this tactile graphic took quite a bit of time on my end (several hours). I created the digital product on Word and it took numerous revisions until I was content with my final draft as I had to adjust the spacing until it appeared correctly on the Monarch.