Day 5: Assignment 2- APP Detectives for the iPod Touch

ASSIGNMENT & STUDENT PROFILE

In class today I was given an assignment to think of a student I could work with who I felt might benefit from the use of an iPod touch. There are actually many students who come to mind who could immensely benefit from the hundreds of applications that are offered for the iPod! The student I decided to focus on I will call "Harvey" to protect his identity. Harvey is a gifted 8 year old boy in grade 3 who displays high functioning autistic tendencies. He has been seen by IWK professionals who have reported that Harvey is on the autistic spectrum and could benefit from social stories applied in the learning center to improve his social skills. He exceeds the expected learning outcomes in language arts and is a fluent reader who prefers non-fiction information books, fact books on health and healing and classic literature works such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Harvey is an especially good speller and enjoys being challenged with arduous spelling words. He relishes in being viewed as "smart" and often seeks challenging activities to test his general knowledge. Harvey's adaptations include providing enrichment activities to enhance and deepen his spelling and reading abilities during language art class time. For example, during Independent Reading Time Harvey needs to self select and read literature that is a suitable fit to his appropriate reading level.

I then browsed through the free applications for iPhone and iPad in the Apple Store/iTunes websit http://www.apple.com/itunes/ and chose 3 applications that I felt would fit Harvey's enrichment needs. The apps and descriptions for them are as follows:

APPLICABLE APPLICATIONS

1) iBooks is an application for the iPod Touch which allows one to download and read books. It allows you to store your selected books on a bookshelf where you can later tap them to open them and read them by swiping or tapping to flip through the pages. It lets you browse through several categories such as Children's Literature, Health/Mind & Body and Non-fiction.

2) Hangman Free is an iPod Touch application that lets one or two players play the traditional hangman spelling game in an easy, standard or hard mode and provides categories to choose from including animals, food, geography, etc. The game is designed to challenge and build upon one's spelling and vocabulary skills. The graphics of this game allow the user to imagine the game being played with chalk drawings.

3) The Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader 2010 application is based on the popular same name TV show whereby the player is asked a series of questions from a variety of categories which include math, literature, health, science, inventors and world geography. The player even has the option to post top scores to his Facebook page.

RATIONALIZATION FOR APPLICATIONS

I chose the iBooks application for Harvey as it provided him with an opportunity to independently select literature that appealed to his reading interests and abilities. As Harvey's adaptations indicated that he be provided enrichment activities to deepen his reading abilities and understanding, I feel that this application would provide him with several choices to choose from and give him opportunities to broaden his already extensive knowledge base. I could apply reading responses such as "What part of your book most excited you and why?" and "If you could add a character or section to your book what would you add and explain how this addition would make the reading more interesting to you?" to provide opportunities for Harvey to explore and deepen his understanding of text read.



Harvey has consistently demonstrated achievement of his grade 3 spelling outcomes. The Hangman Free application gives Harvey a chance to apply and explore word formations and spelling patterns to challenging and enriching words in a fun and entertaining way. This application would be appropriate for Harvey to utilize during spelling class. Harvey could use the words he solves in his game and explore them during spelling lessons on syllables, decoding, spelling patterns, vowel patterns, etc. This application would be greatly beneficial in differentiating Harvey's spelling skills and allowing him to participate in weekly spelling lessons with the class.








The Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader application particularly excites me with its possibilities that it offers Harvey. Harvey has a need to feel "smart" and will often disengage from class activities when he deems the topic matter to be below his intelligence level. At times I will have to redirect Harvey's attention back to the lesson because, even though the topic at that moment may be already known to him, it quickly escalates to a point where he needs to focus in order to increase his knowledge and understanding of the outcome being taught that day. There are times, however, when there is a lesson being taught that Harvey has consistently demonstrated achievement of that outcome in previous lessons, particularly during times of review. It is at these times that I feel Harvey would greatly benefit from playing this game. It gives Harvey the opportunity to participate in challenging activities that he seeks and also fits in with his adaptation to participate in enrichment activities to deepen his reading abilities.