Font for Dyslexics

In my role as a Specialist Support Tutor I deal with students with specific learning disabilities including dyslexia, so I was very interested to learn of this new font.

Created by Dutch designer Christian Boer (who himself has dyslexia) the Dyslexie Font is reported to make reading easier for dyslexics.  He describes how traditional fonts can make letters look similar, causing confusion to those with dyslexia.  Dyslexics often mirror or rotate letters in their minds, causing a 'b' to look like a 'd' 'p' or 'q' and so on.  The reason Boer's font works so well is that each letter is unique; unlike traditional fonts that flip, rotate and mirror letters. 

Each letter is bottom heavy

Christian Boer, you are an absolute genius for this design, as this video nicely illustrates. Hats off to you sir.
 

Once the font is installed, it can be used for writing documents, reading emails and browsing the internet. Click here to download.

References

• Berman, Robby I Never Got How Dyslexia Works What it Looks Like, But Now I Do. www.upworthy.com
• DeZeen Magazine Christian Boer Designs Typeface for Readers with Dyslexia www.dezeen.com 
• Hohenadel, Krisitn A Typeface Designed to Help Dyslexics Read www.slate.com
• Video from www.vimeo.com

Interactivity with Technology

In the event that an error occurs in the above presentation please use this link

References: 
Presentation by Hannah Meiklejohn

Slide 2-
www.nhs.uk/dyslexia
www.dyslexia.com/famous
www.athome.readinghorizons.com
www.xtraordinarypeople.com

Slide 3 -
'Reading and Writing' Presentation by Hannah Meiklejohn
'Living with Dyslexia' Presentation by Hannah Meiklejohn

Righting Writing

Insert jokey caption here...

(picture:www.slate.com )

The excerpt above, which is from a paper published in the journal Ethology has caught a lot of media attention these last few days.  It highlights why proofreading is so important.  I always tell my students what my teachers told me:  "Finish your assignment a few days before the deadline and don't look at it for two whole days." The idea behind this is that they will be reading their assignments with 'fresh eyes'.  But it's not just errors like this that occur in essays.  There are so many reasons proofreading is essential:

• To spot word repetition and word repetition
• To pick up on repeated ideas.  Also to pick up on ideas that have been repeated
• To notice spelling or grammatical errors (spellchecker is good, but it. does no pick-up on, everythin)
• To look if there are some not good written sentences
• To note a particularly long rambling sentence which really should have some form of punctuation to break it up into smaller segments but it doesn't because you wrote it when you were really tired and it seemed to make sense to you at the time but if you leave it like that it will affect your grade but if you proofread it later on you can correct it and make it sound like you are actually an intelligent person and not a fuzzy-head
• To detect a missing word within a sentence.  This could really the meaning
• To ensure you haven't used contractions.  They don't have any place in an academic essay and you shouldn't use them. 
• To make sure it all makes sense.  Because a sentence that has no sense is the opposite of pure and therefore must be immoral. 
• Coz it's supposed to read like an academic text; not like you're just talking to a mate.
• To see if there are any ambiguities 
• To check that there are no sentences that wander off in another direction, such as being sleepy when you are tired. 

But going back to the excerpt that caused this stir, I have a great way to avoid this. I always leave myself little notes all over my rough draft, such as:

• Give example
• Get quote
• Find out more 
• Re-read the chapter in that yellow book that deals with this

But I always write them in red  

These days we all use word processors, and unless you are restricted to WordPad you should be able to make use of colour, bold, a different font or size; anything that draws attention to the little instructions and notes-to-self so that they don't end up in your final draft.  This is such a basic use of computing technology, but it's a technique that works so I'm sticking with it.

(Picture: www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk)

Full article on 'Crappy Gabor Paper' blunder can be found here

The Pros and Cons of presentations

Wordle and Things

So this is what the content of my blog looks like when it has been 'wordled'.  On the whole it is what I expected.  Phone has come up a lot -  of course! Bibliography and referencing - yep; I am a study skills mentor so I am not surprised that these words have cropped up.  Other key words: Excel; Word; Function; Writing; Microsoft and Macintosh.  Again, all these make sense considering the purpose of this blog.

However, I am concerned with presence of one particular word on my wordle: Things. What are 'things'? Can I have a slice of vague to go with my imprecision please? This is a word I tell my students not to use in essays. "Be specific.  Instead of saying 'like the Olympics and things' say 'such as the Olympics and other sporting events'"

Care for a slice of vague?
(photo: my own)

I was very curious to see where I have used this offending word, and it's not as bad as I first thought.  All but one of the total uses were on my Microsoft and Me post which was kind-of-intentionally-foggy since nobody really wants to know the specific uses I have for spreadsheets and formulas (do you??).

Going through this process made me think about how my students can benefit from this. What if I get my students to do wordles of their essays?  They can find out if they repeat the same words over and over and make suitable adjustments; pick out words that have no place in academic text (like things, ahem) and get a nice overview of the keywords used. Brilliant!

Our Aire of Questions

How can online questionnaires be used to benefit the teacher?

Questionnaires can be a great way to engage the class in something fun, whilst at the same time finding out essential information about the class.  In the questionnaire below, we sandwiched silly questions between sensible ones.  Asking participants their favourite colour (but only giving obscure options) added some playfulness to the questionnaire, but we also found out some useful information, such as: 

• The aspirations of our fellow classmates
• Valuable input on what they believe is important when teaching
• Ideas for delivering an inclusive lesson.

Doing something similar as a teacher could provide me with information such as the range of abilities, the expectations of the class, and the students' previous experience.  Depending on the questions, it could also be used to encourage deep or critical thinking about the subject being taught.

The Principles of Adult Learning (infographic)

Inspirational blog

Working in Adult Literacy

For teachers of adult literacy, numeracy, adult basic education, GED prep and adult ESOL; about teaching and adult learning.

I recently discovered this great blog about teaching literacy and numeracy to adult learners. Kate Nonesuch is an adult-education teacher with over twenty-five years experience.  In her blog she provides a wealth of material including hints and tips on classroom strategies and methods.  She also talks about educational theory, providing a contextual background to her approaches.

Her goal is "to share everything I know about teaching before I retire"
(Thanks Kate! Your knowledge and experience will help me no end.)

(Photo: www.katenonesuch.com)

Kate blogs about many aspects of adult education: subject-specific lessons; how adults learn; effective learning tools; how to engage with adults learners and so much more.  She also takes inspiration from other blogs, such as www.learningisthereward.com and Adult Literacy Research Institute.

She adds to her blog by including video from TED Talks, pictures and infographics (I love infographics!)

Kate makes it clear from the home page what her blog is about.  She has also included additional tabs which links to more specific information about her experience as a teacher.  As for the overall look of the blog, it is clean and easy to read, but I would prefer a different colour for the title. There is an index and a search box so you can look for specific topics on her blog, but it labels or tags and categories would be better for browsing.  Kate's index is also far down on the page, making it hard to find.   However, the contect of the blog is not only useful for teachers and education providers, it is fun, sometimes touching, and always informative. 

As a specialist support lecturer, I deal with adult learners with special educational needs on a daily basis.  By borrowing from Kate's experience in this area this blog will provide me with a better understanding of the way adults learn.  In addition to my current role, I am also interested in teaching literacy and numeracy.  Again, the wealth of material Kate has to offer will no doubt assist me in my teaching journey.

http://katenonesuch.com/