In this issue:

Coming Soon: Call for Partnership Applications

Even during a pandemic, Intermediate School Districts across Michigan have engaged in partnerships with Alt+Shift to introduce, implement, and sustain practices that strengthen systems that provide learners’ access to assistive technology, promote autonomous communication through literacy, and improve mathematics understanding for learners with a range of abilities.
 
As you may recall, the application for Alt+Shift/Intermediate School District partnerships has been open on a rolling basis, with Comprehensive Literacy for Autonomous Communication and Foundations of Math: Teaching Students with Significant Disabilities on a waitlist.  Keep an eye out for information regarding partnership opportunities for the 2020-21 school year, coming soon in the January and February newsletters.

Accessible Materials Made Right (AMMR): Implementation Story

Dana Stephens
Executive Assistant to the Deputy Superintendent
Genesee Intermediate School District (ISD)

Genesee Intermediate School District (ISD) has taken the challenge of making their website fully accessible head on. As of the beginning of November, 408 people from Genesee ISD have engaged with the Accessible Materials Made Right (AMMR) courses on EduPaths! This month, we interviewed Dana Stephens, an online AMMR participant and the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Superintendent, to get her perspective on digital accessibility in her job.
 
In what ways have you been able to implement the ideas and information you learned from the AMMR course?
We have been able to make our most widely used and largest documents accessible since our initial training. I can more quickly get to the point of realization that a document has more problems than I am able to fix, and that starting new is simply easier and has a much better result. Every document completed has made me more knowledgeable and quicker at getting the necessary result.
 
In what ways has what you learned in AMMR influenced the culture of accessibility in your district?
For any document that is being sent out, we make sure the document is accessible. There is no question of that. It may take longer to edit before it is sent out, but it will for sure be accessible.
 
In what areas have you seen the greatest gains or success around accessibility within your district?
We have been able to post many of our district documents on our public-facing website as well as our internal, employee-facing intranet, and they are fully accessible. 
 
What are some of the biggest barriers you’ve faced?
The one real barrier would be the inability to change any of our vendors' forms to make them accessible, therefore not being able to make them directly accessible on our website to the public or employees. We are only able to modify our own documents, and some vendors are not willing to make the necessary changes to make an accessible document.
 
What are your next steps?
We need to keep our core group of trained professionals on task and continue to work at making all of our documents accessible. It is our hope to have work sessions and continue to share best practices so we can all continue to learn. I am a firm believer of use it or you will lose it, so always thinking with accessibility in mind is very important.

Assistive Technology (AT)

The AT Journey met with a partnership site last month. Focusing on accessible content creation, this team had the opportunity to learn more about how to be intentional with videos and digital materials produced for both learners and other educators. Participants took this information and created their own digital content then returned to breakout rooms to share their a-ha moments with other AT professionals within their ISD. With the possibility of virtual or hybrid learning opportunities continuing into the spring, this team has some great tools in their toolbox and fundamentals to improve instruction for their learners. We look forward to meeting up with the team again in February!

Comprehensive Literacy for Autonomous Communication

Alt+Shift is currently partnering with 11 ISDs who are engaged in comprehensive literacy instruction. Many of our partnership sites have completed the training and are focused on supporting implementation within their districts. Alt+Shift will host a statewide virtual meeting in January. This meeting will allow our partnership sites to network with others across the state who are engaged in similar work. 

Delta Math

The Ottawa Area ISD, with the support of Alt+Shift, is attempting to decrease current barriers of time, money, and resources many schools currently face trying to provide a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in mathematics.

Paper versions of the online screeners were made available for the fall screening cycle and included the 1^st grade through algebra 2 readiness screeners. An Excel file was also created to generate course overview reports.  Additional paper screeners for the winter screening cycle now include 2^nd grade through 8^th grade tier 3 screeners, as well as the Fraction Concepts and Algebra Concepts screeners. Access to all paper screeners is FREE at the Delta Math Online & Paper Screening web page.

If you have any questions about the Delta Math Response to Intervention (RtI) program resources or implementation, please contact Mike Klavon at mklavon@oaisd.org.

Foundations of Communication (FoC)

As communication partners, we need to demonstrate  what our students could say with their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). We also need to explicitly teach targeted language, which is often core vocabulary. If you're looking for ideas on how to explicitly teach core vocabulary, check out the Core Word Classroom by AssistiveWare. Within the Core Word Classroom, you'll find ideas for teaching core vocabulary during common routines as well as during fun, engaging, short activities. 

Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display (PODD)

Are you looking for more information about PODD implementation? Check out the PODD USA website. This site contains a calendar with upcoming PODD trainings, contact information for certified PODD trainers, and helpful links to resources such as constructing PODD books, parent and staff blogs, and PODD product links. As a reminder, in-person introductory trainings are on hold until further notice due to COVID-19.

Foundations of Math (FoM)

Assessing students virtually is a challenge during the pandemic. Alt+Shift has created some digital materials to assist you with using the Number Knowledge Test and Learning Trajectories to assess your students when you must do so remotely.
 
Number Knowledge Test Digital Test Packet

10 Item Toolkit for Assessing with the Learning Trajectories

Learning Trajectory Quick Win - A brief training module on what the learning trajectories are and how to use them to assess and select instructional activities.

Foundations of Math: Teaching Students With Significant Disabilities (FoM:SD)

Lending Library Opportunities to Learn More

Snap Core First users, in case you missed it, there are two important updates:

• All Snap Core First and in-app purchase information are now located in myTobiiDynavox.com.
• To continue receiving software updates, you must initiate a migration process to the new version of Snap Core First.

Resource

Looking for ways to demonstrate quantity in your math lessons, both in person and virtually?  Here are three sites offering a variety of virtual manipulatives:

• Didax Virtual Manipulatives
• Glencoe Virtual Manipulatives
• Math Learning Center

There are many sources for virtual manipulatives, including websites and apps. If you don’t find what you need at these sites, try contacting your district or ISD math consultant, exploring the website of your math curriculum publisher, or doing a web search for “virtual manipulatives.”

Lending Library Update