Photo-Based Reading Projects

I teach a high school class of students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities. With this grant, I would help to improve their reading, math, and life skills by completing 3 main projects.

Student objectives:
* Learn to operate a digital camera.
* Improve instant recognition of words and signs in the community.
* Write complete sentences.
* Compose a short story.
* Type story with word processing software (Tool Factory Workshop)and illustrate with photos.
* Read and share completed books with class.

Our first project will consist of the class going through the community, taking pictures of words and signs that we see. These pictures will be downloaded into a slide presentation that we can use in the classroom to improve reading skills and instant recognition of important words and signs.

Our second project will be for students to take pictures of various items and people in the classroom and around our school. The students will download these to the computer and will type sentences describing their photos. This will be done using the Tool Factory Word Processor.

Our third project will be for students to write a short story. They will use the digital cameras to take pictures that illustrate their stories. They will type their stories using Tool Factory and will import the photos where needed. These stories will be printed out in book format. They will be bound using our media center's binding machine. Each student will read his/her book to the class.