MIcrosoft Word

In my classroom MS Word is something we use a lot. There are many features and plug ins that make word more effective especially if you are working with special ed students.  I use a program called word talk which is a text reader.  My students frequently need to receive information through various modalities and having a text reader is a huge help.  Text readers can read anything in word format and you can also pause the reading and use the dictionary/thesaurus feature to identify unknown words.  Also you can easily search for certain parts of text.  I frequently use this during literature because I can download the literature books easily.  I also use word for writing. There is a feature that is called track changes.  I usually edit a student's work so I can add comments and edits directly to the typed work. Then students can open the work and see the changes made.  I typically have students make changes to the already edited paper so I can see what they did. This helps enormously when trying to edit several papers and saves from having to flip through multiple edited pages. As part of the editing process I have students use wordtalk so they can hear their paper. Often times when editing hearing the paper helps pick up errors in grammar.

Now as for using spell check in the classroom.  This is tricky because the students I work with currently have serious difficultly and disabilities around language.  So for them it is tool to help teach them and about the work, answering comprehension questions, rather than worrying about spelling. Having said that I think it is important that students be taught spelling and editing especially in the lower grades.  The only issue I have with spell check is that if a sometimes when you spell a word wrong it is so wrong that you you get a word to replace it with or your spelling is too close to a different word and you replace it with the wrong word.  I am kind of split on the whole spell check thing. I think as long as spell check isn't used instead of teaching spelling and grammar than it is a useful tool.