Info for TVI's

Lesson Title: Hack Your VI Life Appropriate for grade levels 3-12 Addresses ELA Standard: Students will write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. Learning Objectives Students will determine appropriate assistive technology tools to access and explore life hacks in various areas of the ECC-VI using the book How to Be a Person by Catherine Newman the VI Life Hacks website Students will compose and upload a VI Life Hack of their own using the form on the VI Life Hacks website. Warm Up: what is a “life hack?” Discuss this cultural concept–what does the term mean? Why do people come up with life hacks? Why do we seek out life hacks? Generate examples of life hacks from life experience, memory, or look for examples together online Instructional Activities Introduce the book How to Be a Person by Catherine Newman: This is a book written by an adult for kids with instructions on how to do everyday things like washing dishes, taking care of pets, and sending thank you notes. They’re things that any kid might need help to learn. As a TVI I couldn’t help but notice that they are all also aligned with the Expanded Core Curriculum for Students with Visual Impairment! I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s play a game before we even open the book. I’ll call out the title of each “how to,” and you tell me where it fits in the ECC. [Do this verbally with 5-10 lesson titles from the book] Ask the student to determine how best to access this book. For low vision students, have the print copy available. Allow them to page through it. Check out the different fonts and sizes for things like speech bubbles and quizzes. Point out that the illustrations are a big part of how the messages in this text are conveyed. What tools does the student have access to that could make reading this easier? For braille students, talk about the text features in the print book. This book is available on Bookshare. What are the challenges for accessing this book, or any text that relies heavily on illustration, using auditory alone? Introduce and explore the VI Life Hacks website Some kids with visual impairment who read the How to Be a Person book had the idea to write their own book with lessons about how to do things when you have VI. For now, they’re collecting their ideas in a website called vilifehacks.org. Let’s check it out. Use a screen reader or vision to navigate to and around the VI Life Hacks website. Notice that: these are all ideas generated by students, the ideas are organized by ECC-VI area, and the site offers any student with VI the opportunity to submit a VI Life Hack of their own using a form. Guided or Independent Practice: submitting student ideas After looking at several student ideas across different ECC categories, ask your student to brainstorm some VI hacks of their own. Point out that part of what made the book so engaging was the author’s use of tone. It was lighthearted and funny. It was not bossy or boring. Emphasize that that is the tone students need to aim for in writing their submissions to the VI Life Hacks website, beginning with the Introduction. Also point out that the student authors of the VI Life Hacks always need to answer the concluding questions “is any part of this still difficult? What would you like to get input from other VI students about?” Have the student submit a VI Life Hack using the form on the website, with assistance as needed. Closure/Homework: spread the word! By submitting you became one of the first kids to participate in a brand new website! That’s exciting, but don’t you wish there were more great ideas on the site? TVIs and students, think about your social networks–who could you tell about this to help us get more ideas?