Diverse learners find independence and confidence in technology
Special education teacher Cheryl Graff uses AI and other innovative strategies to keep her students on track.
Diverse learners find independence and confidence in technology For some teens, a blank computer screen isn’t very daunting; but for these diverse learners — struggling with dyslexia, ADHD and other executive functioning skills — even writing one sentence can be tough.
Graff knows that feeling. Diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at a young age, she remembers the sting of being written off.
“As a student, I felt I had to work 10 times harder than everybody else,” she recalls. “Things just didn’t come easily to me.”
Now a special education teacher at Chicago’s Lake View High School, Graff wants to be the teacher she never had: one who can adapt the curriculum to her students’ strengths and help them find the path to becoming independent, confident adults.
Assistive technology is central to that approach. For one student, it’s dictating ideas through speech-to-text instead of struggling at the keyboard. For another, it’s breaking down complex assignments into smaller, achievable goals.
“Technology helps make content accessible for diverse learners,” she says. “As a teacher, we have to teach very rigorous skills like finding main ideas and writing claims,” she says. “If we didn’t have online tools like AI, spellcheck and text-to-speech, our diverse learners wouldn’t be able to access the content.”
Through Verizon Innovative Learning HQ’s professional development resources, Graff has refined how she blends tech and traditional teaching methods. “With the Verizon model, you’re not using technology every single day. You’re gradually building technology into your classroom so that students who need a blend of using technology and using paper-based materials can have that,” she says.
“It’s all about meeting students where they are,” she explains. “Utilizing supports such as graphic organizers, sentence starters and visuals paired with text that help reach all learners no matter if they have a disability or not.”
That morning, essays took shape. One student explored the role of religion in her life; another explained how taking care of her siblings impacted her childhood.
“Do you want to use speech to text?” Graff asks Sheily Avelino-Gomez, one of her students who is more comfortable talking out her ideas rather than typing them. “Yes,” replies Sheily with a smile.
By the end of class, the students were much closer to having a complete essay than at the start. A couple of them used assistive technology; others shared their ideas with Graff by their side.
“The Verizon Innovative Learning resources have helped me become more flexible in my teaching,” says Graff. “That flexibility and patience helps students understand I don’t just value the content they’re learning; I value them as humans and that I’m meeting their learning needs in the classroom.”
Verizon Innovative Learning is a key part of the company’s responsible business plan to help move the world forward for all. As part of the plan, Verizon has an ambitious goal of providing 10 million youth with digital skills training by 2030. Educators can access free lessons, professional development and immersive learning experiences to help bring new ways of learning into the classroom by visiting Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.
