Collier County Public Schools leverages UDL, or Universal Design for Learning, to ensure that all of their students have the opportunity to access content.  This model for learning utilizes technology to create a variety of types of content to meet the unique needs of every student. One tool that the district has incorporated into their curriculum is the smartpen. Used heavily in math and science classes throughout the district, teachers record pencasts reviewing lessons and concepts to play infront of their students during class. …

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In 2011 Fairfax County Public Schools launched a new initiative called the Innovation Institute. This program invited teachers to team up in pairs comprised of one special education teacher and one general education teacher to apply for smartpens for their classrooms. Each application proposed a unique use of the smartpen that the teacher teams would implement into their classroom over the upcoming year. The diverse programs support students in a variety of ways including helping reluctant readers develop literacy skills, providing additional instruction for language learners, and encouraging independent learning.

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Pencasting can be used by students to produce a multimedia representation demonstrating what they learned. Math teacher Julie McLeod took a practice test from the Texas TAKS standardized test and assigned each problem to a student to solve in a pencast.  Julie posted the pencasts to her Livescribe Online account and then used the embed feature to make the pencast appear on her web page accessible as a study resource for all students.   …

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Annotating your notes is a great way to clarify key points or add in additional content after class.  A great pencasting strategy for creating annotated notes is to only write out key points during instruction with a significant amount of space between each note (see the green text in the image below).

After class, review your notes and fill in additional information. If you pause your pencast to fill in the additional notes, …

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One effective note-taking method is The Cornell System, which was designed by Walter Pauk from Cornell University. This concept breaks dot paper into three sections: the cue column, the notetaking area and the summary area. The image below outlines where each zone is located on the dot paper.  The only zone used during class time is the note-taking area intended for taking notes during instruction.

After class students review their notes and identify key questions that the notes answer. …

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