New Firefly integration with Microsoft improves support for students with learning differences.
One of the trickiest aspects of teaching is trying to meet the different needs of an entire classroom of students. Some might be high achieving and need to be stretched, others might have specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia or visual impairment problems, whilst others might not have English as their first language for example. Dealing with this wide variety of challenges might be difficult enough in the classroom environment, but managing them whilst supporting distance learning can be even more daunting.
To help teachers support all of their students even more effectively, we are delighted to announce that we have further developed our already deep partnership with Microsoft and made the Microsoft Immersive Reader available within Firefly’s standard resource pages.
Firefly pages are a great way of grouping learning materials together, making it easy for teachers to share resources and help students manage their learning. Available within Firefly pages, Microsoft’s Immersive Reader can improve reading comprehension for younger students for example, and help build confidence for emerging readers, whilst offering text decoding solutions for students with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia.
This new and exciting integration makes it possible for text on a Firefly page to be presented in a format which is more accessible to those users who may have particular difficulties or face specific challenges in their reading. The format of the text can be adjusted according to their needs, allowing them to:
- Change the font size, text spacing, and background colour.
- Split up words into syllables.
- Highlight verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
- Choose between two fonts optimised to help with reading.
- Read text aloud, and change the speed of reading.
Here is how:
Working together, Firefly and Immersive Reader make it easier for all students to have access to their learning resources, in the way that best suits their needs, regardless of their age or ability.