Help w 15yo reluctant reader

[Earline]

I'm posting this here w the teachers cause I want to help the teachers that works w my kid to use bookshare as a tool for school in high school. My son is reading at 6th grade level in 9th grade. He wants to do a automotive votech type class next year I'm told is highly academic. He needs something to augment his reading for this class and other high school classes. How do u amazing teachers use this tool to augment education. We have never used this before. 

[Michelle Thomas]

Hi Earline,

I am an Assistive Technology Specialist and can share some information about how our students are accessing Bookshare in our school district.  The most common way that we are using is via the Bookshare Web Browser on a Chromebook.  The students then use the Read&Write for Google Chrome extension for the text-to-speech.  (Text-to-Speech is included in the free version.) That way, the student can both see and hear the text as it is read aloud.  At the beginning, I make it as easy as possible for both the teachers and students by adding the books, etc. and then try to encourage them to take more control of the account. I also like for the students to start with a book that they WANT to read instead of a book they HAVE to read.   I hope this helps a bit!

Michelle Thomas, Assistive Technology Specialist