The Literacy Lab, a completely computer-based program, uses a variety of technologies to help middle school special education students improve their ability to read and write while teaching them vital computer and video skills. The program works and is used in 120 classrooms for special education and at-risk students in Orange County, Florida. Hasselbring's research team recently signed an agreement with curriculum publishing giant Scholastic to make the program commercially available nationwide. An important feature of the program is the anchored instruction approach where everything students do is organized around a particular topic or theme. The project currently offers units on topics ranging from the civil rights movement to the history of the hamburger.
Students begin each lesson by viewing a video clip relative to the unit theme.
That's followed by a written passage that relates to the video. Each time the student has trouble with a word, the computer supplies instructions specially geared to the particular problem the student is having. For example, the computer might provide help in deciphering the word. Or, for a student who can read but not understand a word or phrase, it might offer information about meaning and context. They actually paint an ongoing and very vivid picture of what they're reading in their mind.