Meridian High School students are using assistive technology to support their reading, writing, studying, and research through the tool Google Read and Write.

The accessibility tool is pre-installed on all student and staff computers district- wide. As part of the ongoing work of the Ninth Grade Success Team, teachers Sara Meadows, Kayla (Bernsen) Turner, and Peter Hutchinson developed lessons to teach ninth graders how to use Google Read and Write to support them in their learning.

“We really emphasized the importance of the tools in Google Read and Write for all students and encouraged them to try using it in their classes,” Meadows said. “Students seemed to really enjoy exploring the tools. We are hoping this lessens the stigma surrounding using assistive technology for our learners who would really benefit from it and opens the doors for all students to improve their digital skills.”

When learning about how to use Google Read and Write, students worked with partners to complete a practice worksheet. The worksheet asked students to use each of the tools, to try and answer different English-related questions.

“Students really enjoyed learning more about the tool, but also how they can customize it to work best for them,” Meadows said.

The tool works on most websites, meaning if students are working on a project and they are viewing a webpage, they can bring up their Google Read and Write tools.

Some of the tools within Google Read and Write are:

  • Text-to-Speech: This allows students to have something on their screen read aloud to them. They can listen to single words, sentences or whole documents. This can be paired with Google Translate and students can have documents and websites read aloud in their native languages.
  • Text and Picture Dictionaries: If a student doesn’t know what a word means on the webpage, they can use Google Read and Write to define the word with either text or a picture.
  • Vocabulary List: Students can highlight words and add them to a vocabulary list to review later.
  • Highlight Collector: Students can highlight any text and in a variety of colors then select the collector tool to make a new document of their highlights, organized by color and linked back to the original source.
  • Rewordify: This takes high level vocabulary and simplifies it into a word or phrase that is more common.
  • Translator: This translates single words on the page into any language.
  • Check In: This checks spelling and grammar.
  • Talk and Type: This allows students to dictate their paper and Google Read and Write types it up. Students can proofread and make edits to the document.

Meadows explained while this is assistive technology, all students can use tools within Google Read and Write to support their learning.

“In English, where we do a lot of annotated notes, we thought it would be good for any students who want to use it to take their notes. They can create a vocabulary list or organize their highlights to make their annotations a little bit easier,” Meadows said.

Meadows explained for some students it may be easier for them to process information out loud rather than write it down, so using the Talk and Type tool is a great help. Once all their words are out, students can go back and edit the grammar and reorganize their draft.

While the tool is emphasized in ninth grade English classes, it is a tool that can be used in any content area; reading and writing are foundational skills in social studies, science, and many others. Whether a student struggles with reading and writing, is a multilingual learner, or simply wants to use it for better organization and comprehension of content, Google Read and Write supports equitable access to curriculum for all students.