iPads in the Classroom For Literacy Support

March 6, 2025
Submitted by: Jennifer Napper


Working in a classroom in the 21st century, technology is prevalent. However, we often do not have enough laptops and iPads within the school setting. Using the grant from MAME to purchase two iPads and a couple apps has been and will continue to be a huge addition to the classroom. 

Lexico
Lexico is an app specifically designed to help support students with Dyslexia. It allows for you to scan a document into the app and changes the font to a font that is more easily read. The app will read the document aloud to you and you can focus on certain words and phrases within a text. You can also add a vocabulary list to practice a certain set of words. There is a tracking practice game, to work on finding real phrases within a set of jumbled words. 

The app is definitely neat with the features mentioned above. However, the app is not user friendly. It took a long time to figure out how to use it and the help features aren’t super clear. It would be great if the app would tell you what the word means as you click it. The voice that is used to read aloud is very robotic and hard to listen to, it would be nice to have other choices. 

Inspiration Maps
This app is great for organizing your thoughts for a prewriting activity. It allows you to add words and ideas and it puts it in a visually appealing way. There are many templates, or you can make your own. It is good for students who get stuck before starting to write paragraphs or stories. There are images that can be added, and it is easy to use. 

ClaroSpeak+
ClaroSpeak is an app for reading passages aloud. It also breaks the information down a bit into sections that are easier to follow. There are many voice choices, and you can change the size of text. You are also able to adjust how big the spaces are between lines of text, the background colour, and the character spacing. 
There is nothing super special about the app beyond basic reading and font. It would be better if there were more options for what to do with the text after it is in the document. 

We will continue to see what else is out there and useful for literacy support within the classroom and will continue to get student feedback as we get more comfortable with the apps. I hope this is helpful in starting your journey with using technology to help support students with literacy challenges in the classroom. 

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