How do you ensure every student fully accesses your instruction? Whether you’re leading a discussion or playing a video, your Chromebook offers several resources to help students "see" what they hear. By using the Class Tools app and accessibility features at the right moments, you can boost comprehension for your entire class.
1. Class Tools: Support for Live Speech
For real-time classroom talk, the Class Tools app is a resource that provides immediate clarity. To use it, a teacher starts a Class Tools session and toggles on the option to allow student devices to show translated captions.
As you speak, a live transcript is broadcasted directly to your students' screens in their preferred language. With support for over 100 languages, this is a powerful bridge for Multilingual Learners (MLLs) during direct instruction. It is most effective when used strategically alongside visual aids to help students follow the "live" flow of a lesson without losing engagement with the English language.
2. Live Captions: A Win for Every Learner
Live Captions are a universal resource, benefiting everyone from students who process written info faster to those in a noisy environment. They work on all Chromebooks for any audio or video (YouTube, Nearpod, Edpuzzle).
By helping students connect spoken words to their written form, these captions reinforce complex vocabulary for the whole class. On student devices, these captions will appear in the language being spoken, providing a steady "safety net" for any media-based assignment.
3. Live Translate: Strategic Video Scaffolding
If you have a Staff Chromebook Plus, you can use Live Translate to add an extra layer of equity during a whole-class video. This allows you to project a video to the room with subtitles appearing in a specific student's native language. It is a perfect tool for introducing high-stakes content or complex new concepts, ensuring the core message is accessible while students continue to develop their English proficiency.
Ready to try these in your classroom? Reach out to your building Tech Coaches to see these tools in action and find the best fit for your students!