Text to Speech on your Chromebooks

CAN I GET A LITTLE HELP?!

Wouldn't it be great to throw a life raft to struggling readers and ESL/ELL students? Okay, perhaps it's more of a set of arm floaties. Nonetheless, Read&Write for Google, SpeakIt, and Announcify are pretty excellent extensions to help not only struggling readers, but also a unique way to have students self-edit their essays. 

In a short video, Eric Curts (http://www.controlaltachieve.com) defines 3 great text to speech extensions available in the Chrome Web Store. Further down, his blog post illustrates ways to use these extensions with your students (assistance in reading, self-editing of their essays, ELL/ESL students). 

Some thoughts: 

1. Read&Write for Google Chrome is especially good for elementary students and struggling readers, as it reads the text highlighted (yes, even on a Google Doc!) but also highlights individual words as it reads them. 
2. Idea for foreign language: translate your document to Spanish, then choose your Read&Write for Google Extension and select Espanol voice. Students can hear/see proper pronunciation. 
3. Bring the Focus! - Announcify will blur out the paragraphs not being read, so students can focus on the text being read. (Caution: it will not read just the text highlighted, but rather the entire passage, from start of the page. You can skip ahead, however).