Reference Materials

Electronic devices are increasingly found in classrooms to help kids practice what they know. Kids with disabilities often benefit from their use in becoming more independent.

Students may experience difficulty getting to reference materials and using them. Hand held electronic talking (dictionary/thesaurus) devices are available to aid vocabulary development. The Franklin website offers a range of reference devices. A couple of classroom favorites are listed below:

Online References

There are several reference aids (dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopedias)on the Internet that can provide improved access to students with disabilities:

Library Spot

Reference Desk

Library of Congress

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Roget's Thesaurus

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encarta Online (Free abridged service)

Columbia Encyclopedia

Hint:
Try using Microsoft Word's hyperlink feature to connect to one of the above links, so that the reference is always available to a student using an Internet-connected computer. Save the file "as" a template so that the reference source is can be used again and again.

Linking to a Web page in a Word Document (pdf)