About
Word Dodge provides a fundamentally different approach to traditional literacy intervention strategies. Our goal isn’t to improve the students reading, writing and spelling skills – rather to provide an alternative pathway of interacting with the written English language.
Our Motiviation
The signs that many Dyslexic students are not acquiring a functional strategy to deal with the written English language are quite plain to see. A dyslexic individual is more than four times more likely to be unemployed than a non-dyslexic person.
Our Goal
Word dodge provides a fundamentally different approach to traditional literacy intervention strategies. The primary our goal is not to improve the students reading writing and spelling skills. But to provide an alternative pathway to interact with the written English language.
How it works
Word Dodge is based around the use of a combination of assistive Technologies. Technologies such as screen readers, text-to-speech and Image capture. These, combined with an innovative approach to the use of your schools Cloud storage and either Microsoft or Google suite Allows the use of the Word Dodge virtual exercise book. In this way, students can interact with real world documents. Read from them using their tablet and fill them in using their voice. Giving similar functionality to having a teaching assistant next to them. In lessons teachers can use the same resources as they would with non-dislexic students. And the virtual exercise book for students is conveniently kept on your school’s cloud storage system allowing teachers to access the students’ work With just a few clicks on their laptop, and see the students work live. This is one example of how word dodge provides a pathway around the need for traditional reading and writing. This pathway may Not be as a Direct Way to access meaning from and record the English language as A non-dislexic student. But a few extra steps is preferable to the frustration and educational damage having little or no access to the written English language can have.
What Makes Us Different
Accessibility First
Word Dodge is not an app or a piece of software. It is a way of combining cheap and existing technologies and embedding them within a school to allow students to interact with the written English language whilst dodging the need for being able to read, write or spell.
Evidence-Based
Students who learn to word dodge in secondary school can and use those skills outside and of school Into their adult life by not being burdened by expensive app subscriptions and costly hardware.
Community Focused
The Word Dodge resources and learning platform guide and give information for the staff to effectively implement word dodge within the school/organisation and the students to learn to word dodge. For the staff implementing word dodge there are comprehensive checklists, help Guides and video tutorials. For the students our custom learning platform has been optimised to deliver the skills for the students to learn to word dodge.
Timeline of deployment for a new organisation/school
Systems Administrator
Once on the Learning Platform, you can generate logins for the educator and students. There will also be a deployment checklist to advise you of what hardware to buy and how to configure the relevant systems.
Educator
Using a set of Word Dodge equipment, learn what is in the course and how to deliver it as you practice the skills the students will learn. Intervention can be delivered in whole lesson sessions once or multiple times a week, or in smaller chunks like registration/form time. The educators role will be to facilitate and oversee the learning and assist with assessment. Be a point of contact.
Students
The students will learn from the Word Dodge platform. Using the equipment and techniques they will go on to use in lessons. Once students have demonstrated independence and competence Word Dodging, it can then be phased in to be used in their lessons.
Did you know?
About James Raymond
The Director of Workaround Literacy (the company developing WordDodge) has severe dyslexia.
James Raymond
Founder
“My literacy skills were so bad when I went to secondary school I was eligible for funding to allow me to have a teaching assistant in all lessons where there was any reading and writing. Even with a significant investment of time and effort by myself and the teacher supporting me my literacy skills were still miles awayFrom where they would need to be to function properly in lessons. I relied on a teaching assistant to be my eyes for reading and my hand for writing"
James Raymond
Director
James used similar levels of one-to-one support to complete his A-levels, degree and teacher training. He has been working as a teacher since 2008. “to function properly as a teacher with such poor literacy skills I have had to find various workarounds and dodges to navigate the obstacles and frankly embarrassment that the written English language can generate for me”
James Raymond
Teacher
James's approach to the use of technology for dealing with dyslexia and his personal experience with having sever dyslexia and working in the education system led him to ask.“...... is it possible to achieve similar functionality to a student having a dedicated teaching assistant being their eyes for reading and hands for writing like I had, but using technology?” We think we have. With the added bonus of being independent from needing the help of an adult and a significant reduction in cost to employing several teaching assistants.
About Word Dodge
Word Dodge Provides the necessary advice, training and learning materials for all the People needed to provide Dyslexic students with an alternative pathway to function in school. With the added bonus that the majority of the technologies that are used are extremely cheap or even free.