Hi,
You could use [d] or [q] codes, but this is a very ugly method and would become
extremely unwieldy very quickly! You could also use [g1] and [g2] codes as
appropriate, which is slightly more tidy but would still involve lots of man
hours.
One manual solution which might be slightly easier, and which is as close as
possible to your idea of only transcribing highlighted text in grade 2, would
be to create a grade 2 style - your template might in fact already have one of
these. In its simplest form, a grade 2 style need only have a start code of
[g2] and an end code of [g1]. You could then highlight the words you want in
grade 2 and apply the grade 2 style to them.
If you originate your documents in Microsoft Word, you could create a similar
grade 2 style in Word with visually striking properties, e.g. text in that
style could be coloured Red. You would then need to apply that style to all the
words you want transcribing into grade 2, and it will be visually obvious once
you have done this. A Duxbury Word Style Map could then be used so that Word's
grade 2 style gets converted into Duxbury's grade 2 style on import.
As others have said, the simplest automated solution would be Learning Tables.
However, I would add one more caveat to what George has already said, namely
that old habits die hard! So let's say, for example, that the student has
learnt the contraction for THE, but not the contraction for there. In this
scenario, using learning tables, Duxbury will encode the word there as the THE
contraction, R, E. Of course, this is all it can do, but it is abhorrent
practice nonetheless and if the student is learning slowly and encountering the
word there frequently, it might take more effort to undo the subconsciously
reinforced bad contracting than to either just introduce the there contraction
there and then, or stick to grade 1 until a suitable number of contractions
have been learnt.
Manual intervention would solve this problem in that you could leave there
uncontracted, but contract the. However, provided the student's vocabulary is
not significantly ahead of the student's knowledge of braille, I wouldn't worry
about the occasional unlearnt contraction popping up. The student will either
figure it out for him/herself, which could be reinforced in a subsequent
lesson, or could be taught to ask for help.
Matthew
From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of George Bell
Sent: 08 November 2018 09:55
To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [duxuser] Re: Combining grade 1 with grade 2 as contractions are
learned?
Hi Kathy,
Hopefully there is an acceptable solution already built into DBT, explained in
"Help"
I.e. Help: The Menus: Document: Learning Tables.
These follow existing braille courses which have been developed for teaching
braille.
In DBT all you need to do is open an existing document, create a new one, or
even import one from the likes of Word.
From the Document menu, select Learning Tables, the course you decide to
follow, and the level the student is up to. Translate, and only contractions
up to and including that level with be applied. Everything else will be in
uncontracted or grade 1.
Let me say two things here.
First, if you are already following an approved, popular course, not included
in DBT, please let Duxbury know. I will not make any cast iron guarantees on
their behalf, but it may be possible to include it in later releases.
Second, and I speak from 30 years personal experience here; allowing a user
defined type of system where contractions are (randomly) introduced may seem a
good option. However it can be fraught with issues, not least a change of
staff, and/or the pupil moves school. Far safer to say that he or she is up to
a specific level of a specific course. You can even boost the pupil's morale
with braille certificates for each level the achieve?
Hope this helps.
George
From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kathy Salerno
Sent: 08 November 2018 00:33
To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [duxuser] Combining grade 1 with grade 2 as contractions are learned?
Hello,
I hope this is the correct audience for my Duxbury question.
In reading through George's Braille Calendar instructions, I noticed directions
for viewing and inserting codes.
Along these lines, as our students learn braille and move slowly on to
contractions, is there a way for our teachers to insert a newly learned
contraction into a page of Grade 1 braille when they are producing student
tailored braille reading passages ? Is it as simple as highlighting and telling
DBT to produce only highlighted text in Grade 2 braille while non-highlighted
text stays in Grade 1?
Enthusiastically hopeful,
Kathy
Kathy Salerno
Vision AIM Center, ESC Building
Kathysa@xxxxxxxx<mailto:Kathysa@xxxxxxxx> | 484.237.5000
