Cause and Effect

Colored Overlays

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Colored Overlays submitted by Elsie H. Wilson

Colored Overlays

I've been using colored overlays with several students in my second grade class with great success. I use the blue overlay myself. If I had those as a child, I would not have been troubled with painful eye exercises and much initial reading failure. As I grew older, I did learn to read well, but eye fatigue and jumping, flickering print have stayed with me, especially if I am tired. What a relief! If only I had them in college and graduate school!

I have made copy masters of writing paper and spelling test paper. Then I just run some off for my students that need them, in a color that is close to the overlay they use. It does seem to be helpful.

I went to an office supply warehouse store and took my overlay samples to match copy machine paper color. As I copy worksheets, etc., for my class, I slip in the number of special color sheets I need on top of the paper tray to create individual color worksheets. One student who had great difficulty writing on the lines has no difficulty doing it now on the colored paper. He can now track his own reading, which earlier he was unable to do!

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