Transcript 10 Ways to Manage Language Challenges in Content Areas Dr. Susan Easterbrooks Professor, GSU Dr.

10 Ways to Manage Language Challenges in
Content Areas
Dr. Susan Easterbrooks
Professor, GSU
Dr. Nanci Scheetz
Professor, VSU
Recall from the previous presentation on language
needs that there is often a gap between the everyday
communication skills of a deaf child and the language
demands of the classroom (BICS-CALP gap).
Your challenge is to figure out how to bridge that gap.
Here are some things you need to know and do to make
this happen.
I. Making yourself and what you are saying
accessible.
• Face the student at all times.
– S/he cannot lipread the back of
your head.
• Make sure that there is not a
light source behind you shining
in the student’s eyes
• Speak in a normal rate. Don’t
overarticulate.
• Don’t cover your mouth with
your hands.
– Also, men with beards and
moustaches are difficult to
lipread.
• If calling on students in the
class, give the deaf student time
to locate his classmate.
– Often by the time the student
locates his classmate, the
classmate has already finished
speaking.
II. Collaborating closely with the speech-language
pathologist, teacher of the deaf, interpreter, and ESOL
teacher.
The SLP can…
…explain to you the specific language problems this
individual student is experiencing.
The TOD can…
…describe appropriate modifications to your materials to
account for language and listening challenges and/or can
co-teach with you if determined by the IEP team.
If student has an
interpreter…
…make sure that you and the interpreter have worked out a
plan for giving the student visual access to both of you. It is
difficult for students to split their attention.
The ESOL teacher can…
…help you understand the challenges that a student
exposed to spoken English, American Sign Language, and a
home language is facing.
III. Bridging the language gap during
Language Arts instruction.
• The major challenge to language arts instruction is
knowing at what level the student’s problems arise.
• Here is an example language arts objective from my
state’s standards:
– Identifies and writes simple, compound, complex,
and compound-complex sentences
• A component of this is the identification of dependent and
independent clauses
At what level does the
student have difficulties
on this knowledge
pyramid?
Labels
Ability to read
the words and
make sense
Words and
grammar that represent
the ideas
Ideas about
world
World the
Knowledge
• Ideas about the world.
– One experience can be related to another based on
their time frame
• one thing happens first and another happens after
that
• two unrelated things can happen at the same point
in time
• Words and grammar that represent the
ideas
• Before/after- one thing happens first and another
happens after that
– Before we at lunch, we washed our hands.
• While- two unrelated things can happen at the
same point in time
– While we were at the store, the cat climbed the tree.
• Ability to read the words and make sense
from them
– Students with hearing loss often have reading
levels below that of the rest of the class.
– A student may understand what you mean
when you say it or sign it, but he may not
understand it when it is in print.
– This makes reading the textbook difficult.
• Labels
– The student may understand what you mean when you say or
sign the sentence, and he may be able to read it when looking at
the book, but he may not understand that you are providing
labels to parts of sentences. He may not understand the
meaning of the rules that explain the labels.
dependent
independent
– Before we leave the pool, pick up all your trash.
– While you are walking the dog, get the mail for me.
• Here are the rules:
– An independent clause is a group of words
with a subject and verb that express a
complete thought.
– A dependent clause is a group of words with a
subject and a verb that do not express a
complete thought. The clause usually begins
with a subordinator (while, during, since, etc.)
• How would you explain to a student what “a
complete thought” is?
Nothing is missing? It “sounds” right? It makes
“sense”? These are all abstract.
Herein lies the main challenge to teaching
language arts to students with hearing loss.
• If your student has problems with the first two levels
(concepts and language to represent the concepts), then
the teacher of the deaf should work with him or her to
develop these.
• If your student has problems with reading the textbook, you can
– Read the sentence to the student
– Ask the interpreter to interpret the sentence
– Allow a buddy to read the sentence to the student
• If your student does not understand the idea that underlies the
rule for a label (e.g., a complete thought), then you must become
very creative in determining how to explain it. Collaborate with your
fellow teachers to develop a plan. If your deaf student doesn’t
understand the rule, then many of your other students are also not
understanding it.
IV. Bridging the language gap during literacy
instruction.
•
Kyle, F.E., & Harris, M. (2006). Concurrent correlates and predictors of reading and spelling achievement in deaf
and hearing school children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11(3), 273-288.
•
Kelly, L. (1996). The interaction of syntactic competence and vocabulary during reading by deaf students. JDSDE,
1(1), 75-90.
•
Vocabulary is a predictor of reading ability.
•
Vocabulary is necessary, but it is not sufficient to move reading past early
levels. Comprehension of grammar is also required.
•
If your student has problems at the first two levels of the pyramid with
vocabulary and grammar, the teacher of the deaf should work with her to
help her increase vocabulary and grammar.
•
We address vocabulary and grammar instruction in later presentations.
•
Suggestions
– Co-teach reading instruction with a teacher of the deaf
– Work at the student’s instructional reading level, not in the grade-level reading
program
– Provide extra time reading to the student
– Use high interest, vocabulary or grammar-controlled materials as a part of your
program, not as a complete program
– Give student extra opportunities to read at his independent reading level
– Use shared reading
• Teacher reads/explains more difficult passages
• Scaffolds passages that student will read
– Paraphrase/rewrite materials
• Many textbooks now have companion readers/study guides developed specifically as
content area reading supplements. These are often ordered by schools for the ELL
students. Check. It will save you a lot of time and work!
Allow the student to view text to ASL renderings of stories
•
Sundance/Newbridge accessible texts
– Note: many phone representatives are not aware of the DVDs. Be sure to ask specifically.
•
Gallaudet’s Shared Reading stories
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/srp/bookbags.html
V. Bridging the language gap during math
instruction.
• Previous research has identified some contributing factors to deaf
students' difficulty in solving mathematics problems. Some of these
factors include metacognitive skills, impulsivity, literacy and linguistic
difficulty (Mousley & Kelly, 1998).
• Students with hearing loss usually are able to master computation
skills, but they struggle with word problems.
• The greater the gap between their language and reading and the
language/reading demands of the class, the more they will struggle.
• Pre-teach vocabulary and concepts associated with
upcoming instruction in collaboration with TOD.
• Use good technology
– Using a digital white board, teachers can model strategies while
student maintain eye contact with content and presenter.
– Color highlighting can be used to identify important information
as well as other annotations to demonstrate thinking.
– Model problems are saved in the white board software so they
can be reviewed another time.
• Try a variety of strategies
– Guess-and-check
– Draw a picture
– Solve a simpler problem
– Act it out
– Look for patterns
– Work backwards
– Conduct an experiment
• Use a problem-solving strategy to teach
math
– Step 1: Identify the problem
– Step 2: Select a solution path
– Step 3: Carry out the plan
– Step 4: Check the answer
– Step 5: REFLECT
VI. Bridging the language gap during content area
instruction.
Language and literacy skills needed in content areas
 Identifying the main
idea
 Vocabulary
comprehension
 Locating facts and
specific details
 Adjusting Reading
Rate & Focus
 Organizing material
mentally
 Summarizing
• Collaboration with the TOD is essential in
determining
– Key vocabulary for student to focus on
– Key concepts teacher will require student to know
– Alternatives for assessment
– Quite often general education teachers will write
questions that exceed the deaf student’s language
and literacy abilities, even though the student
understands the information being assessed.
• E.g. “Who was the earliest recorded California earthquake felt
by, and when and where was it felt?”
This question is difficult because it has multiple parts and it uses
passive voice construction.
– Rules of thumb for rewriting questions
• Always use active tense, even if you have to use the words
“Someone” or “something”. This may require you to give
information up front and then to ask a simpler question.
– Someone felt the first earthquake recorded in California. Who
was it?
• Break multiple part questions into separate questions.
– Who felt the earliest recorded earthquake in California? When
did this happen? Where did this happen?
VII. Bridging the language gap during
content area reading.
• According to the Gallaudet Research Institute, the median reading
level of high school graduates who are deaf is around 4th grade. This
means that half read above that level, but the other half read below.
• Implication: many students with hearing loss will have a
significant gap between their reading comprehension level and
the reading demands of textbooks and test materials.
• Your challenge: to bridge this gap
Students need the following literacy strategies to read content area material:
– Identifying the main
idea
– Locating facts and
specific details
– Organizing material
– Vocabulary
comprehension
– Predicting
– Restating
• Suggestions
– Heavy use of visual organizers
– Preteach vocabulary and concepts
– Identifying key vocabulary and key concepts
for which student will be held accountable (be
clear on expectations)
– Teach strategies for approaching textbooks
– Co-teach with the teacher of the deaf
Teach student reading comprehension strategies.
(We will talk about these in greater detail in a later presentation.)
Before Reading
• Building Vocabulary • Activating Prior Knowledge
• Setting a Purpose • Previewing • Brainstorming •
Predicting •
During Reading
• Scanning • Visualizing • Context Clues • Inferring
• Questioning • Clarifying •
After Reading
• Summarizing • Drawing Conclusions • Reflecting
• Critical Thinking • Review • Synthesis • Writing to
Learn •
• Use a variety of techniques
– Think-pair-share
– SQ3R
– Summarizing
– Story maps
– Underlining
– Reading end of chapter questions first
VIII. Dealing with specialized vocabulary
In American Sign Language, there are
approximately 3500 to 5500 signs.
Insufficient for higher grade or technical terminology
Need a strategy for agreeing on how to create signs for
classroom only purposes
If at all possible, don’t create signs.
Fingerspell instead.
Call your state’s school for the deaf and
speak with a content area specialist. Ask
what sign they use.
Consult various technical sign manuals and
CDs.
http://www.ualr.edu/sotac/cdinfo.shtml
Use online sources
e.g., signs for computational science
http://www.shodor.org/succeedhi/interpreters/Tsigns.html
Step 1: Content area teacher describes concept clearly to
interpreter and TOD so everyone understands the real intent
behind the word
e.g. Exothermic “pertaining to a chemical change that is
accompanied by a liberation of heat”
Step 2: Choose an iconic representation of the word rather
than initializing a similar word
-Sign “chemical + change->hot” As right hand moves to final
position of “change”, sign “hot” from this position
The Deaf community invents signs all the time, but those signs stay where
they were invented. Do not institutionalize the use of an invented sign. Be
sure that the student knows that other Deaf individuals may not understand
the invented sign.
IX. Bridging the language gap during testing.
• Often students with hearing loss are
unable to answer questions because they
do not understand the language concepts
associated with classroom testing.
X. Knowing when the gap is too large to
bridge.
Sometimes the student’s language gap is
so large that it does him a disservice to be
in the general education classroom.
In this case the IEP team needs to revisit
the student’s placement.
How do we decide this?
– Are all possible supports in place to assure that the student can make
appropriate progress?
– What is an appropriate education?
According to Rowley v Board of Education, an appropriate education is one in which a
successfully pass from one grade level to the next with a C average.
child can
– Is the student making appropriate progress with the current level of
supports?
• Is the g a p between the student’s current
language and literacy skills wider than two
years below current placement?
– If so, the IEP team needs to determine if all
supports available are sufficient to bridge this
gap.
– If not, then reconsider placement.