The Literacy Continuum: Teaching Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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The Literacy Continuum Teaching Students who are
Deaf and Hard of Hearing

• Susan R. Easterbrooks, Professor
• Georgia State University
• Presented at the GDEAF Conference
• Macon, GA
• July, 2004

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What do we mean by a literacy continuum?

• Children who are deaf and hard of hearing learn
  to read across a continuum of stimulus sources.
• Some children have sufficient residual hearing
  and powerful amplification that allows them to
  develop literacy through the auditory pathway
  (Izzo, 2002)
• some require visual support from English based
  sign systems (Luetke-Stahlman Nielson, 2003)
• others learn to read English as a second language
  based on competence in their natural language of
  American Sign Language (Musselman, 2000) or
  another native language such as Spanish
  (Walker-Vann, 1998).

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• Some of the practices, such as Guided Reading,
  may be used both as auditory means and as visual
  means of instructing DHH children in literacy.
• Some practices, such as phonemic awareness (e.g.,
  /k/ sound as in cat or kite), vizeme awareness
  (e.g., a visual symbol represents each sound), or
  cheremic awareness (e.g., the index finger shape
  as in think or me) tend to be language-specific
  (i.e., spoken English, signed English, American
  Sign Language) and require modifications
  depending on whether they are being used with
  primarily auditory learners or primarily visual
  learners.

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We have happy little faces that fall all along
the continuum and who want to learn to read. We
are responsible for modifying our approaches to
meet all their needs.

• Auditory Only Visual
  Only
• English Visual
  English ASL
• Literacy Continuum

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Two major perspectives currently in practice.

• National Reading Panel
• Gallaudets Literacy Project
• These two pieces overlap

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Designated by NRP as THE key factors in literacy
instruction.

• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics (traditional decoding and encoding)
• Vocabulary Comprehension
• Text Comprehension (reading strategies)
• Fluency (spoken)
• Motivation

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To these, deaf educators must add

• Visual Fluency
• Visual decoding and encoding (e.g., use of Cued
  Speech, Visual Phonics)
• Code-Switching (dealing with dual languages)
• Reading in the content areas

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A note about reading strategies

• Reading strategies and Text Comprehension go
  hand-in-hand
• But in fact, strategic action is related to the
  use of all sources of information, both visible
  information (the print and illustrations that the
  reader sees) and invisible information (phonology
  and relation to the letters vocabulary or word
  meaning background knowledge, experiences and
  concepts personal experiences, memories, and
  emotions and so on.).

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Best Practices as identified by the Laurent Clerc
center at Gallaudet

• The following skills are identified as critical
  to literacy learning in DHH students by the
  Laurent Clerc Center of Gallaudet University
  (http//clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/about/r
  eading.html
• Practices to increase practices to decrease (see
  handout)
• 9 key instructional components

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• Reading to Students
• Language Experience
• Shared Reading and Writing
• Guided Reading and Writing
• Writers Workshop
• Research Reading and Writing
• Dialogue Journal
• Journals and Logs
• Independent Reading

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• In summary, we must account for each of the
  practices on the next page.
• Each can be viewed as an auditory process or a
  visual process.
• Each can be viewed as an English process or a
  process requiring code switching (from ASL or
  from another spoken language).

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Phonemic awareness Phonics (decoding and
encoding) Vocabulary Comprehension Text
Comprehension (reading strategies) Fluency
(spoken) Visual Fluency Motivation Visual
decoding and encoding (e.g., use of Cued Speech,
Visual Phonics) Code-Switching (dealing with dual
languages) Reading in the Content Areas Reading
to Students Language Experience Shared Reading
and Writing Guided Reading and Writing Writers
Workshop Research Reading and Writing Dialogue
Journal Journals and Logs Independent Reading
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No matter which language or mode, fundamentally
we are all concerned with

• Strategies for all elements of unlocking the
  meaning of print
• Underlying meaning
• Underlying language facility

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• Barbara Luetke-Stahlman and Diane Corcoran
  Nielsen, (2003). The contribution of phonological
  awareness and receptive and expressive English to
  the reading ability of deaf students with varying
  degrees of exposure to accurate English. Journal
  of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8, 464-484.
• Carol Musselman. (2000). How do children who
  cant hear learn to read an alphabetic script? A
  review of the literature on reading and deafness.
  JDSDE, 5, 9-31.

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• Walker-Vann, C. (1998). Profiling Hispanic deaf
  students A first step towards solving the
  greater problems. American Annals of the Deaf,
  143(1), 46-54.
• Izzo, A. (2002). Phonemic awarenss and reading
  ability An investigation of young readers who
  are deaf. AAD, 147(4), 18-28.

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The Changing Face of Instruction

• Technology in Todays College Classes

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• In the past, teacher education followed a
  predictable pattern
• Attend classes in a building on a college campus
• Spend a semester doing nothing but student
  teaching in a school-based setting
• Get a job and start sitting in cafeterias and
  libraries where staff development activities are
  being offered.

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• Today the options for changing this scenario have
  undergone an explosion of creative options (and
  some not so creative).
• Teachers start in the classroom before taking
  their first college course.
• They cant leave their classes to participate in
  practicum during the school day/year and so must
  engage in these activities on weekends and over
  the summer, usually when there are no children
  around to teach.

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• Newer initiatives in staff development require
  teachers to engage in outcomes-based staff
  development of a prolonged nature rather than a
  one shot deal.
• Less time and fewer resources are available to
  provide disability specific, school-based staff
  development.

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Is there a solution? Im not sure, but there are
options that are worth exploring.

• Fully online courses WebCT, WebVista, Blackboard
• Partially online courses some web-based, some
  face to face

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• Self-contained modules Lectora and other
  authoring tools

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• vClass by Illuminate

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• Cybermentors, cyberconsultants
• Video-conferencing tools such as ViaVideo,
  Sorenson, Tamdberg

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• Chatroom at gatod_at_yahoogroups.com

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• Join Together grant from ACE-DHH
• Master teachers
• Can request ViaVideo, but must be willing to get
  permission from superintendent to lower firewalls
• Learning communities

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Are you ready to take the plunge?

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Or are you timid like this little guy is?
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• I speak for Dr. Scheetz as well as myself when I
  say,
• WE NEED YOUR HELP!