Approaches to Teaching Writing to Deaf Students

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Approaches to Teaching Writing to Deaf Students

• John Panara
• NTID English

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Writing Courses Taught

• Academic Writing II (Basic)
• Academic Writing IV (Intermediate)
• Written Communication II (Advanced)

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Academic Writing II

• Focus is on writing at these levels
• 1. Sentence level (Grammar)
• 2. Paragraph level
• 3. Short essay level
• 4. Short summary level (from
• media selections and short
  readings)

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Academic Writing II--Sentence Level

• Parts of speech and sentence structure
• Recognizing
• -- Subjects
• -- Objects (such as in prepositional
  phrases)
• -- Verbs
• vs. infinitives
• tense
• agreement
• regular-irregular
• PenWord_0

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Recognizing grammar errors

• Part of the peer review process includes having
  students check grammar in each others drafts.
  Therefore, student are expected to recognize
  certain grammar errors involving
• subject-verb agreement
• sentence structure
• --fragments
• --missing subjects
• progressive tense
• verb tense
• helping verbs
• infinitive form
• the expletive there
• For examplePen1

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Writing complete sentences

• Teachers in all disciplines should require
  students to use complete sentences whenever they
  write answers to questions. This challenges
  students and helps to develop their English
  skills.
• For examplePenWord\No 2.doc

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Writing II and Writing IV Writing Process

• Typical approach would involve
• Discussion
• Pre-writing
• Outlining (share with class and teacher)
• Drafting
• Peer Review (with a partner and/or with the
  class)
• Modeling
• Revision
• Teacher feedback
• --grammar (correction symbols)
• --content (suggestions for
  improvement)
• Revision

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Academic Writing II--Paragraph Level

• Paragraph structure
• topic sentence and supporting details
• Paragraph development
• narration, description, process
• Paragraph coherence and unity
• transitional devices and a closing sentence
• Relationship of paragraph to outline

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Writing IIDescriptive Paragraph
This is a typical descriptive paragraph model
from Academic Writing II. Notice the
sentence structure common in descriptive
writingprepositional phrases at the beginning of
sentences, which is something we discuss in
relation to the grammar exercises that we cover.
(Sample Spring is Here)
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Academic Writing IV

• Focus is on
• 1. Sentence structure (Grammar)
• 2. Essay writing
• Modes description, illustration,
  comparison and contrast,
• cause and effect
• 3. Summary writing (based on
• selected readings)

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Writing IV--Grammar focus

• Types of sentences
• simple, compound, complex,
• compound-complex
• Verb use
• agreement
• past participle forms
• modals
• Balance
• Word forms
• Word endings

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Grammar--Word relationships

• Balance (a.k.a. parallelism)
• word forms
• word endings
• Looking at balance encourages students to
  think about the relationship between words in a
  sentence.
• balance.doc

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Discussion

• Cause and Effect Essay
• Most students take Writing IV with the goal
  of moving up and into Written Communication I
  (the next writing course in the developmental
  writing sequence). These students are required
  to take a writing test for placement purposes.
  Oftentimes, the writing topics suggest a cause
  and effect mode of development (Sample LAPT
  topics). Its important that students recognize
  the rhetorical mode suggested in a given topic.
  So, I cover this type of writing in Writing IV.
• Warm-up activity The difference
  between
• cause (before) and effect
  (after).
• cause-effect.doc

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Outlining

• After choosing a topic, brainstorming some ideas
  and sharing those ideas with classmates, each
  student would use this blank formatted outline
  form (on disk) to prepare a rough outline to
  share with the class and teacher.
• A-WRITING Outline Form

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Writing IV-- Sample essay

• An expository student essay on the topic of the
  effects of growing old (6 from the earlier
  handout).
• PenWord\No 7.doc

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Writing IV Essay Writing

• Peer Review is an important part of the process.
• In a networked classroom, peer review can happen
  in pairs, in larger groups, or with the entire
  class.
• PenWord/No 6

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Summary Writing

• Students in the advanced developmental writing
  courses (Written Communication I and II) are
  expected to write summaries of assigned readings.
  Therefore, part of the focus in Writing IV is on
  introducing students to more advanced aspects of
  summary writing.
• Some of the rules and strategies that we discuss
• Langan College Writing Skills--summarizing

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Models from Everyday Writing

• Its important to show students that the writing
  models they study are used by professionals in
  various fieldsby college presidents, sports
  writers, etc. For example (samplesports
  article from daily newspaper)

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Written Communication II

• Course content
• Readings
• Summary writing based on the readings
• -- emphasis is on substance and
  style
• Expository essays
• A research paper
• -- emphasis is on using
  traditional and cyber methods of doing research
  papers. For example 1) finding materials by
  being at the Library vs. finding materials online
  by accessing Library databases) 2) recording
  information by using note cards vs. recording
  information by highlighting printouts and
  downloading text and 3) following a research
  paper model (substance and style).

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Final Thoughts

• Challenge students to read carefully, write
  expressively, think critically, and practice
  regularly, yet be willing to give the gift of
  time to learners with special needs.