Week 5

The reflection questions from this week include: Several approaches and suggestions were mentioned by the authors, however challenges continue to impact educating students who are D/HH. In thinking of your classroom, what components of reading and writing do you feel are important to teach and how will you teach them?

The age level for my students are a huge deciding factor for what components that I feel are important to teach. For the elementary students I would focus on phonemic awareness and phonics and start to build the vocabulary. Visual phonics activities are a great way to get the students engaged in learning phonics and building their phonemic awareness skills. In developing vocabulary, I would use a lot of visuals and help the students make sense of it using their language and things around them that can help them associate the word with its meaning. For older students, comprehension and fluency are big areas to target. Repeat readings and questioning help build these skills, readers' theater is another way to help build these skills.

There is no one right answer to what is important to teach, but it is important to provide the support in the areas that the student is struggling with as well as build their skills in the other areas. Its all about balance!

Week 4

The reflection questions from this week include: Stages of development v. Common Core Standards v. Curriculum Scope and Sequence v. hierachy of skills--Which do you think is important  when teaching students with hearing loss? What will be your focus as the student expands and progresses in skill?

 All of these factors affect the education of a student with a hearing loss. I think that it is difficult to pick one out as "important" versus the rest of the factors. I think incorporating and being mindful of the stages of development, scope and sequence, and hierarchy of skills is key to giving the students the instruction they need as well as encouraging them to build on those skills to their hearing peers. All of these "stages" are a good guideline to follow and check to see where the student is performing as compared to their hearing peers, what is the goal of the services we provide? Eventually we want our students to be as competent and efficient as independent adults as their hearing peers would be. But students with a hearing loss require differentiated instruction, which we need to keep in mind when referring to the scope and sequence or common core standards.

As the student expands and progresses in skill, I would continue to provide the services and instruction as they require it. But at the same time, I would continue to encourage and challenge the student to proceed to an academic level that reflects their hearing peers as well.

Week 3

 OK so I failed my challenge of being the first to post! I will say that I attempted last night and my internet decided not to work. So with that said I am writing this post earlier than my previous ones...some improvement! :)

The reflection questions from this week include: Educational placement for students with hearing loss has been a long debate. What are your thoughts about educating students within the "mainstream" versus in a centralized program/school? I am a big supporter for educating students in mainstream; however, the parents/families decision plays a huge factor in deciding this. The family should be informed about the options available to them and why certain programs would benefit their child. Its important to keep in mind communication modality, intervention services, socialization, interpreters, deaf education services available, etc.

How do you plan to take data? Will you take data every day vs once in a while? When is it important to take data? I would create some templates that make it easy to jot down some data in an efficient and quick manner. Depending on the type of data such as hearing aid info or behavior, I would take data daily. For other types of information such as student performance in a subject area such as reading I would spread out the data, depending on the schedule and time.

Week 2

The reflection questions from this week include: When planning for assessment of a student with hearing loss, what considerations should you keep in mind? Should you only use tests designed for this population? Why or Why not? Some considerations to keep in mind when planning for assessment are ensuring that the amplification the student has (CIs and/or Hearing aids) are functioning properly prior to assessment, making adaptions as allowed concerning the student's communication modality, what is or are the reasons for assessment, the environment, and the student's behavior. Personally I believe that we should include assessments that are normed for hearing students as well as assessments designed for D/HH students. By conducting these assessments, we can get information and data on how our students are functioning compared to their hearing peers. Just because our students have a hearing loss, doesn't mean that they are not capable of performing as well or even better than their hearing peers.

Communicating with teachers and staff is a vital part of Deaf Education. Do you think face-to-face is better or email? Why and how do you plan to communicate with staff? When introducing myself to a teachers, I would set up a meeting to talk with staff and teachers face-to-face. I feel that face-to-face interactions are more personable and allows the teachers and deaf educators to get to know each other in a friendly and non-threatening environment. The key to open communication is to let the teachers know that we are a team, we as deaf educators are here to work with the teachers. There are times that email communication is effective and appropriate, for instance quick, non immediate questions, information that is to be shared and/or when a teacher is not available to meet.