Using Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers in a Lesson

In teaching a lesson, when should you use cues, questions, and advance organizers? What adaptations might be needed in working with students who are DHH?

Cues, questions, and advanced organizers are great tools to use in your classroom to help your students understand the lesson. Cues can be used to help prompt the student to do an action or guide them to a specific answer. Questions can be used as a check point throughout the lesson. You ask the students questions to see if they understand what is being taught then used as a review once the lesson is complete. Questions can also be used to make the student critically think. Advanced organizers are used to help further explain a concept. They can be a support to the main concept of the lesson. Advanced organizers are great for our DHH students because they tend to be visual; our DHH students rely heavily on visual instruction. I feel like advanced organizers are a great resource and look forward to using them with my students.

Some adaptations that may be applied when working with DHH students is extended time, multiple choice answers instead of true/false, and working one on one with a deaf educator. DHH student’s tend to have extended time for tests and assignments listed on their IEPs; this will allow the more time to complete them. DHH students struggle with true/false questions so when given a test an adaptation can be change those type of questions to a multiple choice type of question. Lastly, working on different concept areas one on one with an deaf educator to help the student fully understand the concept.

What are your thoughts on homework? Will you assign homework? How often do you think students should have homework? Do you agree with the authors in CITW or disagree? Why?

I feel that homework is a crucial part of a student’s academic career. It helps show the teacher what the students can do on their own and what they all understood from the lesson. Since my students will be receiving daily homework from their regular education teacher I do not feel that I need to give them homework as well. The exception to this would be if providing an additional homework assignment would benefit their learning. I feel students should have homework on a daily basis; if they learn something new that day there should be an assignment to help the concept be soaked into the student’s brains. This could be adjusted depending on the grade of the student; more homework for the higher grade levels.

Stages of Development-Common Core-Hierachy Skills

Stages of development vs. Common Core Standards vs. Hierarchy of skills- which do you think is important when teaching students with a hearing loss? What will be your focus as the student expands and progresses in skill?

These three areas are not more important over another; each are equally important and bring something to the table that is crucial for our students. I feel they are all slightly different and together create a well-rounded tool for educators.  Stages of development help you see where a child should be based on their age and the skills they should be working towards or skills they have mastered. This also applies to the hierarchy of skills. The hierarchy of skills shows you what the student should complete first before moving on to a higher level or more difficult skill. Last Common Core, are a set of standards that help guide an educator when planning what to teach their students. It shows them what skills they should be taught and have mastered by the end of that grade. With our deaf and hard of hearing students they may not be at the same stage, on any of these areas, as their hearing peers but these are still good tools to be used with them. These students may progress slower through them but ideally they should master all of them at some point.

As a student progresses and expands, it is my job to provide them with positive feedback. This will encourage them to keep working towards the next step and to not stop now once they have completed an area. Secondly, my job is to pave the path for them to understand the next skill, give them tools to accomplish that skill, and help them with any questions they may have.

Planning for Assessment

When planning for assessment of a student with hearing loss, what considerations should you keep in mind? Should you use only tests designed for this population? Why or Why not?

There are many things an educator should keep in mind when planning for an assessment on a student. A great place to start is the student’s background. You need to know the student’s abilities in the area that you plan to assess. What’s the best way for that test to be given to the student? What modifications will need to be made to that test for the student: time, environment, how it is presented, and etc. Another area to take a look at is the behavior of the student; are they able to sit for long periods of times or do they get distracted easily or need frequent breaks. This is also important to keep in mind when deciding when to give the student an assessment. You may need to break of the assessment over a period of time or days. This allows for the student to test at the best of their ability and not be fatigued or distracted. Assessments can be stressful on the student. Educators should keep in mind any and all informal assessments they can do to help their assessment process. Those would be a good pre-assessment to use to get a glimpse of the student’s abilities.

I feel that you should not use test only designed for that specific population. When looking at DHH students, there are not many tests created just for them.  We would not receive a full picture of their academic needs. By using the other population’s tests allows for you to see how that student is matches up to their peers. This can be a great tool for a teacher when deciding if that student is being pulled out too much or if they need to be pulled out more.

Communication 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?

Communicating with your fellow teachers is very important. Face-to-face communication is always better and should be the first choice. Unfortunately, face-to-face communication is harder to make happen. Teachers are very busy and it’s hard to fit this type of communication into ones schedule. I feel face-to-face communication should be the first attempt; if after a few attempts it just doesn’t seem to work email is the next best option. Email is a fast way to communication with your fellow teachers but it isn’t as effective. When things are highly important and will need more than twenty minutes to respond I feel it should be communicated through face-to-face.