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.
You have included many important considerations for an educator to look into when determining how to assess a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. One important factor you included is the behavior of the student. I thought this was a very good point to bring up when determining what assessment is appropriate for the student. It is very important that the student does not get overwhelmed or tired of the test because we want the student to perform their best. It is good that you mentioned breaking up the test into parts and possibly assessing over a couple of days. I am glad that you pointed out that assessments can be stressful for students. Educators need to make sure they keep this in mind throughout the assessment process. Everyone can relate to assessments being tiring. I agree that tests not made for this population should still be used with them. Like you said, it is important to have a very clear picture of the student's educational needs and I think this can be better done with using assessments made for their typically developing peers with them as well. It is the educators job to push their students to see what they can do.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is necessary for good collaboration among teachers. I agree that face-to-face is better than email, but there are often times where email is just as good. Teachers are very busy and email might be the only thing they have time for at a particular moment in their day. I think you have a great method outlined for communication and I agree that important topics where a lot needs to be said is better for face-to-face. Great post!