10 Things You Should Know About Reading Fluency in Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
10 Things You Should Know About Reading Fluency in Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
10 Things You Should Know About Reading Fluency in Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Dr. Susan Easterbrooks Professor, GSU Dr. Nanci Scheetz Professor, VSU
Content Competence
II. However, their weaknesses with vocabulary and grammar will require teachers to modify what and how they are teaching fluency.
For deaf children (and all children), fluency is a LANGUAGE issue. Fluent readers must map spoken language onto print rapidly and easily. (National Reading Panel, 1999) The same holds true when the language is sign language, but in addition, the reader must code-switch between the two languages. This is why it is essential to collaborate with the teacher of the deaf.
Example Who went to the store? She is the lady who went to the store. While these chunks are the same, they sound very different when spoken, look very different when signed, and mean something altogether different in the context of their sentences. The ability to produce these different patterns facilitates fluency. They are language patterns, and fluency is a language issue for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.
III. Some students learn fluency skills through the auditory pathway.
Children who can become fluent through the auditory pathway need:
Careful monitoring of their hearing aids Careful examination of the sounds they hear easily versus the sounds they dont hear so well Early and extra attention on fluency patterns (often beginning at the pattern differentiation level such as ouch versus hop-hophop) Careful collaboration between the general education teacher and the teacher of the deaf.
IV. Some students learn fluency skills through the visual pathway.
Signed reading fluency correlates highly with passage comprehension. Children who sign may actually be rendering the printed English into fluent signed expression. The more clearly a signer codeswitches between the languages, the more likely he is to be a fluent reader. Consult very closely with the teacher of the deaf and with the interpreter to make sure the student is connecting English print to his own language.
(National Reading Panel, NICHHD, 2000) ORas is the important difference for students with hearing loss
The least well understood component of fluency (both for hearing and for deaf) is expression.
Expression reflects the mood and emotion of the written word and includes
Tone of voice Tone of face (in ASL users)
VII. A really great assessment helps you decide what skills the student needs to learn.
To identify reading level (independent, instructional, frustration) and document progress in the areas of:
Word recognition in lists Word recognition in context Comprehension
VIII. ASL visual approaches involve the visual envelope and visual grammar.
Definition of accuracy for signing deaf children the ability of the signer to translate the concepts in English print text into a signed format that has equivalent conceptual meaning. This component can be measured with miscue analysis, either while completing a running record or an informal reading inventory. Therefore, we felt no need to duplicate this component. Definition of fluency envelope
the overall visual appearance of an individual who is signing while reading, with or without voice, which gives the visual impression that he or she is a good reader or not a good reader.
See Easterbrooks & Huston (2007) for a detailed description of signed reading fluency.
IX. Some really great materials that others have found helpful are
Visualizing and Verbalizing
Readers Theater
http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/books/ReadersOS.html
http://loiswalker.com/catalog/teach.html
http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm
ASL grammar instruction. English/ASL comparative structure study. ASL grammar videos. Conversation time with deaf adults, hearing adults, and other students.
Morphographemic study
Read for an audience
Ensor, A. D., & Koller, J. R. (1997). The effect of the method of repeated readings on the reading rate and word recognition accuracy of deaf adolescents. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2(2), 61-70.
Other sources: Garrison, Long & Dowaliby, 1997; Kelly, 1993; King & Just, 1991
1. Students with hearing loss CAN learn to be fluent readers 2. However, their weaknesses with vocabulary and grammar will require teachers to modify what and how they are teaching fluency. 3. Some students learn fluency skills through the auditory pathway. 4. Some students learn fluency skills through the visual pathway. 5. In all approaches you must consider all 3 components of fluency. 6. Visual approaches depend on the students primary language (L1). 7. A really great assessment helps you decide what skills the student needs to learn 8. ASL visual approaches involve the visual envelope and visual grammar. 9. Some really great materials that others have found helpful are: 10. Some useful strategies that work with DHH students are: