Journal Post #5 (3rd Video Observation)
BACKGROUND:
My previous focus student, CLD, has taken a time of absence for the cochlear surgery on her other ear. She is not scheduled to return until the first week of December. I have chosen a different student, EK.
EK just turned six. She is in Kindergarden at Cooper Elementary. EK has a severe to profound (mostly profound) bilateral hearing loss. She wears behind the ear hearing aids, but they are currently set at the highest adjustment. Over the past year and a half, EK's hearing has dropped significantly and her aids have needed adjusting nearly every six months. At this time, her hearing and speech are the primary concerns. However, there has been some discussion about her fine motor skills, the speed and excitability at which she functions, and her ability to focus. She is spunky and has a lot of energy:). She always makes me smile and is so much fun to work with each day. EK uses a sign language interpreter all day. Receptively, she depends on the signing a lot. Expressively, she attempts to voice on her own and is often pretty clear. It seems that she has retained a good deal of sound memory and is still able to replicate sounds that she may no longer have access to. It is pretty incredible. However, she regularly tries to get her message out too quickly. She can be unclear, and this is an area where we are working. We have her slow down, repeat until she gets it, focus on getting all the English words in there, and support her replies/ conversation with sign as much as possible.
I see EK three times a week. I am implementing the Foundations for Literacy intervention with her as much as possible. This student is a prime candidate for the effectiveness of this intervention and I have been very curious how she would take to this. Prior to this position, I was working as an interpreter for many years. The students with a profound loss that use sign are the ones that have always caused confusion for me. How does one sign the information so they understand English but also the concepts. When signing, I typically sign so the concepts are as accurate as possible. However, the English can be lost or an ongoing struggle with that approach. When I work with 1:1 with this student, I have found myself leaning toward a different approach. I am forcing her to slow down and include as much as the English (word order, sounds, correct concepts) as possible... then in our conversational time (such as walking down the hall or when I am pulled in to interpret) I switch back to conceptually accurate signing. I am still playing with this, but I actually like it, and I think her language is becoming stronger. One thing I also notice myself doing, is taking the time to fully explain things until the message is clear. For example, there is a conversation about the tooth fairy in the video that goes on longer than it should, but it almost feels more important to complete that topic before moving on.
Her family is hearing and learning sign as they go, but it is not their first language. Mom signs more, dad supports EK speaking as much as possible. I honestly feel both are correct. EK and her family work with a Deaf Mentor (though they have now limited that time to summers only). She is an only child and they are very eager to work with her. I am trying to complete a home portion that they can follow up with activities to supplement our lessons.
I will complete this background with a disclaimer. This lesson is not as organized or well-flowing as I would like. With my schedule, I often have limited time to get in, set up, make sure everything is working, do the lesson, then get her back to class on time. She is very bright and eager to learn. She catches on fast, but like many with her level of hearing loss, she has the swiss cheese holes. We are working on filling in those gaps and I think Foundations will cover many. She also needs access to background information so I am searching on specific books to expand her knowledge. In addition, math has shown signs of weakness.. I am still playing with a better way to map out her lessons and would actually love suggestions that may have worked for you. In this video, EK is not exactly focused. She is obsessed with the sore on her arm, it was her birthday over the weekend, and she is just a bit off. Those days happen.
Below is the components to this lesson:
EK VIDEO OBSERVATION
EK DAILY LESSON PLAN
EK WEEKLY LESSON PLAN
EK AUDIOGRAM
EK FEEDBACK FORM
EK PRESENT LEVELS TO DEMONSTRATE BASELINE
Please note the artifact portion is actually a time stamp of 19:25. Student is retelling a story with prompting. She is working to remember details from the Ms. Giggle Unit Story using picture cards.
FINAL NOTE:
This makes me nervous to share this one. It is definitely not her best performance nor mine. There were a lot of mistakes and things I could have done differently, but I guess that helps me grow as well.
My previous focus student, CLD, has taken a time of absence for the cochlear surgery on her other ear. She is not scheduled to return until the first week of December. I have chosen a different student, EK.
EK just turned six. She is in Kindergarden at Cooper Elementary. EK has a severe to profound (mostly profound) bilateral hearing loss. She wears behind the ear hearing aids, but they are currently set at the highest adjustment. Over the past year and a half, EK's hearing has dropped significantly and her aids have needed adjusting nearly every six months. At this time, her hearing and speech are the primary concerns. However, there has been some discussion about her fine motor skills, the speed and excitability at which she functions, and her ability to focus. She is spunky and has a lot of energy:). She always makes me smile and is so much fun to work with each day. EK uses a sign language interpreter all day. Receptively, she depends on the signing a lot. Expressively, she attempts to voice on her own and is often pretty clear. It seems that she has retained a good deal of sound memory and is still able to replicate sounds that she may no longer have access to. It is pretty incredible. However, she regularly tries to get her message out too quickly. She can be unclear, and this is an area where we are working. We have her slow down, repeat until she gets it, focus on getting all the English words in there, and support her replies/ conversation with sign as much as possible.
I see EK three times a week. I am implementing the Foundations for Literacy intervention with her as much as possible. This student is a prime candidate for the effectiveness of this intervention and I have been very curious how she would take to this. Prior to this position, I was working as an interpreter for many years. The students with a profound loss that use sign are the ones that have always caused confusion for me. How does one sign the information so they understand English but also the concepts. When signing, I typically sign so the concepts are as accurate as possible. However, the English can be lost or an ongoing struggle with that approach. When I work with 1:1 with this student, I have found myself leaning toward a different approach. I am forcing her to slow down and include as much as the English (word order, sounds, correct concepts) as possible... then in our conversational time (such as walking down the hall or when I am pulled in to interpret) I switch back to conceptually accurate signing. I am still playing with this, but I actually like it, and I think her language is becoming stronger. One thing I also notice myself doing, is taking the time to fully explain things until the message is clear. For example, there is a conversation about the tooth fairy in the video that goes on longer than it should, but it almost feels more important to complete that topic before moving on.
Her family is hearing and learning sign as they go, but it is not their first language. Mom signs more, dad supports EK speaking as much as possible. I honestly feel both are correct. EK and her family work with a Deaf Mentor (though they have now limited that time to summers only). She is an only child and they are very eager to work with her. I am trying to complete a home portion that they can follow up with activities to supplement our lessons.
I will complete this background with a disclaimer. This lesson is not as organized or well-flowing as I would like. With my schedule, I often have limited time to get in, set up, make sure everything is working, do the lesson, then get her back to class on time. She is very bright and eager to learn. She catches on fast, but like many with her level of hearing loss, she has the swiss cheese holes. We are working on filling in those gaps and I think Foundations will cover many. She also needs access to background information so I am searching on specific books to expand her knowledge. In addition, math has shown signs of weakness.. I am still playing with a better way to map out her lessons and would actually love suggestions that may have worked for you. In this video, EK is not exactly focused. She is obsessed with the sore on her arm, it was her birthday over the weekend, and she is just a bit off. Those days happen.
Below is the components to this lesson:
EK VIDEO OBSERVATION
EK DAILY LESSON PLAN
EK WEEKLY LESSON PLAN
EK AUDIOGRAM
EK FEEDBACK FORM
EK PRESENT LEVELS TO DEMONSTRATE BASELINE
Please note the artifact portion is actually a time stamp of 19:25. Student is retelling a story with prompting. She is working to remember details from the Ms. Giggle Unit Story using picture cards.
FINAL NOTE:
This makes me nervous to share this one. It is definitely not her best performance nor mine. There were a lot of mistakes and things I could have done differently, but I guess that helps me grow as well.
Oh my goodness, she is a little spunky friend! What a joy to watch her learning and working. Her language is such an interesting mix! It truly is remarkable the auditory memory that she must have. I will finish my comments in your document by tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
carver