Week 1: July 1-6

Core Curriculum Unlocking the Foundations of Reading
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What has your involvement with literacy instruction looked like in your role? What factors have limited your involvement in literacy instruction? Are those factors things that can and should be changed? Why or why not?

Background: I have been a certified teacher for the visually impaired for 15 years. I hold a BS in elementary education and learning disabilities education. In addition I have a masters in visual impairment education.

My main responsibilities when it comes to literacy for students with visual impairments, is teaching braille and low vision technology. I feel that in many ways, braille and technology instruction can’t be separated from literacy instruction. In order to facilitate literacy, I frequently infuse instruction of tools into classroom reading instruction. This allows not only the classroom teacher to observe how tools are to be used, but shows the student how they should be using their tools daily. This does not change the need for occassional pull out instruction, to teach or refine skills.

When it comes to braille instruction, I like to use a combined approach to literacy instruction. Obviously, a braille learner needs direct instruction in the use of braille and the learning of the code. But they also need the classroom literacy experiences to become a student who reads to learn. This can be achieved by encouraging the student to use known and practiced skills in the classroom to gain information from teacher provided literacy instruction.

The main challenge that I see to fluent literacy instruction is that districts and teachers feel that it is the sole job of the TVI to teach these skills. It is not! These student should be practicing their reading and writing skills in the same way as all the other children. Yet, time and again I return to find that a student I see daily has not used their brailler or their braille materials in the time that I was not present with them. Instead all skills are being done auditorally. This is not the best way for any student to gain literacy skills. In the same vein, learning disabilies are blamed solely on the loss of vision so students miss out on additional resource instruction that could help remediate gaps in learning and understanding of concepts. Literacy instruction really needs to be a team approach. TVIs simply are not able to do all of the teaching of literacy skills for their students; understaffing and large caseloads make this impossible.

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This the same in AZ and so very frustrating!

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There are many scales to help you determine services. At my agency we base our time recommendations on the following scale. We tend to see MDSSI students a bit more than recomended, but it is a great start of academic kids with visual needs.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://mdelio.org/sites/default/files/documents/BVI/SRS/VSSRS.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwifnLf-oI6HAxWoho4IHRUVCMoQFnoECBoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1PWMyGlcnEYR-dwMYjM1rQ

As far as qualifying students, that needs to be done based on educational need and possibilty for further vision loss. Just because a student has a qualifing condition, does not necessarily mean that they have an educational need. Sometimes, students are best served under a 504.

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Reading Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments: Whose Job is it? (JVIB, 2008, p. 197-209)

  1. What has your involvement with literacy instruction looked like in your role? What factors have limited your involvement in literacy instruction? Are those factors things that can and should be changed? Why or why not?

Before I became a TVI I was a special education teacher for nine years. I taught in a self-contained setting for the majority of my 9 years, 6 yrs. in high school (9-12) and 3 in elementary school (k-5). I also taught “reading” in a resource class for students with learning disabilities when the modified standard diploma was still a thing and separate math and reading classes were still being used in the high school. Once all-inclusive classes became the new norm, I no longer taught reading outside of my self-contained adapted curriculum classroom. However, I did participate in multiple reading strategy trainings including Orton Gillingham. Having experience as a classroom teacher definitely helped with teaching braille literacy to my current students. I have yet to have a beginning braille student who did not learn print first.

My first year as a TVI, I shared a student with another TVI who was completely blind. I mostly taught math. We pulled the student for all of his literacy instruction and math instruction, a total of 3 hours per day not counting braille prep for his other classes. It felt as if the teachers didn’t want the student in their class, like they didn’t know what to do with him, and almost scared on him. It felt that way for the next few years to come. I do not think these teachers meant to be this way, they just didn’t have much exposure to having students with visual impairments in their class let alone a student who was completely blind. I myself did not have experience with VI until I started the program. However, once I felt confident in my role as a TVI, about 3 years, I started holding a training at the beginning of the school year for teachers who were going to have my students in their class. I collaborated with the SPED lead in each of the building and they helped coordinate the trainings. This helped them a lot with a better understanding of my student’s needs and responsibilities.

I recently acquired a beginning braille student about a year a half ago, January 2023. He was in 1st grade and our model was great. I would pull him for an hour right at the beginning of school, as soon as he got there so he would not miss any classroom instruction. He learned the whole alphabet and their alphabetic word signs by the end of the school year. I would collect the classroom teacher’s lesson plans and activities she planned for the week and adapt the materials with braille, on his level, so that he had exposure to braille throughout the day. He also had a one-to-one with him who also came to our braille sessions and learned so that she could help him in class. I modeled a few times how to work with the student and pushed into class.

However, it’s not like this all the time. For this same student I described above, this past year, his 2nd grade year was different. He had a new teacher, she did not provide all the needed materials in time and his one-to-one was new and she had no interest in learning the braille. I still modeled how she should assist the student but his exposure to braille in the classroom was not as rich as it was the year before. Also, with all the new reading strategies the teachers are required to implement, my time with my student was limited. That is just one factor that has limited my involvement in my students’ literacy instruction. Not all teachers want to work with us, or respect us and even some administrators. Some teachers I have encountered either want us to take full responsibility of the student or they don’t want to listen or follow the student’s accommodations. I agree with Karen Blankenship in " Reading Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments: Whose Job Is It?" that all who are working with the student with visual impairments are responsible for teaching them how to read. It is the TVI’s responsibility to make everything accessible to the student but all most expose the student to literacy in all environments including the home. Another factor is traveling from place to place. It does take a lot of our time and we do not have a braillist so we must adapt all of our own materials. I am now the lead of our TVI team. We have had a high turnover and as Carol Farrenkopf stated in her research paper, *“*Reading Instruction: Best Practices and Realities in Canada’s Largest School District”, its hard finding TVI’s to replace ones that move on. So my team has been a little overwhelmed and we do the best we can for our students with our very full caseloads.

These factors do need to change but can they? When I was studying to be a TVI I was told that TVI’s are rare, that we get paid way more than teachers, and we will always have job security. The only truth to that is we are rare and we do have job security. Because our label is Teacher of the Visually Impaired, many counties around here in Central Virginia get away with paying us teacher’s pay. The only places that pay more are contract companies. Trying to find TVI’s to replace the ones we have lost is harder for that reason. We had two promising applicants and both turned down our offers. I stay, because I have not found a model as the one I work for. We have a team, a very supportive director, and a nice budget to use toward our student’s needs, and all the benefits of working for a regional program.

Also, can we change people’s views? Some teachers are set in their ways, or old school and do not like change or are technologically challenged. Traveling from place at this time cannot be changed. Every school or county would have to hire their own TVI and even then, some counties have multiple schools that are very far from each other.

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Reading Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments: Whose Job is it? (JVIB, 2008, p. 197-209)

  1. What has your involvement with literacy instruction looked like in your role? What factors have limited your involvement in literacy instruction? Are those factors things that can and should be changed? Why or why not?

I have had a varied role when it comes to literacy instruction as a TSVI. In PA, the best involvement I had and the most success my student had with reading was when I worked closely with the reading specialist. The student’s team understood that the student had an increased comprehension level when they listened to a story, but had a decreased level when they were reading braille, simply because braille was new to them. The reading specialist worked on the reading skills with the student while I worked on the braille skills (i.e. reading the letters and relating them to the diphthongs, phonemes, digraphs, etc. that they already learned). These are skills that I was taught during undergrad, but they were not related to braille, so it was difficult to see the correlation.
Currently in AK, in 5th and 6th grade, we do not have access to a reading specialist. My students need more support in phonics and it is currently up to me to provide this, however I have been out of practice from teaching those phonics skills for over 7 years.
I feel that TSVIs and the classroom teachers (and other specialists) should communicate more and help instruct the student as an entire team. Everyone can have their section of the plan, but the plan needs to relate as a whole and everyone needs to see how their section connects with the others.

Eligibility Determinations for Children Suspected of Having a Visual Impairment Including Blindness Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (OSERS, 2017)

  1. How does the OSERS 2017 memorandum contribute to your understanding of eligibility for students with visual impairments, including blindness? Evaluate the implications of removing modifiers from state level definitions of visual impairment, including blindness.

The OSERS 2017 memorandum helps TSVIs evaluate and make appropriate recommendations for those who qualify. The memo helps students who are blind and visually impaired receive the services they qualify for if the eligibility rules are consistent between the state and federal government. When the definitions are consistent, students are more likely to receive the services they need (dependent on staffing).

Alaska’s qualifiers for visual impairment and blindness are the following:

(i) To be eligible for special education and related services as a child with a visual impairment, a child must

(1) exhibit a

(A) visual impairment, not primarily perceptual in nature, resulting in measured acuity of 20/70 or poorer in the better eye with correction, or a visual field restriction of 20 degrees as determined by an optometrist or ophthalmologist, that, even with correction, adversely affects educational performance; or
(B) physical eye condition that affects visual functioning to the extent that specially designed instruction is needed; - (2) require special facilities, equipment, materials, or methods to make the child’s educational program effective as determined by a teacher of children with visual impairment; and
(3) be certified by the group established under 4 AAC 52.125(a) (2), that includes a certified teacher of children with visual impairment, as qualifying for and needing special education services.

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Lynda, I agree. I try to determine a student’s service time based on their needs and visual impairment, but I will double check with the MDSSI just to be sure. Sometimes I, unfortunately, need to use it to prove a student’s service time need to administration too.

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Hi Ashley,
I agree with you that I struggle with providing braille vs. audio books. This past year I provided audio books, the books on their refreshable braille devices, and paper braille copies if we were practicing reading the story during our time togeter.
My students requests audio books, but understand why I make them read the books in braille as well.

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Reading Instruction for Students with Visual Impairments: Whose Job is it? (JVIB, 2008, p. 197-209)

  1. What has your involvement with literacy instruction looked like in your role? What factors have limited your involvement in literacy instruction? Are those factors things that can and should be changed? Why or why not?

  2. Which author’s (Blankenship, Swenson, Farrenkopf, or Holbrook) response is most influential to you? Why?

As a TVI, I have played a significant role in literacy instruction when I’m allowed to. I am also a reading specialist, so I have received beginning braille readers. I had success with one out of 4 students. The students who were not as successful had multiple factors. I started with student one. Student 1 was great at learning braille but the parents and the school only wanted large print. Student 2 came to me illiterate as a teenager. The school said student 2 learned letter sounds. I questioned if they presented braille letters along with the sound, but they ignored my question. The school wants the student to learn to read but refuses to provide braille materials, even with me providing materials. Student 3 is a work in progress, but I’m the only one who really understands the process. So, I have an entire team working against me. Even when I received the student, I was told the student could “read” braille and knew the letters but the student didn’t because it wasn’t automatic. When reading words, student 3 struggled to blend the sounds to read the words. There were so many issues with their braille reading decoding which affected fluency, comprehension, automaticity, and more. When I’m allowed to teach the way I know, pulling from my knowledge of language development, code, visual impairment impact, and more, my students learn to read and can read on grade level. The factors that are limiting me include administrative support, general education teacher misunderstanding, special education teacher misunderstanding, and coworker misunderstanding, and parent involvement. I believe these factors should change because the students suffer.

Before I continue, I had an administrator, who became a TVI, say that a person doesn’t need to be a TVI to teach braille. They just have to follow the braille curriculum and the student can learn. It shocked me and unfortunately I didn’t use that as a teachable moment. I want to work on that.

I enjoyed reading all the author’s perspectives. I really can’t pick one that is most influential because I agree with so many points. Since I’m a trained reading specialist, I knew a lot of the information presented. I understand the importance of integrating reading everywhere. People who are print readers are exposed constantly, so it’s a disservice when our students are not. I believe in high-quality literacy instruction. I wonder about the mindset of the vision teachers in the field. What do I mean by that? There are so many areas in the ECC we are expected to teach. I have yet to find a university program that teaches each area to a degree where we can be influential. Looking at the ECC, there are specific programs for Orientation and Mobility (O&M), Independent Living Skills (VRT), and Assistive Technology (CATIS). I agree with Karen Blankenship regarding dual certification. If reading is rocket science, I would think one would need a special certification. I have the certification and it has helped me. Now, if only those around me would honor the certification and show value for the high quality literacy instruction I provide. Carrol Farrenkopf’s article addressed mutual respect of each other’s skills as being essential for the growth and development of our students. I like what M. Cay Holbrook says about print being a code as well. In my efforts to assist non-TVIs, whether they are regular education or special education teachers, I delved into this concept to explain how meaning is assigned to print, which is composed of straight, diagonal, and curved lines. I also agree that the TVI should be closely involved in the core curriculum. We are not separate. We teach skills to ensure the inclusion of our students in class. This leads me to Anna M. Swenson’s article. In my role, every school wants their students integrated into the classroom, but I try to explain to the team the need for intense braille instruction when appropriate. I have had success where my student knew the braille code and spent most of the late elementary and further in the classroom because the reading skills including book format were present. So, I connected with all the articles. There is so much truth in each one. I can’t select just one.

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Question 1: What has your involvement with literacy instruction looked like in your role? What factors have limited your involvement in literacy instruction? Are those factors things that can and should be changed? Why or why not?

I’ve always considered literacy instruction important when working with my students with visual impairments. Having experience working with students who are deaf blind it made me realize how important literacy instruction is for our students. I came to realize that having a dual sensory loss causes so much of the information to be missed that is important for reading and understanding literacy even in the older grades. I provide a lot more push-in instruction during kindergarten-2nd grade because the teacher is providing important instruction for learning to read vs. reading to learn. I make sure to work with the teachers of older students to make them realize that there could be information that the student has not experienced due to lack of exposure/experience/incidental learning. I’ve been able to then use that instruction they are using in class when working with my students.
There have been a few factors that have limited my involvement. I think teachers misunderstanding my role as a TVI is one of the largest factors. There have been times that I was expected to teach literacy instruction, so I end up missing my instruction time to re-teach a topic of literacy that they did not understand due to the lack of experience/incidental learning. I’ve also experienced students having other disabilities besides just vision loss that could cause difficulty with learning to read. Once the students have a visual impairment, it becomes harder to get the student assessed for other learning disabilities. I
As TVIs we are not expected to teach literacy, but I think it would be a benefit in training programs to consider making sure those in the program understand how to proficiently teach literacy and why it’s important. Also, I think that more exposure for general education teachers and administrators to understand what our role for our students is important as well. It’s extremely important for everyone on the team to work together to make sure the student is getting all they need.

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I’ve had alot of schools that have changed curriculum and it’s tough not being in the loop about how it is being taught. One year I had a classroom teacher who was piloting the curriculum before they are decided to use the curriculum for the who district. It was an interesting experience, but we were able to really go through the curriculum together and make sure it was accessible for my student who was going to be a braille reader in the future.
I started to learn more about how they made decisions about literacy curriculum, and who to speak with for more information about the curriculum.

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When I first started as a TVI, I worked mainly with upper middle school/high school age students. In the past few years I’ve had a more Kindergarten-2nd grade students and it’s so extremely different when it comes to literacy instruction and the mechanics of reading. I have to take a whole different approach to working with the younger students and classroom teacher because they are learning to read. I try to be in the classroom more when they are younger grades because there are reading skills they are learning and I don’t want to teach the incorrect way when working on letter blends etc; I try to bring work they use in the classroom and make it relevent during our vision sessions so if there is something the student might miss we can review it.

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I agree that all educators and special service individuals should work together to deliver reading instruction but the level of knowledge regarding Braille and understanding the components of how to teach reading is not consistent. I work in an environment in which classes are a mixed bag. Some students know Braille, some are learning Braille, some may only need assistive technology to read and others have complex medical needs and learning Braille is not an option. There are paraeducators in the classroom, but their knowledge greatly varies. I think paraeducators would need additional training or coursework to assist students with reading and how to actually teach reading to students. I also believe these trainings should be mandatory and refresher courses should also be given. As far as learning Braille, at least in the environment that I work in, I don’t believe that most paraeducators have the desire to learn Braille which may pose a problem in delivering reading instruction.

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I certainly agree with you in that vision is sometimes used as the primary reason to describe why students are not reading at grade level when in actuality it could be a host of other issues that may be determined by various assessments. I think vision is an easy and obvious go to reason. Increasing accessibility and finding methods to assist students with reading and reading comprehension is a harder task. And we can’t forget, some students’ low vision impacts their motivation and desire to read anything. A student may put forth minimal effort to read because it’s difficult. In some cases, kids are helped along with reading so much because the assumption is their vision is the problem, and these students are never given adequate opportunity to practice and develop their reading skills.

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I agree with you–role release is hard. However, I also think it is perfectly reasonable in many situations. I personally have found that some regular education classroom teachers are much more willing and understanding than some special education teachers. I have experienced issues where a special education is in a regular education class, so I have tried to provided support and training to the special education teacher to support the student in the classroom since that staff member is there every day, but the special education teacher tried to pull the “that’s not my job” or “I don’t know anything about visual impairment” when in fact, in many cases, with the proper support and training to the vision specific aspects of the student, the strategies we are recommending are JUST GOOD TEACHING. Also, I have found that for student who use braille or who are transitioning to braille, technology has really helped staff feel more comfortable with this if the student is able to use a braille display and/computer or iPad because then at least the staff can see what’s happening and print and the student is using a device that is not foreign to them–it’s not a specialized piece of equipment, it’s the same device everyone else is using. This seems to help bridge the gap and be less intimidating.

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I know this could be splitting hairs, but I also think there can be a difference between role release and the consultative model described. I see these as different situations. With role release, although it could involve someone else implementing the lesson plan, I also feel like role release can be less about instruction and more about reinforcement or implementation of vision needs into the other staff’s lesson plan. For example, the TVI may be working on combined literacy and technology skills by having a student work on editing braille, using punctuation, and using braille indicators with a braille display. After going over how the braille display routing and cursor work with a teacher or paraeducator who is in the general education classroom, that person then can understand and give feedback to the student to support editing of braille documents naturally as they occur in their general education classroom.

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In our school system, we have what you have described for our students who are learning braille in elementary school. They are located at that school because there is a full-time TVI there to support their needs, but they are also in general education. I continue to believe this is the best option, even when numbers of students are low because those students need the specialized knowledge and support of the TVI while also continuing to learn the general education curriculum.

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  1. How did The Eye’s Role in Learning to Read shape or alter your opinion of serving students with Convergence Insufficiency?
    As others have also stated here, CI can be an unresolved aspect of discussions around service delivery. The nature of CI feels like it is out of our training given its basis is neurological, rather than related to the mechanisms of the eye. We can help accommodate for the results of CI, but the issues it causes, which I appreciated being summarized in, “The Eye’s Role in Learning to Read”, are not typical for a TVI. The discussion continues, who is the person to best support a student with CI; the TVI, an OT, the vision therapist?
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It sounds like you have a good relationship with your vision therapist. We have tried, over the years, to make a distinction between the role of the vision therapist and that of the teacher for students with visual impairment. This rule blurs that distinction for teachers. Discussing the best accommodations and service personnel seems best conducted with full team input.

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I liked hearing your story and learning that you routinely screen for CI-type issues. I don’t think that is common. I also wonder about which other professionals we can be collaborating with to serve these students the best, and/or help identify them.

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  1. Which author’s (Blankenship, Swenson, Farrenkopf, or Holbrook) response is most influential to you? Why?
    Farrenkopf’s response influenced me the most; as an Itinerant TVI many issues come into play regarding the school districts approval of direct/consult time per student, available technology to trial with students, availability to consult with the educational team including proper training for paraprofessionals and appropriate location for instruction in the school setting. Often my assigned room is occupied by other related service providers in addition to the room being designated for other activities during the year. In addition to these concerns, other issues arise on a day-to-day basis, such as visually impaired students who exhibits behavioral issues and attentional issues. As a TVI our expertise is needed in helping to develop appropriate rewards and token systems to support our students. Often time is not allocated in our schedules to address these additional supports.
    Farrenkopt addresses concerns that greatly influence the success of teaching visually impaired students. I also believe changes need to be made educating TVI’s, educating administrators on the needs of TVI’s and redesigning how we determine the rate of service for our students.