Week 2: July 7-13

Core Curriculum Unlocking the Foundations of Reading
182

Promoting Emergent Literacy Skills (JVIB, 2018, p. 542-550)

How might the cultural background or socioeconomic status of families impact their ability to implement the suggested strategies for promoting emergent literacy in toddlers with visual impairments?

The cultural background of families might impact their ability to implement the suggested strategies for promoting literacy in toddlers with visual impairments because they are overwhelmed with the information, they are thinking it is the job of a teacher to teach and since low vision and blindness is not a common disability the strategies may seem daunting and time consuming and also the stigma of blindness. When a culture demands perfection and a family has a toddler that is “not perfect” it is overwhelming when there is not a quick fix and the journey is unfamiliar. When the journey is unfamiliar parents would be naturally scared of the unknown. Considering what the authors Chen and Dote-Kwan wrote that professionals often tell families to “talk, talk, talk” to describe everything that a child cannot see as a way to supplement the child’s experience. They also mentioned that the recommendation was misguided because an adult continuous verbal description serves as meaningless background noise. I agree that the “talk, talk, talk” is overwhelming. I observed this first hand with my pre-Braille preschool student during small group lessons when her classroom teacher is describing shapes and textures. Although the talk is needed it as to be balanced so I try to balance my descriptions with long pauses in my lessons to give her time to digest the information. With my pre-Braille preschooler I did a home visit with the family and bring materials to the home and every four to six weeks call the family to check on how things are going. I could sense that the sometimes they are on information overload. But I wanted them to know I am available and that there are other resources available to support them.

183

I have also had similar experiences over the years, in which a referral was requested for me to do a functional vision evaluation on a student (not previously diagnosed with vision loss from an ophthalmologist/optometrist standpoint), but one who was struggling with reading. I essentially did exactly what you stated you did - completed the entire battery of vision evaluations, but could not recommend any specific vision suggestions, other than generalized recommendations which may also be beneficial to all other students in the classroom.

184

Libby, I like your quote “wow, this is a lot of work for a parent”, of course it is and I think when the suggestions are coming from individuals that parents have not yet established trust the task becomes more frustrating. As you suggested “parents may not recognize that they already have that are helpful to their child development”. This statement is profound because sometimes the method that the parents use may not look like ones that professionals would suggest does not mean it is wrong when it yields the same results and it works for that particular family. I think sometimes we have to respect the family approach. For example, task analysis vs discreet trials, the goal is a finish the task.

185

Faye
Before I watched the video I also understood that dyslexia was attributed to how the brain works and not a condition of the eyes but other than that I do not know how to help a child with dyslexia. I found the activity to be incredibly frustrating. This made me appreciate the frustration a person with dyslexia may be experiencing. I currently have a braille learner who displays signs of dyslexia, she continuously make the wrong letter sounds, when asked words that rhyme she will often pick the word with the same function not the rhyming word, she finds reading very frustrating and struggles to decode words. She has made very slow progress in reading braille. When I suspected there maybe a learning disability the school district responded with we have no testing available for a child with a visual impairment. They also have very low expectations for this students, mostly due to her visual impairment. I will continue to advocate for my students but find it difficult when there is not a collaborative approach for student success.

186

What Does Research Tell Us About Teaching Reading to English Language Learners?** (Reading Rockets, ND)

  1. Reflect on the seven specific suggestions provided for teachers of reading classes with ELLs. How practical and feasible are these suggestions in real classroom contexts?

In my opinion, the idea that one reading teacher will be able to successfully and competently provide all the additional support and academic materials for English learners is not only not practical nor feasible in a real classroom context. I feel a few of the biggest barriers to this idea being achievable is the fact that not all English learners assigned to the same reading teacher will know the same native language or be on the same level of understanding basic foundational reading concepts in their native language as another student. In addition, alluding to the fact of how difficult it may be to pull of these suggestions is that the reading teacher will most likely not have basic foundational knowledge in each English learner’s native language to be able to provide meaningful examples of synonyms, additional work and/or even be able to access the native language in appropriate ways. While extra practice may be the one suggestion with the least amount of difficulty to tying into the English learner’s previous academic/cognitive knowledge in their native language, being able to provide enough material for each learner at an academic level they are able to cognitively understand may be extremely difficult with a limited amount of resources and even time the reading teacher may have with each student on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

The article refers to the fact that these suggestions are NOT a reading program for English learners and also alludes to the fact that much more research needs to occur. In addition, the article recognizes that unfortunately, teachers do not have the time to wait for more research to be happen before they begin working with English learners. While the rest of the article regarding the five essential elements of reading to English learners does present some great information, overall, being able to feasibly plan for and pull off each of the seven previous suggestions for each English learner in a classroom of diverse learners on different levels definitely presents a wide-variety of barriers for any educator.

187

The video clips of you working with your student is a great way to not only show parents how you teach during your sessions, but also provides you an opportunity to review your instructional delivery practice. I imagine being able to also see the interactions of the students outside of your direct instructional time allows you to provide additional feedback and/or change up strategies you may use in the future with your students.

188

Forehandc, I agree with, “Another factor that can affect many families (no matter the culture or socioeconomic status) in implementing emergent literacy strategies is the use of screen time, by both the parent and child.” There is a time and place for screen time but when it replaces human interaction, back and forth conversation, people watching in your immediate proximity (not Tik Tok or YouTube videos) they are missing out on foundational observe and report, or observe and write/draw skills. It is like they are missing out on their present moment in time watching someone else past moment captured on a screen.

189
  1. How might the cultural background or socioeconomic status of families impact their ability to implement the suggested strategies for promoting emergent literacy in toddlers with visual impairments?

Having worked with families from varying socioeconomic backgrounds through Early Intervention, I have noticed a significant difference in the family involvement and follow-thru with suggested interventions between the low-income families and the higher-income families. I feel that this difference can be due to a few reasons. For one, the priorities that one living in poverty has will be significantly different than someone who has money, a stable job, and a positive support system in place. The priorities of someone living in poverty may focus on just having enough money to keep a roof over their head, and food on the table. Taking steps to ensure that their child is meeting develpmental milestones, and that they are provided with enriching learning activities outside of their day to day happenings, falls lower on the priority list of lower-income families who may be working several different jobs just to make ends meet. Lack of time (or poor management of time) to work with their child on specific concept knowledge skills or activities to help develop their fine motor and tactile skills is one thing I hear repeatedly. Additionally, the day to day stress of someone living in poverty can lead to poor mental health, and in-turn, neglect of oneself or one’s family members. How can we expect someone with poor mental health, limited resources, and an unstable living environment to be able to provide a young child, more specifically one who may have a significant impairment, with the foundational skills and learning experiences that the emergent literacy details. Especially when they themselves may be poor readers and writers, who lack the foundational skills. One can assume that the exposure to and quality of communication exchanges, social opportunities, and meaningful/functional experiences would also be significantly less.

For the families that do seek out assistance through Early Intervention, it is rewarding to be able to share with families, information, strategies and resources that are personalized to their situation, that can be worked into their day to day activities, helping to provide a better foundation for literacy in their home.

190

Thank you for bringing this up! As a mom of a child with a visual impairment, there were times I just wanted to be her mom not a teacher at that moment. There were many times, I was given ‘homework’ when she was a toddler that I performed with vitality and did not always follow her lead when she did not want to do it. So even myself who was already a special educator/early interventionist and in school to be a TVI still became overwhelmed! I agree with suggestions in the article are WONDERFUL but we need to be cognizant of what the parents are feeling as well!

191

You are absolutely right that parent’s can feel overwhelmed with not only the information shared, but with the day to needs of a child with a visual impairment as there are many “extra” steps or things to think about when teaching concepts that they may feel it is someone else’s role. However, the earlier parent’s and families embrace the diagnosis and develop good habits and routines within their home environment to help their child with a visual impairment better interact, and understand the world around them, the more independence that child will likely gain in the long run. Helping parent’s understand that is may be daunting in the beginning, but can lead to greater independence in the future. Makes me think about those cases where the child has learned helplessness. The potential is there, but cultural beliefs have interfered with the child’s progress.

192
  1. Reflecting on your own experiences as a student, how did teacher expectations influence your academic performance and motivation? How might you apply these insights to your own teaching practice?

I enjoyed the video of Alex Cabrera’s 1st grade class. The high expectations Mr. Cabrera held for his student were evident in the preparation he gave to his instruction, in his tone and the level of vocabulary he used to communicate with his students, and in the positive peer-to-peer interactions he taught his students (as in “I respectfully disagree with you”). Wow! What a teacher! I could have used someone like him when I was growing up. He is the type of teacher I aspired to be.

As I reflect on my own experiences as a student, I still feel the tightness in my stomach that followed me to school practically every day, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Repeatedly, I have told my students, “I hated school so much till I became a teacher.”

I hated school, but I loved learning, and that joy of learning is the gift I have always aimed to share with my students.

I have so many school memories. Some good, but mostly stomachaches. In 7th grade I was place in the gifted program an completed 7th, 8th, and 9th grade in two years. In junior high school I also began cutting school and continued until I graduated high school. And I still earned As. When I became a teacher, I learned that such behavior in white students often was met with comments such as, “Is this student being challenged?” However, for me, it was just a behavioral issue.

Sadly, too often teachers only saw my skin color, my address, or the free-lunch form I submitted each year. Most of my teachers were kind, competent, and even caring. However, most did not understand, appreciate, or acknowledge my world—or I should say “the world” since the civil rights movement was constantly in the news. One of my first memories was seeing community helpers hosing down protesters and attacking them with German Shepherds. Given the times, high expectations for Black students often were quite low. (Vivian Paley’s books White Teacher and Kwanzaa and Me provide an excellent exploration of this topic.)

Thus, one of the highest expectations I have as a teacher is to create a community of belonging. (To often teachers/schools act like our job is to separate the sheep from the goats, the cream of the crop from the weeds.) The shared message in my class is: We belong here. We are valued here. We are seen and known here, every part of our world: our families, our cultures, our socioeconomic classes, our cognitive abilities, our interests, dreams, and fears. These are all welcome because they are all part of who we are. (Ideally, this is the message in each class, in every school.)

Yes, the high expectation self-assessment checklist is a useful resource. However, the strategies listed are only fruitful if built on a foundation of belonging. Once students know that they are valued and their reality can be shared, then students feel safe enough to venture into those unknown territories called learning and excelling, where failure is part of the journey, as is joy. With belonging as a solid foundation students can focus their energies on becoming scholars, like the ones I saw in Mr. Cabrera’s class.

193

Jen -
I love to hear when teachers differentiate allowing students to fully participate in their learning. Unfortunately I have not encountered this experience as much as I would have hoped. But I continue to offer support and suggestions to classroom teachers to allow for authentic learning experiences for my students with visual impairments. One of my students is homeschooled and my time with her gives me more opportunities to provide hands on learning activities and we have more flexibility with the amount of time we can spend exploring new concepts.

194

Hi Virginia, recently I worked in a rural area in the mountains of NC. Until then,I did not truly understand the digital divide. Your comments about generational poverty made me wonder about the role our educational systems play in perpetuating that poverty. Without the appropriate staff and resources, such students and families are always coming from behind. The schools in the mountains had a hard time recruiting and retaining teachers. Then there’s that question about teacher expectations. As you shared, it is difficult to engage with systems that judges and excludes people. Thanks for reminding us that as professionals, we can build relationships that promote parental trust and involvement. Doing so can make a world of difference for the children, families, and communities we serve. - Janet

195

Like you, I also provide in-home vision services and find that being in the families home to work with the child adds that extra layer of “difficulty” or in other words “need for creativity” to develop activities. While I know that bringing items into the home is sometimes necessary to work on specific skills, I try hard to utilize materials already available in the home or I leave materials with the family to increase the chances that they may continue working with their child on the skill. In addition I try to design activities that families can easily work into their existing routines, limiting too much extra work on their part. This increases the chances that the family will follow through with the suggestions/interventions, hopefully seeing the benefit. I love that you included the sister in the play experience.

196

Like you, when I go into a student’s home I use the toys that the family already has. I will bring a few items, but I feel it is important to work with the same things the student has in their daily life. I like to show the families and student different ways to use the items and interact with the items. I find that this better affirms my respect for their culture. I am not bringing in tons of items that might clash with their beliefs. I also try to learn as much as I can about their culture.

With one of my students, I printed out a list of words in the family’s native language for family relations. For instance this language had different words for “mother’s mother” and “father’s mother.” It gave me some insight into the family dynamics and the family appreciated my efforts. I was taught to respect people’s cultures.

197

Hi Stephanie, thank you for your insightful and eloquent post. I enjoyed reading it. Too often in the education world the terms “culture” and “socioeconomics” become code words for disadvantaged students. Thank you for highlighting ways to work with families from a positive, strength-based approach.

I can relate to your statement: “Knowing what society says affects the families because most of them are aware of what is expected of them. This right here can tie into the low/high expectations…Are families welcomed and embraced for who they are, not what someone wants them to be?” That pretty much sums up my K-12 school experiences (which I wrote about in my post this week).

In your travels, have you noticed how storytelling plays an important role? Storytelling is a building block of literacy. One of my students from Mexico told me how important it was in his community to be able to tell a good story. Taking time to listen to the stories that are important to people is one way to open our minds. When we know people’s stories we can see and appreciate their strengths and form non-hierarchial relationships that promote trust, collaboration, and student success.

Thank you, again, for highlighting ways to work with families from a positive, strength-based approach.

198

I may be misinterpreting this sentence. You stated “Families should look for resources that could be free or available to them.” I see at least two possible barriers to this. First, a family may have no experience with libraries, either from a cultural or family background. If the parents weren’t exposed to libraries growing up, using them may not even occur to the parents. Second, a language barrier may make it difficult for them find and utilize the library.

Sometimes we, as educators, need to teach the whole family. We need to do this in a respectful manner. We can not assume that families know what is available or how to utilize resources. They may not know its importance is they did not grow up with it.

199

Unfortunately for my co-worker, her son was not diagnosed until entering middle school and she felt that he had lost so much instructional time already that she was not willing to keep him in the school district. Understandable that she felt that way!

200

The article “Promoting Emergent Literacy Skills” gives many examples of promising practices to promote literacy for children with visual impairments that appear to be basic ideas (include child in reading, build on vocabulary from the text, scribble, label common items, etc.).

However, I have had the opportunity to work with a family of a child who is congenitally blind. The parent is a single parent, lower socio-economic background, non-traditional upbringing (parent was a foster child). In working with a family in the home I have learned that these “basic ideas” for literacy are not always known by all families. With this family I had to take time to discuss the importance of reading as the parent did not know the benefit of it and the skills reading builds (vocabulary, letter/sound/word recognition, listening skills, comprehension, etc). I am still working on having the parent understand the importance of accessible literacy for the student, encouraging her to scribble on the braillewriter to make a list of grocery items, having her read the letters of the alphabet or short books to her mom, etc. I have also found that care taking has also been an factor in access. For this particular family, she often relies on friends, family, or a church member to watch her daughter. The student then does not have easy/ consistent access to braille in her environment or even people that have a basic understanding of braille. In fact, some care givers just continually comment “the braille should be bigger”, “I don’t understand how she reads this”, or “that seems way too hard”. Which then shifts the attitude of my student and her relationship with braille. Another factor impacting their ability to implement strategies has been time. As I mentioned, she is a single parent and also runs her own business. When she gets home for the end of the day it is time for dinner and then bed. Although I have mentioned strategies such as having her daughter read letters while she makes dinner, reading books I have provided in braille at bedtime, verbally discussing the dots in numbers/letters, or even playing a tactual game, I understand as a parent that there are days you are too exhausted to do anything “extra”. I think the extra added layer is that all of these suggestions are things that the parent did not grow up with and then transferring these skills to braille are even a little more foreign to her.

To end on a positive note though the student recently gained a respite worker. She has been receptive to reviewing some skills that I have been working with the student on. The parent has asked to have braille labels on things like the microwave, light switches, and dresser. Lastly, last week my student while at home with her mom stated that she WANTED to practice writing and wrote on her braillewriter!

201

I think you really understand the impact of the socioeconomic component! When families are focusing on food, housing, a reliable mode of transportation, before/after school care it may not be that literacy skills are not valuable to the family it just may mean that the family has other important factors they need to secure before literacy is a factor they work on.
Also, as you mentioned with the foundation, many of these families also grew up with limited literacy foundations. Unless they have learned or are taught the literacy foundations they will not know how to implement them.
In the last couple of years I have been fortunate enough to work with a family in the home. But, I think as an Itinerant TVI I often do not “see” these issues as parent interaction is limited. I would love to be able to have more conversations with families to determine what they need help with in the home and ways I could support them and the student.