Week 3: July 14-20

Core Curriculum Unlocking the Foundations of Reading
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  1. In what ways can educators incorporate real-life experiences and tactile learning activities to help students with visual impairments build their background knowledge and vocabulary skills, thus enhancing their reading comprehension abilities?

I’m coming at this question from my work in the schools as an itinerant OT & LVT. Whenever I worked with students I tried incorporating a variety of sensory components - tactile, gustatory, olfactory, auditory, with the fine, gross and visual motor skills we were addressing. I had wooden letters the students could feel and they would sand to increase their awareness of the shape of the letters as the sounds of the letters were said aloud. These coordinated with the letters being learned in class. As the students progressed to printing or writing the letters I used a stick or other type of stylus for the student to pull through a tray of clay providing increased proprioceptive input on how to form the letters. Moving from the 3D letters, I might use Wikki Stix (like a wax pipe cleaner) that could be placed over a written letter providing a 2D image and then using the written letters for the 1D image. Helping the student visualize the letters in different ways.

I also tried incorporating materials in the environment into lessons being taught by the TVI, special or general education teacher. I found that real life examples were more helpful, in that the student was more likely to encounter those objects or experiences on a daily basis. I brought typical childhood games to my sessions and sadly, often found that many of the students were never exposed to these games. We would incorporate words from the games into their vocabulary and when possible how the words fit into stories they might be reading.

Children learn through movement and I would try to incorporate some type of physical movement into my sessions. Working with a SLP, she had greater success with students talking when they were moving. So we often created activities involving movement addressing their vocabulary and speech based off the goals set for the student. As noted in a prior post about teaching the student about ripples I might incorporate foods for their texture or smells into a lesson.

I feel that as an OT, collaborating with the TVI, special and general education teachers was beneficial in that the student was learning the same material, but in different perspectives to help enhance the student’s background knowledge. Time is such a precious commodity, especially for teachers and any additional help from an itinerant provider, such as an OT, can help reinforce concepts being taught.

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cduvnjak-
It is fantastic that you are able to use y9our media center to create 3-D renderings for you. At our local high school they also have a 3-D printer and have been able to make tactile symbols as requested to use for a student’s schedule board. If individual schools do not have access in their building be sure to check around if it is available in the district as this is a resource we just found this year. Additionally, check your town library as our town also has a 3-D printer that is available to the public for use. As you stated these tools are critical to building the foundations of comprehension for our students with visual impairments. Your concept of “surprise concept of the day” is wonderful and one that I plan to incorporate this year for a totally blind non-talker as I feel this will be a great way to introduce concepts. Taking it one step further I am thinking that once a week we use one item in a functional manner on Fridays to create a Expanded Core Curriculum task such as cooking, self-care, etc.

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Wow! This is great, your students are fortunate to have you. As we know, most of the low vision kids have problems with their handwriting. I will try the things you mentioned.

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What an awesome idea for both encouraging tactile exploration and for learning about objects. I love how this builds vocabulary, background knowledge, and tactile skills. You could even then have them come up with a story about the object.

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We do a similar activity but I try to focus it on pre-teaching information that may be needed sometime soon in the general ed curriculum. For example, they had a story about a boy attending a circus coming up in the LA block. I used our time to focus on the different things one might see or do at a circus knowing that my student had not personally been to one and his understanding of “circus” was limited to what he picked up from PBS shows. We talked about animals, circus acts, smells, ect so he had a richer base to bring to the story.

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I have incorporated KWL charts (or KWL discussions) to help me assess my student’s understanding of weekly vocabulary and spelling words. It is amazing the gaps we “talk”, but oftens stumbles on the “walk” This activity has helped both of us have a solid starting point that ripples across many of the activities he will face in the unit. I have seen improvement in fluency, reading comprehension and work accuracy after starting out KWL activity at the beginning of the unit (typically weekly for LA, varies for other subjects).

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quote=“amydicampbell, post:1, topic:1630”]
How might collaborative planning and instruction between TVIs and general education teachers be structured to ensure alignment, particularly in terms of addressing the interconnectedness of language comprehension and word recognition?

Collaborative planning and instruction among team members has become essential, especially with the rise of demands in the general education classroom and inclusive teaching. It seems that every lesson needs to address multiple topics to ensure students are getting the instruction, practice and skills they need to be successful.
Last year I took the scope and sequence for each subject and aligned it with braille instruction best I could so I could pre-teach contractions, braille indicators etc that he could in turn get lots of practice in the general ed classroom work. For example, we reviewed or introduced contractions and shortform words that would be in his spelling words the next week or we talked about how braille formatting and print forms help the reader make predictions about the text. I found this helpful in that he had better understanding of the braille code while trying to gain understanding what the teacher was explaining. Co-planning also gave the teacher and I an opportunity to discuss where the student may have difficulty such as finding the italic word in a paragraph quickly or how a contraction may disrupt initial decoding of a word.

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Scarborough’s Reading Rope (Arizona Department of Education, ND)

  1. In what ways can educators incorporate real-life experiences and tactile learning activities to help students with visual impairments build their background knowledge and vocabulary skills, thus enhancing their reading comprehension abilities?

In my itinerant cohort, we have 9 TVIs, 1 O&M instructor and 1 Rehabilitation specialist – all of whom may be contracted out to work with any of our caseload students (we have close to 425 students combined on our caseloads). As the Scarborough article noted in the Reading Rope, so many components compile the overall interconnectedness of skilled reading. As my colleagues and I tend to work with our caseload students over multiple years, we typically work collaboratively with general education teachers to be able to support their reading lessons and classroom activities with various real-life experiences and/or tactile learning activities. Inasmuch, this support may look like push-in consultative or direct services in the general education classroom, so we may help create/provide adapted materials, offer direct support to our student with tactile/braille manipulatives, etc. As our students mature into older grades, our cohort likes to plan various community outings with our caseload students, tying in reading activities and skills they may typically learn in their general education classrooms, during our specific direct service sessions, and/or any other number of educational opportunities presented throughout their day. Depending on the outing location and the student age level we prepare this community outing for, we will typically prepare planned activities connected to several of the various strands of the Reading Rope (i.e. vocabulary, prior/background knowledge, etc.) which ties directly into the skills/activities the students may experience during the community outing – prior to the community outing day. These community outings are so much fun for not only our caseload students to interact with other students who are also blind or are visually impaired, but the outings give us TVIs, O&M and Rehab specialists an opportunity to also intermingle several expanded core curriculum type skills/activities into the day as well (i.e. counting money, interacting with peers/adults in the community, braille review, mobility instructional review of crossing intersections, etc.).

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I absolutely can relate to your statement above about how beneficial collaboration is between several members of the school team, especially in obtaining different perspectives to help the student. In my own experience as an itinerant TVI, we spend so much time traveling from school to school (or district to district), that we often don’t have time to collaborate with many of the other school personnel working with our same students. I often feel I provide more beneficial services to a student on my caseload when I have ongoing collaboration with other school personnel - not only for the student’s sake, but also for mine, in that I get to hear/see/experience a situation from someone else’s perspective in a way that I may not have ever thought to experience it.

Backpedaling on what you said in your post about reinforcing concepts being taught while getting additional help from an itinerant provider, I feel the same way when I am able to collaborate with a general educator, as well as additional team members, who are all working together to provide the best educational experience for our students.

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I love your idea of a story bag and would like to incorporate more story bags/boxes into direct sessions with my caseload students for the upcoming school year - especially those in the preK-2 age range, as their general educator teachers tend to have built-in weekly reading/book center time during their day. One of the main hiccups I imagine with doing this is finding out what books may be read with enough time to accrue/create tangible/tactile objects to present to the student prior to reading the story (or even at the same time the story is being read aloud in class). I feel that creating these boxes/bags would also provide an opportunity for parents/families to use it as a follow-up activity with their child at home, which would afford additional reinforcement of several strands of the Reading Rope (i.e. background knowledge, repetition of introduced vocabulary words/sounds, phonological awareness/practice, language structures, etc.).

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Hello Christina,

Yes, it can be a challenge to find out what books are read, but I usually will ask the general education teacher for the actual books the previous spring so that I have the summer to build the bags. It’s okay if the teacher changes their mind as to what week they are reading a particular book. I found this article that may be useful in developing the story boxes:

Storybox Ideas from Norma Drissel – Paths to Literacy

https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/storybox-ideas-norma-drissel/

I agree that the story boxes are a way to have family involvement with their child’s reading. I have found that once I have shared some story bag ideas, some of my parents will take this a step further and create their own story bags which is awesome.

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Question: In what ways can educators incorporate real-life experiences and tactile learning activities to help students with visual impairments build their background knowledge and vocabulary skills, thus enhancing their reading comprehension abilities?

When reflecting on the Reading Rope concept, one statement resonated deeply with me: “When even one strand is frayed or weak, the overall braided rope is compromised.” This observation is particularly important for students with visual impairments, who often face challenges and gaps in their learning and skill development.

These gaps are frequently attributed to the child’s visual impairment. As Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs), I believe it is our responsibility to mitigate the impact of vision by ensuring accessible learning experiences for our students. This begins with providing equal access and opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge, regardless of their visual abilities.

To foster strong phonological skills, TVIs should facilitate the necessary connections for our students. This involves adapting materials and offering tactile supports that allow students to engage with word components in ways comparable to their sighted peers. Decoding and spelling skills should receive this same level of support to ensure meaningful learning experiences.

In addition to adapted materials, it is crucial to uphold high expectations for our students’ learning. Too often, I observe lowered expectations for braille readers in decoding and spelling, fundamental skills essential to reading. As educators, we must advocate for rigorous standards and demonstrate how our students learn best.

Personally, I find that areas where our students may struggle along the reading rope include background knowledge and vocabulary development. Due to limited incidental learning opportunities, children with visual impairments may not build background knowledge at the same pace as their peers. Building background knowledge and expanding vocabulary through descriptive conversations is essential. TVIs should use every opportunity to enrich these experiences and encourage others, including general education teachers, to use descriptive language effectively.

The Reading Rope concept illuminates the intricate skills necessary for reading comprehension. Understanding the interconnectedness of each skill underscores the complexity of supporting students with visual impairments. We must think innovatively and offer diverse learning opportunities to strengthen each strand of the rope.

As TVIs, our role extends beyond conventional methods. It involves fostering an inclusive learning environment where every student can flourish, irrespective of visual challenges, by addressing each component of the Reading Rope comprehensively.

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You have a great idea. I love that you include tools for independent living too. I do have a question; do you pair the object with words (in print or braille) to help make the connection back to the lower end of the rope to build word recognition skills?
Also, I appreciate your comment that 'this can look different for different students based in their ages and needs. I would include also based on their reading level.

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Thank you for sharing the article about developing story boxes!

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Christina,
Your response offered some of the same ideas that I considered. First and foremost we need to be sure that our students have access to learning in a format (or formats) that work best for them. Often this is through the use of adapted materials. I love how your team takes this to the next level and incorporates learning outside of the classroom. This process offers a wide range of possilbities to expand learning, even within the classroom. Your post reminds me of a video I saw at some point where students, who attend a school for the blind (can’t remember where), create stories (books) that recap their out of school experience - memory books of sort. By tying photos of real experiences (for students who have some sight), with meaningful words and phrases, we can help expand our student’s reading skills. Great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

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[quote=“sharon.clark, post:3, topic:1630”]
In what ways can educators incorporate real-life experiences and tactile learning activities to help students with visual impairments build their background knowledge and vocabulary skills, thus enhancing their reading comprehension abilities?

I love making story boxes for my students. I incorporate objects from the story, textures and sounds to help the student use as many senses as possible to create understanding and make the story more exciting and meaningful to them. It allows my VI students to engage with the story and infer detail and context that sighted peers are able to infer from pictures and illustrations. I will often use these objects to verbally explain what is taking place in the illustration. For example I see a beachball (give the student a beach ball) a shovel (give the student a shovel) and a sand pail (give the student a sand pail)

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This is a great resource, I love story boxes and use them frequently. I am always looking for new ideas and things to incorporate in my story boxes.

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I love your ideas of community outings to create background knowledge for students. It can be tricky to coordinate such outings, but the experience and exposure for the students is so beneficial.

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2 In what ways can educators incorporate real-life experiences and tactile learning activities to help students with visual impairments build their background knowledge and vocabulary skills, thus enhancing their reading comprehension abilities?

I believe in giving students as many experiences in the real world that is possible to help promote vocabulary skills to build upon their reading comprehension skills. I think it is important for the TVI, general education teacher, and family to work together to promote background knowledge for the student who is visually impaired. Sighted children learn so much about their environment, incidentally, watching others around them to learn how our world works. When you have a child who is visually impaired or blind, their incidental learning relies more on what they can directly experience with their senses. Giving children experiences where they can experience the world by using their other senses, such as touch, hearing smelling and tasting, can help promote vocabulary for the child, which can then enhance their reading comprehension.

In my first two years as a TVI, I worked with an elementary student, Keeleigh. She was in second grade when I first became her teacher. In that first year of working with her, I remember working collaboratively with her second grade teacher. We worked with Keeleigh, and her parents to give her real life experiences that were paired with what Keeleigh was learning in her classroom, so that she could build upon her vocabulary, since she couldn’t see the world around her. Being blind myself, I wanted to give Keeleigh opportunities to experience the world around her with her senses, to allow her to learn new words as she was experiencing the world around her.

As part of Science instruction, the students were learning about different sea creatures. They had to give a report to the class about a specific sea creature. Keeleigh’s creature was a lobster. To help with her understanding of what a lobster was, I worked with the general education teacher to find as many tactile representations of a lobster that we could find, so that Keeleigh could feel what a lobster felt like. After feeling various lobsters, Keeleigh could verbalize to myself and the second grade teacher the parts of the lobster. She listened to articles about lobsters, as well as read them in Braille to learn more about how they lived and functioned in the sea. She used a tactile drawing kit along with other tactile objects, such as pipe cleaners and puffy balls to make her own lobster as a visual aid for her report. Lastly, her parents took her to Red Lobster for dinner, so she could eat lobster. Her mother had called the restaurant ahead of time, and she was able to arrange for Keeleigh to feel and touch a live lobster once at the restaurant. I believe that these experiences allowed Keeleigh to experience a concept that she didn’t have much background knowledge of,and use her senses to learn new vocabulary words to then articulate and write about lobsters. She used her experiences to tell her classmates more about her sea creature.

I believe this example of my student is best illustrated from this week’s module, where it was stated that language comprehension is a collaborative approach. When you have a child who is visually impaired, it is vital for the TVI, the general education teacher,and the child’s family, if possible to all work together to promote vocabulary growth for the student. Giving the student meaningful experiences to allow them to experience the world in new ways can help build upon vocabulary and reading comprehension.

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Surprise Concept of the Day is a great way to introduce new vocabulary into our students lives. I like how you use daily living skills as a way to introduce vocabulary into your students vocabulary.

I have a student who is very sheltered. His life experiences are very limited. I can see how using Surprise Concept of the Day could be beneficial to him. After reading your post, my mind began thinking of ways of how to implement this into my instruction. I think I could tae this Surprise Concept of the Day and possibly expand it, with more abstract vocabulary for my student. My student will be a senior this year,and. Want to give him more vocabulary paired with what he will be experiencing in his real life once he graduates. I think your concept that you spoke about could also be used for a more abstract vocabulary learning, where the student might be given a word like “debit card”. Debit card would be important for my student, because he would need to know how to use one to make purchasing interactions in the real world. I could give hm a debit card,and allow hm to feel it and then talk to him about how it is used to make purchases. We could possibly watch videos about it, and expand the lesson further to allow the student to take a trip to a bank with his O&M instructor, so he can see how a debit card may be used to get moneys,nd then take that card to make a small purchase.

Thank you for sharing your experience of Surprise Concept of the day. It’s a great way to introduce vocabulary to our students, allowing them to also have real world experiences paired with learning new vocabulary.