I agree that interactive elements are much more common,and I have seen that these changes can sometimes overshadow the importance of language development, especially for students with attention issues. Finding a balance can be a challenge.
Collaboration among educators, specialists, and support staff is very much essential in achieving this balance. It can be challenging, but the approach allows us to tailor educational strategies that meet the needs of each student while maintaining a focus on language skills.
I agree. Students should learn to type on a QWERTY keyboard. They should know the contracted and uncontracted form of each word. When my students are completing spelling tests, I ask that they braille the words in uncontracted braille and/or use the QWERTY keyboard. Having a student learn to use a laptop equipped with a screen reader and braille display is the best method for completing assignments. The laptop will have the updated software that all their peers are using, and the screen reader and braille display will allow them to have access to those applications. What students and staff must also remember is that not all applications are accessible even though the student has the appropriate equipment to access the material. When the students are younger, the TVI must collaborate with the general education teachers to make sure material is accessible. When the students are older, they need to learn self-advocacy skills and learn how to think through suggestions in how to complete an assignment.
Your statement is very true and also one of the biggest challenges I have had is finding opportunities to work with the general education staff to provide accessibility to materials for the student, either they do not invite me or they do not schedule at times that I cannot attend, which I understand since everyone has different schedule.
Your response is spot on! Explicit instruction and multi-sensory approach are key for our students with visual impairment. The use of auditory based assessments is great for phonics. just having the student say rhyming words can tell you a lot. People often assume that students with visual impairment have great listening skills but often there are factors that effect this, attention auditory processing, all impact this ability. So we have to be hyper-diligent in our assessment and thorough in our instruction. Building better vocabulary is also vital for this, this can happen through the experiencing and rich disscusoin you outlined.So much to this but so important as it is all connected.
This piece of reading instruction can make or break the success of a student in the classroom with their peers. A TVI can provide pull-out braille instruction but if it isnât tied to whatâs going on in the class the student has difficulty keeping up with the reading content. To address this I try to have teacherâs give me books, essays, and poems the student will be exposed to in advance. That way I can pre-teach words/contractions, vocabulary, concepts, figurative language, etc in advance. Yes the student needs to know the contraction and the representations in braille, but there is more then just straight recognition in terms of language comprehension. This also allows me to have time to create story bags, build background knowledge through experiences, and it allows the student the chance to ask questions outside of their peers. In addition the advance notice and collaboration allows for me to format/braille things like Close procedure and concepts maps so my student is more involved rather than just sitting there listening. Collaboration also allows me to invite parents to be involved by providing experiences and background knowledge at home.
Then during real time instruction, I need the teach to provide me with feedback on things that my student misread or didnât understand so I can address them after in our sessions, Without this close give and take the student is at a disadvantage. If the general ed teacher assumes all of this instruction is on me, many pieces will get missed. Its an open dialogue and constant back and forth to be successful since I canât be in the classroom all of the time.
So the structure need to be ongoing, with pre, during and post collaboration to guarantee success.
I love making story boxes/bags as well but find this is costly and time consuming to shop for. I wish we were giving a bigger budget and materials were less costly to really make this type of learning easier for my students. In addition, its hard to create for some stories. What would you put in a box when items are large or unavailable? just another challenge for us to think through as a whole.
Co-planning is critical to a students success. Pre-teaching the code gives students access during classroom instruction. But you also need feedback from the teacher to be ongoing as well. what are they missing during instruction, what did they misread? I love the scope and sequence you created for the class! Well done! Very beneficial for students!
I had a new student that was very delayed in reading come into our system in 4th grade. Her reading and memory difficulties were apparent, reading at a beginner kindergarten level. So her âreading ropeâ was definitely frayed and affecting her overall academics, so she was starting to fall further behind grade level. To address this, we did a version of the Wilson Reading program in braille and large print. Each day she would look at the enlarged Wilson sound cards, which I also put the enlarged braille cell on with the corresponding letter(s) and/or contractions, (I did this by making Google Slides) say the sound and picture cue, and type them on the brailler as she said them. This gave her the repetition she needed, through a multi-sensory approach. She also would read the steps we were on in braille, work on each concept in both braille and on a large dry-erase board in large print. It took her 4 years, but made steady progress and is entering high school with the ability to read at almost grade level. However, she is still a slower reader than her peers, and it is more laborious for her, which Iâm sure is why her vocabulary and reading comprehension is still affected, as well as the years of not being able to read on her own. She is starting to enjoy audio books more, which I hope will help with these areas. It really is all so intertwined.
âIn 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?â
As we all know, students with visual impairments arenât able to access their environment as easily as other students. However, building background knowledge is important as a best practices baseline for all students. This is one of those ideas that âwhatâs good for the one, is good for the manyâ.
For example, letâs say students donât know the meaning of the academic grade level word schooner but students may know the term sailboat. Students with visual impairments may know of the word auditorily but they arenât able to create a mental image of the sailboat. As I am now located in Maryland, a teacher could build background knowledge by visiting a sailing tour with Chesapeake Bay Storytellers. A teacher could borrow Wheels and Waves in large print from Maryland LBPD. The teacher could also provide a YouTube Sailboat Sound Effect.
Every single one of these options helps everyone below academic level vocabulary build enough background knowledge begin to access the content which then directly impacts Vocabulary Knowledge, Language Structures, Verbal Reasoning, and Literacy Knowledge the top five strands of Scarboroughâs Reading Rope.
I agree that co-planning can be so beneficial! Reading a book together at the studentâs rate, and talking through pictures that they cannot access all the details for can really help the student be so much more engaged in classroom instruction and group learning. They can get excited about a book before the classroom gets to it, and then following along in braille when in class doesnât get in the way of their comprehension if they come in with the overall idea of the story before hand.
@mroot I really appreciate seeing how many ways youâre activating literacy via the multi-sensory approach. The proof is in the pudding too considering you were definitely able to get the student to almost grade level reading considering what the readings last week told us about how far behind students with visual impairments can actually be. BRAVO.
Explicit instruction is very important as you said, and when a teacher can share with you what type of concepts are coming up beforehand, it makes our jobs to do this so much easier. Little things like what is the difference between a hen and a duck is so much easier to explain with hands on models than in the middle of a video giving them audio description. Not having that background knowledge can affect their âreading ropeâ by then making it difficult to get that comprehension piece of what the story was really about.
@sarab I really focused on the Background Knowledge for this response so Iâm drawn to your story bags! I want to learn more and see if we can utilize this across lots of different contents, as all contents are reading based! Can you share pictures with me?
Considering the interconnectedness of decoding and language comprehension highlighted in Scarboroughâs Reading Rope, how might teachers identify and address specific areas of weakness or gaps in understanding for students with visual impairments, particularly in phonological awareness and decoding?
Scarboroughâs Reading Rope âreplicates the interconnectedness (and interdependency) between decoding and language comprehension in order to establish proficient readingâ (Arizona DOE, 2024). Once TVIs identify the problem(s) in a specific area(s) of need on the Reading Rope intentional interventions and purposeful planning can begin.
TVIs can identify and address specific areas of weakness or gaps in understanding for students with visual impairments by understanding the 5 pillars of reading and how each pillar builds on the other for reading comprehension to occur. Hence the formula
Decoding x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension
(Farrell, et al, 2024).
For example, TVIs can identify a learnersâ skills by accessing the mastery or lack thereof in orthography and/or sound symbol skills. If students with visual impairments exhibit areas of deficits in any of the decoding areas, the likelihood of reading comprehension is significantly compromised as noted by Farrell, et al, âexplicit instruction in decoding will be necessary to improve their reading comprehensionâ (2024). Likewise, the same is true for language comprehension. Students exhibiting difficulty with vocabulary knowledge, verbal reasoning, literary knowledge, semantics, connecting texts, etc. will have difficulty in reading comprehension.
In closing, TVIs can use the Simple View of Reading to identify the area or areas that would compromise reading comprehension. Farrell, et al noted that comprehension is âknowledge based rather than skill based (2021). TVIs will need to have a good knowledge base in the areas of decoding and language comprehension to provide students with visual impairments with explicit teaching concepts to reach reading comprehension.
Pamela Joyner
Cohort 2024
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?
I know from my own personal experience that collaboration in planning and instruction with the general education teacher is very important. I was discussing my studentsâ reading, vocabulary, background knowledge, and spelling among other things on a daily basis with their core content teachers. We were able to develop a living document where plans and materials were shared each month to aid in the preparation of braille materials each week. I was also able to connect the different writing formats into my braille instruction so that when my students were in the classroom, they had the same access as their peers. Much of my time was spent inside the classroom which allowed for the natural learning of the concepts with assistance from me when needed. During my 1:1 sessions, I spent my time reviewing what was taught as well as practicing fluency and contractions, which connected with words my students were learning in class.
I found it extremely helpful for the general education teachers to work alongside me to ensure alignment to their teaching and my teaching as a TVI. The collaborative effort allowed my students to participate in their learning with their peers while also receiving the modifications needed.
I love your use of a multimodal approach to activate the studentâs learning. Itâs apparent she was given the tools to help her succeed through your work with her teachers. Through this, she has a great âjumping offâ point to further build her comprehension.
I also think the access to audiobooks is a great alternative to aid in the frustration that may come with a slower reading speed. I had a parent tell me that she does not want her children to have access to audio materials and that all work was to be done in braille, since her children had interrupted braille instruction early on in their schooling. It took many months but I was finally able to convince the parent that learning for students with VI is a intertwinement of visual, audio, and tactile means. One should not be the âend all, be all.â
I applaud your use of multimodal learning to help your students understand concepts they might otherwise not be aware of or have access to. Having worked alongside OTs, PTs, and SLPs during co-treatment sessions has allowed for a more robust learning experience for the student. Like you mentioned, taught concepts can be reinforced and help enhance the background knowledge and beyond for the student.
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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?
Before I became a TVI, I was an Early Childhood Intervention Specialist. I spent a lot of time covering nursery rhymes. I remember reading or hearing somewhere that âthere was a strong relation between early knowledge of nursery rhymes and success in reading and spellingâ. I introduced a new nursery rhyme ever 2 weeks and did activities around the rhyme. When I became a TVI I have tried to continue that âtraditionâ with my young visually impaired students, but this time I am pairing it with another concept I heard about âstory boxesâ. I found that when I found items that represented items in the rhyme, I could make it more understandable to the students to build comprehension and vocabulary. When we introduced Jack and Jill, the students learned that a bucket (which they may already know) could also be called a pail and a crown could also represent a head. The students could also act out some of the parts of the rhyme which introduced fun social interactions with peers in a safe environment. I also found that some of the parents and teachers were also already familiar with some of the nursery rhymes, so they were more likely to use the ideas I provided and give the student more experience.
I think that the time spent in the natural learning enviroment is essential. It helps our students to feel more alike their peers than different. Then taking time to reinforce those skills in a 1-1 setting can help to practice and reinforce the skill is so important. I hope to do more of this with my students in the future.
