Though I too find this important, I have had several years where general education teachers are resistant to this idea. Do you use any particular techniques when working with classroom teachers?
I find that infusing some of my instruction into classroom activites works best in this situation. But not always.
Hi Sara, I love your comment and agree it is definitely a āmake or breakā situation for a student on if the TVI and gen ed are able to collaborate well. Just out of curiousity, have you had a lot of experience with gen ed teachers who are resistant to collaborate with you or not organized enough to give you materials in advance? If so, how did you approach this? Just asking as I had this situation this year and am always looking for suggestions on how to best approach this, while still keeping a good relationship with the teacher 
Sara, Thank you for sharing these. Would love to see more pics of what you have made.
- 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?
Educators can create literacy rich environment for their students with VI. A literacy rich environment helps to engage them in language and literacy activities in their daily lives and allows them to be aware that others are reading and writing around them. They can provide accessible labels in the environment. Label the desk, chair, cubbies, and anywhere a label is or expected in the studentsā preferred reading format. (Braille, large print, tactile symbols, etcā¦)
Most of my students who are blind or VI learn best with hands on, meaningful experiences, and not just verbal descriptions or explanations. I try to offer many opportunities to interact and/or tactually explore real life objects. This helps my students understand size, shape, texture, other attributes, and the concept of big/little, same/different. Before I introduce anything new, whether it be a story or a new experience, we discuss vocabulary and concepts in advance then again while we are reading or during the experience so that the student can associate people, objects, and experiences with words.
Book bags are another great way to incorporate real-life experiences and tactile learning. Using items associated with the story help bring the story to life and experience the story. Book bags help the student better understand the concept being taught.
I find it is hit or miss with my studentsā gen ed teacher. Some have their lesson plans ready weeks in advance so that I am able to create a lesson to mirror theirs which allows me to enhance my studentsā understanding of the concept being taught while teaching braille. Then I have some teachers who, if Iām lucky, finish and provide their lessons to me the Friday before. This makes it harder for me to create and make my lessons in a timely manner. Communication is very important when trying to collaborate and plan successful instruction for our mutual students.
I had a similar experience with one of my students who is completely blind. He could not understand the concept of a mountain. Even with a large 3D model he had a hard time understanding the size of a mountain. I ended up taking him outside and we compared sizes of different object to him. We hugged trees, walked up and down hills, climbed up then down a ladder on the playground. We also tactually explored cars. He rode in them, but had no idea of their actual size or structure. He was amazed that they came in different sizes and shapes. Once he understood the concept of size comparison we went back to the 3D model. This time I added a tiny glue dot, a spec and told him the spec was him in comparison to the mountain. He understood the concept then.
QUESTION 3: Considering the interconnectedness of decoding and language comprehension highlighted in Scarboroughās 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.
Teachers could help identify and address specific areas of weakness/gaps in understanding by adding more instruction for the student to work on reading and using appropriate decoding skills while also working on the other skills. Itās important for the TVI to gather more understanding of appropriate decoding skills and utilizing what they are using in the classroom to help with identifying and addressing the gaps or areas of weakness. This is where collaboration is so important with the classroom teacher. The TVI could identify the areas of weakness they are noticing, and the classroom teacher could give ideas on how to specifically focus on these items during vision sessions, or when speaking with the parents.
I had a younger student who we noticed was having difficulty with decoding and reading in general. We were able to get the students up to grade level by reinforcing the work that was being used in the classroom during vision sessions. I would take the worksheets they were using in class, and we would practice using the CCTV / iPad to fill out and enlarge the worksheets. We also would use sight word flashcards as our vision āwarm-upā to get ready for vision. The classroom teacher and I worked with the parents as well to communicate what the student was really struggling with and what they could work on at home. By the middle of the school year the student was reading at grade level and able to incorporate the decoding skills needed to become a stronger reader. The amount of confidence that was shown was amazing and the student began to show more interest in wanting to read and would read a passage proudly using the screen enlargement features.
This is great idea! One of the schools I work in has a garden for their students, and I always thought about incorporating recipes for my students to read using the ingredients in the garden.
For my O&M studentās Iāve been working on creating journal entries so that they can write about their lessons as well. I think it helps to make the student want to participate more if they know what skills they are.
This is so true. I think so many times our students miss out on the incidental learning, so there are splinter skills and missed background knowledge that isnāt realized is missed until later. I have a student who is completely blind that weāve had to take steps back because although they were a great reader there were things missing due to the missing the background knowledge.
Responding to question 2.
I like the idea of doing language experience stories with students. Meaning first the idea is to find a motivating topic. Then take the time to share the experience with the student by having students discuss what they like in detail (as a class or one on one), bringing in tactile objects to explore and learn new vocabulary from, and share together with other students and/or staff members aloud. Then you want to write the story by having the teacher braille exactly what the student says (their exact words) about the experience. As the teacher brailleās it she/he will say each word aloud. Lastly we will read the story. Even if the child doesnāt know much braille yet, they still know the story because they just wrote it, heard it once from their teacher, and is now using proper hand movements while moving over the braille tracking as the teacher reads it again. This can help strengthen reading and writing skills, practice in learning media, vocabulary skills, and can even build social skills with classmates, while they build on their Tier 2 Vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension. They can also gain word recognition skills while reading/ tracking the braille from the story they made. This activity could also promote questioning skills while the student is sharing the experience in the classroom by questioning what they see, hear, feel, taste, and smell to have a deeper understanding of the topic/concept.
I also picked two to answer. I like your response that you can label the environment. I would probably label in both large print and braille especially if there are multiple students that would benefit from the labeling in the classroom. Tactile symbols would be interesting to use as well. When I think of labels tactile symbols didnāt come to mind, but this could work if you had like a map key of each tactile label in the room, so the students know what to feel for as they move about the room. Great idea.
Extra time is definitely important, so is wait time, giving students time to explore the items through different learning media that suits their abilities, and then instructing them on completing steps. I know working backwards is another strategy to use with visually impaired students that may help in this scenario. Thanks for sharing.
Sure thing! I am out of the office for a few weeks but once I am there I can post themā¦my email in case you need itā¦reach out anytime!
Oh yes this has happened for sure! I know certain teachers will give me things last minute but to try to avoid this I do several things:
- have someone above me approve a timeline for submission of materials that need adaptations. I go in with this agreement and ask how I can support making this timeline occur.
- if at all possible I meet in advance of the year to get things ready for the next year (get topics covered, materials needed, books, labs, field trip, etc and try to plan early)
- I try to get teachers to give me access to their files. In schoology platform they make me a co-teacher for the class so I have the ability to see things in advance.
- with really resistant teachers, sometimes its good for me to be unavailable for a class so they have to support the student themselves or even the student or parent advocates for more timely materials, then they can see me as a valuable asset to making this occur
- when things are going smoothly, make sure to thank and give the teacher props so that it continues!
Scarboroughās Reading Rope (Arizona Department of Education, ND)
- 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 have found that in many cases, young learners are able to acquire sophisticated vocabulary if they are provided a meaningful context for it. I think that pacing is also important. The students need to be immersed in language in order to acquire it, so lessons would have to be crafted carefully in order to provide ample opportunities to build and use new vocabulary. Real-life experiences and tactile learning activities can be tremendously helpful in building background knowledge and vocabulary skills.
About five years ago, I had the opportunity to participate and assist in a summer outing to a horse stable out in the country. All of the students were visually impaired and they had the opportunity to pet, groom, and ride some horses. Without the benefit of vision, many of these students were beginning to understand for the first time just how large, muscular, and gentile horses can be. It was a very powerful experience to witness. I think about how this prior background knowledge must be helpful whenever they encounter a horse or a horseback rider in a novel, or when they come across an exaggeration such as āIām so hungry I could eat a horse.ā With this one experience, those students are now better able to comprehend such terms as āgallopā or ātrotā and likely can better generalize this experience into future language (i.e. That person is trotting around like they own the place).
Admittedly, it can be difficult to provide these opportunities within the school day during the school year, so itās important that educators continue to partner with organizations and individuals who can support and supplement the growth of our students whether during the summer months or during the school calendar.
- 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?
One way to incorporate real life experiences is to plan field trips both to go along with the āthemeā being taught and just situations that students with Visual Impairments donāt get unintentional. So make them intentional, this past school year we went to Home Depot to get plants for Motherās Day. We made a list of everything we would need and then went shopping once, we had what we needed. We completed a scavenger hunt that took us all over the store so we could experience how big it is and what all we might find there. The students were so excited! Some did not get finished with the scavenger hunt because they would find something something random and they would ask questions about it. They spent probably 25-30 minutes with all the toilet seat options. After the trip we made an experience book. The students came up with the tactual symbols for the book. Each student had different experiences then they read each otherās book. An experience book is a way to increase vocabulary skills, written syntax, and text structure. An experience book can also be completed with read-alouds and content learning. Another way to incorporate real-life experience is story boxes or story bags filled with objects that go along with the story using real objects when possible. An extension of this is to play a matching game with words and objects and/or making/writing a sentence with the objects. Another option is to create the experience in a box such as if talking about temperature in science in your experience box; bring a thermometer that moves to show how when temperature increases the line goes up, bring some ice, hot water bottle, a talking thermometer and the vocabulary words. Then have students write about their experience.
I Love your idea! My brain is exploding with ways to incorporate and expand for my specific students. When you mentioned the velcro to simulate on a Braille Device. I thought specifically the Polly and have some velcro Braille letters to make the words as well.
Hi, there. This is Jeff. I really love the āsurprise concept of the dayā idea. I currently donāt have any non-sighted students, but in addition to using it to introduce some ILS concepts, I think this could be a great way to offer some pre-teaching about something that might come up later in a studentās class. I think this approach would have been really useful at my previous job when I had a VI classroom. Thanks for sharing!
Well Done! This is the epitome of collaboration! I would like to add maybe the pre-teaching to the parents as well in the form of a cheat sheet for the upcoming spelling words. I had a parent call me once so upset that her child could not read a simple word in a book they were reading together(I think it was āinā but it was a contraction she had not learned yet(BANA)
Hi, Sharon. I agree with your response and I especially like how you mentioned checking on a studentās prior knowledge. That really is probably the best place to start. I havenāt had the experience of creating a story bag yet, but I know that my department, prior to my arrival, scheduled a work day last summer to assemble numerous story bags. I think that providing tactile representations, especially of real-life objects, can be such a powerful learning tool. Iām assuming that this is a laborious process and highly individualized, so Iām grateful that my department was able to carve out some time for the benefit of our students.