Week 5: July 28-August 3

Core Curriculum Unlocking the Foundations of Reading
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Instructions : Participants are expected to respond to one of the questions posted in a manner that reflects an appropriate level of analysis and engagement in the discussion; applying the knowledge and insights from the readings to practical applications; drawing conclusions based on the content, raising new questions, presenting a counter argument, etc. Each response should include the question number, be stated in complete sentences, and apply the knowledge from the readings and sessions to practical applications.

In addition, each participant is expected to comment on at least two participants’ responses. The responses should be reflective and thoughtful, not simple short answers like “I agree” or “Me too.” A thoughtful response integrates readings, may provide examples, add new information, or present a counter argument.

Components of Valid Learning Media Assessments (JVIB, 2023, p. 407-417)

  1. Imagine a scenario where a student’s preferred learning media is not effectively supporting their academic progress. Which LMA components examined in the Delphi study are most important to consider? Where do you start? How would you utilize the results of the LMA process to identify alternative strategies or interventions to address this issue and promote their learning outcomes?

  2. Considering the insights gained from the LMA standards outlined in the article, how do you plan to adjust your assessment practices as a TVI if you haven’t previously utilized these standards? Describe the specific changes or adaptations you envision incorporating into your assessment approach to ensure alignment with research outcomes.

Using Appropriate Assessment to Plan Braille Literacy (JVIB, 2022, p. 417-424)

  1. How did the use of various data collection tools in the research study contribute to a balanced literacy program for Ambrosi? What tools have you used? What tool(s) do you want to use and why?

  2. If you were in the TVI’s position, what additional intervention strategies would you propose to address Ambrosi’s challenges with braille reversals?

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  1. Imagine a scenario where a student’s preferred learning media is not effectively supporting their academic progress. Which LMA components examined in the Delphi study are most important to consider? Where do you start? How would you utilize the results of the LMA process to identify alternative strategies or interventions to address this issue and promote their learning outcomes?

For a situation like this, in which a student’s preferred learning media is not effective, I think the best place to start is with parent, student, and teacher interviews. I’ve come to appreciate through experience that these individuals–parents, teachers, and students themselves, know the student best and can have great insight into what may be the cause of a student’s struggles. Spending time interviewing and collaborating with these people can help guide the rest of my assessment.

If the student was low vision and a print reader, I would re-assess those things that would be easiest to fix and may be the most obvious. Is the print large enough? Is lighting adequate? Would positioning changes be helpful? Is the student sitting close enough to the board? Is the print clear enough to read? Oftentimes when materials get enlarged to a student’s preferred size, the print images become fuzzy. I have also found with some low vision conditions, the student actually prefers a smaller font size. Simply changing the background lighting or color scheme on the student’s device can make a big difference as well. I would also explore if the student prefers to work off of hardcopy print materials vs electronic. I would explore these types of things first.

I appreciate the need that was mentioned to test the student for visual fatigue–when does the student began to experience fatigue? I’m dealing with this problem right now. I have a student that is primarily a visual learner. I have been teaching the student braille as a secondary learning media. Meanwhile, working with enlarged print materials has still been the best way for her to do her schoolwork, but despite having several different devices, magnifiers, and multiple means available for her to do her work, she has been experiencing fatigue and frequent headaches. She was in the 4th grade last school year. I fear that the time will come when she will really need her braille skills as she advances in grade level and the work demands increase. In short, I am learning that even if a student appears to get by fine using vision, if the student is experiencing visual fatigue quickly, it may make sense to place higher priority on braille. This would require collaborating with the educational team to figure out ways to increase time in braille instruction and ways to utilize braille more in the classroom. This will not be easy as a student’s braille reading and writing skills may be far below grade level, as is the case with my student. It’s a difficult situation.

Other things to be looked at would be of course to have a closer look at the student’s reading skills–looking at their basic fundamental skills of decoding, word recognition, background knowledge, etc. The student may have the right accommodations in place to help the student have visual access, but may be far behind in their fundamental reading skills. This could be due to years of not having their visual impairment adequately addressed and missing a lot of instruction in the critical early grade school years. It may also be a reading disability like dyslexia. I appreciate the part of this course that addressed dyslexia. A closer look at a student’s reading ability, and especially comparing it with their same-aged peers, can be very helpful in determining a student’s needs.

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  1. If you were in the TVI’s position, what additional intervention strategies would you propose to address Ambrosi’s challenges with braille reversals?

In the article, “Using Appropriate Assessment to Plan Braille Literacy Instruction”, the TVI implemented strategies to Ambrosi in learning the letters h, d, p and v and other braille reversals. While these interventions worked on her reading and writing the letters, I find it beneficial for students to play games and use body movements to assist with the dot formation of the troublesome letters.

Additional intervention strategies I would propose to address Ambrosi’s challenges with braille reversals:
• have Ambrosi play “Verbal review”. I ask Ambrosi to provide either the dot formation of a letter and/or given the dot formation, the letter itself. For example, the teacher says “What are the dots for the letter h?” Ambrosi should respond with dots 1, 2, 5. Or the TVI may ask “Dots 1, 4, 5 is what letter?” Ambrosi should respond with d. This is a quick game to get Ambrosi to think about the dot formations.
• Have Ambrosi use body movement to help with the dot formations. For example, place actual dots on the floor in the shape of the braille cell. Now have Ambrosi step out the dots for each letter. She may need to move backwards or sideways to keep the dot numbers in order. For example, Ambrosi is on dot 1 and facing the top of the braille cell. In order to complete the dots for a p, she will need to say “dot 1”, step back and say “dot 2”, step back again and say “dot 3” then step forward and diagonal and say “dot 4”. This way, she is saying the dots and staying consistent in the formation of the dots.

These activities coupled with the ones already implemented will give Ambrosi a way to tactually read the letters, braille the letters, use a game to focus on dot formations, and use body movement to help with dot formations.

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I like your idea of using body movement to help with learning dot formations. That could certainly help solidify the dot patterns in her mind, incorporating an additional sensory modality.

The strategies utilized in the study for learning braille reversals sound logical and in line with best practices. This summer I have been working on reading a book by APH about braille instruction “Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy” by Diane Wormsley and Frances Mary D’Andrea. There is a section that addresses teaching accurate recognition of characters.

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It details a strategy for systematically helping a student to overcome reversals. I hope this image comes through clearly.

Another strategy that I would use that I don’t think was utilized in the study was seeing the braille symbol in context and judging if it makes sense. This is a powerful method. This may have been partially utilized when the student was given short stories focusing on certain letters.

Another tip I got from this book, which I wish I had learned sooner was to not teach a student that a braille symbol is a reversal of another. This would be like saying to a student "you can remember the word “and” by knowing it is the reversal of the letter “y”. I am guilty of doing this lot. But according to this book, this creates an additional mental step for the student, which will make the task harder.

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Hello Gina,

“Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy” by Diane Wormsley and Frances Mary D’Andrea is a great reference. I was fortunate to have Dr. Wormsley as one of my professors in grad school.

The strategy of seeing the braille symbol in context and judging if it makes sense is a good one. I love seeing the students self-correct when they realized they made a mistake. I also agree that students should not learn that one symbol is the opposite of another. It takes longer for the student to mentally go through this process than to remember the dots or the shape of the letters. I know others use short phrases to remember troublesome letters.

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  1. If you were in the TVI’s position, what additional intervention strategies would you propose to address Ambrosi’s challenges with braille reversals?

While the information expressed in the article was a great start, i feel that additional activities would assist with letter reversals and/or other points of struggle. Some examples of additional activities would include games, hands-on opportunities and body movement. As with learning print and common reversals in print, students learn through repetition, hands-on methods and a variety of games. This should be no different for a student learning braille. While you could likely adapt and/or modify any game; having a game that also ties into student interest would be ideal. For example, if the student is really into baseball, you can create a baseball game or adapt other games. The possibilities are endless when it comes to their interests and adapting/modifying different games. When I was working with a young braille student we incorporated games like Connect 4 (tactile version). For every letter, word, sentence, passage he read (just for example) or wrote he got to drop in a counter for Connect 4. We also were able to work on turn taking, direction and descriptions. At other times, we would jump in patterns of the braille cell for the dot numbers. There are so many games and strategies that classroom teachers are already using. With a little bit of work and effort they can then work for the braille reader.

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I agree. Family and staff interviews would provide a great insight to a student’s daily struggles.

Visual fatigue is definitely something to keep in mind when evaluating a student for reading accommodations. I had a student who read everything using a CCTV and would complain of frequent headaches. I reassessed the student’s accommodations for near reading tasks. Through the evaluation and speaking with family and staff, I realized that the student would be great in the morning using their vision to read material from the CCTVV then complain of headaches at mid-day. Just in case the student was trying to get out of classwork in a particular class, I also assessed on a day where the classes were switched due to an assembly. The same thing happened with the headaches. I came to the conclusion that the student was experiencing visual fatigue due to the increase in reading demands.

I approached the IEP Team and asked that her level of service be increased so that the student could learn braille. This student was a dual media learner preferring to complete long readings in braille, but use the CCTV for filling out worksheets and completing math problems.

Re-evaluation of a student’s accommodations should be re-evaluated to ensure a student is receiving the appropriate accommodations for the demands of their classes.

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I like your ideas of verbal review and using body movement to assist with braille code reversals. Our vision students need alternative ways to learn that are not visual. These are great ways to form a better understanding of where the dots belong and will help in memorization. I have a braille student who loves music. He has a great memory and can memorize song lyrics quickly. I introduced him to the “Braille Wrap Song” written by Charlotte Cushman
( https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/braille_rap-1.mp3) to help him learn the braille code. He took to this quickly and will refer back to the song when he needs reminders how to form his braille letters. Braille Rap Song – Paths to Literacy
I feel it is important to understand your students learning style and present them with strategies and activities to enhance their learning.

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3, How did the use of various data collection tools in the research study contribute to a balanced literacy program for Ambrosi? What tools have you used? What tool(s) do you want to use and why?

Braille literacy involves many components of instruction such as Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. It also includes tactile perception and efficiency skills and use of the braille code (Holbrook, et al., 2017). With so many components involved it is important to use various data collection tools to locate the specific areas of weakness. To provide Ambrosi with a balanced literacy program they needed to determine if there were issues with braille code, reading, or a combination of both. Baseline table 1 shows four major areas of need: 1. identifying ending sounds and naming final letters and sounds 2. basic decoding of short and long vowel sounds 3. recognizing sight words and 4. identifying letters. If just one assessment tool was used then areas of weaknesses would have been missed resulting in a poor development of a literacy program which would not have been beneficial for Ambrosi.

An assessment tool that I have used before with my braille students is the Braille Reading Error Analysis (Harley et al., 1997). This assessment has helped me to analyze and record braille reading errors during the reading assessment. These results then help me to evaluate if there are braille code errors, reading errors or both. I can then target the areas we need to work on to improve the students’ reading.

I have never used the Kamei-Hannan and Ricci Reading Assessment (2015). After reading this article and seeing the areas that are assessed I feel that this is something that I would like to use in the future in addition to a braille error analysis assessment. This assessment is beneficial in pinpointing areas of weaknesses based on the in depth skill areas that are assessed. Does anyone else have in depth reading assessments that they use?

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I also feel that parent, student, and teacher interviews provide so much information on the students best way for learning. In addition to a verbal interview I also like to provide my teachers and parents with quick checks lists for curriculum and vision accommodations. This is a quick easy way for parents and teachers to report what accommodations are being used and if it is or is not helpful to the student. These check list can also serve as a reminder of different accommodations that can be used or tried if necessary.

The information gained from these interviews and checklist gives me a starting point on where and what to begin assessing. As an itinerant teacher we cannot be with our students everyday and consulting with teachers can be difficult due to time constraints. By providing them with quick easy ways to assess the students learning habits, accommodations, and curriculum can help us better understand and help our students. This also provides a team approach in developing and literacy program for the student.

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Considering the insights gained from the LMA standards outlined in the article, how do you plan to adjust your assessment practices as a TVI if you haven’t previously utilized these standards? Describe the specific changes or adaptations you envision incorporating into your assessment approach to ensure alignment with research outcomes?

I must say I was surprised to learn that the LMA process was not formalized until 1995. I plan to adjust my assessment practices through adding more reading components. Even though we assess readers and nonreaders alike, when assessing readers, I will focus more on their needs as they pertain to literacy; for example, reading level, assessing rather the student is at the frustration level or mastery/independent reading level. Additionally, asking the student if they read for leisure, if not find out why and what could be done to aid in this, even if audio books would make this possible. In addition to assessing the ideal font size, the type of font and contrasts helpful to the reader will be a consideration.
In taking a closer look at the handwriting, I will pay attention to if letters are made quickly and accurately—or not. Lastly how much time the student takes to complete assignments compared to their peers would be important and would reveal other problems or the severity of their loss and how much it has impacted their education.

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I am guilty of using reversals as a cue to remember braille cells myself. Thanks for the resource.

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I love this activity. I have a low vision student learning braille who is also very active. I may try this with using green neon tape. I will try this with and without the tape. Thanks for sharing this.

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I had a high school student like this. Despite multiple attempts at braille instruction (this would have been his best reading medium) he chose to use very large font size at a very close range. He did struggle with fatigue and would frequently work on assignments from home. He was very resistant to the idea of using braille. After a team meeting including the parent and student, the team decided to let him continue as he was. I often wonder if that was the best choice for his future employment.

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I currently have a student that would also benefit from tne Kamei-Ricci Assessment. She is a braille reader who is also ELL. I hope it can help me pinpoint other areas of need. Im very experienced with the braille code and helping with reversals, however there seems to be more to it than just simple braille mistakes.

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Considering insights gained from the LMA standards outlined in the article, how do you plan to adjust your assessment practices as a TVI if you previously haven used these standards? Describe the specific changescot adaptations you envision incorporating into your assessment to ensure alignment with research outcomes.

I was taught a system very close to the standards that were present in the article and have sat under the instruction of Dr. Rossenbloom. Several years ago the state od Arizona took a deep dive into what should be included in an FVA and LMA and made changes to the format that we use. Though it was a bit of a transition, I feel our reports as a whole are better for it. We also instituded peer review, which helps with the clearity of our reports. I do feel that we could add more assessment information about literacy skills into our reports. However, as I am not a specialist in this area I feel that I might not be the best person to offer recommendations in this area. I look forward to using some of the additional assessment tools to help guide my abilities to get interventions, especially for me ELL students.

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  1. In the scenario where a student’s preferred learning media isn’t effectively supporting the student, I have learned to check to see if the child is choosing not to use the appropriate media. If this is the case, I need to approach the LMA differently than if the child’s needs haven’t been identified or if their needs have changed. If the child is choosing not to access media needed, I try to find out the “why” so that I can address their reasons so that they can benefit from what they need. Unfortunately, I have had to tell teachers and parents that “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” and pray that the student someday understands how they can benefit.

  2. I do think one of the most important components to consider is the child’s medical information including the cause and implications of the visual impairment and prognosis when this is available. Although there are differences between individuals, the known effects of medical diagnosis often gives a great deal of information that can be used to guide the LMA.
    Observations of the child in a variety of environments is the next step. Watching a student in the cafeteria, on the playground, in the classroom, I am able to learn many things I cannot otherwise, such as social interactions, self-help, and educational access in the classroom. I use the LMA to reinforce/support my observation findings. I am able to determine if the child will be a print, braille or multimedia user, need for audio, the best font size, lighting needs, amount of time needed to complete visual tasks, distance from task, need for a slant board.
    My LMA supported by my FVA is pretty thorough so I don’t often feel that I missed a support for a student but it does happen. If so, as I work with the student and communicate with parents and teachers, I investigate to see what needs to be added or changed then the team makes that change. If need be, I amend the IEP to ensure the child receives what they need.

  3. By using the Kamei-Hannan and Ricci Reading assessment, the team was able to**identify areas of need and strength. The Braille Reading Analysis Chart allowed the team to identify Ambrosia’s miscues patterns in tactile perception. By using the Analysis chart and identifying the miscues, the team was able to focus on the areas that were causing difficulty thereby allowing her to correct/strengthen those specific problems. Over teaching the “h” and “v” to ensure high rate correct identification and eventually her confidence level, removed a layer of confusion and her accuracy improved to 98%. With fewer errors and increased confidence, frustration would be greatly reduced and Ambrosia was likely to be much more calm and excited about learning braille. Once accuracy increases, fluency and automaticity follows and comprehension after that.

The only tools I have used are the Checklist of Literacy Braille Skills. Weekly, I review previously learned items and introduce 3-5 new braille representations. I document the accuracy rate on previously taught braille. If a student isn’t 95% or higher on known braille, we spend time practicing these before adding new ones. I plan to use the Braille Reading Analysis Chart to closely look at miscues so that I can be more intent with instruction. I will be purchasing the Kamei-Hannan and Ricci Reading connections books to more closely look at it, but I expect that I will find information there to improve my teaching as well.

  1. Other interventions I would implement might include games like braille bingo, braille scavenger hunts, and competitions between students and myself. For several students who were not progressing as I would like, I have arranged for the student to come in before or after school to receive additional time with me or the braillist to work with the braille. Braille legos have been great review as well. I pull only the ones the child should know, cover the print and present to the student. If they are correct, they get to keep the lego, if not, it gets returned to my pile after discussing the error and the correct identification. Students get to use the legos to build. This does take more time so the structure is stored for the next building session rather than taken apart and put away.
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Shannon Pruitt
Week 5 Responses

Components of Valid Learning Media Assessments (JVIB, 2023, p. 407-417)

  1. Imagine a scenario where a student’s preferred learning media is not effectively supporting their academic progress. Which LMA components examined in the Delphi study are most important to consider? Where do you start? How would you utilize the results of the LMA process to identify alternative strategies or interventions to address this issue and promote their learning outcomes?

Components of the LMA that could be used to identify problem areas, as well as strategies and accommodations that would support more efficient academic progress and access, could include many, if not all, of the components listed for the LMA assessment. For example, if a student were using “large print” specifically in an 18-point font with typical spacing and black text on a white background, the TVI could use information from interviews (parent, student, and teacher) to determine the timeliness with which the student completes assignments, observe whether the student’s access is laborious and causing fatigue, and understand how the student views materials.

Next, data could be collected on oral reading speed, accuracy, comprehension, and oral reading grade level using an informal reading inventory in the student’s current learning medium (large print, 18-point font). After gaining a good idea of where the student is performing at their current grade level in the current medium, as well as what grade level they perform skills independently, the TVI could then have the student read passages at the grade level or independent grade level using assistive technology and digital materials. For example, the student could be given a similar passage to read with a video magnifier.

Before giving the passage, the TVI could informally determine if the student has a preference or shows more efficiency with a specific text/background combination, such as white text on a black background, at what size/magnification the student can view text comfortably, and at what distance the student views such text, including noting the student’s posture and position. Once this is done, data can be collected for speed, accuracy, and comprehension on a given passage. Additionally, trials could be similarly completed with digital text accessed on a computer or tablet that allows the student to manipulate not only the text size and color but also the spacing of words, letters, and lines.

After collecting data on oral reading in these three different scenarios, it may become obvious that a better (more effective) medium for the student is text accessed via a video magnifier. Evidence for this might be that the student prefers a font that is 48-point with white text on a black background. This cannot be achieved naturally in the real world and exceeds the typical large print specifications. Additionally, when reading in this format, the student reads at least as fast as they did with the hard copy large print, but makes significantly fewer errors, and their comprehension is improved. Moreover, when using the video magnifier, the student has good posture and head position, whereas with a tablet or computer, they tend to be hunched over and have their neck arched (but with similar fluency and comprehension).

This is just a short example and is in no way intended to be a complete assessment. However, this illustrates how these various components could be used to collect data to help the team understand whether there is a more efficient learning medium for the student.

  1. Considering the insights gained from the LMA standards outlined in the article, how do you plan to adjust your assessment practices as a TVI if you haven’t previously utilized these standards? Describe the specific changes or adaptations you envision incorporating into your assessment approach to ensure alignment with research outcomes.

I was not previously aware of the standards presented in this particular study, but I feel that my current practices align with the results. One thing I could probably do more is increase my focus on incorporating the child’s attitudes toward and motivation to access and complete reading and writing activities.

Using Appropriate Assessment to Plan Braille Literacy (JVIB, 2022, p. 417-424)

  1. How did the use of various data collection tools in the research study contribute to a balanced literacy program for Ambrosi? What tools have you used? What tool(s) do you want to use and why?

By making use of various data collection tools, Ambrosi’s team was able to gather valuable information and make data-guided decisions about interventions related to both tactile access and understanding of the braille code, as well as specific areas needed for reading interventions. As the article notes, without the use of this approach, “either teacher may have mistakenly interpreted these challenges to be with the braille code only or literacy only.”

In the past, I have mainly relied on assessments for reading, such as the John’s Basic Inventory. For braille, I typically used a basic assessment of braille knowledge of the contractions, such as the ABLES. However, after reading this article, I am very interested in learning more about and possibly using the Kamei-Hannan and Ricci Reading Assessment (2015), the Braille Reading Error Analysis chart described in Harley et al. (1997), and The Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) (Beaver, 2006).

  1. If you were in the TVI’s position, what additional intervention strategies would you propose to address Ambrosi’s challenges with braille reversals?

I don’t know that I would have proposed anything globally different from what is suggested. I would definitely propose repeated use of, exposure to, and activities with the letters for which the student was having difficulty with reversals. That being said, I like the information that was provided about the letters that were excluded from the activities.

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Looking at the standards mentioned in this article, the agencies and school districts I have worked in have incorporated this information into a format they encouraged us to use. Looking at what the experts consulted for this article agreed upon for what is to be included in an LMA , I feel good about my own LMA’s and what I look for. I am also making sure to evolve as new information should be included in the LMA - technology needs especially as those have changed a lot over the tenure of my teaching because there is more and better technology every day. I wish there was a standardized format that we just all agreed to use nationwide - it would make accessing info from other school districts and states so much easier because we would all be using the same components in the same format. Of course, the actual evaluation would be individualized to reflect specific students, but the format and components would be there ready to go. I do worry that with so much information our LMA’s are becoming less user friendly for parents and other staff to interpret. Too much data can be overwhelming and we need to find a balance - this is a functional assessment and should be accurate but also concise. We also need to be realistic - some of the tools mentioned called for extended administration. There is only so much time to do evals and we need tools that help us make the best decisions in the most efficient manner possible.

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Thank you for sharing this resource. I get things from APH all the time and I am going to check this out. It has been really enlightening in this class to talk about braille reversals - I have seen it throughout my many years of teaching, and it is so great to hear strategies about what to do to help work through this. My strategies include repetition and practice and using the braillewriter or braille device to talk about dot locations but I need better and more strategies!!!