[blindkid] IEP goals for 7th grader

Heather Field missheather at comcast.net
Tue Aug 14 00:58:00 UTC 2012


Hello Mariana,
I am very passionate about this topic. I am blind myself and a special 
education teacher. I work with blind students and I often attend IEP 
meetings as a blind advocate. So, you can view the following comments in 
this framework.

It is a very sad truth that so many teachers of blind students have no idea 
about the realities of competent braille readers. Many of them have no blind 
adult friends and have never even seen a competent blind braille reader 
reading. The existence of such ignorance is tragic enough in itself, given 
that TVI's should be blind students' greatest advocates, spreading high 
expectations and truth wherever they go and whenever they can. However, 
belief in and support of these superstitions, with unquestioning faith and 
mindless propagation of the lies about the incompetence of blind students is 
devastating in its effect when a TVI presents incompetence as truth to the 
IEP team and to the parents and teachers who work in the school with blind 
students. So often, when pressed, such teachers have no real, normative data 
to back up their claims and they fall back to "in my experience as a TVI 
over the years" statements in attempts to justify their claims. Armed with 
their low expectations and solid beliefs in the incompetence of blind 
students, their experience has been shaped by them to meet those 
expectations and, in my own equally extensive experience of this phenomenon, 
is worthless in predicting outcomes for highly motivated, well 
taught/supported blind students. It becomes especially difficult for TVIs 
who make these claims to support them if you take a very able 
braille-reading, blind advocate to the IEP meeting with you.

The reality of daily life for lots of blind people is this: many braille 
readers read in the hundreds of words per minute range and many more would 
do so if they were given the proper encouragement, opportunities and 
expectations by those who teach (or taught) them to read braille.

It is important for you to understand what is going on with the so-called 
Braille Reading Rates chart which this teacher is referencing. Knowledge is 
power!  Whatever chart it is, and there are a few such rubbish documents 
floating about, it cannot possibly be accurate, valid or useful. Here's why.

The number of blind children who read braille at any given time in this 
country is a small number; so any comparison of the speeds of braille 
readers only ever compares a small sample -- number of children at any age 
level. However, such a comparison isn't possible because, to establish what 
is "normal" one has to compare *the same thing*. As anyone familiar with the 
population called "blind children" will tell you, there are many issues that 
must be considered when attempting to make comparisons between individual 
students. A list of such issues would include, but is not limited to, the 
following.

--Varying ages when braille tuition began.
--Varying number of hours of braille reading tuition per week.
--Variation in the code being taught -- contracted or uncontracted braille.
--Variation in the speed at which material is being introduced.
--Level of expectations of teachers.
--Parental support or rejection of braille.
--Student positive or negative attitude to braille.
--Use of braille in the classroom.
--Use of print as well as braille.
--varying degrees of residual vision.
--Physical issues such as cerebral palsy.
--premature birth.
--developmental delays.
--Language delay.
--emotional and/or behavioural disorders, not specifically related to 
blindness, such as autism.

Before one can say how many words a blind child, aged eight, can be expected 
to read, that child's reading must have been "normed" according to the 
reading scores of hundreds (thousands is better) of other 8-year-old blind 
children who are exactly like him in the areas which influence reading 
performance. Of course, this is impossible! Even if we could somehow manage 
to find and test every blind child, there are too many variables interfering 
with the process. There's too many differences to make a comparison useful.
Also, there is no reading material that has been developed, standardised and 
normed on braille readers. Much simpler to take the standardised reading 
rates for sighted readers and aim for those. These reading rates have been 
normed on hundreds of thousands of sighted children and, after all, blind 
children are children first and possession of a few different 
characteristics does not remove them from the population of normal children. 
They have much more in common with sighted children than they have 
differences from them.

In summary, the testing required to develop a statistically reliable set of 
reading speeds per minute for braille readers has not been done because of 
the almost impossible challenge of doing such testing. Therefore, any 
so-called "charts" on this topic are simply something put together by people 
who think they know, based on who-knows-what hypotheses, experience etc., 
what the reading speeds *might* be. They are pure invention.

So, with all that said, if I were in your shoes, I would politely suggest to 
the TVI that she take her chart, fold it in four and use it as a coaster for 
her coffee cup while she peruses the Jerry Johns reading rates and works out 
her teaching strategies for getting your son's reading rate up to that of 
his chronological peers. If she objects to the claim that the chart which 
she is using to maintain your son's remedial reading performance is invalid, 
ask her to tell you about the size of the sample, and what statistical tools 
they used to control for variables such as age of starting braille, method 
learned (contracted or uncontracted), additional disabilities, variation in 
residual vision etc. they used in obtaining the rates she's expecting. It's 
a 100% bet that she won't have a clue. You are within your rights as a 
parent to reject her "chart" as a faulty and invalid measuring tool. I would 
reject it and absolutely insist on the IEP including age/grade equivalent 
reading rates with his sighted peers. It doesn't matter if your son doesn't 
reach them this year, he can keep working toward them. But, it's an absolute 
certainty he'll never get close to reading at the rates his sighted peers 
read if the expectations are that he will always read two and a half times 
slower.

Incidentally, for the record, I read at over 400 words per minute in a topic 
that's familiar to me, and I read braille. I know numerous other blind 
people who also read in the hundreds of words per minute. I have also known 
many blind people who have raised their braille reading rates, simply by 
first raising their expectations for their reading ability and secondly by 
sheer hard work; reading every day for a set time. So, with proper tuition 
and lots of braille reading, your son will rapidly raise his braille reading 
rates. I hope this is encouraging to you. Expect the stars for your son's 
reading rates; if you reach only the Earth's outer atmosphere you will have 
him well on his way to college.
Regards,
Heather Field

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mariana Mitova
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 4:22 PM
To: Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Cc: Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] IEP goals for 7th grader

Speaking of Jerry Johns standard, my son's TVI just told me that these rates 
are for sighted readers. I suggested to her to look at Denise's website with 
the hopes that she will get on board since I am a strong believer that these 
rates are achievable with the right attitudes...

However she send me a Braille reading rate chart that she "believes it is 
more relevant". What does that mean?!?
The chart actually is from a TVI listserve and it suggests that an average 
braille reader reads  two to two-and-a-half times slower than a sighted 
reader.
She also mentioned that My son's reading challenge would be "on her" since 
she does not believe that he can go from 45 wpm to 130 in a school year.
How can I get her on board?
Mariana

On Aug 13, 2012, at 14:05, "Dr. Denise M Robinson" <deniserob at gmail.com> 
wrote:

lynda
Those are terribly written goals.

A goal should be something like: Isaac will go *from* reading braille at 60
wpm with 85% accuracy *to* reading 90 wpm with 95% accuracy by 6-6-13 as
documented by teacher of the blind using Jerry Johns' reading level
inventory....then every three months or whenever IEP or report card time
dictates, have standards of where he is at so you know if he is making
progress

Need exact of what he is doing now and where he will go by what time and
when

Denise

On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Richard Holloway 
<rholloway at gopbc.org>wrote:

> I'm not clear as to what "40" refers to.
>
> 40 wpm?
>
> 40% of grade level?
>
>
>
> On Aug 13, 2012, at 12:07 PM, LZ wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Isaac's IEP is coming up. He is starting 7th grade.  I have been
> advocating for grade level expectations for him ( they wanted me to be
> happy about 40 won a year ago).
>>
>> Here are the suggestions I got from his main teacher.  I would
> appreciate any and all suggestions and feedback!!
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Lynda
>>
>> Reading:
>>
>> Given a 200 word passage of non-fiction text at 7th grade level, Isaac
> will read it initially with a speed of 175 wpm with comprehension at 80% 
> in
> 2 consecutive trials within an 8 week period as documented by the 
> classroom
> teacher and recorded in the grade book.
>>
>> Writing:
>>
>> Given a list of topics, Isaac will pick one to research and write a five
> paragraph paper with three resources cited using conventional guidelines
> for each of 2 consecutive 9 week time periods as documented by the
> classroom teacher and recorded in the grade book.
>>
>> Math:
>>
>> Given 3 word problems in each of 5 trials, Isaac will use Nemeth
> notation and variables to independently write an equation, create a table
> or graph to correctly solve all three problems in 4 out of the 5 trials as
> documented by the classroom teacher and recorded in the grade book.
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindkid mailing list
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindkid:
>>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/rholloway%40gopbc.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindkid:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/deniserob%40gmail.com
>



-- 
*Denise*

Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D.
CEO, TechVision, LLC
Specialist in Technology/Training/Teaching for blind/low vision
509-674-1853

Website with hundreds of informational articles & lessons on PC, Office
products, Mac, iPad/iTools and more, all done with
keystrokes: www.yourtechvision.com

"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
doing it." --Chinese Proverb

Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid: humans are incredibly
slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond
imagination.
--Albert Einstein

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
--Walt Disney
_______________________________________________
blindkid mailing list
blindkid at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
blindkid:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/mariana.a.mitova%40gmail.com

_______________________________________________
blindkid mailing list
blindkid at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
blindkid:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/missheather%40comcast.net 





More information about the BlindKid mailing list