[blindkid] IEP goals for 7th grader

Brandy W ballstobooks at gmail.com
Tue Aug 14 21:55:23 UTC 2012


Hi, I can't find the original email so I'll reply after Heather's awesome
knowledgeable reply!

First is your son could go from 45 WPM to 145 WPM in 3 months time if he
read a minimum of 45 minutes a day in Braille. He can get even faster if
everything he needs to do for school, and outside of school is read in
Braille. You get better at something by doing it! I knew all my contractions
by the end of second grade, but was a terrible reader. I knew the code, but
could also read some really really big print, therefore I did not get the
adequate consistent praxis I needed to be successful. When I entered the
school for the blind in 6th grade I read something like 30 words a minute on
second grade text. Simply terrible for a child who started reading Braille
as a toddler, but the expectation and practice weren't provided nor insisted
upon. By the end of 6 the grade I read about 70 words a minute in grade
level text. So not only did I improve by 40 words I improved 4 grade levels.
I'm not going to even pretend to say I got adequate braille instruction
after this because I didn't. I was smart, had comprehension well above grade
level, and was determined to go to college so academics got pushed, and
because I succeeded Braille speed and fluency again weren't pushed. I
listened to books on tape, learned how to skim, paid attention in class and
did my best. When I graduated I could read grade level text around 100 WPM.
Crap compared to sighted readers, but the school thought it was great, so
didn't continue to push.

You can't count on the school to make your child get on track you have to be
a part of this. To this day if I don't read Braille for about 3 days in a
week for about an hour my speed drops. I'm now about 200 WPM. Could it be
more yes, but my determination as an adult doubled what teachers got me to
do as a kid.

I see this with sighted children too. My niece who is entering second grade
reads amazingly as a sighted child, can decode words in 4th grade books, but
is a snail reading anything above about half way through second grade. My
sister was bothered by this as she knew she was capable of more, therefore
every day this summer she has read for a minimum of 20 minutes in a second
grade book. Last week while visiting me she was reading a children's bible
like she had it memorized. When we asked the teachers about this all they
said is "She is doing better than other kid in the class."" Do you want to
teach your children to read better than the 10 blind kids that this teacher
has taught Braille to or to compete in society.

The reason I wanted my reading rate higher is so I could read scripture in
church, or a book to my students while teaching without having to read it
any more ahead of time than my sighted peers performing the same task. Now
in a bible study I can bring Braille text along, and take my turn reading
the passage, and no one stops to think that it is taking me longer because
it is Braille. Instead they are intrigued how I read it so quickly. . 

One of my favorite things to tell people with low expectations of Braille
readers is "If you will permit your child, or any other child in this school
to read at that rate, and pass them with flying colors than we will talk
about allowing this blind child to have these goals." This usually changes
their tune pretty quickly.

Fight, and whatever you don't get in those goals do yourself. You are his
mom, and you can order books, and you can make him read every day. Put a
book in the car, and every time you are in the car have him read. As long as
you have interesting text and you are encouraging you will prove that he can
read as fast as sighted individuals.

Bran
   



"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is
a spark." 
- Victor Hugo 

Brandy Wojcik  Discovery Toys Educational Consultant and Team leader
(512) 689-5045
www.playtoachieve.com
Follow me on Face Book at
http://www.facebook.com/PlayToAchieve.DiscoveryToys 

Read my new blog at www.playtoachieveballstobooks.wordpress.com

Looking forward to helping you with your educational toy needs!


-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Heather Field
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 8:58 PM
To: Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] IEP goals for 7th grader

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.
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>



--
*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
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