[Blindmath] Blindmath Digest, Vol 88, Issue 5
Lewicki, Maureen
mlewicki at bcsd.neric.org
Sat Nov 9 15:47:10 UTC 2013
Tell me which embosser you are using, please. I have a romeo , which only does graphs drawn in quick tac, and I also have an imprint spot dot, which will emboss tactile graphics, but even those have to be re-formatted so that they are understandable to the touch.
I love my job, don't get me wrong, but, and perhaps I am doing something wrong, but even the tactiles produced by computer take a while to produce in a way my students will understand, and even then, I try to present them before the classroom teacher presents them in class, so that we have a chance to look them over beforehand.
Bottom line, sometimes the low tech stuff really still works better, gets the job done, even though it may also take a while, and presents things to the students they understand.
In terms of you assistive tech dept, no offence to my AT heros, as they are my heros, but they really do not know the gritty details involved in braille software, embossing, etc...in my neck of the woods, it is still the lone wolf TVI who is wrestling with the technology...I thank God for tech assistance from the companies who know me by name...!!
Maureen Murphy Lewicki
Maureen Murphy Lewicki
Teacher of Visually Impaired
Bethlehem Central School
332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
http://bethlehemschools.org
(518) 439-7460
Fax (518) 475-0092
"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The
real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that
exists. If a blind person has the proper training and
opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical
nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mary Woodyard
Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2013 9:23 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Blindmath Digest, Vol 88, Issue 5
I would think having a grid mat to place under paper would be very helpful in helping a student learn to graph and understand graphing concepts. Here is one other thought though on the whole graphing subject. Almost any graph activity a student is doing can be described. Attached you will find an answer key from my son's Math 3 class describing transformations and manipulations of graphs. Students really spend a lot more time interpreting a graph someone gives them and determining roots, equations ect than they do actually creating a graph. In the case of the student that started this thread, an equation could be written representing the area that needed to be shaded if the standard did not actually call for the student to be able to physically shade it - if the standard was just to identify the graph solution - an equation identifying the areas that need to be shaded could have worked.
I did not really grasp how little actual graphing students really have to do until I bought the new TI graphing calculator. My son does not use Braille
- so I had to figure out how it would work with an embosser. After spending some time getting the right cable, identifying an embosser in our school district he could use ect - I finally figured out that he did not really need to be printing the graph for his requirements at his age. Younger students may. If he did save his graphs, label them correctly (which he could do but a younger student may have trouble), email them to the school with the embosser - than that school could print them out and he could turn them in to his teacher.
However, all of that was not necessary for the tasks he was doing. They will be doing more graphing and I'm glad I figured all of that out.
However, if you look at the attachment above, you will see that it is way more critical for the information being presented to him to be accommodated than it is for him to physically produce a graph back. He really needs to know how to interpret the graphs he is seeing at this point and when he has to determine and produce the actions that are happening on the graph, it can be done with descriptive language instead of him actually producing the graph.
He is lucky in that he does have enough usable vision (With a restricted
field) that he can usually accomplish see his graphs with large print and contrast on the axis. However, for a student that does not - to me it would be more important to give the student an embossed graph to orient himself with and let him interpret it than it would be for the student to be producing a graph. In my son's case his school works from PDFs instead of a book. One question I have asked the Assistive Technology Director here is if it would work just to send the PDFs that my son is getting to work on to the embosser and give him an embossed copy. She did not know but his vision teacher confirmed that this would work - however he may not get all the information from the graph as the dots may not be raised correctly.
In any case, I was amazed that as long as I have been working with him I did not really see that it is more important to get the information accommodated as it is being presented to him instead of focusing so much on how he is going to produce it as again - most of the graph behaviors can be described that he has worked on so far. I was also amazed at how little knowledge there is in our educational system as to how to use the embosser since it seems like that would be an easy way to get accommodated worksheets to our vision students. Really what I am saying is that as a parent I would not think I would be the one figuring this out. I really should just be happy that our district has two and if he needs them - we can get information to him that way. I think for Geometry I will insist they try it that way as that is where he needed tactile graphics last year.
One benefit to the Common Core curriculum for the states that participate in it is that it does give someone a chance to look at the Math standards and figure out how to best address issues like graphing at every age. I really do like the idea of your graphing mat and I think a lot of the ideas presented for the graphing solutions are wonderful. I also like that we can come up with some great ideas (Both high tech and low tech) to teach our students Math!
PS - Tommy is in 11th grade so this is a quiz key from an on level Math course he is taking now.
-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of blindmath-request at nfbnet.org
Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2013 7:00 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Blindmath Digest, Vol 88, Issue 5
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: graphing inequalities (Sean Tikkun)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 10:27:59 -0500
From: Sean Tikkun <jaquis at mac.com>
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] graphing inequalities
Message-ID: <205DDF84-B3FB-4D64-B3BE-557E91589107 at mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I'm wondering from a design perspective if creating a grooved or gridded under mat would help with student graphing. As a teacher I made stencils out of old Braille book covers so I could quickly create 1-4 axis on the fly in classes.
I'm imagining a very low hight bump grid with a depression for an axis.
Sean Richards Tikkun
Sent from my iPod
> On Nov 7, 2013, at 10:57 PM, Susan Osterhaus <osterhauss at tsbvi.edu> wrote:
>
> Thanks for looking into this Li.
> Susan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Li
> Zhou
> Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2013 9:55 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Cc: ljmaher
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] graphing inequalities
>
> I've asked some of my colleagues in my research department and it
> seems to be not easy to add raised grid lines on films. But I'm going
> to ask some people in the production side as well. It's just my
> thought that cost may be a key issue here.
>
> Yes, we now know this and will do our best to help.
>
> Li
>
>> On 11/7/13, Susan Osterhaus <osterhauss at tsbvi.edu> wrote:
>> Li works for APH. So, I think he was asking if there was any interest
>> in having the Draftsman film come in a gridded format. The film is
>> not expensive if your student is eligible for federal quota money.
>> Li, would it be possible to get the Draftsman film in gridded format?
>>
>> Susan
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>> Louis Maher
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2013 5:19 PM
>> To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] graphing inequalities
>>
>> Li,
>>
>> Forget the plastic film. It does not come with gridlines, and the
>> plastic is expensive.
>>
>> Use plain paper.
>>
>> Regards
>> Louis Maher
>> 713-444-7838
>> ljmaher at swbell.net
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Li
>> Zhou
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2013 9:59 AM
>> To: ljmaher at swbell.net; Blind Math list for those interested in
>> mathematics
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] graphing inequalities
>>
>> If the plastic films/paper used with Draftsman come in with raised
>> grid lines, with that help?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Li
>>
>>> On 11/4/13, Louis Maher <ljmaher at swbell.net> wrote:
>>> Maureen,
>>>
>>> The graph paper would not work for the student because the student
>>> cannot feel the graph paper, unless you sketched a few of the lines
>>> in the graph paper grid.
>>>
>>> In this case, you need only show the concept of the graph. You do
>>> not have to have accuracy, just the general shape.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Louis Maher
>>> 713-444-7838
>>> ljmaher at swbell.net
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>> Lewicki, Maureen
>>> Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 6:19 PM
>>> To: <ljmaher at swbell.net>; Blind Math list for those interested in
>>> mathematics
>>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] graphing inequalities
>>>
>>> Thanks Louis, isn't that similar to the mat that APH puts out on
>>> which you can put plastic paper?
>>>
>>> If i put raised line graph paper on the sensational blackboard will
>>> that work? The student has to be able to use the graph paper as a
>>> reference point
>>>
>>> Maureen Lewicki
>>> Teacher of the Visually Impaired
>>> Bethlehem Central Schools
>>> 700 Delaware Avenue
>>> Delmar, NY 12054
>>> http://bcsd.k12.ny.us/
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 4, 2013, at 6:20 PM, "Louis Maher"
>>> <ljmaher at swbell.net<mailto:ljmaher at swbell.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Maureen,
>>>
>>> You should consider the "sensational Blackboard" available at
>>> http://sensationalbooks.com/.
>>> With this $30 item, a blind or sighted person can rapidly sketch a
>>> graph using a ball-point pin and a plane piece of paper, and the
>>> blind individual can feel the graph, and a sighted person can see
>>> the
> graph.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Louis Maher
>>> 713-444-7838
>>> ljmaher at swbell.net<mailto:ljmaher at swbell.net>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>> Lewicki, Maureen
>>> Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 3:50 PM
>>> To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
>>> Subject: [Blindmath] graphing inequalities
>>>
>>> I Have a student who is going to have to graph inequalities. I am
>>> thinking the best approach is to have her graph them using the APH
>>> graphic aid, push pins for dotted lines, rubber bands for solid
>>> lines, and I am thinking that to for the student to show the areas,
>>> I can have her use Wiki sticks in one direction for one equation and
>>> wiki sticks in another direction for the other.
>>>
>>> In terms of her handing in this work I have been showing her how to
>>> photograph the graph, but this is not so fail safe. The graph is
>>> usually too far away for the teacher to see the details, and the
>>> student has no idea if the photo will make sense.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions? No calculators permitted at this point. The second
>>> part of this issue is convincing the classroom teacher that it will
>> work!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>>> Maureen Murphy Lewicki
>>> Teacher of Visually Impaired
>>> Bethlehem Central School
>>> 332 Kenwood AvenueDelmar, NY 12054
>>> http://bethlehemschools.org<http://bethlehemschools.org/>
>>> (518) 439-7460
>>> Fax (518) 475-0092
>>> "The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight. The
>>> real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists.
>>> If a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness
>>> can be reduced to a mere physical nuisance."Kenneth Jernigan
>>>
>>>
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