[Pibe-division] {Disarmed} Fw: Are You Teaching Braille, Literacy or Both?
Edward Bell
ebell at latech.edu
Thu Jul 31 15:17:02 UTC 2014
Are You Teaching Braille, Literacy or Both?We're looking for individuals who are seeking a meaningful, rewarding career in the field of blindness.
View this email on the web
Are You Teaching Braille, Literacy or Both?
Casey West Robertson, M.Ed., NCLB
Join us on Sunday, Aug. 3 from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. in the Republic B ballroom of the Grand Hyatt San Antonio.
We’ll be presenting about how a blind or low-vision student can learn the braille code in one year and begin reading on grade level at the 2014 AER International Conference next Sunday.
In our field, well-meaning teachers have accidentally stopped teaching reading while going through the braille alphabet. Teachers focus a lot upon not using certain passages because they include dot-5 words, for example, while the student is focusing upon a contraction like “ful.” Furthermore, blind students across the country aren’t learning to read with the same curriculum as their peers. When blind students go through the Building on Patterns curriculum, they’re learning to read and write; however, most of the time it separates them from their peers during the language arts block. They are using different spelling words, stories and many times pulled to other classrooms. These curricula may be more comfortable for a sighted person teaching braille, but they’re not equipping students to get through the braille code quickly and get on grade level.
During the past school year, we pilot-tested a teaching method with two seven-year-old girls in the first grade. They both started learning braille in August 2013 using a method we’re calling the “Natural Order of Contractions.” Built upon Dolch words (also known as “sight words”), which we know make up more than 50 percent of the words in children’s books, the underpinning idea of the Natural Order of Contractions method is to help students quickly recognize words through their patterns…not individual letters.
The Natural Order of Contractions method uses the general education teacher’s resources and assignments, so that by the end of the year year, the blind students stay in their classroom during the entire language arts session.
We encourage you to come to the session on Sunday to learn more about this teaching strategy, ask questions, and see how you can begin adding this to your toolbox of techniques to immediately use with your students.
Our presentation will take place on Sunday, Aug. 3 from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. in the Republic B ballroom of the Grand Hyatt San Antonio.
For those of you who aren’t able to join us in San Antonio, we’ll post more soon about the mechanics of this strategy on our blog. You can receive more information about this method, and other teaching techniques, by signing up for our weekly blog update e-mails.
Literacy
Learn to empower blind students by teaching them the gift of braille.
Learn about our master's degree programs »
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Copyright © 2014 Institute on Blindness, All rights reserved.
Institute on Blindness
PO Box 3158
Ruston, LA 71272
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Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC
REGISTER TO TAKE THE NATIONAL CERTIFICATION IN LITERARY BRAILLE (NCLB) Exam http://www.nbpcb.org/pages/announcements.php
Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University
210 Woodard Hall
PO Box 3158
Ruston LA 71272
Office: 318.257.4554
Fax: 318.257.2259 (Fax)
Skype: edwardbell2010
ebell at latech.edu
www.latech.edu/instituteonblindness
********************
"I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
-- Stephen Jay Gould
From: Louisiana Tech Institute on Blindness
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 10:03 AM
To: ebell at latech.edu
Subject: Are You Teaching Braille, Literacy or Both?
We're looking for individuals who are seeking a meaningful, rewarding career in the field of blindness.
View this email on the web
Are You Teaching Braille, Literacy or Both?
Casey West Robertson, M.Ed., NCLB
Join us on Sunday, Aug. 3 from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. in the Republic B ballroom of the Grand Hyatt San Antonio.
We’ll be presenting about how a blind or low-vision student can learn the braille code in one year and begin reading on grade level at the 2014 AER International Conference next Sunday.
In our field, well-meaning teachers have accidentally stopped teaching reading while going through the braille alphabet. Teachers focus a lot upon not using certain passages because they include dot-5 words, for example, while the student is focusing upon a contraction like “ful.” Furthermore, blind students across the country aren’t learning to read with the same curriculum as their peers. When blind students go through the Building on Patterns curriculum, they’re learning to read and write; however, most of the time it separates them from their peers during the language arts block. They are using different spelling words, stories and many times pulled to other classrooms. These curricula may be more comfortable for a sighted person teaching braille, but they’re not equipping students to get through the braille code quickly and get on grade level.
During the past school year, we pilot-tested a teaching method with two seven-year-old girls in the first grade. They both started learning braille in August 2013 using a method we’re calling the “Natural Order of Contractions.” Built upon Dolch words (also known as “sight words”), which we know make up more than 50 percent of the words in children’s books, the underpinning idea of the Natural Order of Contractions method is to help students quickly recognize words through their patterns…not individual letters.
The Natural Order of Contractions method uses the general education teacher’s resources and assignments, so that by the end of the year year, the blind students stay in their classroom during the entire language arts session.
We encourage you to come to the session on Sunday to learn more about this teaching strategy, ask questions, and see how you can begin adding this to your toolbox of techniques to immediately use with your students.
Our presentation will take place on Sunday, Aug. 3 from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. in the Republic B ballroom of the Grand Hyatt San Antonio.
For those of you who aren’t able to join us in San Antonio, we’ll post more soon about the mechanics of this strategy on our blog. You can receive more information about this method, and other teaching techniques, by signing up for our weekly blog update e-mails.
Literacy
Learn to empower blind students by teaching them the gift of braille.
Learn about our master's degree programs »
Facebook
Twitter
Website
READ MORE ARTICLES
Copyright © 2014 Institute on Blindness, All rights reserved.
Institute on Blindness
PO Box 3158
Ruston, LA 71272
Add us to your address book
unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
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