[blindkid] Descriptive books??

Kathy - Arizona kah-az at cox.net
Sat Dec 6 02:00:46 UTC 2008


To answer your question, Carlton:  "When they get into reading chapter 
books, and there's barely any pictures! "


My daughter is in her 20's now & yes, the Accelerated Reader program has 
been around since she was that young!  Your description of what she is doing 
made me realize wheels move very slowly in school programs, too.  From the 
time my daughter was taking those same tests.  ESPECIALLY if it's a 
Caldecott winner, it's hard - without a sighted person, to describe a story. 
No matter how much description of a picture, a Caldecott is just that - an 
award winning book with award-winning illustrations.  My daughter says she 
didn't start, though, that young.  She remembers reading lots of the classic 
authors, and testing on "chapter-books", but she was in 3rd-4th grade when 
they brought the program to her school.  There will be a LOT less pictures 
soon enough, and those are the real stories that will tempt her imagination, 
and start her real love of reading.  In the meantime, you just describe a 
lot, or if it's your book, add the description to each page.  If I didn't 
Braille it (borrowed book from their list), I described and described 
verbally.

I know I never let her not answer a question because of a picture.  I let 
her know that there would be times. that unless she adapted her work a 
little, she would not have the same perceptions the other children do.  In 
Caldecotts, it does matter...also with some pictures in school books, but 
THAT'S yet another whole ballgame.  As she gets older, open her up to the 
wide/varied books that are Newbury Award winners.  She will get a hugely 
wide-range of stories, and are still wonderful 20 years later.  My daughter 
used to know each & every one - and that even helped when she took courses 
for teaching in college.  She's still a very, very avid reader - and now her 
job depends upon all that reading!

I know that AR program directly gave her a jump-start on that love of 
reading.  She also loved the competition of how many of their AR 
booklist-books she could get through, as at the end of the school year, 
there were prizes for top readers - just like so many of our "Braille 
Readers Are Readers" kids participate in.  (And taking those tests had to be 
read to her as Jaws wasn't even available or even invented? back then!) 
Omigosh, I can't even imagine that!   *smile*   *feeling old*


Kathy
President
POBC - AZ




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carlton Anne Cook Walker" <attorneywalker at gmail.com>
To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 3:15 PM
Subject: [blindkid] Descriptive books??


> Hi all,
>
> Carrie's post got me thinking (as her wonderful posts always do).  The
> need for descriptions in picture books is evident in the tests of the
> Accelerated Reader (AR) program.
>
> My second grader, Anna, just took an AR test this afternoon on a book
> at the second grade reading level.  All but one of the five questions
> on the test had to do with the PICTURES in the book.  Now, granted,
> the book is a Caldecott Award winner and the pictures are nice, but
> this is an Accelerated READER program, not an Accelerated Looking At
> And Interpreting Pictures program.
>
>
> We has this same problem with kindergarten AR tests -- I had hoped it
> would have improved by now.
>
>
>
> This is a book I brailled myself, it isn't available from NBP or
> Seedlings (which might have had picture descriptions).  Even though
> Anna has some vision, she could not interpret most of the pictures --
> they were somewhat abstract and did not have terrific contrast.  I'm
> REALLY glad I described the pictures for her as she read the book to
> me -- otherwise, she would have received a poor score on the quiz.
>
>
>
> Golly, when does it get easier (smile)?
>
>
>
> Take care all!!
>
>
>
> Carlton
>
> -- 
> Carlton Anne Cook Walker
> 213 North First Street
> McConnellsburg, PA    17233
> Voice: 717-485-3383
>
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