perspectives in Education and Deafness

A Literacy Program

Nine Important Pieces

Does anyone doubt that the most pressing problem facing schools today is the need to increase the English literacy skills of students who are deaf and hard of hearing? Teachers, parents, and school administrators throughout the nation share this concern as we face an Internet-dominant society in which reading and writing are expected as a matter of course. As I visit schools and programs with students who are deaf and hard of hearing throughout the nation, I see exciting programs being implemented by enthusiastic educators. The programs are promising, the enthusiasm encouraging.

	ABOVE: In an effective literacy program, nine components fit together like pieces of a puzzle to make a whole.

The Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) on the campus of Gallaudet University established a literacy team that identified nine major components of a comprehensive literacy program. Each of the components are addressed in this issue: Reading to Children; Dialogue Journals; Independent Reading; Guided Reading and Writing; Shared Reading and Writing; Other Journals and Logs; Research Reading and Writing; Language Experience; and Writing Workshop. We selected teachers from throughout the nation to write on each of these areas. David R. Schleper, literacy coordinator for the Pre-College National Mission Programs at Gallaudet University, undertook the role of consulting editor. We are very pleased with each of the contributions that demonstrate so amply that these practices-the most effective to be identified-are in use throughout the country today.

In an effective program, these components fit together like pieces of a puzzle to make a whole. Each part is necessary and complements the other parts. No one part alone will result in the achievement of literacy. All of the pieces together provide students with the skills they need to be literate. The vast majority of students who are deaf or hard of hearing need exposure to each piece from a very early age, daily, until they graduate from high school with the literacy skills they need to succeed.

Every Piece, Every Day

Each piece of the literacy puzzle affords students the opportunity to learn types of writing with varying levels of instruction by teachers. Dialogue journals encourage students to write freely with the expectation that an adult will write back, modeling appropriate English, without being judgmental or critical. A class that uses only dialogue journals never gets around to actually instructing students on proper English grammar, syntax, spelling, or the organization of ideas. Doing just dialogue journals during language arts period, without the rest of the pieces, will not result in more literate students.

The free writing opportunities offered by dialogue journals have to be balanced with more structured approaches offered through writing workshop, guided writing, and research writing.

Moreover, in a well-designed bilingual program, speech-language specialists work within the classroom to develop children's awareness of English phonology while specialists in American Sign Language develop students' skills in the building blocks of ASL.

The writing workshop is central. Through this process, a teacher instructs students about grammar rules, syntax, spelling, punctuation, and other necessary information related to English. A student who only writes in dialogue journals may think that everything he or she writes is correct because the process of using dialogue journals does not explicitly help a student to identify parts of his or her writing that need attention. Without a writing workshop, the student may never receive mini-lessons or have information about what to look for in writing. A writing workshop gives students personal goals for writing and alerts the student to look closely at other people's writing as a model. In combination with a strong writing workshop, using dialogue journals and other journals and logs gives students opportunities to incorporate what has been learned into spontaneous writing.

The same holds true for reading. I became concerned when I visited a few classrooms where the teacher seemed to be reading to the children as the sole type of reading instruction. Reading to children is one strategy that gives children an important foundation for reading success. It has to be done in balance with other types of reading instruction, especially shared reading and guided reading, where the teacher actually guides the children through a book that may be a bit too difficult to read independently. The teacher focuses on vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, story structure, and theme. Through guided reading, children consciously gain the skills they need to "attack" an unknown text because teachers skillfully plan reading lessons to build their skills and confidence.

Schools that are serious about their commitment to developing the literacy skills of students who are deaf or hard of hearing must enable the daily classroom schedule to reflect that, without diminishing the importance of the core content areas.

In a well-balanced reading program, students work at three reading levels. First, during independent reading, they are paired with books they can read and understand on their own. During shared reading, a teacher reads and re-reads a book and helps students gain skills and confidence. Second, during guided reading, students read books a bit above their reading level which they can understand with instructional support. Lastly, they are exposed to reading material appropriate to their age-level during reading to the students. Many teachers use materials just above the level at which they read comfortably for reading aloud as a way to pull up the students' reading level.

This constant, daily stimulation and interplay of the student's independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels serves to build confidence. The student reads books independently. The student is challenged to read books a bit too difficult and is given instructional support to do so. And the student is enticed and inspired to continue learning to read by being exposed to good literature, read aloud by a skilled adult. Moreover, in a well-designed bilingual program, speech-language specialists work within the classroom to develop children's awareness of English phonology while specialists in American Sign Language (ASL) develop students' skills in the building blocks of ASL.

Every Student, Every Level, Every Type of Communication

The nine literacy practices apply to all students, including those who hear normally. At KDES and MSSD, we apply them within a bilingual setting. However, deaf and hard of hearing students employ many types of communication modes, and these literacy practices can and should be used by all students, regardless of their communication preferences. Students educated through oral-auditory means need exposure to all nine literacy practices, and their teachers should encourage their learning of English through speechreading and audition. Likewise, students using Cued Speech require the same exposure to these literacy practices, their teachers helping them to link the cueing signals to the spoken and written English words. Bilingual-bicultural programs apply these practices with special attention to how the two languages, American Sign Language and English, interact within each practice and to how teachers and education professionals use American Sign Language to cultivate and nurture students' development in the English language.

All nine practices apply to all levels of students from the high achieving, to those in the middle and at the lower end of the literacy development spectrum. These practices respect and respond to the process of human development. Teachers know each student's current level and the next level each must attain.

If schools continue to pass students through course requirements in math, science, life skills, home economics, and social studies but graduate students who lack fundamental literacy skills, they have failed in their most basic responsibility.

Dialogue journals, for example, can be done with children of all writing levels, from emerging to advanced. Students whose writing skills are just emerging, regardless of their age, typically draw pictures and use some writing to complement the drawing. With a journal entry like this, the teacher would respond by using the drawings to help build basic English vocabulary and sentence structure. A teacher with an emerging writer uses the dialogue journal to encourage growth in basic literacy skills. At the other end of the spectrum, students who are fluent writers benefit from dialogue journals too. They write about topics important to them and gain important skills like logical thinking and persuasion from dialoguing with an adult about those topics.

Reading to students provides another example of how these practices apply to all learners. At the elementary school age, young children who are reading picture books with their teacher's assistance benefit from having this teacher read aloud beginning chapter books, which represent their next reading level. When beginning chapter books are read aloud to them, they formulate an understanding of where their reading is headed and become motivated to reach that level. Likewise for a fluent reader at the high school level, reading to students would become a literary society event where teachers introduce students to Chaucer, Shakespeare, poetry, short stories, and other great works.

Fitting in the Pieces

	ABOVE: A comprehensive program supports students of all ages and ability levels.

When asked how much time in school is actually dedicated to reading and writing, teachers consistently answer "not enough." In one high school for deaf students that I visited, a teacher estimated that students spend no more than 15 minutes a day reading and writing. How can we improve the literacy skills of our students when we don't even "do" them in school for more than a quarter of an hour? How can we expect students to do homework by reading and writing when we don't give them all the skills to do so? Schools that are serious about their commitment to developing the literacy skills of students who are deaf or hard of hearing must enable the daily classroom schedule to reflect that, without diminishing the importance of the core content areas.

At the middle and high school level, if traditional scheduling is followed, it will be almost impossible to enable students to get enough literacy instruction within the school day. For those students who have a pressing need to enhance their reading and writing skills, enforcing such a traditional schedule is almost unconscionable. If schools continue to pass students through course requirements in math, science, life skills, home economics, and social studies but graduate students who lack fundamental literacy skills, they have failed in their most basic responsibility. Any school with a serious literacy problem among its student body has to provide a schedule that devotes a substantial portion of the day to reading and writing skills. A school schedule should support, not thwart, the achievement of outcomes the students need.

Fortunately, most programs recognize the importance that needs to be placed on literacy development. The excitement and enthusiasm I've seen at different schools around the country arise from the fact that each of the nine literacy practices really works. For the whole picture of literacy to emerge in all its colors and shapes we need to put all the pieces together, to fit them all into the school day. The result is a very beautiful picture indeed.

[ Literacy: Pieces of a Successful Program ]