Standard+4-Instructional+Strategies


 * 4K1: Understanding of visual tools and organizers that support content mastery and retention by individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.**


 * Calendar of Events:**

In the Kindergarten classroom where I am doing my TE 401 placement the teacher uses an event board which helps kids to see what will be going on that day. This is a hearing classroom; however one of the students in her classroom is on the Autism Spectrum so it helps him understand the events of the day. I feel that this would also be beneficial for deaf students as well; however I would do it a bit different in that case. The teacher has laminated pieces of paper with pictures on the signifying what the activities for the day will be. When the students first get into the room the class will look at the board and discuss it. For example, listed first would be calendar, then reading and so forth. However, I would do this a bit differently and place the English word on there as well as the ASL sign. This would be good for a bilingual classroom as well to help the student associate the picture to the written English word as well as the ASL sign. This to me seems more beneficial than simply the picture itself. I really like the idea that it is a constant visual reminder for the students, and teacher, as to what they will be doing next. This gives them some independence and responsibility when it comes to preparing for the next activity.


 * High Frequency Word Wall: **

In my kindergarten general Ed placement, the teacher has a word wall that she uses for the high frequency words or as she calls them "heart words." The students use this wall when they are writing to help them remember how to spell it correctly. It is also a visual reminder of those words on a daily basis. I thought that having a word wall in the deaf Ed setting would help students who may be learning ASL for the first time. Instead of simply having a word on the wall, I would like to type the word, incorporate a picture, and have a picture of someone signing it. This way there is three ways that the student can associate all three of those as the same meaning. Simply having the word typed on a card, I feel will not help with retention, associating a picture with it will help students understand the meaning of the word, not simply memorizing it. I feel that having this word wall as a visual tool will help support the student's content mastery and also their retention. This word wall will stay up all year long, and we will be constantly adding new words, pictures, and signs to it. Constantly being able to see, use, and observe new words will hopefully help develop their language but also help with the bilingual setting. Learning the signs for ASL is one thing, but also switching and being able to know the English word is something that students in the bilingual setting will learn. Hopefully this word/picture wall will help with this second language learning. The word wall can also be used to help with content mastery of other subjects as well. You could have multiple word walls in the classroom, one for each subject. For example, you could have a word wall up in the classroom labeled Math. In that section, the teacher can post up content that has already been covered in the classroom, formulas, definitions, and equation symbols. This can be a constant reference for the students during further math events to help them master the subject. This can also be done for other subjects as well, maybe for Science, each student creates something that they believe should be placed on the wall, they pick the idea and write about it. This is then reinforcing the idea in their mind, and then once posted a constant reminder.