NHStv: Behind the Headlines

 

"Hear" Me Out: Deaf Culture Experience/Experiment

Challenge: You are about to experience simulated deafness for a full 24 hour period to truly experience authentic ASL language usage as a hard of hearing individual. 

What a shock that must have been to the students in Mrs. Enfinger's American Sign Language I and II classes as Byron Nelson High School. While this teacher is able to somewhat mimic this experience in class by having full silent class days by which students must solely sign the language without speaking aloud or listening to said communication, this experiment provided a truly different take on removing sound from the equation. As a result of the experiment, deaf culture awareness was at an all time high at BNHS as students, parents, teachers, and administrators were talking about their opinions, accommodations, concerns, and perceptions which brought to light the need for true empathy and understanding for ALL types of students.

To begin, the following various stakeholders were informed about the experience.

• Students who would be participating learned of their assignment expectations and details
• Parents of those students in part that the experiment was expected to continue in full effort at home throughout the 24 hour time span
• Teachers and all other school staff since they would have these ASL students in their classes as well as other staff members who would be witnessing the experiment in other roles

The most frequently asked question was "How am I supposed to teach?" or "How is my student supposed to learn?" The best part about these questions is that the eye-opening learning experiment would not solely be experienced by the direct participant, but so much learning and understanding would also occur with other responsible parties.

To prepare for the "big day," students were tasked with researching ADA (American Deaf Association) requirements or accommodations available for all of the students' traditional daily activities including in the classroom such as enabling closed captioning on videos, live closed captioning on Google Slides, in addition to what needs may result for electives such as music or sports, and even church or other after school activities. They also gained an awareness of additional accommodations to accomplish other things they would want to do such as technology available including phone apps, interpreter and closed captioning services. Furthermore, research continued as students learned about Mandy Harvey and Nyle Dimarco to study deaf later in life vs. deaf from birth. Going into the experiment, students not only had a base understanding of the language they've so far learned through a traditional classroom setting, but they've also had a heightened interest in cultural aspects and legal accommodations as this research was authentic and immediately applied.

Students didn’t know the exact day they would go deaf in order to simulate adult deafness as it is usually gradual and don’t know it is happening. Instead, they showed up to class on a random day and were then told it would be their day to go deaf. The kids wore inner earplugs and outer ear muffs and on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being profoundly deaf) were a 3-4 to simulate an adult who was hard of hearing. Students had their choice of how they preferred to journal their experience from keeping an ongoing written blog via Google Doc, a vlog (video blog) for extra credit to later by shareable via YouTube, voice notes on a phone, other other digital presentation format.  

Alisa's full YouTube video blog (vlog)

Alisa's thoroughly detailed, insightful blog

Megan & Copelynn's Adobe Spark Page Experience Summary

These examples above show the passion and above-and-beyond-effort these students exhibited through being given an relevant, authentic experience coupled with the ability to share their story with a live, authentic audience. 

Mrs. Enfinger concluded that “The amazing thing about ASL is that I get to watch these kids fall in love with the culture and the people in a different way. They have a deep compassion and admiration for them, but it is difficult to teach them an understanding, empathy if you will. Not sympathy at all because what they learn over everything else is how empowered they felt- truly no fear! This experience was meant to educate them and those around them that the deaf can do anything the hearing can do except hear.”

This experience meets International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)’s standard of a Knowledge Constructor in which “students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits” (3A) and “students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions” (3D). 

Fourth Grade Authors, First Grade Audience

by Hayley Sample, 4th Grade Language Arts Teacher, Sendera Ranch Elementary

My 4th grade Sendera Ranch Elementary students had been writing narrative and expository pieces all year. This time was going to be different and we all were excited to integrate technology into the mix. After studying the ins and outs of children's literature and all it has to offer, together we created a Google form survey (see snip below) asking interest questions for each story element ie: characters, plot, problem, solution, sequel etc. We then met up with our first grade buddy. Each 4th grader took their ipad , books they were using to help plan their story and sat with a first grader asking them the questions for what they would like to see in the book that would be written specifically for them. This perked not only the first graders interest but my students interests as well. After we conducted the survey through google forms. We viewed the results and had a class discussion of the importance of having a good balance of what your reader wants and what the author wants when creating a book. 

Next was creating the plot pitch. Students planned out their story making sure to include all the components of the assignment as well as keeping in mind what the survey results showed. Great conversations resulted and many began see the full scope of what needed to be taken into consideration as the author of a book. My students faced this challenging task head on. Students who might typically be unmotivated where thriving. It was amazing to see their creative ideas come alive through the planning and then continue to develop and change throughout the process.

Once they finished their plot pitch, conferenced with a partner, they were ready to meet with met. Each child discussed their plot pitch with me. Once it was “publish ready” I approved the pitch and the budding authors began publishing in book creator on the iPad.

Book creator is a wonderful app that allows for all kinds of possibilities. There is a free and paid version of this app. My campus leadership agreed this was a great investment and bought the paid version for us because it allows an unlimited amount of books to be made on one iPad. The free version only allows one.

Prior to starting this project I made a PowerPoint with specific directions to “get to know the book creator app.” It was prior to reading STAAR.  We used this time to review and also learn the app so when they kids began to type their books they would feel comfortable and allow everyone time to become successful. This was the ultimate lifesaver. The kids were able to review in a fun way and learn a new app they would soon use!

The students typed all of their text for their book into book creator first then added their illustrations. There are many options for illustrating. Several drew on paper and then took a picture and imported them into their book, others brought props from home and took pictures of those and imported them in, some found pictures off the internet for their backgrounds and some drew with the pen feature in the app. Basically the opportunities were endless! During this process kids stayed focused on producing their books. They would ask others opinions, assist each other with drawings or trouble shoot if they couldn't figure something out.

Once their book was “done” they had to partner revise and edit. This process is a natural part of the writers workshop all year long, it resulted in many great conversations and significant improvements to students’ product. 

When the students were ready to publish they uploaded it to Showbie. Showbie is a excellent management app that is like drop box. It is free and you can create folders for each assignment. The kids then upload it into Showbie where it can be graded and left with verbal or written feedback. Through Showbie I would access all of their books to grade using my iPad. Within Showbie I retrieved the book then opened each book in iBooks where is makes it into an actual page turning book (this blew the kids minds). You can also email from Showbie. To continue the interaction and sharing of books, I emailed each book to our first grade friends teacher. Then she had each one of the books on her iPad for the first graders to read.

After 2.5-3 weeks of writing and illustrating our books were ready to be revealed. We made our way down to first grade and shared them. The kids loved their books that were specially made for THEM. Several of my kids dedicated their books to their first grader and this was very special.

After doing this project and sharing about it at assembly the word was out. I then helped third grade teachers learn the app and their students created a book to go with their inventor for their living museum.

This integrated learning experience allowed for such deep collaboration on so many levels. Across the country, district, campus etc. It impacted these young lives and was a tremendous SUCCESS!

Tearing Down Walls for a Community Classroom….

What do you get when you open the wall between two ELA classrooms?  Well...50+ students in one 7th grade classroom taught by Mrs. Heather Bjornberg and Mrs. Andrea Driver at Truett Wilson Middle School which equals LOTS of choice and digital creativity!!  

The lesson challenged students to analyze the relationship between theme and choice using the structure of Mythology.  Of course the teachers - YES TEACHERS - offered digital choice to their students by allowing them to choose any web-based program or app to showcase their knowledge.  Two student projects really stood out amongst the others: Jamie and Ashley. Jamie created a digital myth that explains the relationship between Demeter and Chartus that cautions readers to heed warning signs.  Ashley created a digital myth that showcases the conflict between Zeus and Gaea.

The creativity began flowing when both students used their devices: ipad, netbook, and smartphone, along with applications such as stop motion technology,  and multimedia presentations to animate their stories.  

Both Mrs. Bjornberg and Mrs. Driver knew they were not experts with the tools, but they encouraged their students to explore and become their OWN experts!  The teachers invited the campus I.T. Coach to help with planning and preparation before the execution.   I asked both students “What is your favorite part to having so many students and two teachers in your class?” Without hesitation Ashley said, “I always can have different perspectives about what we talk about in class.”  Jamie replied, “more collaboration and students to interact with on projects.”  

This is the first year that Mrs. Bjornberg and Mrs. Driver have been co-faciltators of a 7th grade ELA class and they are excited to continue this type of teaching for future years to come.