Wednesday November 18, 2020 National Center on Deaf‑Blindness Early Literacy and Numeracy 3:00 PM‑4:30 PM CART provided by A La CARTe Connection, LLC. CART Disclaimer: This rough edit transcript, which may contain missing, misspelled or paraphrased words, is only provided for your immediate review and is not certified as verbatim and is not to be cited in any way. [Captioner standing by] >> HAYLEE MARCOTTE: This is Haylee. We'll give it about another two or three minutes and then get started with the presentation. >> HAYLEE MARCOTTE: All right, this is Haylee Marcotte. I think we'll go ahead and get this started. I want to begin by welcoming everyone to today's session. I will quickly run through some important things to know. First, all phone lines have been muted and microphones turned off to reduce background noise. We ask you keep yourself on mute for the entirety of the presentation. This presentation will encourage lots of participation with polls and in the chat pod. If you have any questions at any time, please put them in the chat pod as it will be monitored throughout the presentation. This presentation will be recorded, so please be mindful of any personal information shared in the chat pod as it will be on the recording. Now I'm going to start the recording and hand it over to NCDB's Director, Linda McDowell. >> LINDA MCDOWELL: Hello, everybody. I'm so happy you could be with us on this session, in spite of everything going on, the pandemic, shutdowns, et cetera. So we are united in the effort to serve even in the hard times. Thank you, again, for your dedication, your attendance today in this Deaf‑Blind Summit 2020 session. As a part of this year's Deaf‑Blind Summit Session Series, which we began in July and runs through to January, NCDB is holding six webinars on instructional strategies and resource of interest to families and educators of children and youth who are deaf‑blind, as well as State Deaf-Blind Project personnel. I'm going to put a link in the chat pod and that takes you to a location on our website where you will find information on all of the Deaf‑Blind Summit 2020 sessions. Then I'm going to put a second link in the chat which takes you to ‑‑ let's see if I can get it in there ‑‑ it will take you to the site on our website where you will see the six instructional strategies sessions, their descriptions, and the resources that go along with the sessions as well. Let me get that into the chat as well. The resources for each of those instructional strategies session that have been held so far include a session recording, a PowerPoint, and a facts sheet. The facts sheets have key points and the resources that the presenters have introduced during the session, so it has links to resources. Today's facts sheet is on the website already and the session recording and PowerPoint will be add, as Haylee said, within a day or two. In July, we were pleased to have Susan Bruce and Tracy Evans bring us strategies for teaching at home. While the majority of the children served by Deaf-Blind Projects are communicators, there's a growing number who are proficient communicators being served in General Education classrooms. In September, we were pleased to have Deanna Person and Nancy O'Donnell bring the needs for communicators. For the second October session and the two November sessions, our focus has been on accessing the General Education curriculum. Again, please see the descriptions and materials for these three sessions on our website using one or the other of the links that are in the chat pod. Ensuring that all students have access to the General Education curriculum is a priority to OSEP, the Office of Special Education Program, who provides the funding for our technical assistance. To support us, the National Center, as well as state projects, our Process Officer, Susan Weigert, has encouraged us to partner with National Centers who focus on this outcome, particularly the National Center on Educational Outcomes and the TIES Center, T‑I‑E‑S. Before I introduce our TIES Center presenters, I want to explain the intent of these three sessions that give information on accessing the General Educational curriculum. The first session was on October 21st and that was to clarify the difference between Academic Content Standards and Alternative Academic Standards. Academic Content Standards, what students ought to know and do at each grade are the same for all students, including students with significant cognitive disabilities. How students demonstrate their knowledge and skills may different for students with significant cognitive disabilities as reflected in Alternative Academic Achievement Standards identified for state tests. On November 4th, the presenters discussed providing access and progress in grade‑level General Education curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities, with a few of examples of application for students who are deaf‑blind. In addition, they talked about planning and implementing effective academic instruction in the current environment of either hybrid or distance learning. We partnered with the National Center on Educational Outcomes and the TIES Center for multiple reasons. They have similar expectations for students with significant cognitive disabilities, they've produced materials and disseminated information to achieve similar outcomes, meaningful access to the General Ed curriculum, and they have a strong desire for effective implementation with all students in all states. Our deaf‑blind network partnership with them can assist them and it can assist them. It can assist us in having a clearer, stronger voice in our state work around the process and framework for accessing General Ed curriculum, using the terminology the state educational personnel are familiar with. We can assist the TIES Center and the state educational personnel with application to students who are deaf‑blind. They have some examples of this, but we both need more. These three sessions are only the beginning steps to achieving outcomes for students who are deaf‑blind with significant cognitive disabilities. I'm happy to say that NCDB has already begun gathering additional information and resources to help with further application of the principles and processes for accessing the General Ed curriculum. There is much more to come in the months ahead. Your participation in the evaluations of these three sessions is extremely helpful as we develop additional resources, particularly your responses to this question: Is there anything we could recommend that would help you better understand or implement the information presented in this session? I'm turning now to our content for our session, Early Literacy and Numeracy, and I'm handing things over to our presenters, Gail Ghere and Jessica Bowman, researchers with the TIES Center. Gail. >> GAIL GHERE: Thank you, Linda. Great to be here with you again. We were with you two weeks ago and really enjoyed the opportunity to come back. I would just like to kind of expand or, you know, hear what Linda just talked about. I mean, our work is focusing on students with significant cognitive disabilities. We know there is a significant overlap between the students that we really focus on in inclusive environments and the National Center for deaf‑blindness focuses. And it's, I think what we need to do is today we're going to put forth understands to the best extent apply them in the work with students who are deaf‑blind, but we also see that our audience are the experts in that area. So as you, in the chat, as you take this information and apply your expertise, please share with your colleagues and help us to understand this better as we meet the needs of this group of students, too. We're inclusive in who we want to meet the needs of. Let's see, I think I'm advancing my own slides. Yep, I am. These are better pictures of Jessica and I ‑‑ well, at least they were professional ones. We're with the TIES Center, as Linda said. And Liz Hartmann, who helped us in our work here today and developing this, she is with CAST, she is not here today, but her work is infused in all of this. We focus on inclusion education practices and policies overall, but with a particular focus on the kids with significant cognitive disabilities. The reason is, you really will not have a good, solid inclusive system that works for them if your philosophy is not inclusion for all. So we go back and forth between that and we want to really support schools and districts and schools in developing those whole systems, at the same time saying all means all. So let's ‑‑ I notice some of you have been putting pieces in the chat, but this is kind of ‑‑ we really enjoyed the last time reading the chat and what you put in. Would you put in, add in, who is here today? If you would put in the chat your name and what state you are from and what is one of your favorite holiday foods or activities? We are moving into a variety of holidays. They are all times that most of us look forward to with ‑‑ they are just beautiful times of the year. We know this time of the year is not going to ‑‑ the pandemic is impacting a lot of our plans, but possibly, still your favorite holiday food can be there. So if you could put them in, we'll share with everyone. Mom's dressing. Empanadas, I'm not saying that right, I'm not. Pumpkin pie. Playing cards. You can tell you are waiting for this because the chat room is flying with ideas. Keep putting them in and sharing because we love hearing the ideas. In my case this year what we're doing is we're going to all be getting together outside for a brief time. My kids and I and their families we're going to exchange the food and go home and we're cooking it separately, the same meal, and then we'll get on Zoom and eat it together at the same time. That's how we're making it together even though we're not together because Minnesota is one of the states flying high on COVID at the moment and at end of this, we all want to be there and be safe. So keep putting them in, that's wonderful. So what we want to do today is we're going to really focus on that early literacy and thinking about embedding it into everyday routines and activities. The same things about discussing early numeracy and embedding it. We're also going to have a focus on parents and guardians and their roles and thinking about how they're support of academics is so important. So little bit about TIES before we move on. TIES, as Linda said, is the National Technical Educational Center. The T stands for time. We have a goal, these are goals we are really focusing all of our work on. Time is increasing the number of students and the time they are in the General Education setting for the majority of the day, being at least 80% or more of the school day. Instructional effectiveness, it's not enough to just have students physically in the classroom, we want them really engaged in the classroom. I don't know anybody that doesn't want that. But honestly, what we know from the history of inclusion because this work was ‑‑ I mean, we were doing this, we started this work back in the '70s and early '80s and we're still working at, is that it's almost sometimes easier to physically have a student get into the Gen Ed class and to really change what happens there for them to learn. So we're focused on that as instructional effectiveness. We are talking about engagement with both the General Education curriculum, setting the bar high, and also age‑grade peers. Are they part of the community? Are they ‑‑ if they are not there, does somebody miss them? Do they know their name? Are they welcome? The whole piece of, are you part of a belonging community? And then the support. What support is needed to help states and districts move forward with an ethic of thinking around inclusion? And the whole idea is we have done historically where we have created pretty awesome inclusive programs around individual students, but that has not necessary ‑‑ often has not scaled up. There are examples of inclusive systems now, but they are farther ‑‑ they are rarer than having individual student ones. We want to move the system. We've got a lot and we know a lot about moving individual students and we've got programs and we want to get the system changed. Who does TIES support? Educators, parents, Administrators at all different levels, state education agencies. We are in the process of developing a new strand that will be looking at institutes of Higher Education in order to move the content being developed into teacher prep programs. We know that's so important. Not just Special Ed programs, but Gen Ed programs. And if you look at our work, we focus on four major strands. One is around Communicative Supports, that's an essential component. Students need a way to express themselves and their desires and engage with the curriculum. Inclusive instruction. Peer engagement, and that's peer ‑‑ age‑appropriate peers. And then the systems change. So when you jump on our website, you'll kind of see how everything is organized. Another major series, we have several major series of content going. One is around inclusion and thinking about kids with cognitive. The Communicative Supports, I talked about that, that's essential. One that started last March, the Distance Learning Series, right now there are 26 articles. And this is because we saw a lot of ‑‑ initially a lot of the distance learning work was not including kids with significant cognitive disabilities. And then was a lot included in them on inclusive environment. We made a purposeful intent to integrate what's out there and put forth information about how to keep both of those in the forefront. And the National Center on Deaf‑Blindness is a consulting partner on is our Parent Video Series, which we are super excited about. It will be a series of 11 videos, right now I think we're at four, is to really support families as being hugely valuable members of supporting student learning. And we have known that for a long time, but when you break it down into literacy, numeracy, communication, sometimes it's overwhelming and where does a parent start? We have put together short videos. And to have that conversation between school and home so you can work together and align your work. I recently liked, Kristi Probst, who is a Director for the TIES Center and NCEO, she talked about it in an article, these videos tell parents: We see you. Keep up the work. You make a difference. And the small things add up to large things over time. And I thought it was just such a positive message that ‑‑ of valuing the parents' role in teaching. We're going to look at one of those in little bit that is related to academics. When we do our sessions, we take the feedback very seriously and think about it in terms of our planning of our next one. We are pretty transparent about what we are learning and where we want to go. This is some of the feedback we learned from you from the last session. A lot of it was on to how to ‑‑ very specific strategies around students with deaf‑blindness and how to make that bridge to those strategies. Thinking about how to make the consent less overwhelming for the teams that work with it. And I think some of our tools, especially around the 5‑15‑45 can be helpful with that. The challenges with distance learning, we get it, this is less than ideal. We're hoping some of the products we're putting out are being helpful, but we know we're not going to solve all of these problems and the best thing that can happen is figuring out how to get kids back in school. That doesn't ‑‑ I don't know, I think we ‑‑ it's hard to even know what to say these days because of some of the frustrations, but hopefully we are making progress on some ways to engage students more in this situation. And then sharing real‑life examples and strategies. So once, again, when it goes back to the specific strategies, we look at you as the experts, so help us during this session to think about that, how to make that bridge more specifically than we're making it. Liz Hartmann who can't be here today with us, but helped us do the content of the session is a teacher for students who are deaf‑blind, so her expertise was very helpful in doing that and it helped us to bridge this more, but know we are learners of this area, too, so help us as we go along. So we want to share this video now. Haylee, I'll ask you to kind of help me. We were going to show this at the end of the last session for those of you who joined us and ‑‑ but we want to really make this bridge on the importance of the family and helping academics and in thinking about access to General Education standards. So it looks like it's going to run. I'll let Haylee take it from here. This is called, "Helping Your Child with Academics" and we're talking about at home. I'm not getting any sound. >> VIDEO: [Captioned] >> GAIL GHERE: Okay. So you can see in that video conversations with parents that might not be happening. Parents of students with significant cognitive disabilities and possibly with students who are deaf‑blind, this might not be happening in terms of the whole access to the Gen Ed standards. We know that actually some teachers will watch this, too, because it really raises the bar in many ways. So let's start a poll. Let's just ‑‑ I'd like to have ‑‑ hear your thoughts on this. So we've got two polls to put up. We can put them up at the same time, I believe. It's really a nice feature of this webinar ‑‑ this platform. And we're going to see what resonate was you about the video. Yep, and how might the home‑school instruction about standards‑based instruction support student learning? If you could just start, let's hear your thoughts. I love what Julie just said, is it going to be in other languages? Yeah, we are looking to moving into Spanish as one of our most recent conversations. We have to figure out much broader access, too, for lots of families. I love the presumption of competence. I so agree with you. That's where that raising the bar is. How do we do it? It's not a deficit within the child, it is a, how do we modify instruction to make it feasible? Parents simply may not know what the standards and where they can be found. Right on. I mean, I think you nailed it and that's what helps, that they can dig into it. Even if there are standards, folks often don't understand that they apply to all children and that is kind of a big jump that we need to start bridging. It values what parents are doing at home when there's partnership. Very true. I like the videos because they are concise. Yes, we are keeping them four, four and a half minutes max. People don't have a lot of time, but you can get a lot of content in. I'm not sure if I'm seeing ‑‑ oh, I can move it. Great! What this video, and maybe put it in the bottom one, number two if you have a response, or in the chat room, would this video help you have a conversation with parents about standards and about expectations? Groups and activities teachers are planning. Great point. Great point. Absolutely, terrific! Yeah, I think sometimes there is even this conversation about, is this really ‑‑ does my child really need to learn this? What is this going to do for my child? And, you know, the thing is we don't ask that question for a typical third grader that goes into school. We don't say, why does this grade‑level standard matter for that child? So it's one of those questions of when we are preparing for life and building capacity for life, all of these things add up and matter. Shared understanding of understanding will result in better understanding of shared outcomes and goals. And a lot of creativity of how to reach them. I really appreciate all your thoughts here. And please share these out, the video series out with your colleagues and families. And feel free to write us with ideas on how they are used for feedback you have received or anything, we're very open to that and wanting to hear about, you know, just their usage and what the reactions are. So thank you. Yes, let's see, Katie says, I think the videos are a great starting point for discussion. Good point. Okay, so I know today we wanted to do two more quick little things and then we'll get into the literacy and numeracy. So let me go to the next slide here. Yep. And, yep. Okay. I think one of the pieces is, and I'm not sure to what extend everyone who is on this call has been part of the ‑‑ any of the other two series ‑‑ sessions that TIES and NCEO did, have provided so far, but it's really important to be thinking about, how does what we're going to talk today about, early literacy and early numeracy, related to standards‑based instruction? Which is why the video was helpful in bridging it. While this isn't a session on Multi‑Tiered Systems of Support, while we were planning this, we thought it really has a way to connect between the two. Really what we are talking about is a very specific instructional area versus the past, we've been talking about broader standards. And I think it's really important to think about them. For those who are familiar or even are not familiar with the Multi‑Tiered Systems of Support, which is MTSS, basically it looks at both academic and behavior and puts in supports along a tiered model. And the tiers are, Tier 1 is the core instruction. Every student, all students receive access to the General Education core content. Tier 2, some students need an additional set of instruction, some targeted instruction, to help them really access the Gen Ed curriculum. And so it may be really focused on some pre‑teach, some re‑teach, it may be looking at some different strategies that help you access the content in the core instruction. And then Tier 3 is individualized instruction. This is for a few students. It is really based on a deep understanding of the personal needs of the student and then thinking about how to fill the learning gaps. Again, it could be around academic needs. It could be around behavior or social/emotional needs. So the question then becomes, as you look at early literacy and early numeracy, where does that fit in? And it really depends on the age of the child. So if you, as you sit here today, are thinking about younger students, say, you know, pre‑K up through first grade and you are doing early literacy, early numeracy, that's core instruction because their peers are at the same level. That is the core instruction you are focused on what the work is. If you are looking at a student who may be now in second/third grade, you are probably talking more it's Tier 2. There are probably other students at that grade‑level who are ‑‑ have some gaps in that area and have some additional needs, so there's giving that extra targeted instruction there. If you have an older student who is in high school, say, and is still working on some of the skill areas they are working is in early literacy and early numeracy, then you're talking about a Tier 3 support, instructional support. Very targeted to fill those needs because there's still a learning gap there. So kind of think about this from a different way because sometimes it helps this way. So MTSS is an inclusive model and I think lots of times MTSS systems that are out there in schools, that have been developed, or you may even be thinking ‑‑ so think BBIS on the behavior or RTI on response to intervention on the academic, every schools and states use some different language. But multi‑tiered system support goes across them. They are inclusive framework. Often what we found is they do not include students with significant cognitive disabilities. So that's the first thing, it's an inclusive model for all and it's an additive framework. So when you look at this, the first, the Tier 1 is the first scoop of ice cream. Everybody gets a vanilla scoop of ice cream. Everyone gets the content and access to that content. When some kids need a second scoop, they get a second scoop, but nobody takes the first scoop away. They do it in addition to because it's the additive model that starts to fill the needs of kids that help them access it. And then some students need a third scoop of ice cream and that's your strawberry and that's the really highly individualized model. So what happens so often for our students with significant cognitive disabilities, and I'm going to ‑‑ oops, I didn't have that one there ‑‑ we see that they only get the strawberry scoop. They do not get the vanilla and the chocolate scoop, which is Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction, so give them access to the core. They focus solely on very isolated skills. And what we're saying in this and what we know is best practice and for moving the bar forward for kids is to be think being, how are they getting access to the three scoops of instruction? So when you think about the early literacy and early numeracy, think about this, that may come in depending on the age of the child at, you know, at different levels of the scoops of ice cream, but it's still part of the whole system of accessing and making progress in the standards‑based instruction. Okay, then, let's see, Gina said something, strawberry scoop in the bakery, not in the ice cream shop. [Laughter] I haven't been to either in so long, who knows. [Laughter] Last time we really focused a lot on using the 5‑15‑45. 5‑15‑45 is a collaborative tool for teams. And people talked about, how do we not make things overwhelming for our colleagues in making sense of all this? And I think the 5‑15‑45 can be a helpful tool in that. It really looks at, for the teacher, I've only got five minutes, I've got 15 minutes, I've got 45 minutes, how can I use that time very effectively? And the content, you know, so if you only have five minutes, you and the Gen Ed teacher only have five minutes, what are you going to talk about? Take that time to really think about, what is the content you are teaching? And what's the most essential content that all learners need to know? Many teachers, when they have that information can really focus on, okay, now I can help figure out how to teach that best and what to prioritize. I think for a long time people have not valued some of the on‑the‑fly discussions that happen when teachers see teachers in the hall. I think during COVID we have learned on‑the‑fly doesn't happen anymore. You have to end up with people at the same time on Zoom or some other platform. And what the on‑the‑flies are actually are these targeted conversations that can really continue to ‑‑ they are the glue that can kind of keep things moving if you have a plan to work from. If all you get is on‑the‑fly, then you really are just doing little bits of planning. But if you can make these small times work, then you can really move things forward. So here's the ‑‑ so five minutes, boom, you think about the essential learning. If you have 15 minutes and people can sit down, then you're looking at ‑‑ you can look at not only the things we just talked about, the essential learning, you can go through, you know, okay, what are the instructional strategies and activities we want to use for all kids? And then kids with significant cognitive disabilities? Or, in your case, and deaf‑blindness. Or, we can ‑‑ and then, what are the barriers to it? Let's just list one barrier to learning that we know this child will experience and then how can we ‑‑ now that we are anticipating that, what can we do to remove that barrier? And so right there, you've moved things farther forward. And the Gen Ed teacher understands then that this is still all focused on the essential content and the standards‑based instruction. And then finally, when you get to the 45, if you have 45 minutes to sit down, you are probably able to do almost some unit planning, too. But really looking at this from, how ‑‑ how can all of this be used for all kids? We are figuring out these differentiation strategies that Universal Design for Learning approach, how can this benefit all students? What are more barriers we can remove? And what you do then is you actually start building almost menus that once you have these conversations, you know when you go to your next units to design, you already know which barriers they are and you start planning in advance for them. So the process even keeps picking up. So this is a way to reduce barriers and also to think about kids accessing the Gen Ed curriculum in different standards in different ways. Okay. So I'm going to pass this off to Jessica now who is going to take us through early literacy. Know we wanted to set the stage for the connection between this intense focus on in area and the broader areas that we're talking about the curriculum. Jessica, you've got it. >> JESSICA BOWMAN: All right. Can you hear me? >> GAIL GHERE: Yep, yep. >> JESSICA BOWMAN: All right, awesome. There's mute on my computer and mute on my phone and I had both muted because my children were coming in and out so I wanted to make sure. We are now transitioning to early literacy. We'll kind of talk through ‑‑ oh, I see that Linda asked to the link for the 5‑15‑45 tool. >> GAIL GHERE: Yeah, I'll grab that right now. >> JESSICA BOWMAN: Yeah, just this idea, Julie and Gina and Heather, yeah, we're talking about what, you know, this prevailing kind of perception that we have that students that just get that strawberry scoop should receive that in a special setting because they need that special scoop of ice cream and it should be taken off and provided especially to them in a place away from all of their peers. So our goal here is to broaden our thinking and to think about how we can creatively think about providing this access to early literacy and early numeracy instruction within the context of a General Education classroom. Within the context of student's home, within the context of their neighborhoods. So, yeah. Sorry, I see a comment about having the links on Basecamp. I don't know what that is, but I'm intrigued. I would like to know more about what that is. Maybe Linda knows. When we are thinking about early literacy standards for all, what do we mean by literacy? In its broadest sense, we have seen an integrated literacy approach. We're going to compare this with what the literacy approach looks like for the field of deaf‑blindness, so as I'm talking about the literacy in terms of common core and of the General Education curriculum, think about how it might be similar or different to the way literacy is taught for students who are deaf‑blind. So, like I said, we see a focus on integrated literacy approach. It's to champion by evidence‑based practices in literacy and manifesting in the English Language Arts common core. It's important to remember that the common core English Language Arts standard, the ultimate goal with them is to meet or exceed requirements for college and career readiness. So for a range of subjects, not just ELA, when we're thinking about embedding literacy in math, embedding it into Social Studies and Science, it requires that teachers across subject areas work together to make sure that those literacy standards are being ‑‑ are being focused on throughout the curriculum. Then there's an emphasis on new media and the importance of thinking of integrated literacy as being more than just print or books. And when we think of literacy, thinking of social media, thinking of YouTube, thinking of the apps that our kids play with, and that we use. And, you know, this is a huge motivational factor, too, right, for kiddos, so I think that's one thing we can use as a strength and really promoting those literacy practices in these non‑traditional ways. Even now as we are distance learning and using these literacy skills with a lot of other tools, especially with technology. And this last point is a really good one for us in the field of deaf‑blindness, there's an increasing emphasis on results and not means within the General Ed curriculum. Meaning that if the goal of literacy is to be able to connect with others, discussion ideas, share our feelings and our experiences that are meaningful to us, then how we do that is less important than that we do it. I'm going to say that again. So how we get there, how we get to a place where we are able to communicate with others is less important than the fact that we do it. So this really provides us some flexibility for the very different ways that students with deaf‑blindness communicate, whether they are using objects, gestures, cues, whatever that is. So given all of that, we know there's still barriers here, especially when we consider how this is taught in a General Education classroom, and even how it is taught in a self‑contained classroom, and especially when we try to teach it with distance and virtual learning. So let's continue to think through some of those barriers, as well as solutions. So when we look at, when we compare and contrast that with early literacy skills and deaf‑blindness, kind of how literacy is viewed in a deaf‑blind education community is that literacy is a right. It's not just for some students. That every student has a right to literacy. We know that literacy is tied to communication and behavior is communication. So literacy and behavior are connected in a way that many others don't exactly see who don't work with students with significant cognitive disabilities or students who are deaf‑blind. We know that trusting relationships are tied to communication, so that means they're tied to literacy. We want our students to be demonstrating these literacy skills and that requires adults and peers who are trusted to demonstrate those tools with. Next, we know most children develop mentally have literacy that follows their experiences. So with my 4‑year‑old, he's just now becoming aware of letters and numbers and letter sounds. He wants to talk about them, so he is really obsessed with Disney "Cars," Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, Brick Yardley, Smokey. And he wants to know what they start with and he wants to count them, you know, so these literacy experiences ‑‑ these literacy skills, he is tying it to things he is familiar with and has experience with. He plays with those words. You know, when he learns new words he uses them in new context. Sometimes they are not being used entirely correctly, but he is practicing those and trying them out with others. But for students with deaf‑blindness, there can really be a disconnect here because of the way that feel it or the way we teach it, we're not always looking at the early literacy skills that are learned and connecting it with students' experiences as they get older. Next we know that literacy should be embedded throughout the day and throughout the students' routines. It's not just something we learn during reading block or during the school day for that matter, but that literacy and the way we see it in this broad sense is something that students can be learning and deepening their understanding all day. Loretta asked a really good question: Would you confirm that when using the term "literacy" we are referring to the umbrella of skills, expressive receptive language, reading‑decoding, comprehension and writing? Loretta, yes, I'm referring to the umbrella of skills. And that is how it is in the common core as well. We will go through each of the common core and talk about what those components mean for students who are deaf‑blind, including listening, speaking, reading, and other foundational skills. Like I was saying earlier, so the literacy skills we teach are designed to be meaningful and age appropriate when we are thinking about students who are deaf‑blind. Oftentimes, like I said with my son, you know, he kind of has these experiences, he is working on sounds, and these early part of the continuum can be glossed over for deaf‑blind. They may be in second grade where the curriculum is focused on the average second grader developmentally, and our student who is deaf‑blind may not match this perception and we can overlook the developmental continuum at its earliest stages and engage them in activity that is are meaningful. So I don't mean to say that we should only be providing instruction and support at the developmental level that a student is at, right? If you hear that a student has the literacy skills of a 3‑year‑old, you don't want to be providing only instruction based on what a 3‑year‑old could or would learn, right? We don't want to base it on a student's perceived and ability and potential are, but making sure that the supports and access needs that they have are available no matter what their class is doing. I'm going to refer to this as having a low floor and a high ceiling. Students can access it at any point because the floor is low, we've made it kind of an even point for all students. And the ceiling is high, meaning that they have access to their grade‑level General Education curriculum alongside their peers and within the context of those age appropriate, not developmentally appropriate, but age appropriate activities and routines. And one other important thing to consider is that with the low floor and the high ceiling is that with our students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, they may come to us one day totally able to work with print and try communicating with us about it and then the next day they're not able to do that. Maybe they have a seizure disorder or they are just having a bad day or they really didn't sleep very well the night before, we see things that might regress. So making sure we are keeping those supports available for them so if one day they are working with print and the next day they need to go back to working with objects, that we have that available for them so we can meet them where they are. Okay, so when you look at these two different approaches to teaching literacy, the standards‑based approach and the approach for learners who are deaf‑blind, where do you notice similarities and differences? I think there's a poll. Standards‑based approach, looking at that integrated literacy across subject areas, blending in those media skills into early literacy and focusing on results and not means. >> HAYLEE MARCOTTE: This is Haylee. There is not a poll for this one. >> JESSICA BOWMAN: That's fine. We can just put that in the chat. Similarities and differences between those approaches for learners who are deaf‑blind, when we see literacy on the right, that connection with behavior. That literacy is communication. How are these approaches similar? How might they be different? And there's not a poll for this, so you can just put your response in the chat. I think this is an important thing to consider. It's important to consider the different approaches if we're working with other types of teachers, like General Ed teachers, and other Special Ed teachers even, because we need to know how to speak a common language, we need to know the approach that's going to be used in the General Education classroom and how that might benefit a student who is deaf‑blind and where they might experience those barriers. Loretta says, standards‑based approach relies on accessing students' prior knowledge. This is the same as the idea of founded on experiences and concepts development. I would encourage that as teachers in Gen Ed classrooms, you know, it should be a goal to meet students where they are and for every student, right? So meeting and connecting with their prior knowledge and experiences for everybody. Michelle said they are similar, but stated in different ways. That's really interesting. I have never ‑‑ Liz worked with us a lot on this and I had never looked at them side‑by‑side, but they really are pretty similar. Integrate the literacy embedded throughout the day. Yeah, we see them embedded throughout subject areas, thought classes. Julie says, the key difference for learners is that the materials and content needs to be personally meaningful, like you see with experience books, use of calendar systems, et cetera. Yes, Julie, we will touch on that. See what experiences the student has and building on those that are unique. It does take more creativity to think about how we're building that for students that are deaf‑blind. Gail says, building prior knowledge is also a Tier 2 practice for many students who do not have different experiences. Yeah, that could be something that they work on prior to when they learn it in class, connecting it to their prior knowledge, connecting that literacy and language and developing that concept hopefully before the lesson happens in the General Ed setting. Okay, I'm going to go on because I think we're running low on time again. So one of the first parts of the General Education curriculum in English Language Arts is reading. And our goal here, like we kind of talked about earlier, is students must read widely and deeply from among a wide range of high quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational text. So students won't read or engage in literacy unless they are doing so with someone they have a relationship with. I've seen some things in the chat about that, too. Literacy and reading is a shared activity. You can't take the shared part for granted when you are thinking about students who are deaf‑blind. Reading will unfold from a trusted relationship and that trusted relationship also needs those routines that they are working through. So what do students who are deaf‑blind read? They read objects and symbols. Liz was kind enough, she shared some stories with us, and you'll see on here a picture of one of her former students named Clayton. Clayton had a calendar system that used object. This was an anticipation bin. He knew whatever was in the bin was next on his schedule. In this case, the swim trunks were in the box and when he went to his desk, he would feel the swim trunks and he knew it was time for swim class next. Reading also involves multi‑modal reading materials. Like I said really leveraging the strengths of the child. If there's any residual vision or hearing, really building upon those strengths. We know about only 10% of students who are deaf‑blind are completely deaf and completely blind, so for most of students who are deaf‑blind, we can kind of build upon the vision and the hearing that they do still have. And for students who are completely deaf and blind, we can always use touch‑based media. So thinking of it not just as academic, we want to make sure that reading is enjoyable, accessible, and interactive. You and I, I'm sure you all here, you read to relax. You read for fun. You read to just enjoy. So we want to make it the same for our students. So next is writing. And we know the goal of writing is that students have it as a way of offering and supporting opinions, demonstrating understanding of the subjects they are studying, to convey real and imagined experiences and events. So writing may not be for our students who are deaf‑blind, it may not be print or Braille, but it could be tactile representation. If a student is ‑‑ needs to be able to find a way to their cubby, they might have a circle that's made out of felt that is kind of glued on their cubby and they can feel all of the cubbies and feel until they feel their felt circle and they know that one is theirs. When they go to write their name on their papers or whatever it is, they can have felt circles available because they know that felt circle represents them, it represents their name. So we know that what students end up writing about is what they think about. What they think about is what they remember. So it's important that what they are writing about is meaningful. And journaling is one thing that is really child‑centered, it's personal. It's one of the first things kids do as part of a writing is writing about their experiences as a part of self‑expression. So you'll see this picture on the right, this was from one of the deaf‑blind literacy websites and we really liked it and so we put it in here. It belongs to a student named Shelly. She writes in her daily journal by choosing tactile representations of activities she want to write about. Print and Braille could be added after the fact. And then this book goes between home and school to provide Shelly's family with topics for conversation. Things to ask her about her day and continue to talk and think about. All right, so then the next component of the English Language Arts standards is speaking and listening. The goal of speaking and listening standards is for students to have opportunities to take part in a variety of rich, structured conversations as part of the whole class, in small groups, and with a partner. It requires that students contribute information, respond, and develop upon what others have said, compare and contrast, and analyze and synthesize ideas. So this one is just, you know, kind of a giant domain where we think about all the ways that students communicate from K‑12 through all that they have learned, how they communicate to learn, and all of those things. We know that new technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge. And it tightens our link to other forms of communication. So with digital text even, we really are having the ability and potential to continually update it, to change the words that we use, to add graphics, pictures, hyperlinks, video, audio, all of those things. So technology is really ‑‑ it can serve as a support for our students in this area. Deaf‑blind experts realize that speaking and listening is literacy. It's often overlooked, these standards are kind of just assumed in schools. At least for me as a teacher, I looked at them a little bit, but I knew my students had their own individualized goals, but in the General Ed classroom, I wasn't sure how the teachers were addressing it. So whether students are working on taking turns in conversation, you know, that back and forth, or if they are already pretty fluent in that back and forth, you know, we need to be able to teach them to speak and listen with other people and with a trusted person. So kind of building upon what I talked about earlier with technology, Liz was telling us a story on how she recently went into a classroom for students who were deaf‑blind, she went in and all of the students were on a tablet and she couldn't believe it. They were all accessing it in different ways. You know, when you think about all this technology, especially in this era of distance learning, it's really important to kids to be able to connect with their peers. So having those opportunities to connect in those ways and share those experiences and play different games on apps, they become really good at it because it's really motivational. So even when you think they may not have visual or auditory access to those things, they are finding a way. [Laughter] So maybe some of you all have noticed that as well with students that you know. I just thought that was a really interesting point. And then lastly, speaking and listening is really tied to social and emotional support or expression. This is where Liz told us the really intriguing story, first I thought it was going to be related to how Ursula steals Ariel's voice [laughter] and I was wondering how she would connect it, but she was mentioning that she had a student who loved Disney movies and so when she was trying to speak with the student about his feelings, you know, how he was feeling about things and kind of building upon what his experiences were, he ‑‑ she noticed one day he seemed to be really anxious and nervous. And she referred to it as an Ursula moment, referring to the part in the "Little Mermaid" where Ursula is taking Ariel to her underwater cavern. And Ariel is just feeling really unsure and uncertain and a little bit fearful. So being able to build on that, build on the student's interest area of Disney movies, so that anxious feeling was tied to this moment in this movie and that's the vocabulary that the student kind of learned to connect this feeling with. And then we got to thinking about the documentary. I think it's called "Life Animated." It's about a student with autism who learned to communicate because of Disney movies. I've never actually seen it, but I think I might have to put it on my list for one of the next things I watch. Okay, so I believe this is the last one for the early literacy portion here and that is language. So the goal is language ‑‑ oh, yeah, there's a podcast, that's interesting, I'll have to watch out for that, a podcast based on that movie. So language is this focus on being able to use Standard English grammar, mechanics, and using language to convey meaning effectively depending on who we are talking to or who is reading or writing, being able to use our language in an effective way. So when you think about students who are deaf‑blind, how can we teach them to use this language in the classroom? There's an example on the left, and this is one from one of our TIES TIPS, you'll see a student is comparing and contrasting objects that are round, flat, or both. And you can see they put the balls in the round. They've put some boxes in the flat. And then in both, you see some sort of cylinder‑type objects. So really just using these tactile materials to give students this language to communicate their learning and communicate their experiences with those objects. And then Liz gave us another really intriguing example of a student that she has worked with named Illiana and Illiana had very low vision, but she had a small crescent window she could see through and she could see colors and she loved to do art. So in this picture, she has some scented markers and she used these markers to create this picture that you see in front of her. She's an example of a student that cognitively people thought she was at a very concrete level because she wasn't able to understand Braille, she had tried print, but she couldn't really see it, but she would do art and then she would communicate to things to them like, yellow like the sun or green like the fresh grass. Concepts would come out of her when she was working with these colors that no one knew she knew how to use or communicate yet. Again, this was an example of having that really low floor, but that high ceiling so we're not leaving students out based on what we perceive that they are able to ‑‑ that they know and are able to do. Yeah. In this case, you can see how she is playing with that language to communicate what she has learned. Just like with my son, he plays with these sounds and these new words that he learns to learn about language and to learn about how to use them. So just a couple of resources. We have our TIES inclusive practice series. We have one on connected core words, aided language modeling and literacy ‑‑ sorry, that picture came from a different TIP, that was from our graphic organizer. You can look for that one, too. And then our Distance Learning Article Number 10, Distance Learning and Communication Systems. Illiana found a way to express what she knew. Yeah, yeah, Chistianna, it sounds like she did. Gail has put the links to those resources. Oh, and just a couple of notes. TIPS five has lots of good notes about using peers. So if you are wondering about using peers to promote literacy, you might look for ideas there. And the DL also has some good points and suggestions for distance learning. So some ideas around embedding literacy at home and the community. Home‑school journals, experience boxes, shared story books with objects. Really we see that collaboration and communication is key. And, again, you guys are the experts with these things, so what ideas do you have for sharing these ‑‑ for embedding these skills at home? So we have a stop and share. What ideas do you have? I think Haylee will bring up the poll. How can we embed literacy into the home and community for students who are deaf‑blind? You know, we think about a home‑school journal, we could be sending an object home with a child, maybe one of the materials or the blocks that they use understand a math lesson, pair it with an e‑mail or a note and then have the parents talk about it as the child is feeling it. I see grocery lists about things the child want to get at the store. Yeah, that's a great example. Liz also gave us an example of an experience box that the student Clayton had and it was filled with all of his boxes and bags from McDonald's. [Laughter] All of the hamburger containers and French fries bags, he loved to smell them and it was really motivating, so building upon the concepts having to do with McDonald's was really motivating for him. Cooking, reading, making recipes together. Sending messages to peers. All really great ideas. Labeling things around the house. Absolutely, especially if they are the motivating items they gravitate to or play with. Okay, just for time, we're going to close this out, but if you have other ideas, please share them in the chat. Oh, photo album of family and friends. I love that, too. Okay, so now we're going to transition to the early numeracy portion. And this is so tied to early literacy. Like we said, literacy is really integrated throughout subject areas. So everything that we just talked about with literacy, apply that to what we're talking about now. We know that early numeracy skills are a strong predictor of future mathematical understanding. Some of our students grow up and they begin thinking about purchasing and making a budget and using math in their jobs, really building on these early numeracy skills is going to predict how well they are able to use those math skills in their daily lives. We know when students access the General Ed curriculum, it's much easier to do that when we have some of those early numeracy skills. Even if that Gen Ed content is way above what we perceive that they are able to connect with and learn. Okay. We have our standards for mathematical practice. I'm going to briefly go over these. These are the common core standards for mathematical practice that span the grades K‑12. So they don't change. These are things that students in each grade should be making progress toward. Things like making sense of problems. Once they make sense of those problems, being able to reason abstractly. And that comes with having math problems that are tied to their experiences and that they are really familiar with why that math is relevant to them. Constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. That's really understanding, you know, do they notice if something is the same or different? Or if an answer makes sense or if it doesn't make sense? Modeling with mathematics, that's a little easier because our minds think that way with how students with deaf‑blindness are using those tactile experiences to model. Using the appropriate tools. We wouldn't use a calculator to measure the sides of a square, right? So making sure students realize what tools are used for what. Attending to precision. Looking for and making use of structure. And looking for and expressing regularity in repeated reasoning. As we get higher up, they become a little more complex, but thinking through those first four are a great start. We think about the different early numeracy skills. We have rote counting, number identification, one‑to‑one correspondence, creating sets, composing and decomposing numbers, and comparing qualities. We'll go through these one by one and review what they are about and review some ideas for them that could be helpful. Counting, this is really identifying numbers in a sequence. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is counting. I don't have to be counting an individual object, I'm just saying those numbers in an order. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Those are all counting, but not necessarily tying them to any quantity or function. Once students have learned counting, they then can learn the one‑to‑one correspondence. That's counting by touching or moving objects. There's a picture of an Abacus on the left and this is, I think ‑‑ Liz sent it to me, I forget what it's from, it's an adaptive one that students can use to move the objects and as they do count as they are doing that. And that's easy because they can see the ones they have counted, which ones they have haven't, it's really clear. A ten frame, on the right are five and ten frames that have kind of the raised borders with some counters. Those are also really great tools for one‑to‑one correspondence. Putting one in each square, counting one at a time. Then once students have really mastered those movable objects, moving to non‑movable objects. This might be stickers on a note card that are in one line, so they can move from left to right or right to left to not double count any of those. Then once they get that, you can kind of put the stickers or put whatever the objects are any way you want and they are learning to have that spatial understanding and spatial awareness of what they have counted and what they haven't. That's definitely a higher skill when thinking about one‑to‑one correspondence. So then number identification, this is an easy one, knowing numbers are represented by their number symbols and also by their word. So 2 is represented by the number 2 and the word two. Making sets. So once you have taught one‑to‑one correspondence, once the student has master that had and they get the cardinality skills. And cardinality means that you understand when you count four items, you go 1, 2, 3, 4, that the last number you said represents how many you have. So in this case, I go 1, 2, 3, 4. How many do you have? Four. So once students have that skill, they can begin to make sets. So handing them a bunch of forks and saying there are six of us in the family, let's make a set of six, six forks, but you handed them ten or something, or seven for that matter. And just being able to make a set with those materials. So when we think of embedding numeracy at home and in the community, we can really think about, I mean, there are tons of ways to do this, whether we are doing chores, taking a walk outside, if students are playing. I know a lot of us mentioned baking and, you know, baking holiday foods and desserts. So if you have a plate of cookies and you want your child to count four and put them each on one plate on the table or put them on four individual plates, that's counting. That's making a set. That is one‑to‑one correspondence. So tons of different skills just in that one activity. And on the right you'll see a poor quality picture I took last night [laughter] or the night I finished this PowerPoint of my son in his room. I mentioned he loves Disney's "Cars" and my daughter used tape to make parking spaces for his cars. He puts one car in each parking space and he'll count them and look at them and get excited about all of the cars he has. That's also, by doing that play and engaging in that task, he is demonstrating one‑to‑one correspondence with that. Composing and decomposing numbers. This type of tool has various names. I've seen it called ‑‑ I just kind of call it like a math balance beam. [Laughter] I don't know what its technical name is. But I have found a lot of success using it with students with significant cognitive disabilities. You basically, so you have one kind of marker on the one on the left and then on the right you see the marker is on the number three. So for your connecting it with its abstract equation, 1 + blank equals 3. This obviously isn't level, so you know you need something more on the left to add to the one so it's equal to three. So you know when you put it on the two, then it's equal, so 1 + 2 = 3. That's one way to think about one tool that you can use. This is really hard if you are doing distance learning unless teachers have kind of been able to share those materials and supports with their family. But it's one thing that is really neat. And one other benefit to this is you are really teaching the meaning of the equal sign, which a lot of kids might think that the equal sign just means the answer is coming up. Sarah said, where can you purchase one of these? When we're done, I'll search for it really fast. This is actually a virtual version of it. I think Lake Shore makes them. They are pretty common if you just search for math materials and stuff online. So this one, we're talking about the equals sign. If you have five, how do I make this equal to five? I'm going to compose the number five to make both sides equal. So I'm saying 5 = what? I can do two and three or one and four. Or I can just put it on five. Five does equal five. So really teaching the meaning of that equal sign is one important thing too, when we're not only composing and decomposing numbers, but thinking about equations and building that way. All right. Next and lastly, comparing quantities. So this might be more or less or same. You know, with two containers of Goldfish. I know someone mentioned how their child loved to do math with Goldfish, so using what they love, right? Which one is more? Which one do you want? [Laughter] Teaching it that way. Or if you have, you know, three goldfish in one container and they have two other containers to choose from, one has one in it and one has three, and you ask, which one has the same? They can decide which ones have the same. Yeah, Froot Loops, they can absolutely do that with anything. If one is greater than or less than. Once they have gotten more or less, starting to increase that vocabulary. When they are older and looking at money and purchasing, thinking about if we have more than enough money, if we have not enough money, or if we have just enough money. So this concept is something students can work on, you know, until they're, you know, in that transition age and they are learning to do independent shopping. Then if you are thinking about embedding, kind of like our discussion earlier, that low floor and that high ceiling, if a student is included in a fifth grade math class, and this is a fifth grade math standard, that students will display measurements in fractions of a unit on a line plot. This is hard for most adults, just the concept of a bigger number in a fraction doesn't mean it's a bigger fraction. So for students who are deaf‑blind, giving them the fractional parts that vary by size and having them compare the quantities of those. Which is the smallest? Which is the biggest? Maybe it's just two at a time, but they are putting those in order. That's really that comparing quantity piece. But also doing it in the context of a fifth grade standard. So, again, not presuming they can't do it or they can't learn it, but really giving them access to that instruction, to those activities and those materials. Because can you teach this with a lot of the materials in a preschool classroom? Yeah. If a student is in fifth grade, maybe the fractional pieces are the best way to teach them because that's what their peers are working with. And then Liz had sent me this book, this Flip‑Over Book that some of y'all might be familiar with, this concept books. Parts‑of‑a‑Whole. So even extending that learning to something like this where they are learning, okay, this is half a turtle. Okay, now I have a whole turtle. So identifying halves and wholes in the context of this General Education lesson. So I think we have our last poll. What other ideas do you have for embedding numeracy into the home and community for students who are deaf‑blind? I've heard some really great ideas already in the chat. I'd love if you guys have more. I know we're getting to the last four minutes of our session. I see someone talking about different sizes of Coke. Oh, yeah, the DLM link, Gina. I actually was thinking right before we started, the DLM link modules on math are really great. They have lots of ideas for kids with all kinds of strengths and needs. Sink or float experiment. Yeah, like lighter/heavier. Sharing math language with parents. Many, more, more or less. Cooking activities. Clothing sizes. Yes, absolutely. Comparing shoes between family members. Mm‑hmm. Making shapes. Counting books with objects. Yep. Using a calendar. Counting action steps within motivating routines, like stirring five times. Yeah. You guys have got this! Yep, laundry for sorting and classifying. Absolutely. So tons of ways that we can really be embedding some of these early numeracy skills into our home. But, also, you know, how are we embedding these into the General Ed classroom? So thinking creatively about how to extend what's happening and bringing in the early numeracy skills to have the low floor, but also the high ceiling. I'm going to end the poll. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for your feedback in the last session. We really hope that you felt listened to and that we really tried to think through how we could improve and give you guys what you needed for this session on early numeracy and literacy. If you go to tiescenter.org, we are starting an E‑newsletter, you can put in your information and you can get updates, including the parent videos. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for all you do and how you support teachers and students. It's been so great to work with you guys over the last few sessions and weeks. >> LINDA MCDOWELL: Yeah, we thank you, Gail and Jessica, for what you presented today. I want to thank everybody that participated in the chat, in the polling, and I ask you to please, if you would, go to the session evaluation and give us your input so that we can continue to make improvements and better meet needs. And I do wish everyone a blessed time, some rest during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Everybody is so busy these days. May you rest. >> GAIL GHERE: Yeah, I think you will probably have 100% agreement if you did a poll on that, Linda. >> LINDA MCDOWELL: Rest. [Laughter] >> GAIL GHERE: Thank you all. >> LINDA MCDOWELL: Thank you so much. >> HAYLEE MARCOTTE: All right, this is Haylee. That concludes today's session. I'm going to close the room. And I hope everybody has a wonderful day! [Event concluded] CART Disclaimer: This rough edit transcript, which may contain missing, misspelled or paraphrased words, is only provided for your immediate review and is not certified as verbatim and is not to be cited in any way.