Delaware School for the Deaf - Common Core and ASL

S

ASL Instruction &

Assessment in the Time

of the Common Core

State StandardsKaren Martin, Bilingual Literacy Specialist

Marianne Belsky, K-12 School Leader

Delaware School for the Deaf

2013 ASLRT Presentation

Delaware School for the Deaf:

Who are we?

A Member of the Christina School District (26 schools)

S Pros:

S Support

S Opportunities for dual placement/mainstreaming within the district

S Salary; benefits for our staff

S Curriculum materials and training

S Cons:

S Constant cycle of educating district personnel about deafness and Deaf Education

S At times, less autonomy for our program

S Some initiatives don’t “fit” our students


Who are we?

Student Demographics

S FACES Program (birth-5): 33 students

S K-5: 30 students

S 6-8: 19 students

S 9-12: 33 students

Number of families with Deaf parents: 4 (7 students total)


Who are we?

Teachers Paraprofessional

s

Deaf9 12

Hearing 8 6

K-12 Instructional Staff Demographics

As the School Leader…

S Courses (K-12)

S School Success Plan

S PLC’s (Professional Learning

Community)

S School wide Communication

Expectations

S Assessments

ASL at DSD

S Bilingual Training

S ASL-ELA Framework

S K-2

S 3-5

S 6-8

S ASL Assessment

S Social ASL (Kendall P-Levels)

S Academic ASL (ASL Prompts)

S ASL Specials

S ASL Classes

S ASL Enrichment

S After School Programs

S ASL Poetry Competition

S ASL Summer Camp

Bilingual Training

DSD began training with CAEBER (The Center for ASL-English Bilingual Education and Research) in 2007 with a cohort of 6 Preschool/Elementary teachers & 2 SLP’s with 2 mentors.

Since then:

S SUMMER BOOT CAMP (included Dorm, Paraprofessionals & Related Service Providers)

S ALL STAFF ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE OUR AEBT (ASL-English Bilingual Training)

S A NEW COHORT BEGINS EACH YEAR

The

Thresholds

Theory

Source: Baker (2006) p. 172

ASL-ELA Framework

Cummins, 1977 as referenced in Baker, 2006

ASL-ELA Framework

At each level (K-2; 3-5; 6-8) we typically have 3 mixed-age groups for the morning

“Language Arts” Block.

Placement is based on language needs (derived from data)

DATA for ASL:

Kendall P-Levels

ASL Prompts (DSD ASL Rubric)

ASL-ELA Framework

Group A:

S Students in this group are Limited Bilinguals.

S They have low levels of competence in both languages (ASL and English)

S LANGUAGE ACQUISITION & DEVELOPMENT OF WORLD KNOWLEDGE – Social language

Group A Language Allocation for

Instructional Planning Purposes

Social ASLSocial English

Academic ASLAcademic English

ASL-ELA Framework

Group B:

S Students in this group are Limited Bilinguals or Less-Balanced Bilinguals.

S They are moving toward age-appropriate competence in one of their languages (ASL or English).

S Continued language acquisition & world knowledge, but moving into more academic ASL; getting ready for academic English

Group B Language Allocation for


Social ASL Social English

Academic ASL Academic English

ASL-ELA Framework

Group C:

S Students in this group are Less Balanced Bilinguals or Balanced Bilinguals.

S They either have age-appropriate competence in one but not two languages (ASL or English), or they have age appropriate competence in both languages.

S ACADEMIC LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Group C Language Allocation for


Social ASL Social English

Academic

ASL

Academic

English

ASL Instruction within the ASL-

ELA Framework

One critical guiding principle we have at

DSD is that all of our teachers are

LANGUAGE teachers.

S Guided/Shared/Independent viewing of ASL literature

S Handshape and ASL vocabulary work

S Signer’s Workshop

ASL-ELA Framework and the

Common Core State

Standards

S The CCSS Standards call for:

S Increasingly concept-based instruction

S Students to develop “grit and perseverance”

S The use of inductive reasoning

S Close reading & answering text-based questions with evidence from the text

S Developing the skill of argument (to collectively “get to the bottom of things”)


Common Core State

Standards

If students can’t do the things

listed on the previous slide

in ASL first, we’re doomed!

We believe the CCSS are

supportive of our instructional

approaches


Common Core State

Standards

How do we build knowledge and

academic vocabulary?

Associative Learning

The associations between vocabulary and contexts are

bidirectional.

The brain is amazing!

Adams, 2010

How do we build knowledge and

academic vocabulary?

Knowledge is represented

relationally.

Adams, 2010

Data informs our instruction

S Demographics

S Assessment Data (ASL, English, Math)

Leads to school structures for

instruction and language access

ASL Assessment

Data is collected on both Social ASL

and Academic ASL:

S Social ASL = Kendall P-Level assessment

S Academic ASL = ASL Prompts, scored with the DSD

ASL Rubric

ASL Assessment

S DSD ASL Rubric – 5 point rubric

S 6 Analytic Scoring Areas:

S Ideas

S Organization

S Expressiveness/Affect

S Fluency

S Sign Choice

S Structure

A glimpse of our 2-

sided rubric.

Handouts available

out on the info table

and the PDF will be

placed in the ASLRT

Dropbox folder.

We will be working on

“Student-Friendly”

versions this year and

next.

ASL Specials - Elementary

S K-5 students have weekly ASL “Specials” class for

45 minutes.

S Includes:

S ASL shared/guided viewing

S ASL expression (creative and descriptive)

S ASL handshape work

S ASL games

ASL Specials Video

ASL Classes - Secondary

S ASL is recognized as a World Language in Delaware.

S Our students get High School credits for taking 2 years of ASL

S Students who take ASL courses at DSD are not “2nd language

learners” – a little different focus here

S Strengthening knowledge of their primary language

S Deaf Studies / Deaf History

S Students who already exhibit competence in ASL have the

option to go to the mainstream HS for foreign language

courses

ASL Enrichment

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

S Athletics – all of our coaches are Deaf

S Girls’ Volleyball

S Boys’ Soccer

S Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball

S Elementary after school program – all instructors are Deaf

S Fall, Winter, Spring programs

S Includes arts and crafts; Yoga; hip-hop dance; ASL activities and skits; sports; pottery; bowling

ASL Enrichment

ASL POETRY COMPETITION

S All students in K-12

S Handshape stories or ASL poetry

S Students have 2 months to develop their submissions

S Collect & judge (team of Deaf judges), and then announce winners at the final “Student Success Celebration” of the year

S Resources we’ve used:

S Info & guidelines from the Marie Jean Philip ASL Poetry, Storytelling, and Deaf Art Competition at Northeastern University

S Info & guidelines from Kansas School for the Deaf’s ASL Poetry & Storytelling Competition, provided at last year’s ASLRT

ASL Poetry Competition



Some Sample Submissions





ASL Enrichment

ASL SUMMER CAMP

An ASL immersion experience for students who are deaf / hard of hearing (CODAs are welcome). We welcome students from neighboring states as well (NJ, PA, MD)

S Three 1-week sessions – Middle School, High School, Elementary

S Students build language through experiences:

S ASL activities

S Field trips

S Games

S Art

S Crafts

S Recreation activities

As a result…

DSD was singled out by the district as one of the few

schools showing consistent progress on our test scores

As a result…

An email received on Friday, November 1st:

It is my pleasure to invite you and your staff to the Christina School District Board of Education meeting on November 12th, to be held at Gauger-Cobbs Middle School at 7:30

p.m.

The Board wishes to honor the Delaware School for the Deaf-Secondary Program for its accomplishments on

the 2012-2013 DCAS assessments.

Because of the level of excellence demonstrated by your students and staff, your school will receive the

Academic Excellence Award.

As a result…

Statewide test scores:

Reading Growth Target Met – 53%

Reading Standards Met – 21%

Math Growth Target Met – 55%

Math Standards Met – 27%

(5th Grade…75% of students met math standards)

This gives us strong footing!!

We can justify our instructional practices…

ASL-English Bilingual

Instruction

Because these practices have made a

difference. The DATA proves it!

Where do we want to go from

here?

S Finish “Student-Friendly” versions of our DSD ASL Rubric

S “Tighten up” our ASL curriculum (anxiously awaiting K-12 ASL Standards!)

S Add an “ASL Comprehension” assessment to our school-wide measures

S Provide more access to incidental ASL for our students throughout the day

S Get to the point where we have very few Secondary students with IEP goals for ASL

S Add an ASL resources section to our website

S Publish students’ ASL works on our website

S Officially change our report cards to include grades for ASL

Sources

S Adams, Marilyn J. (2010). Advancing our students’ language and literacy: The challenge of complex texts. American Educator, Winter 2010-2011

S Baker, Colin (2006). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (4th Ed). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.

S French, Martha M. (1999). Starting with assessment: A developmental approach to deaf children’s literacy. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Pre-College Mission Programs.

S French, Martha M. (1999). Starting with assessment: The toolkit: Appendices for starting with assessment. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Pre-College Mission Programs.