Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1992 00:00:10 EDT
From:         "Dave Windley, Data Comm Specialist X799" <AADW@CATCC.BITNET>
Subject:      SIMCOM teaching

Cathy writes:

>
> Well, obviously, being in a public school I disagree.  In fact this year I hav
> begun to teach the fifth grade math class in our school.  I take three of my
> deaf students with me and sign the entire time I teach to the whole class of 2
> children.  I've only begun.  So far so good.  My deaf kids participate as much
> as the hearing kids!  (and correctly)  By the way this means that these kids
> are functioning on grade level.  That doesn't happen in too many places.  In
> fact just had the opportunity to look at some records of high school kids from
> a residential school.  Out of about 7 high schoolers *none* were on more than
> a fourth grade math level.  May be *lots* of reasons for that.  *DO NOT*
> misunderstand, I know that is not necessarily the *norm* for residential schoo
> But, it is often the case that a majority of the kids will be way behind.  Jus
> ask Gallaudet about the kids coming into the freshman class.
>
> As to your idea about area schools - Sorry, Todd, it is just not possible with
> the small numbers that exists in the deaf/hearing impaired population.  I
> could go into *another* long explanation here.  Someone else already pointed
> out many of the obstacles.
>
> I've answered to the best of my ability for now.  If you have further question
> I'd be more than happy to address them.  I have some for you.  Please fill in
> the blank.  "Mainstreaming is bad because ______________."   I am in that
> setting.  If there are things you believe my children are missing - I want to
> know.  There may be ways for me to include that in my class.

      I would like to address the issue of mainstreaming with a
      focus on one specific facet of the educational process.  A
      detailed report was produced by a research team at Gallaudet
      University some time ago, entitled "Unlocking the Curriculum".
      In this report, a teacher like yourself taught a mixture of
      students using spoken English and sign language.

      Even though the teacher was "fluent" in sign, she frequently
      made "word salad" in sign when she was speaking at the same
      time.  The report seemed to show that since spoken English was
      the teachers native tongue, she would favor that at the
      expense of conceptually accurate, complete phrases!

      Have you ever addressed this topic, when planning presentation
      of a given topic to the class?

      Of course, this problem could be avoided by the inconvenient
      method of sequentially speaking a concept, then interpreting
      that into the target (non-native) sign language.  I would like
      to know how you address this seemingly serious detriment to
      learning?
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   Dave Windley,                       Catonsville Community College
      Data Communications Specialist          800 South Rolling Road
      Sign Interpreter                     CATONSVILLE MD 21228-9987
      GLBO Co-Founder                          Voice: (410) 455-4799
      ITR Club Vice President                             AADW@CATCC
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