Book Review: Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy

Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy, Second Edition, by Anna M. Swenson. New York: AFB Press, 2016, 458 pp. Paperback, $59.95; e-book (ePUB or Kindle), $41.95; online, $35.95; by online chapter, $10.95 each. Readers are in for a delightful time when they pick up the second edition of Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy, by Anna M. Swenson. Since the first edition of this book was published in 1999, teachers of children with visual impairments have gravitated to it for help with beginning braille readers. This second edition is jammed with even more practical, creative teaching suggestions and is a welcome addition to the literature. Teachers of braille readers have very few role models to imitate, unlike those who teach children to read print. Such teachers are lucky to have Ms. Swenson, whose unique ability to combine educational theory with practice has enabled her to create this thorough, easy-to-read, state-of-the-art resource for teaching reading and writing braille. She cites up-to-date research from general education reading literature and weaves it into research on teaching braille reading. This blend of information, along with her experience as a teacher of reading and writing braille, is what makes this book so valuable. Although teachers of children with visual impairments are the obvious audience of the book, it will also be a beneficial resource for parents. Preservice teachers who read this text will have a ready reference for when they are assigned their first beginning braille reader. General education teachers may also, if they desire, find numerous sections of this book that will help them understand the needs of braille readers should they have such students in their classrooms (especially chapters 5, "Promoting Early Literacy ..."; 6, "An Overview of Options for Literacy Instruction"; and 7, "Teaching the Beginning Braille Reader ..."; 15, "Adapting Print Materials," and 16, "Braille Literacy for Sighted Classmates"). ESSENTIAL INFORMATION AND LATEST TRENDS There are three parts or sections of the book. Part 1, "A Context for Instruction"; Part 2, "You and Your Braille Reader"; and Part 3, "Beyond Instruction: Braille in the Inclusion Classroom." Part 1 contains background information that is essential for teachers of children who will be learning to read and write using braille, including the latest trends and research in general literacy instruction as well as braille instruction. General guidelines such as how much time to spend with beginning readers, how to integrate literacy with the expanded core curriculum, and balancing general education and individualized instruction are presented along with general strategies for working in the general education classroom. Sidebar 3.4 in Chapter 3, "Desk 'Apps' and Other Practical Tips," provides a great explanation on how to set up a desk area or work station for a Braille-reading child in a general education setting, and it is just one example of the practical guidance that is provided in this book. Collaboration is stressed in this section and suggestions for collaboration are incorporated throughout the book. Assessment and documentation are also highlighted in this short, but intensive, section, which includes working with Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams. Although the author suggests that teachers who want to get started with a braille reader might immediately move directly to Part 2, this reviewer feels that a teacher's time would be well spent perusing the first few chapters of Part 1, since they set the tone for the instructional strategies to follow. Certainly college professors using this book as a textbook (which I would highly recommend) would want their preservice teachers to read these early chapters, since they provide the "why" of what a person does when teaching reading and writing in braille to beginning braille readers and incorporates the development of IEPs with assessment and progress-monitoring. …