I
have enlisted 3 total teachers to use various types of reading
intervention strategies with their deaf and hard of hearing students.
I had them collect beginning data from their BAS assessment as well
as a running dolch word inventory. Each of the five areas of
literacy are addressed and each teacher has specific data collection
forms for collecting their data daily during guided reading groups.
The teacher's grade levels range from first grade, third grade and
fifth grade. My focus is the elementary grades due to data showing
that the average reading level of a deaf education student graduating
high school is third grade. I really want to analyze what reading
intervention strategy will best solve this problem. Of course, I am
finding that every special education student is different and their
needs are different as well. Overall, the data is leaning toward a
program called early literacy intervention strategies. Each teacher
was given data collection forms and based on the beginning reading
level, was then instructed how to use the specific reading
intervention strategy for their area of weakness. The younger grades
focused more on phonemic awareness and phonics using visual phonics
with the profoundly deaf students. The third grade teacher used
early literacy to focus on word recall, reading strategies as well as
comprehension. The fifth grade teacher used early literacy as well
as a fluency program to increase the fluency of her higher leveled
readers. I have yet to analyze the results, but have been collecting
very good data. My next step will be to analyze the data and
breakdown the data to a more useful form.
