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| Article | Page | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Articles | ||
| Synthetic phonics and the Rose Review | 2 | Tina Wakefield, Head of Service, Sheffield Service for Hearing Impaired Children, summarises the outcomes of the independent review of best practice in the teaching of early reading, the strategies that best support children who have fallen behind in reading to catch up with their peers and the relationship of such intervention programmes to synthetic phonics teaching. Tina outlines the points that she put to Professor Rose when she met him in January 2006. |
| Flippin� phonics - principles and practice | 3 | Trish Cope, Education Consultant: The Ewing Foundation, examines the recommendations of the Rose Review, the skills needed to teach phonics and applies them to the teaching of deaf children. An article to have by you for reference, advice and suggestions. |
| Jolly phonics | 9 | Jean McBryde, Principal Teacher, Resourced Base for Deaf Children, Glenrothes, Fife works in a mainstream setting and is often asked to take part in the school's thrice weekly phonics programme with both deaf and hearing children. Using a phonics approach to teaching sounds, words and ultimately reading is not always easy, especially when working with profoundly deaf children. However the introduction of digital hearing aids, coupled with cochlear implantation has meant that the look and say approach to reading need not be the only way to teach deaf kids to read. She explains why she feels that Jolly Phonics is most definitely a very useful scheme to begin the teaching of sounds and goes a long way to helping deaf children gain phonological awareness. |
| Parents are important | 11 | Alan Davies, Chartered Educational Psychologist, explains that the international consensus is that parents play a key role in developing positive attitudes to literacy but there are concerns that many parents do not understand fully the sounds and spelling choices of English. The synthetic phonics programme THRASS (Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills) includes the Phoneme Machine which, he explains, is aimed at such parents. |
| THRASS in a primary unit | 12 | Glynis J Smith, Unit Coordinator, Angram Bank Primary School, Sheffield, uses THRASS on a daily basis with deaf children. Glynis wants to teach individuals according to their needs. THRASS, for her, is another tool to add to many others. With its visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approach it is proving successful at the moment for some. |
| English literacy in a sign-bilingual environment | 13 | Babs Day, Head teacher, Longwill School, Birmingham, is often asked what is different about the way English is taught in a SiBi environment. In Longwill School they use two languages, BSL and English, to teach literacy. Babs believes that the value of a Sign Bilingual approach is that both languages are given equal status. There is a lot of effort put into to encouraging the best possible development for both. |
| Cued Speech and literacy | 13 | Anne Worsfold, Cued Speech Association UK, CSAUK explains how she used Cued Speech to help her deaf sons to read. Materials are available to support literacy teaching in the classroom. Cued Speech Activities for Children, is a brand new, comprehensive CD-ROM of printable teaching materials by June Dixon-Millar, founder of CSAUK, designed to be compatible with any reading scheme. |
| Writing Frames | 17 | Catherine Baldwin, St John's School, Boston Spa provides examples of writing frames that are used at St john's School, Boston Spa. Writing frames are a fantastic way of overcoming the fear of a blank piece of paper and helping students to have a go at what, for many, are the more challenging writing genres. For any student, each completed writing frame provides valuable experience of the writing process and is a step towards independent planning and writing of extended pieces. Some examples of the writing frames can be found in the resource folder on this website. |
| Not a magic key but a brick in the wall | 19 | Beverly George, Royal School for the Deaf, Exeter spotted an opportunity for professional development when she read a BATOD magazine in January 2005 - a Deafness and Literacy day was to be held at Oxford Brookes. Professor Terezinha Nunes and Dr Diana Burman reported on initial research on the Morphology Project that had been undertaken on hearing children and a pilot group of hearing-impaired students. She offered to participate in the trial, keen to discover if there was anything in this strategy that might be a bridge to literacy for hearing-impaired learners. Beverly explains how she used the materials with her students. |
| Sign Bridge to Literacy | 20 | A reminder that in Scotland the Sign Bridge to Literacy continues. |
| KS3 literacy and the English curriculum | 21 | Julie Mather Teacher of the Deaf, Nottinghamshire Inclusion Support Service and Jane Last Teacher of the Deaf, Sheffield Service for Hearing-Impaired Children have written from experiences gained through working with secondary aged profoundly deaf students in units attached to mainstream comprehensives in Sheffield and Nottinghamshire. The intention is to explore what may constitute an appropriate English Curriculum for those profoundly deaf students still working at levels 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum. |
| �But why got magnet? It literacy.� | 23 | Helen Jackson, Somerset was feeling pleased with herself. At last a lesson that brought together the science which child L loved and reading-for-meaning. With the freedom to choose which instructions-text to use for her year 3 literacy group 'Which is the strongest magnet?' seemed ideal. All went well until in the closing moments as child L stuck in his own instructions, having correctly completed the experiment but with little of the enthusiasm she'd have predicted said, "Why got magnet? It literacy." Helen considers the link that she missed. |
| Alternative literacy - more questions than answers | 26 | Pauline Hughes, Chief Executive, Ewing Foundation, points out that the informal literacy skills necessary for every day life are often overlooked. Reading subtitles on TV, static or running captions are now part of public information services at bus stops, on the train and tube, at airports, in hospitals and GP surgeries, text/MSN messaging and emails. Scanning and skimming websites and magazines that aren't intended to be read in a set order. She asks how we know that our pupils can navigate effectively to the information or article of interest. How easily do they use the instructions or contents lists to get there? |
| Literacy and post-16 students | 28 | The Post-16 Team of Surrey's Physical and Sensory Support Service supports students on courses in mainstream sixth form colleges, further education colleges and universities in and around Surrey. For students at Post-16 some aspects of their literacy have become 'set' on the way. A support tutor may see many issues to tackle but the team believes the real issue for tutorials is to tackle what is needed. The article describes the approach taken and enormous improvements in literacy have been noted where tutorials are focused on the specific areas related to the students� course they have chosen and can do. |
| Developing literacy in deaf children | 29 | Sara Head, Head of Primary Department, Heathlands School, St Albans, presented a paper at the 2005 International Congress for the Education of the Deaf which has been adapted for this Magazine. There are possibly as many different ways of teaching literacy to deaf children as there are deaf children! Literacy teaching should be, essentially, child-centred. There is not necessarily going to be a 'one size fits all' guaranteed approach. The needs of the child should be central. However there are some basic principles that underpin all literacy teaching and a plethora of ideas and 'tools' which can be used. Sarah outlines these principles. |
| The value of reading tests - a critique | 31 | Joyce Sewell-Rutter, The Ewing Foundation provides a crticque of reading tests in relation to deaf children. The reading test can be a useful tool in thoughtful hands. It tells us about attainment and achievement over time, individual pupil strengths and weaknesses and points us to where we take the pupil next. It reminds us of the challenge faced by young and older readers. It is however a test of ability and thankfully not a test of reading potential. The greater our understanding of our pupils' reading abilities the more likely we are to open up their minds to literacy and to a wider world. |
| Stereotype - taking note | 33 | Paul Barry and Jo Sutherland, Stereotype explain about the electronic note-taking software 'Stereotype'. It is used by deaf students whose first language is English, an obvious choice providing fast, reliable access to lectures and group events. |
| Regulars and General Items | ||
| BBC Jam | 6 | Earlier this year the BBC launched its BBC jam service BBC Jam. As part of this provision, BBC jam is also providing specific resource areas that support the learning needs of young people with particular impairments, including deaf children. Jonathan Hassell, Accessibility Editor, BBC jam can provide more information. |
| Sharing with Information Exchange | 27 | Patricia Gibbons describes the Information Exchange Magazine, which always contains a wealth of ideas, ranging from activities to do on holiday, or at home, ideas for teaching and learning strategies, things to make and do, toys to make from junk, toys to buy, clothes, equipment and furniture to adapt or have fun with: you name it, somebody has probably got a good idea what to do with it! Details of subscription are provided. |
| Early intervention in Maths - join a Maths project | 35 | An invitation from Oxford University to take part in a numeracy project. |
| Keep up-to-date | 37 | A reminder to members to visit the BATOD website on a regular basis to get breaking news and the latest information on a range of topics. |
| ICT Newspage | 42 | Sharon Pointeer provides an update and overview of equipment, meetings and initiatives of specific interest to ToDs. |
| They�ve been reading our website | 46 | The Education and Skills Select Committee has produced a detailed report into Special Educational Needs. The summary is reproduced on the BATOD website with the conclusions and recommendations. BATOD was very pleased to see that, although we did not give evidence, an extract from our response to an Ofsted report into inclusion on our website was quoted within the report. |
| Advertising Rates | 50 | Advertising rates also appear on the website via a direct link. Advertising in the BATOD Magazine is guaranteed to reach over two-thirds of the 2500 (approx) practising Teachers of the Deaf who are members of BATOD - and we estimate that we reach the other third who 'share' the publication, as well as many associated professionals who read the Magazine as well! |
| This and That | 51 | Items from the postbag and email inbox that could be pinned on the noticeboard for you to read!
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| Noticeboard | 53 | Details of forth-coming meetings and courses. |
| Abbreviations in this issue | 54 | A life saver - the page that every ToD turns to when confronted with a set of meaningful uppercase letters! |
| Classroom resource reviews | ||
| Classroom resource reviews | Practising Teachers of the Deaf use the review materials with their pupils before commenting for these reviews. | |
| See it signed | 44 | Sue Watters - peripatetic Teacher of the Deaf - Northamptonshire reviewed the fourth in a series of videos produced by 'What's the sign for?' This DVD aims at those preparing for the Level 1 exam. It shows the presenters presenting stories in 4 parts, demonstrates signed picture stories and shows examples of role play. She was delighted to get this DVD to review, as I had used their 'Sign Up' videos and found them very useful for Level 1 and hopefully this one will help her story telling. This DVD did not disappoint. It was of the same good standard of presentation. |
| Sign to me | 44 | Rosie Edge (Kent Specialist Teaching Service - HI) reviewed �Sign to me� which is a CD-ROM containing over 1700 video clips of everyday signs. It loads automatically when placed in the CD drive of the computer and is easy to use. It is presented by a young, deaf boy thus promoting a positive role model for other deaf youngsters. |
| A beginners introduction to history | 46 | Ted Moore reviewed the book. This publication was created for anyone with �an interest in the Deaf and their language, their community and their history�. It is also intended to �form the basis for Deaf History Courses� which are often included in Deaf Studies and BSL courses. It is a comprehensive work, full of illustrations (260), photographs, time lines of events and publications, and information. |
| Association Business: | ||
| ....in the driving seat | 1 | Alison Weaver discusses accountability, clear outcomes and impact measures, words she hears wherever she goes at present. Across the UK, Teachers of the Deaf in all settings are being called on to demonstrate the outcomes of their work. She reflects on the great need we have in Deaf Education for national data about the achievements of deaf children and young people and about provision made for them - and the future of the BATOD Survey. |
| What went on at NEC on 17 June 2006 | 34 | A comprehensive report of meeting business to keep members informed. After each NEC meeting we produce a reader-friendly r�sum� of the meeting under the heading of �What Went On at NEC�. We have noted that there is a great deal of repetition in the Minutes when they have appeared in a later edition of the Magazine. We have therefore decided to discontinue the practice of reproducing the minutes although they will still be available from the Secretary on request at [email protected] |
| BATOD UK | 36 | A round up the the reports submitted by the regions to NEC. These reports also appear in the Regions folder in the Association Section of the website. |
| Seminar on Informed Choice | 38 | Paul Simpson, BATOD Secretary attended the seminar on Informed Choice held at the Royal Statistical Society in June 2006. A document has been published by Early Support entitled �Informed Choice, families and deaf children - a professional handbook�. It is the result of research carried out by the University of Manchester and the NDCS. It was launched at the annual NDCS conference on Friday 16 June. Wishing to seize the moment, the NDCS convened a seminar for members of key organisations in the field to discuss how best to put it into practice. |
| DDA and qualifications | 39 | Paul Simpson, BATOD Secretary represented BATOD at the follow-up meeting of stakeholders affected by the changes to access arrangements for examinations caused by the implementation of the DDA. |
| Meeting with Sarah Teather | 39 | Following our successful meeting with Jacqui Smith, Minister for Schools, we felt it important to maintain and strengthen our links with other political parties. Consequently, Ted Moore and Paul Simpson met Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education, in her office in Portcullis House on 22 May 2006. |
| BATOD meets the Unions - PAT | 40 | One of a series of regular meetings with senior union officials to discuss issues related to pay and conditions of particular relevance to ToDs. We met with the Principal Professional Officer of the Professional Association of Teachers, Deborah Simpson, and covered a range of topics of interest to members of both BATOD and PAT. |
| NCPA/FPHB meeting | 40 | At the sixty-fifth meeting of the National Committee of Professionals in Audiology in April 2006, the new Constitution was adopted. The BSA will continue to provide secretarial support for the new body to be known as the United Kingdom Federation of Professionals in Hearing and Balance (FPHB). The approved Constitution will be circulated with an Annex listing member organisations and observers. |
| Representing you | 41 | Between the NEC meetings, members of BATOD attend various meetings that are of particular interest to Teachers of the Deaf. This list is not exhaustive as some reports have not yet been received or meetings reported on, some are meetings booked for the near future. |
| Tripartite meeting June 2006 | 48 | Regular report from this important meeting where BATOD, NDCS and RNID share news about activities and discuss issues common to all three organsiations. |
| ERCDO meeting | 50 | Paul simpson, BATOD Secretary, attended the Education Research Consortium of Deaf Organisations' regular termly meeting of organisations (NATED, RNID, BATOD, NDCS, Auditory-Oral Consortium, Sign Bilingual Consortium) to discuss and promote research-related issues in deaf education. |
| Inclusion - does it matter where pupils are taught? | 51 | A brief review of the document - a more detailed look from the ToD angle is published on the BATOD website. |
| Subscription Rates | 55 | Annual Membership subscription rates apply from 1st August. |
| Have you moved? Change of address form | 55 | Reading a colleague's Magazine? Wondering what has happened to your copy? If you are not receiving your BATOD Magazine and Journal perhaps it is because we have no record of your current address. Put this right by completing the form and returning it to the BATOD Membership Secretary, or simply email from here. Membership Registrar |
| Officers of Regions and Nations | inside back cover | Snail Mail contact addresses for regional officers |
| Calendar | ||
| Meetings to know about | 56 | Advertised courses and meetings which are of interest to BATOD members. Contact the magazine editor to add a one line entry to this valuable page or pay for a small advert on the Noticeboard. |