Barb Reflection

I loved watching Barb. She showed people exactly what autism is. Autism is not a deficit, and people with autism are not incapable of doing things. Working with kids with autism has taught me so much. These people just have a different way of thinking and interpreting the world around them. There is nothing wrong with that at all. I love that Barb was able to talk about her autism in a very positive manner. I feel like sometimes people look down upon people with autism, and Barb was a great example of how people can be highly intelligent, and just not have a way to communicate her intelligence. Sometimes autism is just a silent intelligence. One of the kids I work with is in the second grade, and has pretty severe autism. He uses sign as his main mode of communication, and if the teacher does not know how to communicate with him, or manage his tantrums; she will send him to the resource room and let him just play in the computer all day. Because of this, the school system is wanting to hold him back because he is "not up to par" to go on to the third grade. I believe this attitude in the school systems needs to stop. I believe, as teachers, we need to believe that every student is intelligent and has opportunities to succeed. I think that most of the times when we think about autism, we tend to think about those who have autism and a learning disability; just as Barb was thought to have severe mental retardation as a student. We now know that a lot of these children and adults are capable of high intelligence, but we have to figure out a way to communicate with them in the most effective manner. Just like the boy I work with who uses sign language, we must have a way that they understand. I think this goes not only with people with autism, but also typically developing individuals as well. All semester we have been discussing the ways for students to do their own assessments. Such as, having kids write a book report, act it out in a play, draw a picture of the story, etc. Finding a way for kids with autism to communicate is just another example of this.

Group Differences

I enjoyed the group differences discussion today. I feel like I learned a lot with everyone's various opinions, views, and experiences. I feel like all of the articles and topics were really informative and important to discuss. It seemed like we covered a lot of the problems that we might see in the classroom. I really liked learning about the Critical Race Theory. Since this was my group, I was able to delve deeper in the topic and really learn different viewpoints. I was really interested in the disabilities topic as well. I feel like people had very different experiences with their internships and interacting people with disabilities, which led to a great discussion. Since I will be working with children with disabilities, I found some of these discussions somewhat disturbing, however, I am glad that we were able to talk about how that is not the correct way to handle children with disabilities. I think we will all be better prepared to handle these situations in the classroom in the "real world". I also liked how we were able to discuss the material more and bring personal and relatable experiences in to the discussion.

PLE 10 - Interpreting

Children who are deaf and are born to hearing parents will more than likely have a delay in the receptive and expressive language skills. The article at the bottom discusses the milestones of hearing, speech, and ASL. This was given to us in our Language Development of Deaf and Hard of Hearing class. This has helped significantly when looking at the differences in hearing children and deaf children. When deaf children are born to deaf parents, they are given a language from day 1, just like when hearing children are born to hearing parents. Parents continually talk to their babies from the time they are born, through the rest of developmental stages. When a deaf child is born to a hearing couple, they are usually so stunned that their son/daughter is deaf, that they do not give them a language. Even if the parents decided to give the child a cochlear implant, the baby cannot get implanted until 6 months of age. By this time, the child is already delayed in language development. Therefore, a deaf child will most likely be delayed through the school years. If the child has a hearing aid or cochlear implant, they still do not hear like the average person. Since they do not hear the world around them, they usually do not pick up the necessary vocabulary needed to succeed. Not only the vocabulary and syntax, but the child will probably be delayed in the pragmatics of communication as well. Usually deaf children have a hard time grasping the idea of turn taking in a conversation. The pragmatics that hearing children usually pick up in naturally will usually have to be explicitly taught to the deaf student.

https://blackboard.utk.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-6501035-dt-content-rid-6259801_1/courses/EducofDeafHardofHearing41625268SP2013/ASL%20Milestones.PDF

PLE #9

How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

I think as an interpreter, I want to make sure the student has good self regulation habits. The age of the child will determine the amount of input the interpreter gives. If the child is in early elementary school, the interpreter will probably need to remind the child how to self regulate and ask if they need to take any books, papers, or assignments home each day. As the child grows older, we hope that those habits become ingrained in that student. By practicing social cognitive theory in the classroom, the teacher will hopefully teach these habits as well. By the end of the year, the student will hopefully know intrinsically to regulate themselves. This also works with self efficacy. Deaf students usually do not have a good sense self efficacy when they start into a public school. Because the student may only have one person to communicate with, they will more than likely need encouragement to interact with peers and teachers. As an interpreter, I want to encourage the student to be more independent. If the interpreter can push the child to be more independent in the younger years, I believe the student will have better self efficacy as he/she gets older. 

In some of our interpreting/ deaf ed classes, we have seen the inverted triangles of interpreter responsibility. I think this describes what I have just said, in a more visual way. 
http://theinterpretersfriend.org/pd/ws/ethics/text.html

PLE # 8- Interpreting Case Study

Educational Interpreting Case Study

This is your first week as an educational interpreter at Brown Elementary School. One of your students, Luke, has completely shut down and is not engaged in learning. During instruction, he refuses to look at you for communication. He has not completed any assignments that would help him demonstrate an understanding of material and has, on several occasions, put his head down on his desk and gone to sleep. On the second day of school, you tried to talk to Luke between classes to find out if there was a problem and he walked away from you. Yesterday, when you attempted to facilitate communication with his math teacher, Luke crossed his arms and turned his back toward you. His math teacher got angry and requested that you contact his parents, who are both hearing, and set up a meeting to discuss Luke’s behavior.

From a behaviorist point of view, I would ignore Luke's negative behavior, but when he was staying on task and engaging appropriately with the class and teacher, I would reward him for that desired behavior. I would try to work with the teacher to find a good reinforcer for Luke. For instance, if Luke really liked gummy bears, I would try to make sure to give him a gummy bear when he would pay attention in class. I think this might initially motivate Luke to pay attention to the interpreter/teacher during class. Also, since Luke might like socializing with his friends, maybe give the class some social time if they are all on task. This would be rewarding for all the students, and Luke would be part of the whole class, and give him a sense of responsibility.   

From a social cognitive theorist, I think the student would learn more from viewing the other students being good and paying attention. I think a social cognitive theorist would say that by observing the classmates keeping on track in class, Luke would want to act appropriately as well. I think for this to work, changes would have to be made in the classroom as well as at home. We would need to maybe change the seating arrangement, where Luke would be less distracted and would want to pay more attention. 

http://www.education.com/reference/article/social-cognitive-theory/

Chapter 8- Interpeting

(8.2) The student for whom you are interpreting must complete an activity that requires him to solve a complex problem with a partner. Rather than collaborating with his partner, your student asks that you just tell him and his partner the answer. How would you re-direct this student and encourage him to work with his partner and persist in the task?

For this scenario, I would tell the student that I was not going to give him the answer and that he needs to work with his partner to solve the problem. I would tell him that I am here if he needs help communicating. If my student needed to talk to the partner, I would interpret. I might encourage him to ask his partner and see if they have any good ideas. Sometimes deaf kids can feel unsure about working with hearing kids because they have to talk through an interpreter. Because they might feel uncomfortable, I might start off the conversation by telling the deaf child that he needs to ask his partner for ideas and help. This might help get the students more comfortable with one another. Depending on the age of the child, the interpreter can tell the student that they are only there to facilitate communication, and are not going to tell them the answer. The interpreter has to set up boundaries from the very first. 
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Stem/hearing.html

Chapter 7- Constructive Interpreting

Since a constructivist classroom would consist of more social interaction than lectures, it would be important for the student to be actively engaged in the classroom. As an interpreter, I would try my best to convey every possible idea that was spoken. This is hard to do when everyone in the class is talking all at once. The only thing I would ask the teacher, is to try and make everyone raise their hands. This would help to ensure that every message was being interpreted. Also, if this were in a younger classroom, such as lower elementary school, I would encourage the child to participate in the discussion. Because they might have a lower language, and think they are different, some deaf students need a lot of encouragement to participate in class. Since the constructivist classroom would more than likely consist of more hands on tasks and  group activities, this would give a great opportunity to the deaf student to interact with peers. Because the interpreter is usually the only one in the classroom who signs, they are usually the only ones who interact with that student. In this type of classroom, the students would probably be more inclined to learn how to  communicate with the one who is deaf. Also this would give good authentic experience to the deaf student on how to communicate with people who do not sign.
http://saskschoolboards.ca/research/instruction/97-07.htm

Chapter 6

As an interpreter, we play a big role in trying to the deaf children to better understand and store information in their long term memory. Liz and I were talking about how we could better use space and visual aids to help the deaf children. I would think that most of the deaf children are visual learners, since ASL is such a visual language. American Sign Language uses space as an aid to make it a visual language. The use of space in sign language is similar to a voice inflection of a spoken language. When Liz and I were talking about memory, and we reflected back on how we both learned in school, we could remember using mnemonic devices and songs a lot in elementary school. This could be an issue due to the fact that these are usually done in a sing-song type of voice with words that often rhyme. It is difficult for the deaf student to understand the rhymes because they are unable to hear the alliteration. I would think by maybe having a visual aid for the student, it would help not only the deaf student, but other students who might be a visual learner as well. If we make it accessible to one student, we make it accessible to all the students. Maybe the teacher and I could work together to make either a power point or poster to help as a visual aid. I remember the thing we used in high school to remember the order of mitosis was very hands on, I believe if interpreters could come up with more hands on mnemonic devices, deaf children might be able to store it better in the long term memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PMXatafIXc

Chapter 14- Interpreting

Many problems could arise while working as an Educational Interpreter. There could many differences between the interpreter/student, teacher/student, or even the deaf student/ the other students. One of the major differences that I would assume to be different would be cultural differences. Depending on if the child identifies him/herself with the deaf culture or hearing culture would likely determine how that child acts and tries to communicate. For one, the Deaf community is a very abrupt culture. For example, Deaf people will tell you if they think something is ugly, or if someone has gained a lot of weight. Whereas in the hearing world, people would likely take offense to something that straightforward. Other differences, such as ethnic or socioeconomic issues might cause problems in communication. I have heard stories where a white female interpreter tries to interpret for a black male, and the messages can get misconstrued. Where some African Americans would use a different set of vocabulary than that of the white female interpreter. This can cause issues within the classroom if the student cannot connect with the interpreter. There have been instances in which a female interpreter has been placed with a male student in gym class, but the interpreter cannot go into the locker room with the boy, and this is where the coach would have meetings and discussions with the boys. Therefore, gender differences can play a key role in communication as well. 

In one of my classes a few years back, we watched this video on Deaf culture. It is somewhat long, but it gives great insight to the Deaf culture and what accompanies it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIxvaE_iIbI

Chapter 13- Interpreting Questions

List five areas you will attend to as you work with educational staff to create a learning environment that is conducive to interpreting.

1. Location of the Interpreter:
I think that it will be important for the interpreters to let the teachers know where the best place is for the interpreter. The interpreter should be somewhere that easy to be seen by the deaf student. It is also important for the interpreter to not be in the way of the board or slide show, where the deaf student could read it if necessary. It is important for the interpreter and teacher to communicate where the best placement would be.  

2. Having students raise their hands to answer. 
This would help the interpreter to better point out who was talking and better facilitate communication. Interpreters need a little bit of lag time. This is  from the time that something is spoken to the time the interpreter produces it in ASL. By having rapid fire question and answer, this does not give the interpreter adequate time to translate the information correctly. This, in turn, does not usually give the deaf student a chance to answer the questions. This could lead to a feeling of isolation. 

3. Having materials accessible. 
This means that the teacher and interpreter should work together to find movies and films that would have Closed Captioning. Closed captioning is on almost every film, however if it is not provided, it could be captioned by someone. If the teacher lets the interpreter know in advance that a film needs to be captioned, the interpreter could find the resources needed to caption it. 

4. Allowing the Interpreter access to materials. 
By allowing the interpreter to have access to lesson plans or readings that the teacher will be having in class, it helps the interpreter to better be prepared. It is much easier and provides a better interpretation if the interpreter knows beforehand what the lesson will be about. Going in to the lesson not knowing will be difficult. Interpreters often have to research the topics they will be discussing to learn possible signs they will have to know, and to obtain a grasp of the concepts they will be interpreting. 

5. Knowing the interpreters are certified. 
When the interpreter is not interpreting adequately enough for the student, it can severely delay that child in his or her language and knowledge. The administrators should check to see if the interpreter is certified and registered. There have been many stories of people not being capable of providing adequate interpreting, and the student taking the fall for it. It is not enough to just know Sign Language, these interpreters have to be able to match the child's needs, and be able to bridge the communication gap. I found this website pretty interesting because it tells what the role of the interpreter is, and the registrations and certifications they should have. 
http://www.classroominterpreting.org/eipa/index.asp

Motivation

I believe that it all depends on the student, and how they need to be motivated. Some children are very self motivated and want to do well in school because they genuinely want to learn and do well. Others will need more extrinsic motivation. I feel like as educators, one of the main goals would be to have the child gain intrinsic motivation, because that is how people truly learn. Sometimes with more extrinsic motivators, the child will do the work, only to get it done and get the reward, whereas of a child completes the task because he/she wants to do a good job, they will truly learn from it. As children though, we have to be taught how to be more intrinsically motivated. Some of the theories that I thought really helped me as a child was verbal praise, and competition. I always really enjoyed hearing praise from my teacher when I had done well. I also think that competition really helped as well. I feel like physical rewards, such as stickers or candy, worked best when I was younger, however when I was middle school and high school, I really enjoyed of a teacher gave the class a competitive game to play, instead of just a study guide. With these different extrinsic motivators, I think that teachers can help students to gain  intrinsic motivation.

M. McMahan PLE 1

This class seems very interesting. As an interpreting major, I am excited to see more of the teachers' perspectives. Through this course I hope to learn more about how to deal with some difficulties that might arise in the classroom. I think taking this class, and learning more about the teaching methods, will help in interpreting as well. If I can better understand the methods and ways educators will be teaching, I can better interpret for the teacher and student. When coming into the class, I thought I would not be learning anything, because the class was mostly for teachers, but after thinking about it, and knowing the topics we will be talking about I believe this will be very beneficial. I would like to know more about how the education majors in the class think they will be organizing their classroom. By understanding how they will be conducting the classes, I feel like it will help me to better interpret and help the student to better understand.