Paper review 1

Aaron Mancilla

TED 690

National University
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Short Paper

Amongst the reasons for the failure of deaf education is the lack of linguistic access to

curricula content. The deaf education is based on the program of Total Communication, under

this program students learn by visualizing teachers speak in English. In other words deaf students

are expected to “learn all curricular content through spoken English produced by their

teachers”(Erting & Robert & Johnson, 1989, p.4). As harsh at it sounds students are expected

and demanded to learn the English Language by observing teachers speak, this is erroneous

because they are not able listen. Deaf children are required and expected to learn to read lips as

means to understand what their teachers are emphasizing. Most teachers are not adequately

prepared with American Sign Langue (ASL). Teachers are only demanded to learn certain hand

signs for the significance of important words. This is problematic because teachers can signal the

wrong words, and students would not be able to follow directions.

Another aspect of the lack of linguistic access is that young deaf students are not

adequately prepared with ASL, and in many cases they are hold from learning ASL until later

years of their schooling. Even if the teachers know ASL the students will suffer from learning

subject matter because they will not be able to understand the signs. The goal of the educational

system is for deaf students to acquire the language English by means of observing teachers talk

without being able to understand what they are saying; the problem here is the assumption that

students are expected to have the talent to read lips. ASL is a language of its own, thus students

should first be taught ASL and then English for them to excel at their maximum.

In mathematics this is problematic because if a teacher signs for radius in an intermediate

algebra class and the teacher meant to say x square this will cause the students to feel confused.

Most of the time is the lack of the teachers’ understanding of ASL that causes the failure in deaf

education. Teachers most also learn ASL if they are going to educate deaf students. Another
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aspect of this issue is the difficulty for teachers to speak and sign at the same time, nor is

possible for teachers to write on the white board and use hand signs. Similarly, deaf students

cannot observe and write at the same time and they are not provided with note takers.

The lack of linguistic access to curricula content is not just a problem for deaf students,

but a problem to minority groups that do not speak English. Let’s focus in the case of migrant

Salvadorians students in the early grades. Similarly, as the deaf students they are expected to

learn curricula content by observing their teachers talk. Also, many teachers are not bilingual and

this can affect the students at a young age because they will not be able to communicate with

their teachers as the deaf students. In contrast, migrant Salvadorian students that do not speak

English but they receive help from parents to learn it, and many times parents from deaf students

are not able to help their deaf children because they don’t know ASL. Another difference is that

migrant Salvadorian students are able to interact with other peers, and deaf students have

difficult times because their peers might not know ASL.

Many cultures in this country are presented with the lack of linguistic access to curricula

content. As educators we need to focus in ways to eliminate the language barriers that lead to the

same problems or similar as the deaf students. As a future mathematics teacher I always wonder

about ways to enhance the education of my future students. As for example, if I was presented to

teach a group from Indonesia and a group from Latin American I would have to consider their

needs in order to plan lessons effectively. One of their needs would be the language barrier; this

barrier is the main cause that would prevent the access to the curricula content of mathematics.

The first thing that I would do is to ask them about their intrinsic motivations as a social-ethnic

group, then I would use the information to plan my lesson plans and create activities that they

find interesting. As for example, one culturally relevant activity would be finding the names of
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geometric objects found in the classroom. Indonesians and Latino Americans belong to

collectivist societies and they tend to engage in group activities. The activity would be as

following; seat the students in groups of six, they will be given figures that have the names

written in Indonesian and Spanish. Then the students will be asked to name the geometric figures

in English and how the geometric figures are used in society. Then they will be asked to find the

areas of the geometric figures. Another activity would be finding the area of the classroom in

groups of six. I would choose 2 leaders to help me to translate what the points of the activity. At

this point I would distribute a vocabulary list in English and translated to the students native

language. The students will be given meters to measure the lengths and widths of the classroom;

again this activity fosters collectivist activities. These activities would be relevant because it

fosters an inclusive classroom, as teachers we always need to think of activities that will be

beneficial for all the social ethnic groups.

Differentiating instruction in a classroom is necessary in order to meet the needs of every

student. Every student is unique in a sense, and in my opinion teachers must acknowledge the

uniqueness of every student in order for the student to excel in a classroom. Personally, I believe

that multicultural approaches need to be implemented in designing and differentiating

instruction. In my opinion, the perfect differentiated diagram includes the infusion of

multicultural approaches such as; Teaching of the Exceptional and the Culturally Different and

the Human Relations Approach (Banks & Banks, 2013).

When

While some advocates of differentiated instruction believed that structuring curriculum

needs to occur when teachers are presented with difficulties, I believe that differentiating

instruction needs to occur regardless if difficulties are presented. We need to consider the

diversity of California’s classrooms. Not to mention the fact that within diversity there are

certain factors that prevent students to fully focus in the material content, in turn we need to

understand those factors by being culturally competent. The Iris Center (n.d.) emphasizes that

differentiating instruction occurs when “the teacher notices the students’ needs”, in my opinion

this needs to occur during the first week of school. If we focus in a pre-algebra class, the third

day I would conduct an assessment to see at what level the students are performing. The main

aspect of the assessment is that it will help me to identify the needs of every student. Most likely

by this time I would know of my IEP and English Language Learners students, the assessment

will help me to observe the communication skills of every student. The assessment would also

help me to identify the learning styles of students. Based on the results I would then determine

how to differentiate instruction for the first days but also throughout the year to allow the

students to succeed at their maximum.

How

In order to differentiate instruction we need to modify the area of content, process and

product. The content would be modified to allow every student to master the knowledge and

skills. As for example, if the content is to identify all the sets of Natural numbers then this would

be simplified to sections. I would first identify what is a set of Natural numbers and how to

define a number that is natural. To help English Learners I would allow them ti use a software to

translate the definition of Natural numbers to their native language. For students performing at

grade level and above, the content would modify for them to acquire the skills to master the

understanding of natural and different subsets of the Natural numbers such as the prime numbers.

The procedures will be modified in order for every student to master the content that was

differentiated. For the students that the content was simplified I would infuse the procedures with

the Human Relations Approach. This approach is based on student centered leaning activities;

the methods are intrinsic students’ motivation. In this activity the students will be placed in

groups to collaborate, all the students would be able to help each other while identifying what

numbers are naturals. This activity will benefit English Learners for the interaction and students

with disabilities as they must be provided with opportunities to socialize. For the students that

the content was increased I would use procedures that incorporate the Teaching of the

Exceptional and the Culturally Different. The activity would be independent work as most

students performing above grade level require challenging problems. While the rest of the

students work on groups, advance students would be able to look at the set of primes and the

characteristics of those unique numbers.

In order for students to demonstrate if they understood the content I would allow the

students to choose their own assignments. For the students that perform above average I would
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encourage them to choose assignments that are more challenging, problems such as; if n is a

natural number please explain on what form would that number be divisible by 2 or in what form

would n be an odd number. For the rest of the students I would allow them to take a home quiz,

or to write a paper stating how natural numbers are used in real life.

Why

Differentiating instruction is simply structuring curriculum to meet the needs of every

unique student. I will differentiate instruction to supports students performing above average,

below average, students with exceptionalities and students that are English Language Learners.

The structuring of curriculum is necessary because not every student has the same capability to

learn at the same paste, and in my opinion the differentiation of instruction maximizes the

leaning for every student. Another reason that differentiating instruction is necessary is because

it fosters an inclusive environment and diversity. Another aspect of differentiating instruction is

that the students learning styles are considered to make the lessons effective. For example, direct

instruction will not be beneficial for a student that is a tactic learner. In order to differentiate

instruction I would choose activities in which that student is presented with materials that he is

able to touch. In other words, differentiation of instruction should motivate the students to

engage in the classrooms activities.

Before we enter a classroom we need to know which students are struggling, who are the

English Language learners, the students with exceptionalities and unmotivated students. The

activities are the factors that engage students to pay attention to lesson; this allows the

information to be processed. In my opinion the activities of the procedures are the most

important of a lesson, it is here that students either get engage or just wait for the bell to ring.

The standard that I have chosen to design my effective strategies to instruct my students

is 8.G.9. This state standard is under the Geometry section for 8th grade students, the standard

states the following; “Know the formulas for the volumes of cones, cylinders, and spheres and

use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems”. The behavioral objective would be;

students will be able to calculate volumes of real-world problems involving the volume formulas

of cones, cylinders and spheres.

This lesson would take place after students with exceptionalities, English Language

Learners, students with learning disabilities, students at risk, and unmotivated students have been

identified. At this point I will know the language proficiency stage level of English Language

Learners, this will help me to determine what kind of intervention each student needs.

As the students enter the classroom students will work on their daily agenda. The agenda

will say define the volume of an object. As usual, the students will be reminded that they can

engage in conversations to discuss the agenda. For this activity I will walk around to help the

English Language learners to translate the phrase volume to their native language. Then I would

ask volunteers to define volume in their own words. After asking 5 volunteers, I would ask gifted

students to give us an example of how the volume is used. At this point the students will be

assigned to sit in groups of 8. Until this point I haven’t said anything, the point is for students to

generate ideas based on their previous knowledge. Then I will hand the materials, they will
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include rulers, metric meters, jelly beans, cones, cylinders, can sodas, and balloons. As I will

pass the material I will encourage them to make sense of the information and the objects

presented before them. At this point is when I will tell the class that the volume of an object is

the amount of space that contains. Then, I will provide them the volume formula of a rectangle,

and I will show them how to calculate the volume of a rectangle. It is here that I try to

incorporate the real-world problems, I will ask them “if my swim pool is 50 ft long, 40 ft wide

and 10 ft deep what is the maximum water that it can hold? I would then calculate V=(50 ft) ( 40

ft)(10 ft)=20,000 ft cubic. So I would say, the maximum water the swimming pool can hold is

20,000 ft cubic.

While I walk around I will hand English Learners a sheet of terms and definitions in

English and their native language. It is here that I will pass a cylinder full of jelly beans, balloon

with jelly beans and a cone with jelly beans. The groups will be assigned ageometric figure, and

then they will calculate the number of jelly beans inside their object. The volume of the formula

will be given to them and then they will be to calculate the jelly beans inside their given

geometric figure. In order for students to demonstrate their understanding each group will have a

presentation about the formulas and the amount of jelly beans that their given geometric figure

holds.

Working in groups will be beneficial for all the students. English learners will have the

opportunity to practice their English skills, I need to focus in the content of Mathematics but also

I need to help them excel in the use of the English Language. Students that come from

collectivist societies will benefit because they excel in group activities. Students with learning

disabilities will also enhance their social skills as they tend to believe that their disability is an

impediment for them to be able to fit-in and socialize. Gifted students will also benefit because
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they will be encourage to walk around to help the rest of the students, or they can engage in more

advance problems that I will have for them.

During the group activity I will walk around the classroom and ask the English Learners

to explain to their peers what they have learned so far, this will help them practice their English

Language. This activity allows the students to socialize in face-to-face interactions. I will allow

the students to use the application of google translator to promote bilingual strategies. I will also

teach them to use the vocabulary in a sentence. This activity fosters shelter instruction, because

language instruction is integrated into the content of the geometry.

The activities incorporate the learning styles of visual, tactic and auditory. Students will

learn from others, will visualize the jelly beans inside their object and will be able to put their

hands on task. The purpose of this lesson is for the students to realize that in order to find the

number of jelly beans in the cylinder, cone and sphere first they need to find the volume of their

geometric figure. As a group they will engage in measuring the height (h) and radius (r). The

formulas are; Volume of cylinder V=Pi*r*r*h; Volume of sphere V= (4/3)*Pi*r*r*r and Volume

of cone V=Pi*r*r*(h/3). I will then provide them with a hint about the small jelly bean, I would

say hint hint the jelly bean is a geometric figure. The students also need to calculate the volume

of a jelly bean. Once they have done those steps then they can divide the volume of the

geometric figure by the volume of the jelly bean and that’s going to be the amount of jelly beans

the object holds. The final presentation will allow the students to demonstrate their learning by

presenting to the class about how many jelly beans their geometric figure holds, and they will

Finally, I would tell the class eat the jelly beans or serve detention.

 
 
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References

Erting, Robert and Johnson. 1989. Unlocking the Curriculum: Principles for Achieving Access in
Deaf Education. Department of Linguistic and interpreting and the Gallaudet Research Institute.
Pp. 1-32
The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements. (2011). Teaching English Language Learners:
Effective Instructional Practices Retrieved on [August 25, 2014] from
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ell/
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School
Officers.(210). Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Washington , DC: Authors.