Sheila Resseger: How Testing Impacts a School for the Deaf
Guest post by Sheila Resseger.
I recently participated in the inspiring and informative webinar "How to Organize a Grassroots Group" put on by the Network for Public Education and the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education. I am a retired teacher of the deaf, having retired from the Rhode Island School for the Deaf in the fall of 2011 profoundly dismayed by the unreasonable sanctions placed on the school by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), headed by Deborah Gist (Broad Superintendents Academy 2008).
During my 25 years as a teacher in the high school and middle school, I was at heart an English Language Arts teacher. I say at heart because I was originally hired to teach introductory Latin and Roman Civilization. Teaching deaf students a "dead" language may seem to some a non-starter, but Latin is actually a rich starting point to demystify aspects of English grammar and to build a broad and deep academic vocabulary. As I gained experience I became painfully aware of the many and varied difficulties many of my deaf students had with English print. What most people unfamiliar with early childhood deafness do not appreciate, is that a child deaf or severely hearing-impaired from birth or early infancy will not develop English as a native speaker, due to incomplete and distorted input, even if members of the family are native English speakers. This problem is
I recently participated in the inspiring and informative webinar "How to Organize a Grassroots Group" put on by the Network for Public Education and the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education. I am a retired teacher of the deaf, having retired from the Rhode Island School for the Deaf in the fall of 2011 profoundly dismayed by the unreasonable sanctions placed on the school by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), headed by Deborah Gist (Broad Superintendents Academy 2008).
During my 25 years as a teacher in the high school and middle school, I was at heart an English Language Arts teacher. I say at heart because I was originally hired to teach introductory Latin and Roman Civilization. Teaching deaf students a "dead" language may seem to some a non-starter, but Latin is actually a rich starting point to demystify aspects of English grammar and to build a broad and deep academic vocabulary. As I gained experience I became painfully aware of the many and varied difficulties many of my deaf students had with English print. What most people unfamiliar with early childhood deafness do not appreciate, is that a child deaf or severely hearing-impaired from birth or early infancy will not develop English as a native speaker, due to incomplete and distorted input, even if members of the family are native English speakers. This problem is