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Julie Aldridge, MSDE, CED

jaatighe@gmail.com

314-717-3976 (cell)

From and currently living in St. Louis, Missouri
Middle School Teacher of the Deaf
December 2020 Doctoral candidate at Maryville University in Educational Leadership
Future goal is to consult with school districts around the nation on best practices for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing and continue being a steward of the field

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Equitable Practices in Virtual Learning for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Julie Aldridge, MSDE, CED

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Topics

and Objectives

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Advocacy

Participants will be able to analyze practices in their districts and advocate for equity and best practices in virtual learning for their student populations

Communication

Participants will learn how to create a communication plan that reaches all constituents while maintaining efficiency and allowing for differentiation

Instruction

Participants will identify multiple strategies of online-learning instruction that can be differentiated depending upon student groups

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Our Lenses

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Intersectionality of Marginalized Groups

“Intersectionality is a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages”; a lens that takes into account overlapping “identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face” (Alemán)

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At-Risk Defined:

Families affected by, unemployment, poverty, addiction, violence, mental health issues, and other extenuating factors that impact their child’s development and educational success.

Myths About At-Risk Families, Aldridge, Chatman, Garavaglia, 2019

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Common Factors for Students At-Risk

Family Factors

Single parent homes
Low educational attainment of caregivers
Caregivers who have children with disabilities
Trauma
Lack of appropriate role models

Community Factors

Lack of affordable housing
Unsafe neighborhoods
High unemployment rates
Lack of affordable healthcare

School Factors

Excessive use of punitive discipline methods
Institutional racism
Large enrollment and class sizes
Segregation by ability grouping or tracking
Low expectations from staff

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Myths About At-Risk Families, Aldridge, Chatman, Garavaglia, 2019

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Common Factors for Students At-Risk Continued

Behavioral Factors

Excessive absences (defacto dropouts)
Changes in behavioral patterns such as not bringing devices to school or changes in emotional regulation
Increased disciplinary incidents
Incomplete work

Factors specific to DHH population

Executive functioning ability
When the demands of language and vocabulary surpass student ability
Age of identification
Caregiver grief cycle
Social skill development
Isolation due to language, especially students who use American Sign Language in a predominantly listening and spoken language learning community and/or home environment
Low educational expectations from family/staff
Not having access to appropriate services because of location or district resources

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Myths About At-Risk Families, Aldridge, Chatman, Garavaglia, 2019

Additional Factors

Experienced trauma
Having a disability or illness
Limited academic proficiency
Low economic status
Numerous family responsibilities
Low parental expectations
Non-english speaking/signing/language enriched homes
Child abuse or neglect
Domestic violence
High mobility
Homelessness
Little opportunity for learning outside of school
Excessive use of discipline methods such as suspensions
Disregard of individual student learning styles
Institutional racism
Lack of relevant curriculum
Large enrollment/class size
Lack of language instruction
Lack of participation in school governance by key constituents
Lack of effective student assessment
Lack of diversity in instructional styles
Lack of professional development opportunities
Lack of cross-cultural sensitivity
Lack of appropriate role models
Low expectations from staff
Low parent/community involvement in school
Negative and/or unsafe school environment
Passive instructional strategies
Raised academic standards without adequate school support
Rigid daily and weekly schedules
Segregation by ability grouping or tracking

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Considerations and

Challenges

I invite you to consider your lenses.

What makes up your identity?

I challenge you to consider how your lenses impact the way that you interact with students and families.

How do your lenses strengthen your relationships with students and families and what could you do to acknowledge lenses that hinder those relationships? How can you change your behaviors or teaching methods so that your lenses do not negatively impact students and families, explicitly or implicitly?

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Communication

Create a communication plan that reaches all constituents while maintaining efficiency and allowing for differentiation

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Communication Plans

Identify the best way to communicate with caregivers
Send out updates on a consistent, predictable basis
Find a platform that meets students’ and caregiver needs, and is approved by district
Empower students to lead communication (and practice written expression skills and language while doing it!)

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Common Sense Education, Power Up Your Parent Communication

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Description	Frequency	Method	Audience	Owner
Weekly newsletter with class information and assignments	Every Monday	Smore Newsletter via Email list	6th grade math class (caregivers, students and DHH team members)	Aldridge
Assignments for the week	Every Monday	Google Classroom	6th grade math class (students)	Aldridge
Communication with caregivers who need one on one support	As needed	Google Phone Number (text or call)	Caregivers	Aldridge and caregivers
Check ins with caregivers	Once every two weeks	Google Phone Number (text or call)	Caregivers	Aldridge
Support for students who are advocating for their needs	As needed	Email, live via Google Meet, Remind	Staff members or caregivers	Students (with support from Aldridge)

Sample Communication Plan

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Sample Newsletter

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Considerations and

Challenges

I invite you to identify the frequency in which you communicate with families on your caseloads.

Are all caregiver voices heard on your caseload? How can we focus on reaching caregivers who we rarely see or communicate with?

I challenge you to consider how your lenses impact how you communicate with caregivers.

What language do we use when communicating needs of students and families? To other staff? To the families themselves? What assumptions do we make about students and families on our caseloads? Do we put forth the same effort to communicate with caregivers who are different from us?

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Instruction

Identify multiple strategies of online-learning instruction that can be differentiated depending upon your student groups

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Instructional Best Practices

Use a platform your students are familiar with to start out
High impact practices

Structure your class time
Engage students directly by using their names within your presentation
State learning objectives
State language targets
Drip feed content

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Sample Slide Deck via Google Slides

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1foRrO1750foiYmQ-NTrEKP6meio_Hn15RFZpY6kOz90/edit?usp=sharing

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Culturally Responsive Language Instruction

How to describe what it must have been like for Africans whose deepest bonds were historically forged in the place of shared speech to be transported abruptly to a world where the very sound of one’s mother tongue had no meaning. (Hooks, 169)

“This is the oppressor’s language, yet I need it to talk to you” -Adrienne Rich

These words make me think of standard English, of learning to speak against black vernacular, against the ruptured and broken speech of a dispossessed and displaced people. I know that it is not the English language that hurts me but what the oppressors do with it, how they shape it to become a territory that limits and defines, how they make it a weapon that can shame, humiliate, colonize (Hooks, 168)

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When used as nouns, dialect means a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area, community or social group, often differing from other varieties of the same language in minor ways as regards vocabulary, style, pronunciation, and orthographic conventions, whereas vernacular means the language of a people or a national language.

https://diffsense.com/diff/dialect/vernacular#:~:text=When%20used%20as%20nouns%2C%20dialect,means%20the%20language%20of%20a

In my doctoral studies, we read a book called “Teaching to Transgress” by Bell Hooks. We know that Teachers of the Deaf are experts at teaching standard English language structures so that our students can achieve high levels of communication and reading. It is important to note the historical context of standard English when thinking about equity in instruction. Bell Hooks describes her reflections about what it must have been like for Africans who came to the United States to be enslaved to have their language taken from them. English became the oppressors language and enslaved peoples had to learn it to communicate with their oppressors. A quote that really stood out to me was “I know that it is not the English language that hurts me but what the oppressors do with it, how they shape it to become a territory that limits and defines, how they make it a weapon that can shame, humiliate, colonize.”

As teachers of the deaf, we need to make sure we are empowering language and not oppressing it. I will give you two examples from my own experiences.

The first is an example of language empowerment. I had a very shy student whose first language was American Sign Language. The dialect of ASL used in this student’s home was different than the vocabulary I was teaching. Instead of telling the student that his dialect was ‘wrong’ we empowered the student by validating his language. We told the class “At Jeremiah’s house he uses this sign. Our interpreter uses this sign. So now we know two signs for the same word!” He became confident in his ability to know synonyms for school and home. He was open to teaching students new signs. He felt empowered and proud of his language.

An example of oppression of language, which I have absolutely done before, is this. A student approached me in my first year of teaching and I asked her “what are you going to do this weekend?” She responded “I finna go to my granny’s house.” I responded “Finna? Finna is not a word. You should say ‘going to.’ Can you try that again?” I essentially told that student that her dialect was wrong and that all of her family members and community were wrong and that she should be ashamed of using those words. That is oppression of language. I shamed that student from using her dialect.

Now, when students utilize their dialect, I approach the situation much differently. I say “At your house, you say finna. At my house I say gonna. When we read a book, it will say going to. All of those ways are correct and I am supporting you with this so that you know the meaning of words that you are reading.” That is empowerment of language.

Do I understand what finna means? Yes. Is it the way that I speak? No. Should I shame a student for using a dialect that I once perceived as less than? No. That is called oppression.

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Culturally Responsive Language Instruction

We are guests in our students’ homes
Validate all vernaculars and dialects (spoken and signed)
Present yourself as a language ‘guide’
Have a conversation with students about the why and how of language instruction
Language supports instead of language corrections
Language empowerment instead of language oppression

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Considerations and

Challenges

I invite you to consider the dialects that you use in your personal life.

What are regional dialects that you hear where you live or work? Which do you use? Are there any dialects in your area that you perceive as ‘wrong’ or ‘incorrect’? Do you use those dialects when making jokes about others? How does the way you utilize dialects impact others?

I challenge you to consider if language instruction methods commonly used when teaching students who are Deaf or hard of hearing are empowering or oppressing students?

How can we change these methods to empower students in their language development? How can we support standard English language growth without oppression of dialect? How can we create a bigger conversation as a field?

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Advocacy

Analyze practices in your district and advocate for best practices in virtual learning for your student population

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Tips for Advocating in your District

Be an active participant in conversations around district plans for fall 2020
Collaborate with DHH professionals (SLPs, interpreters, audiologists, OT/PT, etc.) to keep up-to-date on best practice information
Search for school districts in the nation that are already implementing or have plans to implement PPE, instructional strategies, etc.
Be the change: start a statewide conversation with DHH professionals about best practices for all students who are deaf or hard of hearing in your location
Budget is not an excuse for inequity
Do not assume that the people in charge will take care of it, be a part of the conversation!
Be professional but firm
Seek to gain perspectives of families, staff, and students who have differing experiences and opinions from your own

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Considerations and

Challenges

I invite you to consider how you can continue to be an advocate for students and families who are at-risk in your district or school.

Which teams or conversations are you a part of? Identify a space where your perspectives in deaf education are not heard, how can you become a part of that conversation? What barriers prevent you from advocating for students in the way that you want?

I challenge you to consider how you can be an advocate for all students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

How can we collaborate as a collective field of highly educated professionals? What can you do to lead collaborative efforts in your region? What can you do to learn about aspects of deaf education that you have not experienced? How can you incorporate student and family perspective into this work?

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Thank you!

See references, special thanks, and resources on the following slides

Julie Aldridge, MSDE, CED

jaatighe@gmail.com

314-717-3976 (cell)

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References

Alemán, Rosa. “What Is Intersectionality, and What Does It Have to Do with Me?” YW Boston, 14, June 2020 https://www.ywboston.org/2017/03/what-is-intersectionality-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-me/.

Aldridge, J., Chatman, R., & Garavaglia, C. (2019). Myths About At Risk Families. Fontbonne University CDDE Professional Forum: Empowering Caregivers to Help Children Soar through Purposeful Interprofessional Practice.

Common Sense Education, Power Up Your Parent Communication

Hooks, B. (2017). Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.

Linder, K. E., Hayes, C. M., & Thompson, K. (2018). High-impact practices in online education: research and best practices. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

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Special thanks to the following peer reviewers for their feedback and support!

Haley Brown, MSDE, CED
Rodnesha Chatman, MA, CED
Mariah Davis, MA, CED
Amanda Fisch, MSDE, CED
Katherine Purcell, MA Ed.

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#WeCohort30+1

Special thanks to Dr. Solomon Knight and my doctoral cohort for helping me grow in so many ways. I have learned so much from all of you.

TODs, if you are thinking about your next educational journey, please consider educational leadership. We need you.

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Resources for Communication and Instruction

National Association of the Deaf: Covid-19 Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communication Access Recommendations for the Hospital

https://www.nad.org/covid19-communication-access-recs-for-hospital/

University of Rochester Medical Center Deaf & Hard of Hearing Covid-19 Resource List

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/coronavirus/more-resources/deaf-hard-of-hearing.aspx

Hearing Like Mike: A guide to group video calling apps for hearing loss

https://www.hearinglikeme.com/guide-to-group-video-calling-apps-for-hearing-loss/

CommonSense.org: Power Up Your Parent Communication

https://www.commonsense.org/education/teaching-strategies/power-up-your-parent-teacher-communication

Common Sense Education: Best Tools for Virtual and Distance Learning

https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/best-tools-for-virtual-and-distance-learning

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Resources for Culturally Responsive Teaching

Social Identity Wheel

https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/2017/08/16/social-identity-wheel/

Intersections of Marginalized Identities

https://rootedinrights.org/its-time-to-stop-ignoring-the-intersections-of-marginalized-identities/

Taking Action on Student Equity

https://eab.com/research/community-college/resource/taking-action-on-student-equity/

TeachingTolerance.org
Edutopia: How to get started with culturally responsive teaching

https://www.edutopia.org/article/getting-started-culturally-responsive-teaching

Book List:

Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Banaji and Greenwald
Whistling Vivaldi by Claude Steele
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

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