Abstract
The Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind has sought to create collaboration between the traditionally opposing language philosophies of ASL/English and Listening and Spoken Language through partnering teachers together to educate students whose families want instruction in both modalities, but not simultaneous instruction in both languages. This collaboration was tested in preschool/early childhood grades and brought opposing viewpoints together and partnerships were not always successful. Through this process of collaboration, teachers learned a great deal about how to professionally work with people who may believe very different things when working toward the common goal of student success. Lessons from the struggles and successes of the collaboration are shared in the story of a Deaf teacher, Natalie, and the teachers she partnered with.
TopSetting The Stage
Classrooms in schools/programs for the deaf are highly diverse and dynamic (Simms et al., 2008). Each classroom in schools/programs for the deaf has unique mixes and ratios of races, genders, religions, socio-economic groups, and, of course, language skills. In the same class, teachers can find themselves working with a student who is a first-generation refugee who has been without language until arriving at the classroom all the way to multi-generation Deaf students who arrived at school with strong bilingual understanding. This diversity is part of the power and beauty of working with deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Deaf/deaf: In common usage, the lowercase “deaf” refers to the audiological condition of not hearing and the uppercase “Deaf” when referring to a particular group of deaf people who share a language – American Sign Language (ASL) – and a culture.
Language Modality: The use of American Sign Language or spoken English as the mode of communication used for instruction in a school/program for the deaf and hard of hearing
Collaboration: As used in this school program, two teachers using different language modalities working together to educate the same student in an overlapping curriculum trying to maximize the outcomes of the student in both modalities while jointly communicating and planning with parents. The teachers are not co-teachers but, rather, separate teachers acting in parallel to ensure the best quality of linguistic instruction for their modality.
ASL/English: Defined as the bilingual approach to utilizing signed ASL and written/read English text and, when accessible and desired spoken English.
Language Philosophy: The linguistic approach used by a school/program for the deaf and hard of hearing which impacts the pedagogies of educators in the school, usually aligned with one of three major philosophies: ASL/English, Listening & Spoken Language, or Total Communication
Preschool/Early Childhood Education: Typically defined in the United States as the school program provided before Kindergarten and usually for children ages 3 and 4, although some schools include Kindergarten in preschool. Pedagogy and standards for preschool focus on preacademic skills in preparation for the academic work of elementary and include developmentally appropriate activities that have a heavy emphasis on language development. 1 This chapter uses the lowercase “deaf” to refer students, schools, and programs for those who have the audiological condition of not hearing and the uppercase “Deaf” to refer to students, adults, and organizations who share both ASL as a common language and the associated culture (see Padden & Humphries, 1988, as cited in National Association of the Deaf, n.d. ).
Bimodal: The use of both ASL and spoken English in instructional design but the languages are kept separate, often through the use of two different teachers or locations.
Listening and Spoken English: Defined as a communication option consistently utilizing hearing technology with the purpose of attaining spoken language.