Delivery+of+Subjects

Teachers need to respect and respond to students' needs. When teachers are instructing in their classrooms, each teacher has his or her own style. Style is one component and another component could be what subject they are teaching. Not only do teachers have different teaching styles for different subjects, they also need to adapt their delivery of teaching if they have a student with a hearing impairment.

Adaptations can be made when teachers deliver in an English Language Arts (ELA) course. When looking at the reading component of ELA, there are three major models that can be used to teach students with hearing impairments. The three models are bottoms-up, top-down, and interactive. "Bottoms-up models present learing to read as a sort of 'code-cracking' activity in which meaning is derived from print in a step-by-step linear fashion...top-down models reading development [looks at] what the reader knows and brings to the task...interactive models of reading recognise that the reader's previous experience, the reading context and the distinctive features of the text itself" (Gregory, Knight, McCracken, Powers, and Watson, 1998, p. 103). Teachers need to look at their students with hearing impairments and assess what reading level each student is at. Understanding these three models will help teachers decide at what level the student will be reading at and allows them to adapt their programming. However, "if deaf children are not exposed to difficult structures in text nor to inference or figurative language then it is not surprising if they do not develop the skills for dealing with it" (Gregory, Knight, McCracken, Powers, and Watson, 1998, p.106).

Math is a core subject that also may need some adaptations in its delivery by the teacher. There seems to be a common theme when researching this topic that students with hearing impairments struggle with math. The [|National Council of Teachers of Mathematics] (NCTM) has some suggestions to make every effort possible for a student with a hearing impairment to find success in your classroom.

** Teacher Strategies   **
 * [|Enhancing the Teaching of Mathematics] || Children should begin working with numbers and math concepts early and continue throughout their schooling ||
 * [|"Space it Out"] || Distribute practice, emphasize 'reverses', utilize chunking. ||
 * [|Make Math Meaningful] || Instructional activities should be designed to relate math to each student's personal and learning experiences ||
 * [|Math Vocabulary] || How to teach mathematics vocabulary ||
 * [|Challenge Students to Describe and Analyze their Solution Methods] || Use these ideas to elicit children's solution methods ||
 * [|Teaching Math Computation and Problem Solving Skills] || A scaffolded approach to teaching ||
 * [|Involve Students in the Assessment Process] || Involve students in this process ||
 *  [|Use Peer-Mediated Instruction] || Peer-mediated instruction can encourage the development of classrooms as mathematical communities  ||


 * Glading, Holston, Konopka, & Maglio, n.d.

Whatever subject a teacher is responsible for, they must adapt their delivery of teaching to benefit the student with a hearing impairment. The above suggestions are for ELA and Math, but can be applied to other subjects. MEYC's education guide states that "content ares in academics such as science and social studies are best taught in ASL, where concepts can be fully explained in an accessible language" (MEYC, 2009). Please be careful not to jump to the conclusion that ASL is the way to go, your student and his or her IEP may say differently.