ELA teaching blog-by Rachel Powers

To Kill A Mockingbird

rachelpowers — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:01:09 +0000

What is the least restrictive environment for a Deaf child?

rachelpowers — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:02:34 +0000

I just googled that and found this series from the New York Times. Courts have favored the local school district as the LRE for decades. It takes a whole lot of re-thinking to view the mainstream as the least restrictive and it may well be. Mainstreaming is never mentioned in the law–but inherent in the law is the notion that the mass warehousing of disabled youth in separate facilities would no longer be tolerated. That makes sense to me. What is the future of schools for the deaf??

ASL Health News

rachelpowers — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:14:40 +0000

Please check out this website out for health information.

The website is deafmd.org. Especially good website for students taking health.

Language…

rachelpowers — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:33:43 +0000

Our students would benefit from Functional Life Skills yet their issues are more language than cognitive. Thanks E!

Speak and Censorship

rachelpowers — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:15:00 +0000

These points would make a good anticipation guide:

Follow the Link.

An important topic- huh?

Week one 4th Quarter

rachelpowers — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:02:30 +0000

Blocks one and two – we continue to work on sight word recognition, reading and discussing up coming events. On May 2nd, students will be either participating in ASL story telling or setting up a snack table. We are incorporating community and functional life skills into our programming.

What’s a healthy snack ? Click on the link to find out!

Block 3 students are working on test taking skills and they are also viewing Speak-a movie version of Laurie Halse Anderson’s book about a 9th grader’s reckoning with trauma and finding her voice.

4th quarter writing prompt

rachelpowers — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:20:24 +0000

Enter into this contest and tell someone about your experience having been bullied. What happened? Who helped? Who ignored? What can be done to eliminate bullying from schools?
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/teen-essay-contest-on-bullying/

Common Core Standards and the NY Times

rachelpowers — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:05:09 +0000

Intriguing article about connecting the daily news to the common core standards. After all what adult doesn’t read the paper? I hope the art of newspaper reading isn’t fading too far away given access to internet. When I asked my two students who Rick Perry and Mitch Romney were and what was the upcoming election about, I got blank stares and mumbled signs about McCain.

Ouch! Here’s a great article about the newspaper in classrooms!

A visit to Deering High School

rachelpowers — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:36:32 +0000

I visited the Deering Life Skills program. While I think our students would benefit from such an approach, their needs are different. Simply put-our current crop of students while clearly having challenges in the standard high school-are not part of the one percent which the state maintains warrants alternative assessments. Different assessments-eliminating the language load yes. No one fits neatly in a category.

Remembering Bobby

rachelpowers — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:52:49 +0000

This year I have been especially mindful of my past experiences with disabled children. I know within the Deaf community-disabled smacks of the medical model. However, given students I work with, disability seems apt. Robert Walsh aka Bobby when I met him in the 1980′s had been a ward of the state. As he later stated he was trapped in a body that didn’t work. Robert blossomed with an Augmented communication system. Life has been an incredible journey for this man and his family who adopted him and helped propell him forward.