Accessible Literacy
Written by Grace Gundel and Liz Arnquist, CSDB School for the Blind Teachers of the Visually Impaired
The Adams elementary team is extremely passionate about promoting inclusivity, unity, and equity among all of the K-5 th grade students. We model what that looks like in hopes of students mirroring that behavior as well. To support that philosophy, we also advocated to have 1 co-taught content class with our elementary special education program. Aside from having our entire elementary program together any chance we get, we have now been co-teaching literacy every day (Grace Gundel & Liz Arnquist) and co-teaching math every day (Jerred Sonneborn & Liz Arnquist). However, this article is about the co-taught literacy class.
This class was created around the Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model. We have been co-teaching this class for 3 years now and it has evolved and taken many forms over the years. However, this year, we are really excited to make literacy accessible for all students. The combination of special education and blind-specific teaching strategies being implemented are giving students access to literacy in a way that is totally accommodating for the students’ needs. Accessible literacy doesn’t only benefit the students in our special education program.
Accessible literacy is where it starts. Giving students opportunities to derive meaning and information using their hands is where it begins. Teaching students how to use their residual vision to derive meaning from the world around them is where it begins. That is how we make literacy accessible to students. All children have the right to read and love reading. It’s our job and responsibility to present it on a level that is accessible to all students in the way that they need it.
Picture Description (top left): A CVI-friendly foam picture of the sun is velcroed to a black felt tri-board. The sun is yellow and the background is red. To the right of that picture is a see-through picture of the sun velcroed to a homemade hand-held light box (made by Mr. Jerred, helping our ideas come to life!) with two handles on either side. In front of both of those versions of the sun is a recordable button with a puck light tactile symbol velcroed to the top. These are all versions of the word ‘sun’ to be used during the pre[1]teaching phase of our literacy lessons. Picture Description (top right): A homemade felt book has a CVI-friendly foam picture of the moon. The moon is white on a red background. The sentence reads underneath, ‘The moon is in the sky.’ Above the adapted page of the story is the actual page in the story that has been adapted for the students to access.
Picture Description (lower left): Black felt board with the word ‘BEFORE’ in all capital letters. The board is split into two columns. On the left, there is a picture of the nighttime sky with a recordable button to the right. Underneath the picture 5 names are velcroed indicating that 5 students voted for that answer. On the right column there is a picture of a playground with a recordable button to the right. Underneath the picture 2 names are velcroed indicating that 2 students voted for that answer. This activity is when we make our ‘before reading’ predictions. Picture Description (lower right): A poster board with 4 columns labeled from left to right: who, what do, where, how. Above ‘who’ is the word sun. Above ‘what do’ is the word sets. Above ‘where’ is the word outside. Above ‘how’ is the word slow. The sentence reads ‘sun sets outside slow.’ This is how our AAC users demonstrate comprehension while learning sentence semantics.
