School for the Blind interactive literacy

Written by Chanelle LeVack, Literacy Coach, CSDB School for the Blind

In the School for The Blind, students in Mrs. Chanelle’s class work to make literacy learning as interactive as possible. Our middle schoolers have been working hard on learning to understand specific spelling rules and putting them to real world use. Students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning and understanding outside of the classroom during literacy nature walks and scavenger hunts. Scavenger hunts in the building require students to communicate and work together to search for and find words throughout the building that match specific spelling patterns on their find list. Some patterns include words containing diagraphs, prefixes, suffixes, open vs closed syllable words along with many others.

During their outside literacy lessons, students are encouraged to travel from place to place with their class and spend a few minutes at each stop to simply sit, listen to and feel the things around them. They identify the sounds they hear and things they feel and are encouraged to provide a one-word description. They then work to identify spelling patterns within those specific words. This has proven to be not only a valuable way to demonstrate their knowledge but a way to have fun while learning as well.