As we go further into the quarter I struggle to find ways to assess a child in the classroom that is hearing impaired. He is fully functional and can slightly hear when you speak into a microphone. When he works with the other students in the classroom in small groups he gets distracted very easily. I know that he can do a variety of the tasks that we do in the classroom, but because of being hearing impaired I feel that he is distracted and does not participate in certain tasks. Just this past week I implemented a science activity that invovled the children planting seeds that will grow into wild flowers. He became very excited about this and began to speak a very few muffled words. He is also a bilingual student, in which English is his second language. So he has many obsticals in his way of having mastery of skills in the classroom. I found that he became very excited about the soil, seeds, and water that he was going to be able to explore with. He sat and tried to listen to my words and my instructions during the lesson. He followed all of the other children and the steps that they were doing in order to plant their flowers. When I began to assess the children I was stuck at a point in which I thought was he following instructions from the teacher or just copying the other students. Either way I allowed him to do things in the group second or third so that he could view from the other students how that part of the planting process worked. This allowed the other students the oppurtunity to scaffold for him and help him through the planting process.
As I began to think about assessing him I realized that he was able to particpate fully in the activity and complete the planting process step by step. Though some scaffolding was needed he was still able to stay focused and work with his peers to finish planting his flower. This showed me that he was able to do more things than I imagined him to do. I realized that choosing activities that are in high interest to the children will help them stay involved and productive throughout the activity.
Learning from peers at a young age is very important. Although you may have felt he was just "copying" his peers, this is a way in which children learn when they explore. He may have not heard your directions clearly because he was hearing impaired, but having his peers model to him the instructions assisted him in following directions. When assessing him, I don't feel you would have to assess him any differently, what you have portrayed in this blog is children cooperatively learning. This is essential for young children when beginning to learn.
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