A note from Robin Zane, Supervisor

The Communication Department provides American Sign Language instruction and spoken English services to infants through high school aged students. The ASL teacher provides ASL support to students to improve their linguistic access to the language level used in the academic environment. Students are served through consultation, small pullout groups, and classroom instruction. The activities provided by both the ASL and communication teachers are relevant to real world experiences.

The ASL teacher works on the development of ASL language competencies including:
• Communicative Intent
• ASL Comprehension
• ASL Production
• ASL Grammatical Markers

The spoken English teachers provide the necessary support to foster the development of various skills used in the student’s second language, spoken English, including:
• Articulation
• Auditory training
• Speech reading
• Communication strategies

ASL services have been provided to serve students in small immersion classes in the Elementary Department. The ASL teacher gives the needed ASL language support and instruction so the students can obtain access to the language level used in the academic environment.

The spoken English teachers have developed and piloted exit and entrance criteria to use as a guideline for determining the appropriateness of services based on a number of areas such as language level (in the student’s primary language) to support speech acquisition, amplification use, articulation, speech reading, motivation, and other factors. These criteria are a starting point to help determine whether or not teaching (or continuing to teach) spoken English skills to a particular student is appropriate.

The department goals include reviewing the language planning concept being investigated by the school in order to expand and modify services to match this philosophy. Tasks include:
• Defining outcomes and expectations
• Continuing to document and develop activities and strategies
• Incorporating assessment methods and latest CAEBER (Center for ASL/English Bilingual Education and Research) research into a language plan for individual students