Overview

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the Simple View of Reading and the National Reading Panel’s Big 5 and how they apply to reading instruction for Deaf/Hard of Hearing learners.
• Explain two strategies that support explicit language instruction in content-area instruction.
• Describe how deaf/hard of hearing students can access word recognition skills through fingerspelling.
• Describe how deaf/hard of hearing students can access word recognition skills through visual phonics.
• Describe how deaf/hard of hearing students can access word recognition skills through cued speech/cued language.

• Shawna Benson, M.Ed., Program Director, Teaching Diverse Learners Center at OCALI. Shawna Benson has been an employee at OCALI since August 2008, where she is currently the Program Director for the Teaching Diverse Learners Center. She was the recipient of the Kathe Shelby Leadership Award in 2014.  Benson has two degrees from Ashland University, a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education grades 1-8 and a Masters in the Education of the Handicapped (K-12).  From 2004-2014 she worked as an Associate Professor at Urbana University.  Benson’s teaching experience includes courses such as Educational Technologies, Curriculum, Materials and Strategies for the Intervention Specialist, Diagnostic Reading and Remediation, Role of the Intervention Specialist and Classroom Management.  She has also worked as the Director of assessment and the Director of Disability Services at the same institution.  Previously, she was employed through Knox County Educational Service Center and State Support Team Region 7 as the Assistive Technology, Autism and Low Incidence Consultant.  Prior to consulting she taught students with and without disabilities in ages ranging from infancy through age 21. She has experience co-teaching in inclusive settings and providing intervention to students with a range of exceptionalities ages, needs, and interventions, which has provided her with a wealth of information that she now applies to her current work.

• Nancy Bridenbaugh is currently a consultant for the Fingerspelling Our Way to Reading program, providing consultation, training, and teacher support throughout the country and internationally. The program is a result of research she was involved in as a Research Associate with the Center on Literacy and Deafness, focusing on fingerspelling phonologic awareness for young deaf and hard of hearing children. She has served as the Director of the Gallaudet Regional Center in Hawaii and as the Director of Rocky Mountain Deaf School in Colorado.

• Nicole Frye, B.A. in Deaf Education and an M.A. in Teacher Leadership, teaches at the Illinois School for the Deaf. This is her 20thyear in the classroom having taught all grade levels K-12th grade. Nicole was trained in Bilingual Education Strategies at the Gallaudet Leadership Institute. She thoroughly enjoys fostering students’ love of reading and writing in upper elementary, while also challenging them to continue to push themselves.

• Angelica Gagliardi, M.Ed., Outreach Specialist, The Outreach Center for Deafness and Blindness at OCALI. Angelica Gagliardi, M. Ed., provides outreach services with The Outreach Center for Deafness and Blindness. She was a Teacher of the Deaf for ten years serving students in residential programs, day school programs, and mainstream programs throughout her career. Angelica has a passion for literacy, which was the focus of her graduate degree, and is a Master Teacher for the Fairview Learning Program. She works as an adjunct faculty at Kent State University helping our soon-to-be educators develop high expectations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing learners by using research-based strategies to provide full access to grade-level standards.

• Allison Guidish, B.S. in Deaf Education and an M.S. in Reading Intervention, teaches at the Illinois School for the Deaf. This is her 21st year in the classroom having taught all grade levels PK-12th grade. Allison was trained in Bilingual Education Strategies at the Gallaudet Leadership Institute. She has a passion for teaching kids to read and believes this is attainable for all students.

• Hannah Nix, M.A., is a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at the ESCCO’s Deaf Education Program, housed in Upper Arlington School District. She has been a Teacher of the Deaf for two years, transitioning from a 5-year career in educational interpreting. Hannah loves learning new approaches for teaching her students in ways that allow them to reach their full potential. She has been trained in Visual Phonics, a multisensory approach that gives visual representation to English phonemes, adding this tool to her reading toolbox and using it with students across language modalities to provide access to word recognition skills.

• Alexandria Roman, M.Ed., currently teaches 6-12th grade at St. Rita School for the Deaf in Ohio. She has experience as a teacher of the Deaf in itinerant, residential, day schools, and mainstream resource/self-contained settings for the Deaf and hard of hearing throughout her 13 years of teaching. Alex is passionate about research in primary and secondary language development. She is the research committee chair for the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (CAID) and a translative editor for the American Annals of the Deaf.

• Kim Schlatter is a career educator of D/HH students with 42 years of experience. She is fluent in ASL and received her BS in Deaf Education from Eastern KY University, MS in Administration from the University of Dayton, and Ed.S. in Administration/Change Leadership from Gallaudet University.

• Kate Van Valey, B.S. in Deaf Education and an M.S. in Reading Intervention, teaches at the Illinois School for the Deaf. This is her 14th year in the classroom having taught all grade levels PK-12th grade. She is also a certified Cued American English instructor. Kate is a strong advocate for utilizing Cued American English as a pathway to literacy for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.