Choice #8 / Other – Example of Approved Proposal

Deaf Education Catalyst Grant: Canisius College

A Proposal for Participation

Patricia Michalek, M.S.

Title: An Interactive Approach to Teaching Grammar to Deaf High School Students

Description: Current and classic research in reading and the language confirms the need for all individuals to develop clear understandings of the ways that words and grammar "work" in spoken and written languages (Bowerman, 1979; Chiang, D.L., 1980; Murph, 1991; Stahl, 1991) In order for language instruction to be meaningful, students must recognize how grammatical forms participate in a variety of contexts, but to do that they must also understand how English grammar is constructed. It is not sufficient for teachers to use a strictly top down approach in the teaching of reading or writing, assuming that contextualization will help students to clarify meaning. As Stanovich (1986) explains, readers need opportunities to involve both bottom up and top down strategies to comprehend.

In studies of deaf adult learners of English, Berent (1988) draws attention to the fashion in which they "juggle" understandings of ASL and English and use interlanguage in order to derive comprehension from English texts. In other words, deaf persons attempt to interact with texts based upon their proficiency and knowledge of both languages. Berent suggests that deaf children may be limited in their ability to expand their understanding and use of complex linguistic forms given the results of his studies with deaf adults. His interpretations have profound consequences for classroom teachers.

The current project will attempt to provide a technological environment for teachers to use to teach core English syntactic structures to deaf students. It is based upon Patricia Michalek's initial research in which she prepared a demonstration of one way that one syntactic structure could be visualized using Power Point. She showed students just how syntactic patterns undergo transformations. In this project nine target structures will be developed for computer access by deaf high school students. These materials will be prepared by graduate students in their course, Language Theories and Strategies, taught by Michalek.

Goals and Objectives of the Project: There are two major goals involved in this project.

• To expand graduate deaf education students' expertise as language teachers by their creation of interactive lessons for deaf students on individual syntactic structures;
• To enable classroom teachers to use computerized English language lessons in

their own classrooms.

Objectives

• Lessons involving nine syntactic forms will be produced by fourteen graduate students in the Canisius College graduate deaf education program;
• Each lesson will require the use of a PowerPoint simulation to demonstrate

how specific syntactic structures are derived and applied in English;

• All lessons that are produced will be used by the graduate students in practicum

experiences in spring 2001. This use will provide a demonstration for

cooperating teachers so that they might consider integrating the lessons or

creating their own for English language instruction.

Proposed Procedures

• In the course, Language Theories and Strategies, graduate students will receive instruction regarding nine syntactic structures and how to teach them to deaf

children and youth.

• Each graduate student will be required to produce a PowerPoint presentation of teaching one syntactic structure based upon the model developed by Michalek.
• Each student will be required to microteach one lesson using her or his program;
• Each student will be required to teach a lesson as it will occur in an appropriate

sequence of language lessons in a classroom of deaf children.

Educational Technology Involved: This project requires the use of PowerPoint. Although a basic design will be followed, additional interactions may be added depending upon the initiative and expertise of the graduate student.

Evaluation Plans: Criteria for evaluation of the project of each graduate student will be developed and applied for inclusion in the final grade for the course, Language Theories and Strategies. A brief survey of cooperating teachers in which the interactive lessons were taught will indicate their satisfaction with the material and probe their desire to pursue other such models for teaching English grammar.