I agree that story problems are very difficult for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. If they do not have basic math skills then the story problems are very difficult because they are written differently and the students have to figure out the problem instead of it being presented to them. Another thing that makes the story problems difficult is the language. However this does not mean that they can not do story problems at all. In my student teaching class all of the students did word problems 3 times a week for morning work. They all did different levels and would need help but the goal was to help them so that next time they could complete it on their own. My teacher used a series called Apple Tree to get the word problems for the students. This series has levels 1-6 total. I will be using this series in the future because I love the way the different levels are layed out and how each level progresses. I will also being teaching my students helpful hints for word problems. One thing would be looking for key words that tell you to add or subtract or multiple or divide. I will also teach them how to look at a problem and see what information they need and what information they don't need to solve the problem.
Teaching science can be challenging for a lot of students, but especially for our students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The language that is used in science books can be at an upper level that many students are not at yet. It is more challenging when there are no signs for many of the vocabulary used to teach science. If I came across this problem I would work with the students to come up with signs that made sense to all of us to help them to understand the various topics.
As much as it is important to understand the key words and phrases that lead students to know whether or not to add or subtract (or whatever operation they are doing), it is equally important that the students have number sense. Of course, a word problem won't be much good to them if they cannot read the problem themselves, but, even then, the word problem could be read to them orally, and they should have enough number sense AND language to figure out what the problem is asking them to do. The problem that I have found, though, is that even if the problem is read to them, they are not understanding the problem or what it is asking unless someone is guiding them through it step-by-step. So in that case, word problems can be frustrating for students and teachers. But I do like how your teacher had them practicing the word problems three times a week. Maybe even doing it every day might make a difference. It is hard to know what is the best thing to do sometimes.
ReplyDeleteErin,
ReplyDeleteAre the Apple Tree series that your classroom teacher used the same as the language curriculum that we discussed in our language class? Or is it a math curriculum?