The Bulletin
Statewide Vision Resource Centre
Number 16, Friday 11th October 2002
The following issue of The Bulletin was prepared by Marion Blazé (SVRC) while Deb is jet-setting around the world (well US, anyway), and Deb Lewis who just had to add a few cents worth...Faye Squires completes her Masters!!! I didn't realise that Faye has also successfully completed her Masters. There are two people in our ranks to whom we'll have to show more respect! Congratulations, Faye!!
Inside This Issue
- PD Program
- Parent Support Group Meeting
- VI Support Analysis
- Vision Australia Library Awards Report
- Education Age On-Line
- Strategies for Teaching VI Students
- Improving Braille Reading
- Reversals in Braille Reading
- World Bowling Championships
- Fundraiser: Braille Xmas Cards
- Perkins Website
- GDV News
- BCA Technology and Services EXPO and Convention
- Sensational Art Day (WA)
- Brailling Aide Needed
- Staff and Student News
- Shadow Reading
- Teaching Comprehension
SVRC Professional Development 2002
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Term
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PD Event
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Date
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4
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BCA/TALG EXPO - (12 noon to 7pm) | Friday 18 October |
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4
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Mountbatten Day | Tuesday 26 November |
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4
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SVRC Technology Seminars | Monday 9 December (***NOTE DATE CHANGE***) |
PD Date Change
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Term IV PD day (SVRC Technology Seminars) will NOT be on December 13, but on MONDAY, DECEMBER 9. Please call for a copy of the program.
Please note: ALL WELCOME
Meeting of Parent Support Group
The Support Group for parents of children with degenerating vision is meeting on Saturday, October 19 at 2pm at the SVRC (370-380 Springvale Rd., Donvale). The guest speakers at the meeting will be Nola Birch - Disability Liaison Officer, Melbourne Uni, who will speak about the support students can expect at university, and Jill Keeffe - Research Fellow, Dept. of Ophthalmology, Melbourne Uni, who will speak about what parents want from schools for their children (initial information gathering for a research project of Jill's).
The meeting is open to anyone and there will be opportunity for parents to meet with other parents over a cuppa.
"Analysis of Support for Students with Vision Impairments"
We have received a Project Brief from Jeanne Norling of the Student Wellbeing Branch, about this very exciting project "to conduct an analysis of government support, including services, provided for students with vision impairments in government and non government schools with particular reference to services provided through the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind and the Statewide Vision Resource Centre".
The project has a budget of $10,000 and is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2002.
Vision Australia Library Awards Report (by Marion)
I was lucky enough to attend the awards night on September 13. My involvement with these awards comes from two sources. In another life I worked for the then Braille and Talking Book Library, before it amalgamated with the then Association for the Blind (now Vision Australia Foundation), managing their braille production department. Then, in my capacity as a CEO VT, I coopted two of my senior students onto the panel to judge the 'Young Adult' category of audio books. These two girls are still judging these talking books for their third year running. It involves a bit of commitment: listening to the four to six nominated books and attending a judging meeting which involves several hours discussing the books with about 12 other 'listeners'. The panel comprises blind, low vision and sighted teenagers. As judges, they must decide which was the best book in audio form and who was the best narrator (separate awards). Having sat in on one judging session, I know that it is often a very heated debate. The panel meets at Nazareth College in Noble Park North.
The awards are in five categories: Young Adult Book of the Year, Young Adult Narrator of the Year, Braille Book of the Year, Adult Audio Book of the Year and Adult Narrator of the Year.
If you want the full listing of the nominated books and the winners, go to: www.louisbrailleaudio.com/val2002_awards.asp
At this site, you can even listen to excerpts in MP3 format.
If you have a student (year 10 and up) who might like to be on the judging panel, contact Pauline Meany on 9864 9645. The awards usually take place in September and the nominated books are distributed by about May with the judging taking place in about August.
Education Age On-Line
Students are often motivated to use their adaptive technology (eg JAWS, ZoomText etc) if there is something motivating and interesting to read. Indeed, Meredith Walsh found that one of her students was very keen to search the web on the subject of sex education! There is a great deal of information relevant to senior students in Education section of The Age. Much of the material in this section goes on to The Age's Education website, which can be found at: http://www.theage.com.au/edage/index.html
For example, the following articles (novel reviews and issue discussions etc) are a selection of those available today - each contains a link to the full report:
A heartwrenching account of evil: Night, by Elie Wiesel,
is a powerful indictment of how a society's indifference to the suffering
of others permits "the banality of evil" to take hold, writes Steven
Carroll.
How death becomes her: Emily Dickinson's grave poetry is an unsentimental
imagining of the afterlife, writes Fiona Capp.
Melbourne Theatre Company workshop: The Melbourne Theatre Company's solo performance workshop compresses into a day the creation of character and story that forms the basis for the performance VCE drama students must present to examiners at the end of the year.
Justice for all for the right reasons: Law is hard to get into at university. There's nothing wrong with that. The law is challenging to learn, it is a fundamental part of a civilised society and lawyers are like gatekeepers to some pretty important doors.
Song, dance and the Nazi regime: Cabaret, the 1972 film directed by Bob Fosse, opens with the camera staring into the warped reflection of slowly shifting images caught in the sheen of a stage curtain at the Kit Kat Klub, Berlin, 1931.
Bat mobile to the rescue: The recent relocation of a group of bats is another step in the controversial management of the bat colony in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.
Strategies for Teaching VI Students - Booklet on Website
Lyn has been 'surfing' again and came across this site which has an eight page booklet full of helpful strategies for catering to the needs of our students. The booklet has the headings: General courtesy, teacher presentation, laboratory, group interaction and discussion, text reading systems, field experience, research and testing. It might be very handy to 'cut and paste' for handouts to schools. The site is at www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/vision.htm or you can ask resource for a print copy of the booklet.
Improving Braille (or Print) Reading
Two pages of notes, 'Shadow Reading' and 'Teaching Comprehension', appear at the end of this edition of The Bulletin. I (Marion) recently attended a six week program at my children's school. It was called 'Towards Real Independence' and was designed to help parents to help their children in literacy and numeracy learning. I thought these two pages were especially applicable to our students, especially those with slower or weaker reading skills. Let me know if you want to investigate any more material from this course and I'll happily copy it for you.
Reversals in Braille Reading
Here is a question and answer from the AERNET discussion list recently:
Question: What strategies do you use to correct reversals (e, i, the, n, r, w etc)? And at what age etc would you become concerned that the reversals are representative of a larger problem?
Answer: I just have a partial answer about reversals, which, where braille is concerned don't signify the same thing as reversals in print. I've bought some little paint trays with six little cups which exactly match the braille cell, but anything could be used like half an egg carton. Games like spelling bees can then be arranged with the teacher calling out the sign or letter and the kids having to point or put beans in the correct trays. The added factor is indicating if slate or braille writer is used.
Example: Teacher says "er sign, braille writer." Kids put beans in 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. Naturally, if slate is called for, dots 1, 2, 3 are on the right side of the little tray.
Australian Blind Team Successful in World Bowling Championships
Members of the Australian Blind Tenpin Bowling Team each won medals in the inaugural International Blind Sports Federation world championships recently conducted in Helsinki, Finland.
The Australian Team won 1gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze to place third overall behind host Finland and USA. Among those competing were Pearl Sumner (from WA), (some of you may remember Pearl and Peter Sumner from conferences long ago) and Hazel Hocking (from Vic). Hazel recently attended the SVRC for an O & M morning.
This article was in "What's the Score?" - a magazine of the National League Bowlers' Association.
Braille Christmas Card Fundraising Idea
Some of the big Institutions for the Blind sell Christmas cards with braille on or in them: a novel idea which you or your students could adopt on a smaller scale. Your brailling student could offer a service at Christmas time of brailling a short message in teachers' or students' cards (for a small fee). You could raise funds for charity or get the ball rolling on funds for next year's Space Camp!
New Website: Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins School for the Blind has launched a new Web site that was designed to be equally accessible to people who are sighted and those who are blind, have low vision, or other handicaps that make reading difficult. A 'Customize this Site' feature was developed which allows users to adjust to larger type sizes or change the background colour contrast from within the site.
Go to: http://www.perkins.org
Orientation and Mobility Skills Morning - Report by Dean Johnson
6 enthusiastic participants enjoyed a morning session at the Statewide Vision Resource Centre and Doncaster Shopping town learning about Orientation and Mobility. After a discussion and practical session at the Resource Centre, we headed off to Doncaster in the Guide Dogs Victoria bus to begin the Shopping Centre Expedition activities.
One member of each pair was required to act as human guide while the other wore a DAAS vision simulator. Participants were required to attempt a series of tasks that included making a number of observations about the shopping centre environment. The DAAS simulators provided the wearer with the opportunity to experience realistic travel with a vision impairment.
The participants were encouraged to relate their experiences during the session to the way they work with their students in the school and other settings.
We look forward to running other such sessions in the future.
Guide Dogs Upcoming Events
Sydney Program 9-13 December 2002
Children's Mobility Service Christmas Party Thursday 17 December 2002
City Limits Program for Secondary School Students 6-10 January 2003
VCE program at Guide Dogs Victoria March 2003 (specific dates to be confirmed)
Children's Mobility Service Newsletter
The next edition of the Children's Mobility Service Newsletter is due out in early Term 4. They welcome contributions so please contact them if you have an article you would like included.
For information about the Children's Mobility Service or any of their programs please contact the Instructors including Dean Johnson, Rachel Morgan or Linden Woodruff on 9854 4506.
GDV Measurement Camp - Report by Rachel Morgan (with a few helpful points from Linden Woodruff)
In the October school holidays Guide Dogs Victoria ran a 4 day camp for primary school students with the theme of 'Measurement'. During the camp the areas of what is a unit of measurement, what and why do we measure, and estimation was covered. The participants also had the opportunity to measure their own height and compare their height to common objects in the environment.
The concept of measurement is important for any Orientation and Mobility program. The formal concepts of measurement that are covered in the classroom maths sessions become an essential basis for vision impaired students assisting in the formation of concepts about the world around them. Imagine travelling a short route from home to the train station. Measurement concepts play an important role - how far is it to the train station, do I have enough time to make the next train, how wide is that road, do I have enough time to get across it before the cars come, how wide is the train platform, how much time do I have to locate the door before the train departs, how big is the gap between the platform and the train, how wide are the entrance barriers at the train station, how far do I stand from the platform edge to be safe, how long will the train trip take? A vision impaired student who has an understanding of measurement concepts is better able to predict or estimate the answer to all these questions, making their travel safer and also less stressful. Travelling with an increased knowledge about the route and the environment in general will make travel more fluent and is bound to contribute to a students confidence when travelling independently.
But the importance of measurement concepts to a vision impaired traveller is not limited to getting from A to B or knowing how far or how long it takes. Measurement concepts are also a great way for students to understand and classify their world. The understanding of height concepts would give a student a clearer picture of what is a skyscraper or answer the question that I am often asked by students- 'can people in a plane see me wave?'
When travelling students are required to locate landmarks and clues that provide them with information about where they are. Often students are only able to note one distinguishing feature of each landmark, which can make finding that landmark a second time difficult. E.g. when asked to describe their front fence the answer is often 'it's wooden' or 'it's rough.' Students who have a greater understanding of measurement concepts would be more able to notice other distinguishing features such as the height and width of the fence. They are able to make comparisons between objects and between themselves and objects.
Activities such as the GDV 'Measurement' camp assist students development of the measurement concepts that are crucial to a thorough understanding of the world without sight.
Blind Citizens Australia: Technology and Services EXPO
When: Friday October 18, Noon - 7.00pm
Where: Vision Australia Foundation 454 Glenferrie Road Kooyong
Registration is not necessary -- All Welcome -- Admission by donation
For information please contact: Blind Citizens Australia:
Tel (03) 9521 3433 or 1800 033 660
TTY: (03) 9521 1200 email: bca@bca.org.au
Exhibitors include:
- Vision Australia - Assistive Technology & Equipment for Daily Living
- RVIB Technology and Training Services
- Department of Human Services - Disability Online Database
- NILS - National Information and Library Service
- BCA Computer Users Group
- European Eyewear
- Guide Dogs Victoria
- Horizons Educational Software
- Information Alternatives
- Micro Marvelous
- Optek Systems
- Pulse Data Australia
- Quantum Technology
- Seeing Eye Dogs Australia
- Telstra Disability Services
- Blind Sports Victoria
Blind Citizens Australia: Victorian / Tasmanian Convention 2002
When: Saturday 18 October and Sunday 19 October
Where: Vision Australia Foundation 454 Glenferrie Road Kooyong
See attached flier (print edition) or contact: Blind Citizens Australia:
Tel (03) 9521 3433 or 1800 033 660
TTY: (03) 9521 1200 email: bca@bca.org.au
Sensational Art Day (WA)
When: Saturday 16 November 2002
Where: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge,
across from the Perth Train Station.
Sensational Art is a free day of touch tours designed for sight impaired visitors
and their families.
Guided, hands-on explorations of a selection of works from the State Art Collection.
Touch tours and entry to the Art Gallery are free.
No prior booking is required.
For more information on touch tours, car parking, wheelchair hire and other
access issues:
Tel: 08 9492 6600
Email: educate@artgallery.wa.gov.au
Brailling Aide Needed
Hurstbridge PS is looking for a brailling Integration Aide for next year. If you know of anyone, please contact either Margaret U'ren (Principal) or Glenda Carr (Office Manager) for details on 9718 2386.
Our Own Kay McQualter Reaches a Great Milestone!!
Kay received a certificate from the DE&T in recognition of 35 years continuous service to the department (and boy, is she tired!). Congratulations, Kay!!!! A photo of the presentation, performed by the principal of Carronbank School, Anne Spence, appears below:
Back from Space Camp!
Kat, Glen, Kyle, Natasha, Tim and Tracey along with Lea Nagel and Deb Lewis are all back safely from the USA and Space Camp. Lots of fun was had and much laughter enjoyed, whilst all the time making the most of those opportunities for problem-solving! The students learned lots about space and space science, networked magnificently and are now part of a quite magical community of Space Campers from around the globe. We have trillions of images to organise into websites, PowerPoint presentations and a video, but it may take some time. If you would like to look at photos from the event, you can go to: http://www.tsbvi.edu/space/2002/index.htm
The intention of this strategy is to improve confidence, comprehension and fluency rather that absolute accuracy. This procedure has proven to be one of the most successful strategies when used with older students experiencing reading difficulties.
Procedure:
(i) Select an interesting book which the student will be able to read with
ease.
(ii) Sit together with the student holding the book.
(iii) Briefly discuss the title, illustrations and possible content.
(iv) Parent or teacher reads the text aloud at a normal reading speed keeping
his/her finger moving smoothly beneath the text. (For brailling students,
coactively track along the braille.)
(v) Both read together, again keeping the finger moving smoothly beneath the
text. Do not pause if the student hesitates at unfamiliar words.
(vi) Student then reads alone following the text with his/her finger.
(vii) Gradually increase the difficulty of the text.
Ideally, this procedure should be followed daily for approximately 20 minutes.
Teaching Comprehension
From Harvey & Goudvis (2000) Strategies that Work: Teaching comprehension
to enhance understanding, York, Maine: Stenhouse
QUESTIONS TO ASK TO DEVELOP THE VARIOS LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION
Connections
Is there a part of this text that reminds you of something in your own life?
…or something that's happened to you?
Questions
Can you show me a part of the text where you have a question?
What were you wondering about as you read this part?
Can you show me a part where you were confused?
What was confusing about it?
Visualising
Were there places in the text where you made a picture in your mind?
What images or pictures did you see?
What specific words helped you create that picture in your mind?
Inferring
What do you predict will happen in this text?
Can you show me a place in the text where you found yourself making an inference?
What do you think were the big ideas in the story?
Determining importance in text
What is this text mostly about?
Can you tell me about some of the important ideas that struck you?
Any important themes you noticed?
What do you think is most important to remember about this text?
Synthesising
Can you tell me what the text is about in just a few sentences?
Can you show me a place in the text where your thinking changed? How did your
thinking change?
Do you have some new ideas or information?
If you have something you would like included in The Bulletin, contact:
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).