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At the commencement of this practicum, Ms Eagles was proactive in seeking out information to establish accurate student profiles as a basis for the development of individual learning sequences for her focus children. Ms Eagles referred to documented student histories which included audiology and learning records as starting points. As this practicum took place in Term 1, each child's itinerant hearing teacher had recently implemented a battery of core assessments covering receptive and expressive language, auditory processing skills and speech articulation. These results were provided to the student. Ms Eagles demonstrated knowledge of these tools, implementation protocols and was able to read and interpret the data provided. Using these results, and after initial observation sessions with her focus students, Ms Eagles composed a sequence of lesson goals. Chosen goals were age and stage appropriate, however, somewhat over-ambitious given the limited timeframe. Fewer goals with a narrower focus, utilising SMART parameters would have provided clearer examples against which to evaluate the children's achievement.
Example goals from lesson plan:
During the session, the child will recall elements in a story.
During the session, the child will identify rhyming words.
A SMART goal alternative:
By the end of session 3, the child will recall 3 elements from a 4 part story with 100% accuracy.
By the end of session 3, the child will identify 4 pairs of rhyming words from the given text with 100% accuracy.
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Please indicate above the relevent communication compentencies demonstrated by the student.
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During this practicum, Ms Eagles demonstrated comprehensive knowledge of assistive technology, reflecting her current substantive work experience in a Support Class Hearing setting. Ms Eagles was directly observed utilising children's FM / WCD systems during lessons; managing and encouraging hearing aid compliance; implementing the Ling 7 Sounds Test in lessons and recording results; and implementing supportive classroom routines and adjustments for both cochlear implant and hearing aid users.
Ms Eagles also utilised, and navigated between, iPad based applications for learning including a range of listening and language based games linked to lesson goals. For example, the application, "Montessori Crossword" - the child was required to listen to a given word (C-V-C word) and segment into individual phonemes and select the corresponding grapheme on the screen. Ms Eagles often reinforced the digital presentation by repeating in live voice and repeating the segmentation of sounds. From this, Ms Eagles was able to determine that the child was not placing some sounds in the correct position (order) when repeating the segmentation, whilst other sounds were completely omitted.
I am confident in Ms Eagles' ability to successfully manage assistive technology for hearing impaired learners.
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Ms Eagles is cognizant of quality teaching principles and has taken active steps throughout this practicum to apply them in all teaching and learning. During professional dialogue with Teacher of the Deaf colleagues, Ms Eagles has demonstrated depth of knowledge around assessment procedures and protocols e.g. formative and summative assessment, using quantitative data to inform practice. Ms Eagles has used her knowledge of language and auditory skills development to select activities for her lessons and to support the child to build on these across a lesson sequence. She employed a variety of teaching strategies applicable to the age and skill set of the learner, for example, visual and graphic organisers were used to summarise texts which were then used by the child to write more extended responses; she also guided the child to self-edit their work. Ms Eagles was observed to reverse roles with the child, encouraging them to take the lead and be "the teacher" in order to check their understanding.
Ms Eagles presented herself professionally at all times during this practicum. She demonstrated high level communication skills (written and verbal). She was respectful in all interactions with children, school staff and school executives. She was punctual to all practicum activities. Ms Eagles appeared well organised and abreast of her practicum requirements. She participated in professional dialogue with each of her ISTH colleagues and sought out information about the needs of the children on caseload and new resources to support her teaching. Ms Eagles had to be very flexible during her time with the ISTH team. She composed new lesson plans at short notice, travelled to alternative schools when required, and completed observations across educational settings including primary, high schools and Schools for Specific Purposes (SSPs). It was greatly appreciated that Ms Eagles was able to accommodate these changes to her daily schedule.
Ms Eagles was proactive in providing corrective feedback to students during lessons. For example, in response to speech and language errors made by children, Ms Eagles would model and rephrase student responses in the correct form. This was completed in a way that did not draw undue attention to the child's error. Ms Eagles also demonstrated flexibility and responsiveness and was able to differentiate tasks within lessons according to the child's level of engagement and success. For example, she developed a set of materials to implement word discrimination activities from the Listen and Learn program which was age / stage appropriate and sustained the child's attention.
When implementing a literacy lesson, Ms Eagles applied techniques consistent with the Accelerated Literacy methodology. The lesson commenced with stage one of the process - Low Order Literate Orientation - a strategy to orientate the student to the text and to pre-teach vocabulary encountered in the text. She used a shared reading format which made the child feel comfortable, engage with the text and build rapport with her as teacher. Example, introducing and reading the text, Pirates - Ms Eagles began by drawing the child's attention to the cover illustration, ascertaining topic knowledge by asking literal (low order) questions, labelling pictures and defining vocabulary throughout. This lesson was digitally recorded.
Although Ms Eagles was able to monitor student progress within lessons and adjust her teaching accordingly, formal written evaluations and / or reflections were not provided for feedback during this practicum. Due to significant time constraints, some children being unexpectedly absent, and the generally unpredictable nature of itinerant work, opportunities did not always exist for immediate debrief following lessons. For this reason, it would have been beneficial for a written record of evaluation to have been shared.
Ms Eagles is to be commended for the level of preparation she put into each of her lessons, and how thoughtful she was in her selection and preparation of resources.
I am confident Ms Eagles will be an asset to the field of Deaf Education and I wish her well with the rest of her studies.
Do you consider that the Student is at risk of failing to achieve “Graduate level” by the end of their overall Practicum experience? No