Where's the Library? Teaching Braille Reading with a Meaning-oriented Focus

Abstract

It was my first week as a teacher in the new resource room for young braille readers. I had spent all summer gathering materials and setting up my classroom. Proudly I showed the principal around the room, pointing out the stacks of basal readers in braille, the shelf of fine motor manipulatives, the acorns and brightly colored fall leaves on the feely board, and the slightly tattered play kitchen acquired from a departing teacher. The principal paused and scanned the room thoughtfully. But, Ms. Swenson, the principal said, where is your classroom library of books for the children to I was stunned, both by my glaring oversight and the implications of her question. What was the point in teaching children braille, if there was nothing for them to read? After five years as an itinerant teacher working primarily with middle school students, I was highly unqualified to teach beginning readers. Building a classroom library was the first of an ever-expanding array of new challenges that awaited me. Yet, it is the one that has remained with me the longest. Throughout my 30 years as a teacher of students who are visually impaired, I have taken great pleasure in creating motivating reading materials and selecting braille books that my students want to read. It is my belief that providing children with enticing, well-written books builds the foundation for a lifetime of reading enjoyment. The early 1980s, when I started as a resource room teacher, was still the era of phonics workbooks, basal readers, and scripted lessons. Soon, however, the whole-language movement began to challenge traditional methods with its meaning-based orientation to reading and writing. Emergent reading behaviors, such as turning pages, reciting text from memory, or scribbling a message with a crayon, were encouraged as approximations of mature reading. Authentic children's literature that used colorful words and interesting plots replaced the stilted, controlled vocabulary of stories that were common in basal readers, and young writers were encouraged to express their thoughts using temporary spelling, a process by which children write letters that match the sounds they hear in words. The advent of the whole-language approach was a turning point in my teaching career. Watching my students' progress and their enthusiasm for the new methods and materials convinced me that a focus on meaning was central to literacy instruction. Meaning-oriented instruction does not negate the need for discrete skill-based learning in areas such as braille character recognition and phonics. In my view, beginning readers need a balance of skill-oriented and meaning-oriented instruction. Skills taught in isolation, however, should be integrated into meaningful reading and writing contexts as soon as possible. The ultimate goal for readers of any age is to derive meaning from text. MAKING BRAILLE INSTRUCTION MEANINGFUL FOR PRESCHOOLERS How can we make very early braille instruction meaningful for young children? A love of books begins with story time. As families and teachers print-braille books aloud in a comfortable setting, children discover that the bumps on the page convey spoken words. Even more important, they learn to expect wonderful things from books: rhymes and rhythms that dance in their ears, experiences as familiar as taking a bath or as exotic as a flight to the moon, and questions that deepen their thinking about the world around them. After they have memorized their favorite story, preschoolers run their fingers over the braille and read it themselves. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Creating simple braille books with tactile illustrations broadens and individualizes the emergent literacy experiences of young children. Student-made books may focus on basic concepts, such as textures, shapes, or numbers. Or they may draw their inspiration from a child's own experiences--perhaps a day at the beach illustrated with shells and a small bag of sand or a birthday celebration featuring a plastic fork, candles, and ribbons. …