[Note to Viewers: Because English and ASL
express concepts in different ways, the timing of
the English captions and ASL may not always line up.]
Javanna is the fifth grade student in this mock IEP.
Both of her parents are deaf
and use ASL as their primary language.
She has 3 deaf siblings.
She attends the state residential school for the deaf
as a day student, not overnight.
She is a bright student with consistent exposure
to language since birth due to her deaf family.
Yet, she still struggles with reading, writing skills,
English vocabulary,
and grammar.
Her social skills are amazing!
She is kind, empathetic, thoughtful and mature.
She has a fantastic sense of humor.
Many students in her class have additional disabilities,
and she takes every opportunity she can to help them.
Nanette: Hello, thank you for coming today.
Let's do a brief round of introductions.
I'll start.
I'm Nanette McDevitt.
I'm Javanna's teacher of deaf/hard of hearing.
I'm also the IEP manager.
I'm Susan Lane-Outlaw.
I'm here as an administrator.
[My sign name is...]
I'm Justin Johnson, her father.
[My sign name is ...]
My name is Javanna Johnson.
[My sign name is...]
Nanette: The purpose of the IEP meeting
is to review Javanna's progress,
but also to hear about concerns
in the area of academic progress.
I'm going to share this
Discussion Guide.
You can refer to this during the meeting.
Justin and I talked earlier this week
through email and videophone
and looked at the Discussion Guide
to decide what to focus on,
and I think we agreed to look at the testing section area.
Justin, could you share with the group
what your concerns are for Javanna?
Justin: First, I'm sorry that my wife wasn't able to attend,
but I will do my best to share
our questions and thoughts about her.
Javanna's mom and I are concerned that
her writing and reading skills in English
are below grade level.
We are trying to figure out how to meet her needs.
We've also noticed when she is reading books,
she asks me what words mean
that I feel like she should know.
For example, she did not know the word "ancestor,"
which she should know for her level.
Javanna: I understand the story,
but there are some words I see,
and I don't know what they mean.
I think I would like reading more
if I didn't have to stop
so often to figure out the words.
Nanette: Understanding individual words can be hard.
Justin: Also, when she describes things in ASL,
she uses advanced ASL vocabulary,
and she is so descriptive.
But, when she writes in English,
she uses basic vocabulary,
and her writing is not very descriptive.
Nanette: Sounds good.
Let's take a look at the Discussion Guide, page 11.
What I'm looking at specifically in the Discussion Guide
is page 11 which we need to decide
when we pick which tests would
give us information about Javanna's English vocabulary
and general language skills.
We want to see how her English
and other language skills are related
to reading and writing skills.
Her IEP is due soon,
so we need to
update her English skills data.
Those ideas are on page 12.
Is that okay?
Susan: I think it will be good to get more data
to help Javanna do even better.
Justin: That sounds fine.
Who will test her? Will that person be fluent in ASL?
Nanette: Good question.
Yes, I will test her myself in ASL.
Justin: How do we do that?
Nanette: This will be a lot of information,
so be patient with me.
We have to make sure that
the tests are reliable and valid for Javanna.
Her first language is ASL not English,
so we need to look at how to test
her using her first language.
But, we also need to test her English skills
because it is related to her reading and writing skills.
The challenge with the English tests
is that we cannot do tests
that require speech and listening.
It doesn't mean that ASL is any less than English,
but we acknowledge it is a different language,
just like Spanish is different than English.
So, we can modify some of the tests,
but we will have to explain that.
Let's take a look at the tests on page 26.
[Note, Appendix II is on pages 25 and 26.]
Susan: Lots of options.
Nanette: Yes, we have a lot of tests to choose from.
We could do the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT).
For that test, it is usually given with spoken English.
For her, I will fingerspell the words
and have her point to the matching picture.
We could also do the Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT).
This evaluates the opposite skill.
Javanna would have to fingerspell the word
that is shown in the picture.
She might know a sign, but we are looking
for specific English words to see
which words she knows.
She attends school that has
the language of instruction in ASL all day,
and English is taught through reading and writing.
So, we could test her written English skills
using the Test of Written Language.
It would give us information about
her writing skills in several areas.
You and her mom said that her writing is basic.
This test will evaluate many different areas
of her strengths and weakness that will help us.
Sorry, it is a lot of information.
We can include informal assessments
like a reading inventory
that measures Javanna's
understanding of English vocabulary,
recognizing sight words,
and also her understanding
of comprehension passages.
For reading comprehension, we will do tests
in two different ways.
First, we will sign a story using ASL,
then will ask her questions in ASL.
Then this test could be given with a written story
and she can read it herself
and answer questions independently.
We will test her on her reading comprehension
in two different ways, ASL and English.
Justin: I know this seems like a lot of testing,
but I think we need this information
to support Javanna
as she prepares for middle and high school.
I know her mother would agree with me.
Susan: Yes, we want to make sure
we are doing all we can to support Javanna.
Nanette: Now that we are on the same page,
let's start making a plan.