The Intervener as Instructional Coach Transcript Start [music] Audio Description: A title reads, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired with a TSBVI logo on the right. A title comes into focus that reads, the Intervener as Instructional Coach for students who are deafblind in general education settings. Various images of a middle-school and Cole Tyler working with a classmate. Cole Tyler: My name is Cole Tyler. I'm twelve years old and I'm in sixth grade. Narrator: Cole is a sixth grader at Lufkin Middle School in Lufkin Texas. As we meet Cole and the members of his educational team, it may be helpful to know a little about his vision and hearing. Cole has a visual diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa. He is experiencing visual field restrictions in his peripheral field and having some difficulty in low-light and nighttime settings. Cole has a severe bi-lateral sensorineural hearing loss. He wears two 'Behind-the-Ear' hearing aids. Cole’s vision and hearing issues are related to a rare Peroxisomal Disorder. [music] Audio Description: A title reads, Piaget's theory of cognitive development. To gain an understanding of how deafblindness impacts Cole’s ability to learn at the rate of his peers, it may be helpful to explore Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Piaget’s theory about the nature and development of human intelligence provides us with a clear description on how the human brain gathers, processes, constructs, stores and retrieves information. The process begins when we have access to new pieces of information. Immediately we have to relate that new piece of information to an existing piece. All new concepts are built upon existing concepts. Our conceptual understanding of the world is built one piece at a tim, and each new piece has to connect or relate to an existing piece. Two essential elements in the process of cognitive development are assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is how humans perceive and adapt to new information. That is the process of fitting new information into pre-existing schemes of how the world works. Taking new or unfamiliar information and referring to previously learned information in order to make sense of it. Accommodation is the process that occurs when a human brain has to alter its existing schemes in response to new information. Accommodation occurs during big leaps in conceptual development. These leaps are required as our brain is challenged with more complex information, as we grow and proceed from elementary to middle school, and from middle school to high school. [music] Audio Description: A title reads, the impact of deafblindness on concept development. Deafblindness has a profound impact on a child’s learning, communication and social emotional development. When a person’s distance senses are limited, they are not able to easily and effectively gather incidental information from their environment. Therefore, deafblindness is considered a disability of access. Cole’s visual impairment and hearing loss combine to provide significant challenges to his ability to easily and quickly gather information in the regular education instructional environment. The pace of instruction in the regular education classrooms is fast. The scope of the instructional content is wide. Cole and his team work very hard for him to have access to the information that often occurs at a furious pace. Even when he has optimal visual and auditory access, Cole may struggle to find time to effectively process information. His teachers may find it difficult to perform effective comprehension checks, and Cole may experience limited opportunities to ask questions and discuss the class material. Cole can likely overcome these challenges enough to memorize vocabulary, dates and facts. However, the lack of processing time, comprehension, and opportunities for inquiry and discussion, may make it difficult to absorb the underlying concepts of the material. Lacking the conceptual basis of the academic subject areas, Cole is at risk for not gaining a true understanding of his academic content, and learning at the same depth of his peers. [music] Audio Description: A title reads, the intervener as instructional coach. For Cole, as with other students with deafblindness, the ability to go through the process of cognitive development may be impacted by a lack of processing time, comprehension checks, and time for individual discussion. Having the Intervener assume the role as an Instruction Coach can be very effective in addressing this issue. Cole’s team has developed an exceptional plan in using an educational Intervener to support his instruction. As a part of the plan they have discovered unique ways to use the role of the Intervener; elements of which extend beyond the traditional definition of an Intervener. This is due to the fact that the origin of the role of the Intervener grew out of the experiences and needs of student’s who are emerging communicators. Significant developmental delays were often a part of these student’s special educational eligibly. Cole’s educational needs and supports diverge from the majority of students with deafblindness. Brenda Lerma: My role is to help him get -- be as prepared as he can when he goes into the classroom. So, getting all his work put into his iPad, which is classroom assignments, homework, bell work, study for test, take tests. When he comes into the classroom it was-- before it was like, "OK, go, you know, bell work." Now he just comes right in, starts looking at it and... goes right to it, starts working on it. And he was asking more-- the beginning, like, "OK, what's up?" I said, "No, do what you can do. Go all the way through it. And then when you don't know something, I will help you at the end." And sometimes that's the job of an intervener, is to not just be right-- you're in the vicinity, but you're not hovering right over them. I guess when you... teach someone to ride a bike, you know, you're holding on. "I'm here if you need me, but I'm going to let go some, and you're gonna get better and better at it.” Narrator: Working with and under the guidance of a classroom teacher, an Intervener has three main responsibilities. One, to facilitate the access to environmental information, usually gained through vision and hearing, but which is unavailable or incomplete to the individual who is deafblind. Two, to facilitate the development and use of receptive and expressive communication. And three, to develop and maintain a trusting, interactive relationship that can promote social and emotional well-being. Cole’s team has created additional roles for his Intervener to better support his learning in the general education classroom. Ms. Lerma’s observed role included the following responsibilities. Provide additional instruction when Cole appears confused or stuck. Repeat directions as necessary during real time instruction. Repeat key points as necessary during real time instruction. Support Cole in prioritizing his attention. Support Cole use and manage his technology; his tablet, his Visio Book, his Spot Light, Dry Erase Board, Notability app, file scan app, and the creation and maintenance of his class files. Check for comprehension, provide additional information or clarification when necessary. Pre-teach and re-teach core subject content during downtime and individual work time. Collect content materials from regular education teachers, scan, and make accessible on Cole’s tablet. Use regularly scheduled planning period to prepare materials and review content for future classes. Polly Goodier: When they're in a self-contained room, they can still get a lot of the content, but... you have to think about all of the extra things that happened in a regular classroom. I mean, he's getting... all of the social pieces. I also feel like there's that piece where it does move fast and it's not always waiting to see if that one kid gets it before you move on. But all of those pieces put together are... what help them be successful when they leave this environment. Narrator: Due to the pace and scope of the instruction in the regular educational setting, Cole’s team has created time for additional one-on-one instruction that can focus on the following four instructional components. Pre-teaching core subject content will allow Cole to become familiar with general topics, concepts and vocabulary before entering the real-time instructional environment. This will allow for more efficient and effective information gathering and processing in the larger setting. While Cole works hard for visual and auditory access in the regular educational setting, his ability to process the information is limited. Re-teaching the main components of the material will allow him the make the conceptual connections needed to store and retrieve the information from his memory. Open-ended comprehension checks provide insight into Cole’s current level of conceptual understanding. This is necessary in helping him both assimilate and accommodate new information into his conceptual schema. A back-and-forth discussion is required for effective processing. Time for discussion, inquiry, and investigation will help Cole’s develop a complete understanding of the course content. The comprehension checks will provide insight into areas that need to be further explored. [music] Audio Description: Images of a middle-school. A title reads, teaming. Narrator: It is essential that the educational team support the Intervener in the role of Instructional Coach. The intervener is not a certified Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments or a Deaf Education Teacher. The Intervener is also not a general education content area specialist. These teachers guide and inform the Intervener in their role as Instructional Coach. Sharing key elements of course content in a timely fashion, as well as scheduling regular team meetings to discuss instructional strategies is needed to properly support both the Intervener and the student. Brenda: You've got to be almost two-steps ahead in order not to be one-step behind, because you're working with different people, and so they work differently. Polly: I mean, we're lucky at our school that... our teachers- our teachers team. There's just a lot that you do at the beginning of the year to make sure that it happens- is still happening at the end of the year in terms of explaining who he is, and what his needs are, and why. Maria Figueroa: I had taught kids that were hard-of-hearing before, but not with an Intervener. I was scared. I didn't what was going to go on in the classroom. I didn't know how it's going to affect my classroom, but it worked! It worked out fine. It even made me a better teacher! Polly: He's rocking it! You know, everything's going really well for him. I see him getting concepts that he didn't have when he came. You are your students greatest advocate! And if you don't advocate for them no one else really is, because no one else seems to understand... the whole intervener process. And so, it's all about... advocating-- educating parents on what's available, what's out there, what we can do. And sticking to it, you know-- not being afraid to talk to your Special Ed Director, your superintendent, you know-- whoever you have to talk to to explain to 'em and show 'em the possibility for this kid! That, you know, we have the opportunity to make this student a productive citizen. But if we don't start now, it's not going to happen later! [music] Audio Description: A title reads, this has been a production of Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Video credits read, producer and writer, Matt Shultz. Director, editor and narration, Nathan Widener. Camera and sound, Kendra Dorty. Musec by Audionautix.com. Captions and accessibility, Andy Wier. A special thanks to Cole and the Tyler family, and everyone at Lufkin ISD; Polly Goodier, Brenda Lerma, Maira Figueroa. A special thanks to the Texas Deafblind Project and educators and parents like you. Without your commitment to children like Cole, none of our work would be possible.