Help Deaf/Hard of Hearing Students Access Technology
My students need 4 Chromebooks and 1 external hard drive to both access 21st Century and record, watch, and analyze their expressive American Sign Language fluency.
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
All of my students use American Sign Language as their primary language. Few students have full access to communication at home, meaning that their time at school is crucial.
"The problem is not that the students do not hear. The problem is that the hearing world does not listen." Rev. Jesse Jackson
My students are 4th and 5th graders at a Title I school in East LA.
They are bused in up to 2 hours to our school from all over LA in order to provide full support and access in our Total Communication program. Their access to technology has been limited, due to limited access to outdated resources. Even mandatory testing is impacted by whether or not technology works. We often lose more time setting up outdated laptops than the students spend using them.
My students enjoy soccer, baseball, basketball, movies, art, drama, music, and socializing. Their knowledge is, at times, limited due to a lack of ASL access outside of the classroom as most of their families do not sign. Not only do they need to be able to keep up with 21st century skills, but to find and contact Deaf role models and peers. The world is finally easily accessible for the Deaf community, but the current technology at our school does not allow my students daily access. I hope to provide them with the skills to excel.
My Project
My students will use these 4 Chromebooks to practice reading, typing, and researching. They can access a wide range of books/text on their reading level and take online quizzes to develop their reading comprehension skills. They will be able to practice typing to develop writing pieces. This will allow the students to practice researching different topics and find connections to other Deaf people. These computers will be set up as a working station that will allow the students to stay engaged while other students are working in small groups.
My students will also use the Chromebooks to develop their ASL fluency. As most of my students only access ASL at school, their primary language fluency is delayed. The webcams will allow the students to record and analyze their language skills. They will be able to edit and improve their signing similar to hearing students using a tape recorder. The external hard drive will allow us to save their language samples.
The majority of my students have limited access to technology outside of the classroom.
They need to be able to develop 21st Century skills to keep up with technology in the world that is developing at a rapid pace. The classroom is the only place for these Deaf and Hard of Harding students to learn technology with full communication access. In the Total Communication classroom, we can fully support the students in becoming active, engaged, and enthusiastic learners.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Burns and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
