Weaving Auditory Objectives into ELA Common Core Lessons Auditory Comprehension & Reading Literature, Standard 2

Why This is Important

Students with hearing loss often do not receive auditory training or therapy addressing their listening skills, yet auditory practice has proven to be beneficial. Incorporating speech perception practice into lessons that are aligned with the Common Core Standards can take full advantage of the time the D/HH professional spends with a student while also targeting an essential skill set for students with hearing loss.

Speech Perception

Speech perception is the set of skills needed to understand spoken language. Improvement of speech perception can lead to better comprehension and production of spoken language. Norm Erber (1982. Auditory training. Washington DC: AG Bell Association for the Deaf) described four abilities that comprise speech perception. They are listed here in order of development.

• detect or hear sounds
• recognize, or discriminate, how speech sounds are different from each other
• identify the sounds that make up a particular word
• use all that auditory information to comprehend discourse such as phrases, sentences and conversations

The Speech Perception Lens

When planning, try viewing your lessons through the speech perception lens. Ask yourself:

• What listening skills will the student need during this lesson? Will she be listening for sounds within the word, like a plural /s/? Will she be listening to a text read aloud?
• What is this student’s ability with these skills?
• identify the sounds that make up a particular word
• How can I support the student’s development and/or application of these skills before, during and/or after the lessons?

This Lesson Targets Auditory Comprehension

Auditory comprehension is understanding or making sense of spoken language. Although its definition is simple, auditory comprehension is a complex task. Auditory comprehension requires the listener to apply all aspects of speech perception, including auditory memory, or the ability to remember what one hears. Auditory skills should be practiced IN QUIET unless the goal is to improve speech in noise understanding.

In addition to these auditory skills, the listener also must access all of his knowledge of language: grammar, vocabulary, and pragmatics. Students with hearing loss may have a decreased or delayed development of auditory comprehension due to decreased access to the sounds of spoken language and, possibly, delayed language development.

Notes for the Teacher

Selecting Materials and Conducting the Activities

Materials used in activities practicing auditory comprehension must be within the student’s receptive language level. That is to say, the student must understand the sentence structures and vocabulary used in the text. Figurative language, like that used in fables and the morals of fables, may need to be explained. The teacher should encourage the student to ask for a repetition or an explanation any time it is needed. Consider reinforcing this expectation with praise or other rewards.

Remember that the auditory comprehension goal requires that students are listening to, not independently reading, the stories and poem in these activities, preferably without having seen the text.

Auditory comprehension is the apex skill, or the last stage of auditory development. There is no purpose or benefit to removing speechreading, or lip reading, while conducting these activities.

Example IEP Goal – Auditory Comprehension

GOAL: Recall details of stories read aloud.

Beginning Level Objective: After listening to a 3-sentence literary passage at the ___ grade level, student will recall at least 3 key details from short term memory.

Intermediate Level Objective: After listening to a 3-paragraph literary passage at the ___ grade level, student will recall at least 4 key details from short term memory.

Advanced Level Objective: After listening to a literary passage of chapter length at the ___ grade level, student will recall at least 6 key details from short term memory.

The ELA Standards

The standards given are from the Common Core State Standards Initiative (corestandards.org).

The bolded text indicates how that grade’s standard differs from the previous grades.

Grade 4. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2)

Grade 5. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, < including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2)

The well-known poem, Casey at the Bat, is a text exemplar from the Common Core Standards. Discussion of the poem’s themes should take place after the poem has been well-studied and is understood by the students. Discuss how Casey responds to the challenge of his turn at bat. Students can use what they know about his demeanor as described in the poem to about theorize how he might respond to the third strike. Students should also summarize the story told by the poem.

Extensions:

• Have students write a script or letter from the point of view of one of the characters, explaining what lesson he or she learned during the Casey at the Bat story.
• Have students recount a time when the message of the story was relevant to their lives.
• Additional activities related to the story can be found at
  https://www.k12reader.com/literature/casey_at_the_bat_reading_comprehension_set.pdf
• Have students write a script or letter from the point of view of one of the characters, explaining what lesson he or she learned during the Casey at the Bat story.
• This blog post from Scholastic has additional teaching materials and suggestions, and a helpful (but incomplete) chart of common themes. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/angela-bunyi/helping-students-grasp-themes-in-literature/