Dave again! (5.6)

Dave has some new questions for me!
Dave: Hey you, I think you can't really say that one opinion is better than another one. Don't you agree?
Me: Well sure, my opinion is no better than yours or anyone else's. But because of research, my opinion is formed and sides with the way it does. I think that because I have so much support to back up my opinion I can say mine is better but only because of the back up that I have to explain why I think this way. Plus it's proven that I am not the only one that thinks this way, therefore I'm just entering the bigger conversation with my opinion.
Dave: Ok, well there's all this stuff in the book about research as a process of discovery. What did you discover?
Me: I discovered a whole knew culture and the discrimination associated with it when it comes to the children with this culture of Deafness and their educational and social development. I also discovered that there are things that we can do about it. Even a small action of just spreading awareness can do this and inspire a teacher or school enough to take action in this issue.
Dave: What do you figure was the most challenging problem you had to solve while working on this research project? How did you solve it?
Me: I think the most challenging problem was really finding out what way I was going to approach this subject in getting a clear thesis and structure and to be honest what I did to help me sort this out was going to the LBC writing center and getting assistance and then doing further research in order to have an even clearer major question to be answering throughout my paper.
Dave: After all this work, what do you take away from this experience? What have you learned that you can use?
Me: I think that in general I know how to research for a topic and letting that guide my thesis and main point of my paper. The deeper the research the deeper I was able to sharpen my point. And I feel like with this I can basically use everywhere. If I have a main question or what to spread awareness about something but not sure how to approach it, I'll know how to research and with what keywords in order to get the results i want and sharpen my point.

My Reflection on my Draft(5.2)

1.) After reading my draft, the main question that the paper is focusing on is what can teachers and schools do to prevent discrimination and decline of education in a deaf student?
2.) I think the main point is that teachers need to be doing much more in order to efficiently help a deaf student, just as any other student, succeed and that neglect of this student can cause many other issues for this student even socially, so it is the responsibility of the school and teacher to work together to carry out their duty of educating every child in a comfortable learning environment.
3.)I think after reading the paper I appreciate that being Deaf is just like another culture. I read this in one of my sources, so I had never actually really viewed it this way, but now that I have elaborated more on it in my paper and reflected on it, it's much more clear to me and definitely is something I notice more now. I think it is interesting because discrimination is found everywhere with every race and with both genders and this is just like another type of discrimination sort of like on another race. Deaf people can be regular everyday people, capable of everything a hearing person can do, just without the ability of hearing but discrimination tends to take over when we think of a Deaf person in the real world because they're "different", not realizing they're just as different to us as cultures are different to each other.  

Rainbow of a Draft (5.1)

In this post we're gonna set the importance of having a voice in your own paper. We're gonna take a part of my rough draft that I think is least of my voice and highlight whose voice is whose. Facts, Someone else's idea, my ideas

         There are two main types of deafness (using a lower cased ”d” to describe the medical point of view): conductive and sensor neural. Conductive deafness is when a person’s hearing is the only thing affected and senor neural is when a person’s hearing is affected but also the neural pathway to their brain is also damaged so this makes it harder to retain information overall. In this paper, I’ll be talking about students with conductive deafness; those who are fully capable of retaining information but due to neglect from teachers have a harder time actually learning. 

For the legal means of this issue, it has supposedly already been taken care of. In 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was passed. The purpose of this act was to provide a “free, appropriate public education to all children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment” and that the “government must fund these programs permanently” (IDEA). So the essence of this act is to say that it is illegal for a public school to turn away disabled kids, including the Deaf. As a result of this being passed, many realized that only 50% of American disabled children attending public schools weren’t getting support they needed to succeed and 1 million of them were rejected from an everyday public school classroom (Marschark,139-140). But as the No Child Left Behind act was passed, many Deaf students had been taken out of public schools and put into specialized Deaf schools. With them they brought their low test scores and as more and more of them came into the same school, the average test scores would be too low to function as a school and be shut down. As most of you are also probably thinking, Marschark writes “Unfortunately, those transfers often seem designed for the benefit of the public schools rather than the children, so deaf students who are lagging behind will not pull down school test scores.” (140). So when it comes down to it, legally there hasn't been much done, hence there should be more done in the classroom to benefit these Deaf students instead.

     A teacher’s job is to be sure that students understand and retain information being taught to them, with little to few questions left on the subject matter. Along with this, their job is also to have a professional relationship with students when helping them grasp concepts and being sure their environment is safe enough to learn in, such as keeping issues like bullying under control. This can be a challenge when you have a Deaf student, but in order to help them succeed and for teachers to achieve the goal of teaching there has to be ways to accommodate that student just as there are ways for others. With this type of thinking and dedication on the teacher’s part, the Deaf student should have a much easier and better time learning material and in the meantime show progressing test scores like any student would.  

I think there is a pretty equal balance of colors here but maybe there can be more mixing in with the facts and source ideas with my ideas. I think it is appropriate, I suppose it is just the way I organized it when writing my draft. 

Thesis Type (4.2)

So before really getting deep into the paper or anything we should have some kind of idea of our thesis or at least the point we'd like to make now that our research is all finished. For different types of subjects there are different ways to shape a thesis. In order to get the right idea you have to think to yourself what your viewpoint is on your subject RIGHT NOW at this moment. Not yesterday, not what you might be thinking tomorrow, what you think RIGHT NOW as your rough draft is in the works and all the research is finished. What I think about my subject is that Deaf children's discrimination in a public school and lack of understanding and successful test scores has to do with the school and teacher's ability to reach out to these children as they reach out the every other child. The only difference from these kids from the other is their ability to hear, other than that there shouldn't be a different between the attention they needed to learn and be educated opposed to an everyday hearing child. This is considered a "Question of Policy" type of situation which requires this type of thesis. Which is kind of like: In the debate over____, I'm persuaded that the most important thing to do is____. Well here is my thesis so far in my rough draft "Common sense seems to dictate that being Deaf is to have a disability but majority of Deaf people believe that it is simply like having their own culture." So as you can see it is a little bit off from what I initially said. So lets change it up a bit. "Common sense seems to dictate that being Deaf is to have a disability, but I've come to the conclusion that it is instead a culture, just as Deaf people see, and that their education and social development shouldn't be affected in school because of their Deafness." There, good as new!

Dialogue with Dave (4.1)

You know how little kids sometimes talk to themselves because they have imaginary friends? Well Dave is my imaginary friend today in order to be sure that I know everything about my topic.. everything that anyone would want to know or ask. That way, if someone asking me questions cant trip me up with facts I don't know then my paper will reflect my full understanding of the topic. So here we go:

Me: Hey Dave, my subject is how deaf students are discriminated in a classroom environment and how this can be prevented. 

Dave: Oh! That is interesting! How do you get to wanting to write about this subject?

Me: Well, I have a lot of background knowledge on this subject because of my own deaf friends and what I hear from them and their experiences in public schools among hearing students.

Dave: I like it, well is there actually anything you can really do about it? I mean, how about funding and everything? Shouldn't they just be sent to a specialized school?

Me: Well Dave, no actually. Though most people would think that would help more sometimes it really doesn't. Just like a lot of families across the US, most parents send their children to public schools, sometimes because they can't actually afford private schools. It can be the same for parents of a deaf child. It can be very costly sending their kids to a specialized school.. and it's the law for public schools to be sure that they are doing everything they can to aid to their students any way they can, so instead of having that sort of mentality, in my opinion, there should just be more done in the classroom to help out the Deaf students.

Dave: Help how?

Me: Socially in the classroom among the other students, preventing bullying but of course also educationally. Taking their education away because of mere laziness and neglect is a fail on the school and teachers part and there should be no tolerance for it. 

Dave: Well what can schools or teachers do about this?

Me: Teachers could begin just by incorporating their deaf student(s) along with the hearing kids, and schools shouldn't be keeping them all cooped up in one classroom all day with the same children unless it is their choice. In general, I think the student should have a big say in what they want to do, or at least the parents, because this way they can be more inclined to learn.  

Dave: That is cool, I never actually thought about it that way. You always just assume that they're taken care of seeing that they have an aid with them and translator and everything but to think that actually they're still not actually getting what they need. 

Me: Exactly! And it's happening all over the country. Even the government had part in this.. they shut down many specialized schools with the No Child Left Behind act transferring deaf students from public schools, who had low test scores originally because of neglect from public schools, bringing the test scores overall of the specialized schools forcing them to shut down. 

Dave: Wow, I never knew that had such a negative impact, I thought it would have more of a positive, you would assume that a deaf child going to a specialized deaf school would help instead of do bad. 

Me: Well as you can see, not in every case.

Dave: Well thank you Christina, it has been a pleasure and I feel much more aware now about what is really going on. But one last question, what is the point you're trying to make? 

Me: No problem David, and my point is that its not something we can just ignore anymore... this is the education of children that are fully capable of retaining information but they're just being neglected. It's time to change and be sure that teachers and schools can aid to these students efficiently. 

Dave: I agree! I'll be sure to spread the awareness. 

Annotated Bibliography

Here are 5 credible sources I have found on the LBC's library database:

• Marschark, Marc. Raising And Educating A Deaf Child : A Comprehensive Guide To The Choices, Controversies, And Decisions Faced By Parents And Educators. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 12 June 2014.

CRAPP 

This article is a credible source for my research because it is a whole book explaining almot every perspective on having a Deaf child with much research and stats put in. The author's credentials include a Ph.D. and a professor for liberal studies and Marschark serves on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Deaf Children as well as Advisory Boards for the Research Master's Degree Program in Interpreter Training and Teaching Sign Language of the Netherlands program at Hogeschool van Utrecht, the Willie Ross School for the Deaf, and the University College, London Centre on Deafness, Cognition, and Language. Date-wise this publication is important to include because though it is a bit older the information all still applies since in my other research there have not been changes to the laws already placed and talked about in this book. The author's main goal in this article is to teach about raising and educating deaf children. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: parents in general and of special needs/deaf children, teachers, and counselors. This audience would be interested in this subject because it is talking about raising and educating a deaf child which is the job of parents, teachers, and some councilors who all deal with children and are responsible for their growth and would generally agree with this author's perspective on the topic. This evidence builds credibility because there are many statistics placed in the book along with different laws and events that were passed and the author deals much with deaf students being a professor himself for them but is also limited because every case of having a deaf child is going to be different and the decisions needed to be made will not be as easy as he writes it. I think this article is important to include in my essay because the education of deaf children is an important part of my paper and this book describes a lot and how it has improved or shown to decline throughout the recent years. 

• SCHULTZ, JESSICA L., et al. "ENSURING THE SUCCESS OF DEAF STUDENTS In Inclusive Physical Education." JOPERD: The Journal Of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 84.5 (2013): 51-56. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 3 June 2014.

CRAPP 

This article is a credible source for my research because it talks about incorporating deaf children in a regular everyday classroom, in this case being physical education class. The author's credentials include (there are multiple so ill write about one) has a Ph.D. from Oregon State university, MS from University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse and BS at West Chester University and specializes in adapted physical education, especially children with sensory impairments. Date-wise this publication is important to include because it is a fairly relevant date and can give some of the improvements made for incorporating deaf children into an everyday classroom environment. The author's main goal in this article is to inform others what has happened in this gym class and document it for people to read then also instruct other teachers on how to make this a successful attempt in welcoming a deaf child into the normal everyday classroom. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: teachers and counselors This audience would be interested in this subject because it is talking about educating a deaf child generally in a normal classroom and what needs to be done to do so and would generally agree with this author's perspective on the topic. This evidence builds credibility because it is a first hand story of one boy and then branches off into showing how this can improve a classroom environment as it did here in real life. I think this article is important to include in my essay because this article really shows that it is possible and informs people on what they need to do to get this done.

• WEINER, MARY T.1, STEFANIE J.2 DAY, and DENNIS3 GALVAN. "Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students' Perspectives On Bullying And School Climate." American Annals Of The Deaf 158.3 (2013): 334-343. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 3 June 2014.

CRAPP 

This article is a credible source for my research because this article refers to questionnaires that took place in a few schools about bullying and discrimination and reported the results. The author's credentials include (there are multiple so I'll write about one) has Ph.D., University of Maryland, Human Development, 1997, C.A.G.S, Gallaudet University, School Psychology, 1985, M.A., Gallaudet University, Developmental Psychology, 1982, B.A., Lenoir-Rhyne College, Psychology/Sociology, 198 and Mary T. Weiner, Ph.D. is the program contact person for the Adult Degree Programs and a professor with the Department of Psychology at Gallaudet, in addition to teaching at Gallaudet University, she has provided numerous presentations and training sessions on intervention strategies for use with deaf and hard-of-hearing students; especially in bullying prevention. Date-wise this publication is important to include because it is close to our current time now and the questionnaire is old but this article is written years after because the stats still prevail to be the same/are becoming worse. The author's main goal in this article is to report the results of the bullying questionnaires and draw conclusions to explain why this is happening. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: teachers, counselors, and parents. This audience would be interested in this subject because the conclusions drawn from these results can allow the audience to read about it and understand it more in order to prevent this bullying and would generally agree with this author's perspective on the topic. This evidence builds credibility because it is a first hand results from real deaf students from multiple schools in the US. I think this article is important to include in my essay because this article's results and conclusions show the real support for there being discrimination among deaf children in public schools with hearing kids. 

• Weber, Jeremy,"Do You Hear What I Hear? the deaf are virtually an 'unreached people group', but an Illinois ministry is remedying that one video at a time."ChristianityToday,8April,2010:Vol. 54, No. 3, Pg 46.Web.3 June 2014

CRAPP 

This article is a credible source for my research because this article is based on a real story of a women and woman's past experiences in the church as a deaf child. The author's credentials include being news editor for Christianity Today magazine. Date-wise this publication is important to include because this type of articel is pretty timeless because it is the work that is talked about in this article that is more important and sets an example for most others when dealing with educating the Deaf with anything including the bible in order to further their relationship with God. The author's main goal in this article is to retell a story of a women who went to church but didn't understand much till everything really interpreted to her and how she wants to now help other deaf children understand more and not let them be lost in the translation. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: parents, pastors, religious mentors, and translators. This audience would be interested in this subject because these are the people that are responsible for getting information such as the word out to children, deaf or not, and try to spread it enough for them to understand and live by the word.. if it isn't fully understood, they cannot live through the word and would generally agree with this author's perspective on the topic. This evidence builds credibility because this is in a publication of a well known Christian magazine with interviews of Christy Ortiz (the women in the article). I think this article is important to include in my essay because this reflects why deaf children need to have more attention than they get sometimes because people think that as long as it is translated they'll understand as everyone else but it isn't always the case, and that sometimes there needs to be further action or they could become an 'unreached people group'. 

• Moores F. Donald, Meadow-Orlans P. Kathryn,"Educational and Developmental Aspects of Deafness".Gallaudet University Press, 1990. Print. 

CRAPP 

This article is a credible source for my research because it is a published book by the only deaf university int the world and all of the books that come from their print are reliable sources. The author's credentials include editor of American Annals of the Deaf and co editor of Educational and Developmental Aspects of Deafness since 1990. Date-wise this publication is important to include because some of the information is older but the content is timeless because it just explains the developmental aspects of a deaf child, these aspects r generally the same as today other than the new technology of today that can now help them. The author's main goal in this article is to inform readers how deaf children's minds develop and what they need for full development. The publishing source for this article generally targets an audience that fits the following description: parents, teachers and translators. This audience would be interested in this subject because these are the people that are concerned with the development and educational development of any child including a deaf child and would generally agree with this author's perspective on the topic. This evidence builds credibility because this author has done years of research a subjects and topics such as this. I think this article is important to include in my essay because this can explain deeper what being deaf actually does to a child and their development and along with a comparison to a hearing child, then being able to see the real difference and the special attention needed to give to them.

Search Engines (2.2)

Here, we'll be exploring different types of search engines. When it comes to research it is important to know the right places to look and which is more trustworthy. We'll take a look at some of the results different search engines gives us for the phrase "Discrimination of Deaf students in public schools" and also the results for when we reword the phrase to be a bit different like "Discrimination towards hearing disabled children in the US".

Popular General Search Engines:

"Discrimination of Deaf students in public schools"

• Search.Yahoo.com- Had good results  

https://www.gallaudet.edu/clerc_center/information_and_resources/info_to_go/educate_children_(3_to_21)/504_plan.html (Gallaudet University on Section 504 and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Public Preschool, Elementary and Secondary Schools)

http://www.law.stanford.edu/news/pr/federal-judge-allows-discrimination-suit-against-california-school-for-the-deaf (Stanford Law School on Federal Judge Allows Discrimination Suit against California School for the Deaf)

• Ask.com- Terrible Results 

http://commonwealth.connectionsacademy.com/pa/geosearch?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&network=s&utm_campaign=Pennsylvania_Search_Geotargeted&adgroup=Misc_Keywords&keyword=free%20schools&matchtype=b&device=c&creative=37783595504&adposition=1t1&random=12000035217856825676 (Free Onling Public School)

http://education.findlaw.com/student-rights/free-speech-lawsuits-involving-public-schools.html?DCMP=GOO-EDU_Gen-StudentRights&HBX_PK=students+rights (Free Speech Lawsuits Involving Public Schools)

"Discrimination towards hearing disabled children in the US"

• Search.Yahoo.com- Somewhat helpful/relevant 

http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/disability.cfm (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Disability Discrimination) 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2831400020/disability-prejudice.html (Encyclopedia.com on Disability Prejudice)

• Ask.com- Not helpful at all 

http://fundingspecialneeds.com/ (Special Needs Life Insurance Solutions, LLC main webpage)

http://www.americanhoperesources.com/splash/?type=b&keyword=children%20with%20disabilities&group=Low_Income_Search_AdGroup_Low_Income_Housing_NJ (American hope Resources on how to apply for funding) 

Metasearch Engines:

"Discrimination of Deaf students in public schools"

• Mamma.com- Very helpful

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/mainstreaming01.htm (ASL University, a deaf student and teacher resource, on Mainstreaming: Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children in Public Schools) 

http://abilitymagazine.com/deaf-discrimination.html (Ability Magazine on Deaf Discrimination: RIT NTID Students Appear on ABC’s “What Would You Do?” Program) 

• Yippy.com- Not very reliable sources  

http://www.johnleeclark.com/ (Blog about the Deaf in many areas of life) 

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1381519.html?key=01-42161A527E191761120F03164A275E3F3C44390F7678700E720E0A60651A617F133D (HighBeam Research on The Gallaudet Protests; Fernandes Should Resign Because She's Out of Touch With the Campus and the Deaf Community) 

"Discrimination towards hearing disabled children in the US"

• Mamma.com- Sort of relevant and maybe a bit helpful 

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/DiscriminationAgainstPersonsWithDisabilities.aspx (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Combating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities)

http://www.novafamilylawgroup.com/blog/2012/11/discrimination-against-parents-with-disabilities-in-child-custody-cases.shtml (Nova Family Law roup on Discrimination against parents with disabilities in child custody cases)

• Yippy.com- Not so helpful 

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-56771631.html?key=01-42160D517E1D126E140B041C07224E263C4D3C437779710F720E0B61651A617F137155 (HighBeam Research on Video Speaks to Need for Way to Talk to Deaf)

http://www.lbnelert.com/ (Levine Breaking News Blog homepage)