Students learn lesson out loud
Jeff Benson
Fifth- and sixth-grade students in Caryn Weinstock’s class can barely
hear their teacher, but to someone walking by her classroom, it
sounds like she’s somehow getting infuriated over language arts.
She pointed Monday morning to the overhead projector, where a
passage contained a misspelled word and some capitalization problems.
“The boys listened to papa grande tell stories out lowd,” she read to
them at a near yell.
Her students, part of the Oral Auditory Deaf and Hard of Hearing
program at Kaiser Elementary School in Costa Mesa, never flinched as
Weinstock’s New York accent heightened.
They barely heard her tone, but they understood her well enough
that they spelled out the word “loud” -- and out loud -- without any
problem.
“I can hear a little bit and read lips,” said Ashley Swann, 11, of
Orange. “She talks very loud. But I’ve learned to read lips a long
time.”
The class practiced language arts Monday, splitting time between
spelling their vocabulary words and dissecting their reading
assignments. They also learned that a “sequence” is an order into
which things are put.
“When you guys woke up this morning, didn’t you get up, take a
shower and get dressed before you came to school?” Weinstock asked.
“That’s a sequence. You might’ve even put gel in your hair, eaten
breakfast and put your hearing aids in. Isn’t that a good feeling?”
Weinstock knows exactly what they’re going through. She, too,
suffers from extreme hearing loss. She speaks with a bit of an
impediment but only enough to make someone question whether she has
any difficulty at all.
“[My teachers] didn’t find out I was hard of hearing until ninth
grade,” she said. “I had to teach myself to read lips. I wanted to be
the one to help children because I didn’t feel like anyone helped
me.”
Weinstock’s students certainly aren’t in that predicament. Their
teacher would rather teach them to read lips and words at high
decibels than to read fingers in complete silence.
Students with auditory disabilities are drawn to Kaiser’s program
from seven Orange County school districts. Those who require sign
language are enrolled at Taft Elementary School in Orange, she said.
Weinstock’s students, in turn, are tuned in through their hearing
aids and keen attention spans. Even though most deaf or
hard-of-hearing students are at as much as a five-grade discrepancy
in reading level, she said, Weinstock’s students are reading at
fourth-grade level. That’s no small feat when normal communication is
difficult.She later explained that their shared disability even has
certain advantages. Sometimes it’s beneficial not to hear anything,
she said.
“The greatest thing about being hard of hearing is that you can
get a restful night’s sleep,” Weinstock said. “I used to live in the
middle of Manhattan, with cars going by all night and people
screaming. I slept like a baby.”
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