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Screen April McArthur, MA, director of American Sign Recording: Language-English Bilingual Services at the Washington School for the Deaf (WSD) and the An Essential Washington State Center for Childhood Deafness and Hearing Classroom Tool Loss, provides training and consultation to school district staff and administrators By April McArthur, Jenn Christianson, Raye Schafer, and Pamela Whitney throughout Washington as part of the statewide Outreach Team. McArthur lives in Technology has opened up avenues for deaf and hard of hearing students Vancouver, Washington, that were previously inaccessible. No longer dependent on such equipment with her husband and as chalkboards and filmstrip projectors, tools such as Smart Boards, two children. She computers, and even iPads have become part of the standard educational welcomes questions and comments about this experience for many children. For teachers at the Washington School for article at april.mcarthur the Deaf (WSD), the technology that recently has proven to be most @cdhl.wa.govor via valuable is the screen-recording tool. Screen recording has become so videophone at (360) integrated into our work that we cannot imagine living without it. 553-4612. JennChristianson, The screen-recording tool, which makes a digital video of what is displayed on the MA, a middle school computer screen, has many applications. Not only can it be used for instruction and language arts student engagement; it can also be used for assessment, documenting growth, classroom teacher at WSD, management, and professional development. Further, it enables teachers to support the earned her development of American Sign Language (ASL) and English in an innovative and time- degree in deaf efficient way. education from Western Oregon Writing University and has been teaching for 12 As every English teacher knows, writing is a process. In the classroom, this process means years. She has been an that students brainstorm, draft, revise, edit, and publish their work. In the past, teachers American Sign would read the students’ writing and laboriously write feedback. However, this often was Language-English less effective as students would misunderstand or misinterpret the teacher’s comments. bilingual professional Time was lost as students lined up for one-on-one conferences in which teachers explained development mentor for and elaborated on what they had written. the past five years. Screen recording allows teachers to give feedback to students in ASL. Thus it often Christianson lives in allows students to incorporate the feedback without waiting in line to talk with a teacher. Portland, Oregon, with Screen recording allows teachers to increase students’ independence and maximize time her husband and son. spent on task in the classroom. Photos courtesy of April McArthur, Jenn Christianson, Raye Schafer, and Pamela Whitney 26 ODYSSEY 2015 Raye Schafer, MEd, a kindergarten and first grade teacher at WSD, earned her bachelor’s degree in deaf education and elementary education and her master’s degree Left: A father and in deaf education from daughter involved in Utah State University. the Deaf Role Model She has been a Program learn how to kindergarten and first sign I love you. grade teacher at WSD since 2006 and an Far left: A mother American Sign learns the sign family Language-English from a deaf role model. bilingual professional development mentor since 2009. Schafer lives Here is how the writing process works using reader-viewer who comments on it—is used in Vancouver, the screen-recording tool: for students who read each other’s work, Washington, with her record their reactions, and give feedback to •Students submit their first drafts husband and two sons. each other. electronically. At his or her convenience, the teacher opens a student’s work in MS Word Pamela Whitney, ASL Narratives and Grammar on one half of his or her computer screen. MA, a preschool teacher When students are engaged in an ASL He or she uses the other half of the screen to at WSD and an early workshop, whether it is to create stories, poetry, videotape him- or herself as he or she childhood or presentations, the screen-recording tool is provides feedback. The camera is opened education equally important. Students submit their through Photobooth or QuickTime, and specialist, has ASL drafts by recording their presentation QuickTime is used to make a video of the worked in the in QuickTime. The teacher then pulls up computer screen, which now shows both the Elementary the QuickTime file on the computer screen, teacher’s signing and the student’s written Department at pausing the recording to discuss elements of draft. The teacher goes back and forth, WSD since 2000. the narrative and recording him- or herself as moving his or her cursor within the She has taught he or she signs feedback. For example, if the document to specific structures that need to preschool, worked as a student introduces a character into the story be addressed—typing, highlighting, and specialist in the birth-3 with only a name sign, the teacher may pause signing his or her feedback. For example, if Parent-Infant Program, the video and explain that when introducing a student writes a dialogue between two and is an American Sign someone in ASL narratives, it is important to characters and does not use quotation marks, Language-English fingerspell the individual’s name prior to using the teacher uses MS Word to show the bilingual professional his or her name sign. student where to include the quotation development mentor. The screen-recording tool also allows us to marks, and he or she signs an explanation of She and her husband, focus explicitly on ASL grammar. For example, why quotation marks are important. All of Rick, live in Vancouver, in a preschool lesson on fall weather patterns, this is recorded on the computer screen as it Washington, with their students studied classifiers—ASL grammatical unfolds and saved in a QuickTime file. three children. features that depict aspects of pronouns, •Students view the feedback independently adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Our ASL assistant or view and discuss it with the teacher in made a video to illustrate how ASL depicts conference. The same procedure—creating a leaves falling by quantity, speed, and movement. QuickTime file of a written document and a First, she found a video online that showed 2015 ODYSSEY 27 images of leaves falling from trees. She eliminated unwanted portions of the video—the text and advertisements—by clicking and dragging the mouse to selectively screen record the falling leaves, and she recorded only a short excerpt of the video. Finally, she superimposed the video of herself signing onto the video of the falling leaves. The children viewed the video in our ASL center and practiced their ASL We can identify the level of support classifiers. As a final activity, each child that is given and what the student individually recorded signing versions of can do with help and without help, increased motivation and confidence. leaves falling to represent the successive and we can ascertain how close a student Their expressive vocabulary—both in stages of the fall season. All of the clips is to mastery of a particular skill set. ASL and English—increased, and use of were combined into a single movie, The screen recording also becomes a more descriptive language emerged. which was displayed in the foyer, much to valuable tool for sharing a student’s As a result, screen recording has the delight of the students, parents, and language acquisition with family and allowed us to further raise our already staff, as well as visitors to the campus. other professionals. It allows teachers to high expectations for our teachers and record not only their interactions with a students. As a learning tool, screen Analysis and Documentation student, but also to document any recording allows our students to develop Screen recording is also used to gather modification and support provided. their skills in ASL and English and their language samples and to analyze how Screen recording allows teachers to view knowledge of how these two languages students view, summarize, and retell every aspect of the one-on-one work. Students are able to delve into short narratives, foundational skills interaction and to go back later to tally concepts in more meaningful ways, and correlated to literacy development. For what kinds of supports were needed. In they have more freedom to express example, we record students as they subsequent instruction, teachers can themselves, show what they know, and view short animated stories and record manipulate what is on the screen and demonstrate their understanding of them again as they retell and summarize modify instruction based on students’ content. the stories. We do this by setting up two responses. Instruction is individually Whether students are working in ASL windows on the computer screen. One tailored to students’ needs. or English, there is no need to rely on window displays the original video; the memory. The feedback is recorded. They other window displays the student as he Professional Development can view it independently, during an or she watches the video. Using a screen- We’ve also found screen recording to be ASL or writing workshop, or while recording program, both windows are helpful for staff training and professional doing their homework. The feedback is encoded into one video file. development. For example, as part of a durable; it can be watched over and over The teacher observes students viewing WSD training series, teachers read and as students revise and edit their work. the video clip and notes what the study articles and attend presentations. As a teaching tool, screen recording students paid attention to, how many Then we break into small groups and allows instructors to meet students’ times the students reviewed any single have discussions based on responses to a needs, to capitalize on students’ clip, the level of attention paid to video prompt or respond to written strengths, and to use ASL as a bridge to particular events on screen, and how the questions. Choosing their language, English. At the same time, learning to students retold the story. Everything teachers craft their responses in either use the screen-recording tool has that is seen by the student is recorded, ASL or written English. Presenters then increased students’ technological along with the interaction between staff provide individualized feedback in ASL awareness and skills. For WSD, screen and student. Using this technique, through screen recording. recording has proven to be an invaluable teachers are not testing the child’s tool for teaching and learning in ASL memory of a single event but rather the Recording Success and English and for supporting our child’s ability to comprehend and retell After we began using screen recording mission for students to become a series of stories to which he or she has in our classes, we immediately saw a bilingual, empowered, and successful. had potentially multiple exposures. difference in the classroom. Students Today and tomorrow—the very BEST! Screen recording provides detailed data. became more engaged and showed 28 ODYSSEY 2015