VIDBE-Q
Volume 62 Issue 1
and prompted me to refocus on those key values in my own teaching. The book presents a reminder that
teaching students with visual impairments is a process that requires individualization. I-M-ABLE honors the
unique interests and educational needs of children and reminds teachers of children with visual impairments
of their role in individualized education. Further, the principle of success reminds us that we are all best
motivated when we feel successful, so teachers using the I-M-ABLE approach should foster student success
whenever possible.
Applications for Teacher Education
Wormsley's book was used as a text in a course on teaching reading and writing to children with visual
impairments. The use of this book prompted critical thinking among pre-service teachers about non-traditional
approaches to braille instruction and making instructional decisions based on student progress. One
instructional priority of the I-M-ABLE approach, diagnostic teaching, fits well with the principles of the more
traditional approaches with which the pre-service teachers were familiar. They developed skills "teaching the
language of touch," and were later able to implement the strategy in their lesson planning and peer teaching
activities (p. 49-51).
Most importantly, reading and discussing the I-M-ABLE approach prompted deep conversation about
the applications of this technique. Pre-service teachers identified specific students they worked with for whom
I-M-ABLE might be appropriate and began to identify hypothetical key vocabulary individualized for those
students. They even began to ask questions about extending the approach beyond the proposed audience.
They made cases for using I-M-ABLE with those students with visual impairments who have even more
complex learning needs, like English language learners, students with more severe cognitive impairments,
and those students who have proficiency in print but are resisting learning braille through more traditional
approaches and curricula.
Because I-M-ABLE is not a curriculum, but rather an approach to literacy instruction, it encourages the
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