What Can Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing First-Year Community College Students Teach Us About Reading?

Abstract

More community college students are enrolling without the requisite reading skills to be successful. Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students are following a similar pattern with a little less than half requiring remedial instruction when entering college. College-age readers were the first population that we studied to learn about reading and reading instruction. The present study revisits this notion with DHH students at the forefront. We wanted to know what skills DHH readers have when they enroll in community college and what skills secondary teachers could focus on to prepare them. Based on the Degrees of Reading Power assessment given to DHH first year students prior entering community college (N = 409 participants), DHH readers would benefit from instruction in three important areas of reading comprehension: key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas. We discuss instructional ideas and future directions.