Lipreading teachers qualify online for the first time
Trainee lipreading teachers at City Lit have celebrated becoming the first ever lipreading teachers to qualify online.
The group held a virtual party last month to mark the occasion on the final day of their course.
The trainees were two thirds of the way through their 10 month course at City Lit when lockdown struck earlier this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Teacher trainers Fiona Pickett and Lorraine Braggins enabled them to complete their teaching practice online by devising ways in which various lipreading exercises could transfer to the small screen and the teaching be assessed.
Lorraine Braggins, Head of Progamme for Lipreading and acquired hearing loss, said: “Not only does teaching lipreading online present many challenges, but most of the trainee teachers have a hearing loss themselves. So they are not only juggling the delivery of their material and how they are including and assessing deaf and hard of hearing learners, but also at the same time reading the captions which they rely on to understand what their students are saying. We were incredibly impressed with the way all the trainees rose to the challenge.”
Having to put the teacher training online has not only enabled this cohort of trainees to complete their course, but it has been the catalyst for City Lit to find new and creative ways to train lipreading teachers in the future. The team will now deliver at least the first 3 months of the next course online, aiming to provide a blend of online and classroom learning over the duration of the whole course.
Lorraine Braggins added: “It’s also likely there will be a trend towards learning lipreading online in the future – not replacing face-to-face classes, but as an alternative or additional offer. So training new teachers to have the skills and experience to deliver online lessons could open up new opportunities for them. We congratulate the newly qualified lipreading teachers on their tremendous achievement and wish them all the very best in their new careers”.
Applications are now being accepted for City Lit’s next course starting next month (Sept 2020). For more details email lipreading@citylit.ac.uk