This month’s features:

Read Captions Across America

Student Led
IEP Meetings

Read + Listen + Respond

Celebrate the 6^th Annual RCAA on March 2.

Student involvement can improve the transition process.

New adventures in storytelling for children with visual impairments.

Read Captions Across America

Check out the "Watch any good books lately?" flyer [pdf] to find children's literature titles to enhance your RCAA event.

March 2 is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, and this day marks the beginning of the NEA's Read Across America annual campaign. This event is the nation's largest reading celebration, focusing attention on motivating children to read in addition to their mastering basic skills. DCMP will again partner with the NEA by promoting the fact that captions act as an instant reading incentive and the reading benefits that occur from the use of captions---by almost everyone! This DCMP initiative is called Read Captions Across America (RCAA).

For the past five years, hundreds of schools and libraries have participated in RCAA. Don't miss out! Visit our Read Captions Across America Web site for loads of ideas to help in your event planning.

Available again is a free RCAA Event Kit consisting of posters, bookmarks, and certificates. For registered DCMP members, a special DVD containing all six Dr. Seuss titles in our collection is available for use at your RCAA event. Order your kit via our convenient online order form (just be sure to include your DCMP username if you would like the DVD included).

Though RCAA (and NEA's Read Across America) is closely tied to Dr. Seuss, there's no reason that your RCAA event shouldn't include other captioned media, particularly that which is based on popular children's books. Check out the RCAA media section of the RCAA site for links to flyers containing suggested children's literature titles.

We hope that this year's RCAA is the biggest ever! If you have ideas to share, questions or comments about RCAA and captioned media, or would like to let us know about your plans, please contact us early and often! We look forward to a sea-to-sea celebration of captioned media on March 2^nd and all year long!

Related Links

• Cable in the Classroom
• Thinking of Captions Outside the Box
• Captioned Media: Literacy Support for Diverse Learners

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Related DCMP Titles

• Read Captions Across America: Dr. Seuss Collection
• Dr. Seuss on the Loose
• The Red Pony
• T is for Terrible
• The Monkey's Paw
• The Ransom of Red Chief
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
• The Cat in the Hat
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears
• The Gold Bug
• The Hoober-Bloob Highway

Student Led IEP Meetings

We continue to see alarming dropout rates of students in our schools, and the unemployment and underemployment rates of individuals with disabilities are dismal at best. Transition from high school to postsecondary education or to work is not a new concept. It has been an integral part of American culture as long as we have had a public education system. However, it is clear that new strategies for preparing students for successful transition after high school must be implemented. Renewed emphasis on student involvement, better planning, and improved collaboration among everyone involved in the process hopefully will lead to greater success. Read more about improving the transition process in an article by Theresa Johnson, an educator and transition specialist at Texas School for the Deaf. Also read about student led IEPs from a student's perspective in an article by Amy Johnson, a high school student at Texas School for the Deaf.

DCMP can provide a variety of resources to help in the transition process as well. We have materials on the IEP process, career planning, resume skills, choosing the right college, and much, much more.

Related Links

• I'm Determined
• iTransition: It's all about me!
• Self-Determination Resource Web Site

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Related DCMP Titles

• IDEA and the IEP #1
• IDEA and the IEP #2
• Career Exploration and Planning: What Will I Do With My Life?
• Job Seeking Solutions for Young People (Student Version)
• Real Life 101: Vocational Training
• Goal Away: Setting and Achieving Goals
• A+ Guide to Transitions from High School to College...
• PAH! I'm in College...Now What?
• Foolproof Ways to Find a Job: Sharpening Job Hunting Techniques

Read + Listen + Respond

Check out an annotated bibliography of "Children's Books With Blind Characters." [PDF]

Storytelling provides a language of learning that delights the imagination. Throughout the ages, people have conveyed truth, beauty, courage, and imagination through a story. Fiction, non-fiction, and narrative stories are all exciting genres that help us enter "the world of the story."

What is needed in storytelling for children with visual impairments is the link to effective communication. And DCMP provides unique multimedia links to the "world of the story" for students, teachers, and families through their innovative titles of all genres of described and captioned media. With the help of description, we see the characters. We feel their emotions. We understand their dilemmas and experience their real-life situations. Most of all, from these stories, we gain insight from the way people responded to their surroundings in the midst of their circumstances.

Each month new titles are added to the DCMP accessible media list. What DCMP provides to students, families, and teachers in their classrooms is the delight of the senses coming alive through descriptions and captions. READ MORE

Related Links

• National Braille Press
• Seedlings: Braille Books for Children
• BrailleInk
• Creating and Using Tactile Experience Books for Young Children with Visual Impairments

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Related DCMP Titles

• Into The Book, Episodes 1-3
• Into The Book, Episodes 4-6
• Into The Book, Episodes 7-9
• Wild About Books
• Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman
• Madam President
• Make a Wish, Molly
• Harold's Fairy Tale
• Let's Talk Myths

Quick Hits

2011 Cinema Without Sight Film Festival

Young Described Film Critic Contest (YDFC)

Helping Students and Teachers Exceed Through Technology

Junior high and high school students who are blind or visually impaired are being challenged to submit a short video on the theme "If Blind Kids Ruled the World." The winning film will be premiered in June, and the winner will receive a $1000 cash prize. Rules and information are available from the Braille Institute.

The American Council of the Blind's (ACB) Audio Description Project (ADP) is hosting the third annual YDFC. The YDFC provides young people with a visual impairment a chance to win prizes for themselves, recognition for their schools, and a chance to hold the awesome title "Young Described Film Critic of the Year."

All they need to do is write, type, or record (audio or video) their own film review of any described movie and send it to the ADP. Read more about the contest and submit your entry today!

The TechMatrix is a powerful, free online database to help educators and families find educational and assistive technology resources and help for students with special needs. This new version is greatly expanded, easier to use, and includes many new implementation resources.

KATE, the Kentucky Academy of Technology Education, collects the most innovative and successful technology practices in K-12 education and makes them available to the teachers and students across the U. S.

The contents of this newsletter were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Cooperative Agreement #H327N060002.

However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer, Ernest Hairston.

The DCMP is administered by the National Association of the Deaf.