“What Did You Say?”
Inservice Ideas for the Mainstreamed Hard of Hearing Student
By Tammy Chiovari tamichiovari@yahoo.com
“By teaching our students about communication, we empower them. By teaching their peers, teachers, and families, we create understanding.” Tammy Chiovari
Itinerant teachers, how many of you have experienced this situation? You go to see a mainstream teacher to check on a student, and the teacher says, “He doesn‟t seem deaf to me.” How about, “She can hear when she wants to.” These are typical comments about students with the most invisible of all hearing losses, the students with the mild to moderate hearing losses who do not use sign language. You and I know that there is a huge middle ground between deafness and normal hearing, but the average person may not realize that. So our answer is to inservice, teaching about the audiogram and the speech banana. That is very important, but we need to go beyond the audiogram and teach about communication and stress the unique needs of HOH students, especially those who do not sign. Most of us already teach communication units to our students. We teach them about different types of communication (spoken words, body language, etc...) That helps empower them to become better communicators. But if we teach their classmates, teachers, and families (and I really think families should be emphasized here because they spend the most time with our students and often get the least information) we can help them to be more understanding and supportive when those inevitable communication breakdowns occur. Maybe even reduce the number of strange or frustrated looks and strained friendships that our kids often have to deal with. The key is to help people with normal hearing better understand the communication issues that students who are hard of hearing have to face everyday. I realize I‟m not telling you anything new here, but hopefully I can give you an innovative way to go about it. Misheard song lyrics is a fun way to do that. Every person, normal hearing or not, can relate to the embarrassment of singing the wrong words to a song. In 7th grade, I thought the Foreigner song “Urgent” was actually called, “Virgin.” Imagine the embarrassment I faced walking around my Jr. High singing “Virgin,” instead of “Urgent.” As if Jr. High wasn‟t already hard enough! Gavin Edwards has two hilarious books that are collections of misheard song lyrics. The first book, „Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy and the second book, He‟s Got the Whole World in His Pants offer a plethora of examples that you can use in an inservice about communication vs. miscommunication. After the mainstream teachers have a good laugh about the song lyrics, they can better relate to the miscommunications that our HOH students face everyday. Everyday some part of a conversation or classroom lesson is misheard and our students have to try their best to
make sense of it all. They nod their head yes and “fake it until they make it,” the same way people sing the wrong song lyrics without ever realizing it. By teaching our students about communication, we empower them. By teaching their peers, teachers, and families, we create understanding. That is my philosophy when I talk to mainstream teachers, classes and families. The next two pages of misheard song lyrics are ready to print out and be used at your next inservice. Have fun with it!
Misheard Lyrics
The following misheard lyrics are from the book, „Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy. by Gavin Edwards. The format is as follows: “Song Title”, Artist. misheard lyric correct lyric 1. “Looks Like We Made It”, Barry Manilow. Looks like tomatoes Looks like we made it 2. “You Sexy Thing”, Hot Chocolate. I believe in milk and cows I believe in miracles 3. “Never Gonna Give You Up”, Rick Astley. Now I’m gonna give you up, now I’m gonna say goodbye Never gonna give you up, never gonna say gooddbye 4. “I‟ll Tumble 4 Ya”, Culture Club. I’ll tell a lawyer I‟ll tumble for ya 5. “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”, Sting.
Sweet , sweet vasectomy Free, free, set them free 6. “Hound Dog”, Elvis Presley. They sent you a tie clasp They said you was high class 7. “Blowin‟ in the Wind”, Bob Dylan. The ants are my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind The answer my friends is blowin‟ in the wind
More Misheard Lyrics
The following misheard lyrics are from the book, He‟s Got the Whole World in His Pants. also by Gavin Edwards. The format is the same. 1. “Panama”, Van Halen. Padded bra Panama 2. “Love in an Elevator”, Aerosmith. Loving an alligator Love in an elevator 3. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, Wham. Wake me up and pour me cocoa Wake me up before you go-go 4. “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”, Rupert Holmes. If you like bean enchiladas If you like pina coladas 5. “Whip It”, Devo. Tattoo detective Try to detect it 6. “Kodachrome”, Paul Simon. Mama don’t take my cordless phone away Mama don‟t take my kodachrome away 7. “America the Beautiful” Oh, beautiful for spaceship guys Oh, beautiful for spacious skies 8. “You May Be Right”, Billy Joel. You make the rice, I’ll make the gravy You may be right, I may be crazy 9. “Something to Talk About”, Bonnie Raitt Let’s give them something from Taco Bell Let‟s give them something to talk about
References
Edwards, G. (1995). „Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy. New York, NY: Edwards, G. (1996). He‟s Got the Whole World in His Pants. New York,
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