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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Thu Feb 24, 2000 2:51 pm Subject: Re: IMPORTANT Message from South Africa! | |
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On 2/21/00, Ingrid Foggitt wrote: >Of course, they took to it like ducks to water! And here, they were >differentiating between SASL and ASL. Pauses in the video allowed us >to change the signs portrayed on the video into SASL on the >chalkboard. This was fairly easy to grasp. By the end of this, the >kids were all following the handshapes shown on the video in unison. >I had to rewind it back again (on demand). The learners all reacted >very positively to this, showing concern about the complexity of >being able to actually `write' the symbols and then arguing about who >is a good artist and who is not!!! Just before the end of the third >run of the video, the TV was abandoned and all the kids rushed to the >chalkboard, writing signs to each other -- of their own making but >incorporating the basics that they had got from the video. And let >me say this: a lot of the signs that they wrote included lots of >symbols that are part of SW but that they have never seen before (or >been taught yet). >INGRID FOGGITT >Fulton School for the Deaf, South Africa ------------------------------------ SignWriting List February 24, 2000 Thank you, Ingrid for your write up. I love the above paragraph. It reminds me of the one time I taught Deaf children...as you all know, I personally am not a teacher of deaf children....but I thought SignWriting might be useful in the classroom, back in 1978...so I got permission from the school administrators at a school in Manchester, New Hampshire, to teach SignWriting for exactly one hour to a group of born deaf, signing children - While the teachers sat angrily in the back of the room (they thought SignWriting was nonsense), I showed a sign to the kids written in SignWriting on the blackboard...that was all...Kids jumped up and started writing on the blackboard and corrected each other...and they loved it when I told them I couldn't read something because I was hearing and didn't know how to sign very well at the time..They would correct my signing by writing in SignWriting on the blackboard - it was an experience I will always treasure...but the teachers made it clear they were glad when I left...they didn't want to be bothered with it...I guess experiences are in the eye of the beholder! This story is also up on the web: History of SignWriting...Early Years in USA https://www.SignWriting.org/hist004.html I remember thinking to myself when I left the school that day, that I hoped someday teachers of deaf children will be open-minded enough to try this new idea....now 22 years later that is happening... Thanks to all the wonderful teachers who are trying now... Val ;-) ------------------------------------ Valerie Sutton SignWritingSite https://www.SignWriting.org SignWriting List Archive https://www.egroups.com/group/sw-l/ Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA |
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