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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Mon Sep 7, 1998 2:49 pm Subject: SignWriting Report 9/7/98 | |
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SignWriting Report September 7, 1998 Dear SW List Members - I am happy to report that the SignWriting Literacy Project has officially begun. I sent books and videos to the five groups participating in the project, on these dates: August 18, 1998 39 books to Caldwell Elementary School, Hearing Impaired Program, Wichita, Kansas August 25, 1998 60 books to Texas School for the Deaf, Lower School, Austin, Texas August 31, 1998 138 books to Robarts School for the Deaf, London, Ontario, Canada September 1, 1998 24 books to Kathy Akehurst, private ASL tutor, Tara, Ontario, Canada September 1, 1998 9 books to Michele Lewis, homeschool, Plant City, Florida As a part of the donation from our organization, I personally telephoned and spoke with representatives of the three schools. I spoke with teacher Diana Smith at the Caldwell School, principal Gloria Seidlin-Bernstein at the Texas Lower School, and Paul Cowley at the Robarts School. It is true that I did not call the two private groups, but we have good communcation on the internet :-) The reason I felt I needed to call the schools is that more than one teacher will be using the materials, and these teachers did not have any special training before they received the books. Many of them are just being handed books with little introduction. I donated videos to the schools earlier this summer, and hopefully all of the teachers have viewed them, but I felt that personal attention from me is paramount if the project is going to be a success. I hope everyone participating in the project feels free to phone or write me anytime for technical support :-) The purpose of the project is to receive feedback from the teachers. They will fill out three reports, due on September 15, November 1st and December 1st. When I receive the reports I will post them to the list and place them on our web site. I have also decided that when all the reports are in, I will publish a booklet: SignWriting Literacy Project Report Fall, 1998 which should be available free upon request in 1999. Hopefully the feedback will benefit Deaf education. I have already received excellent suggestions from Diana Smith at Caldwell. The other schools are just receiving their books, in fact I doubt if Canada has received them yet. I enjoyed speaking with the teachers on the phone. I learned from Paul Cowley that Robarts School for the Deaf is a residential school with Deaf children of all ages. They have embraced the bi-bi approach to teaching. Paul tells me that five of the six teachers presenting SignWriting at Robarts this fall are Deaf themselves. Their feedback will be very important to us! The big question on my mind now is whether the students will need more Reading Level 1 and 2 books (I can do Cinderella and Snow White at those levels), or would they prefer the more advanced levels immediately. It will be interesting to see what happens. The more advanced books are presented quite differently, and are richer in ASL grammar, but also require some skill in ASL. All the best - Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit the SignWritingSite: https://www.SignWriting.org Valerie Sutton at The DAC Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA (619)456-0098 voice (619)456-0010 tty (619)456-0020 fax ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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