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From:
Judy Kegl Date: Fri Sep 11, 1998 1:51 am Subject: Re: Texas School for the Deaf | |
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To Christina at Texas School for Deaf: I direct the school for Deaf children in Bluefields, Nicaragua, where we emphasize SignWriting literacy. Nicaraguan Sign Language is quite distinct from ASL, so our books would be of no value to your second grade class. Anyway, we have been working with SW for over two years now and we had to produce our own books -- some simple, and some fairly complex. When we started, we took a book of famous art and wrote about what we saw in the drawings. Some children's books or stories that we have translated (the pictures almost tell the story, if you find the right book): 3 little pigs, Boy Who Cried Wolf, Tailypo, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Story of Babar, The Little Engine That Could, Are You My Mama?, Pied Piper. You might try some Greek mythology or history stories -- there are a lot of children's versions. The catch is that translating or adapting stories takes time. But, with each story, you get better at it. For us, translating stories is an exericise for the class (not second graders, but older kids.) As we do this, our dictionary file grows. And, the students who assist us develop a good spanish lexicon in the process since our dictionary file is in spanish and ISN (Idioma de Senas de Nicaragua). We also spend a lot of time analyzing grammar and syntax. This improves everyone's writing skills, and gives the students a better appreciation of the complexity of their own language. Good luck! --- James Shepard-Kegl |
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