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From:
cmf Date: Fri Aug 25, 2000 4:07 am Subject: Re: Pledge Alligiance in SW | ||||||||||||
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Nancy and SW-list members, I heard your pleas for a SW ASL version of the pledge but I really didn't have any 'leads'. All we have is the Signed English poster that the teachers pass around to each other. I loved Angus' 'childrenese translation' too... "I lead the pidgeons to the flag..."! I made a copy of Valerie's SW version and will be anxious to show it to the kids to see first, if they can read it, and second if they can make a connection to that 'thing' they do every morning. Meanwhile, I've been meaning to post something to the list about our seminar with Valerie in July. Just a quickie for now....it was well worth the trip. The other two teachers, Lorraine and Kate, were soaking in a lot of info about the origin and development of SW. Valerie is an excellent teacher. I too was a participant for those three days. I know good teaching when I see it. A telling observation because I've seen similar explanations, that were modeled by Valerie, being passed onto the students here in APS. The other seminar participants, Lorraine and Kate, have taken the ball and are running with it! It feels so good that there are two more teachers of the Deaf who are really committed to intergrating SignWriting into their literacy activities with Deaf students. They say they do not feel 'they know it all' but their positiveness and willingness to learn and take a risk matters the most. I will admit...I'm walking the school halls with a much lighter step these last six days of school. It's reassuring and comforting to know that what we started last year is not only continuing but will build momentum as two more teaching personalities contribute to biliteracy learning for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. I didn't mean to go on....and on....but....I must report or brag a bit. Even after two and half months of summer vacation, some of our SignWriting learners can still 'read' SignWriting. While I was in a secondary classroom, 4th & 5th graders, I typed the words of the English writing lesson that was put on the board using the signwriter. There were at least seven SW questions typed on a page. Examples: Can a girl read?,Can a boy read?, Can elephants read? etc. Monica and Danny read each one without the slightest hesitation. You can see and feel their great pleasure in being able to read a whole page of written text. During a SW session with a group of younger students, that same SW text was used to introduce SW to some new learners. There was one student who had been commenting, "Why do I have to learn this stuff? What's it for anyway"? When he was given the page of questions, his first reaction was one that I think we've seen before. The length of the text sets into gear that familiar 'it's too hard' response. Kate showed how he could fold the paper so that only one sentence appeared at a time. It wasn't long before he was reading the questions in SW and answering them with emphatic, 'yes' and 'no' responses. This was the first time this student was presented with a text written in signs and he was 'reading'. Just one more....Andy was at the SignWriter today and he too remembered a lot about how to get around the SW program. He wanted to comment about getting new hearing aids with Mom. He was typing away when he discovered there wasn't a sign for hearing aid in the dictionary. He looked at me and signed..."Can make". He proceeded to use the key board card and generated a sign for hearing aid, the face symbol with the 'ear' attachment, a handshape, and two touch contact symbols. He decided he was finished with his sentence. I misunderstood his request to finish and was directing him to locate the sign for 'finish'. He signed to me, 'No, you know, period finish'.Andy is way ahead of me. He's using punctuation. Anyone looking for that 'link'....that biliteracy link? Night, night! Cecilia | ||||||||||||
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