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From:
Stefan Woehrmann Date: Sat Sep 9, 2000 9:15 pm Subject: cued speech and SW flash-cards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Here is my classroom-report number xyz ;-) school has started 2 weeks ago. Iīm soooooooo busy to get SW materials prepared. Our first grade students are now second grade but our learning group has changed. Four other little students are with us together now - first grade. So now we try to get along with 8 students - (first grade and second grade) in one class-room. Without the support of SW I wouldnīt have any idea how to get things done. But now - the experienced students can learn on their own - translating SW- sentences into German, learning vocabularies , typing at the computer --teaching the new students what they have to learn first - comunication. Three of them a wearing a CI which meant to them no exposure to SL before - whatsoever ? Of course they have hat some eclectic kind of family - signs - but they donīt understand whatīs going on. They are unable to inform us. They are unable to answer questions. They are unable to ask anything!! They are unable to speak --- hmmm - For how long would people, parents, teachers ...the children themselves accept this state of lack of communicative skills in order to "wait for auditory nerves to grow " Of course - deaf children are in a special position after CI surgery. What do they hear ? Who can tell us ? Well they realize the music is on or off - but were unable to learn a couple of German words. ... When the parents were informed that there child will be in contact with Irina and her classmates - they were confronted with the issue of Sign Language. They havenīt had any contact with signing children before.The CI was expected to be the big blessing that would cure this disability. And now - they entered our classroom wich is packed with SW - exercise-sheets all over the place. These strange circles, arrows ... this compicated, meaningless "Chinese" ---- Well - I explained my point of view and stressed that their children will have to learn Sign Language in order to become competent partners within our group. I told them that SW will become a very important tool. I explained this new system - Sign Writing. You may imagine that they looked pretty much skeptical - Hmmm. And then - little Irina started to translate - reading out loud the SW-sentences from the screen. Afterwards she went to the blackboard and wrote 2 little German sentences ( without any mistake) . Danny started to type on the computer and wrote a German sentence in SW and pointed at the SW- spellings while he translated in perfect German! Hannan started to count from 1 - 20 - She went to the blackboard and wrote " Pause" both in SW and in German - Linda took an excercise - sheet and signed the sentences - Wow - this kind of demonstration is much more convincing than a thousand word lecture! The parents accepted to wait for the first experiences with this completely new orientation. So we started as before - reading and writing SW - numbers. Hi Valerie - the new Sutton Fonts in Windows are a tremndous help for this ! Thank you soooo much ! Contrary to the time a year ago - I feel much more secure about using SW during my lessons. The second day at school - on Friday the new students - who had never seen the sign for cat, blue or red, for Irina or Danny were really able ( !!!!!!!!!!!) to read and understand the first SW - signs for the numbers - 1- 5 (o.k - no problem) , colours, names -- believe it or not but they were able to use their heads for learning the first symbols so quickly. Irina and Danny are excellent teachers. Especially Irina - but more about that later. Now Iīm in the beginning of a very very exciting experience. I am on my way to develop a list of flashcards which should support my little friends to get as quickly as possible informed about the relationship between the letter in the German Alphabet and the sound (Phonem) the children are supposed to perform- while looking at this letter. I am so fascinated that this system (SW) is such a wonderfull highway to the brain. So my question is if any of you teachers in the literacy-project have already written "cued-speech" flash-cards. German is a very difficult language - even for the hearing. The letters are pronounced pretty much differently depending on the context - that is the reason that so many hearing students have great trouble to write German without too many mistakes. But the Deaf - wow - well you probably know what Iīm talking about starting the articulation - courses with my little friends. Please have a look at my gif. This is not the end but the second stage of development. The list isnīt complete and I have still to put the signs in a special order. These signs arenīt any "official" cued speech signs but are helpfull to support the children in articulating what they are asked for -- (more or less ;-) ) Iīm interested in your feedback concerning my writing. In order to help you to get an idea of the pronouniciation that is associated with the written sign I looked for english words and underlined that letter that should be represented .. (excuse my English ;-) ) All the best Stefan ;-) P.S SignWriting is so wonderfull | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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