TEACHER FEEDBACK
Oregon School for the Deaf
Patti Togioka, at the Oregon School for the Deaf, presented SignWriting to her elementary school Deaf students, ages 5 to 9, on September 12, 1997. Here is her email message, describing the results...
Date: 16 Sep 1997 12:38:32 -0800
From: "TOGIOKA Patti" <patti.togioka@osd.k12.or.us>
To: "ASL teacher listserv" <TeachASL@Admin.Humberc.on.ca>
I did a story time with the elementary school students at the Oregon School for the Deaf last Friday using your Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It was one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had with kids!!! The kids not only read the signs, they fixed up one of the signs I had read incorrectly, they put periods next to the darkened lines, they added commas at the double lines and they READ the story. We then transferred it to written English and they labeled the Sign Writing and wrote in English. IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I think that because they had no preconceived notions of what is and is not ASL, they felt comfortable with the Sign Writing. They LOVED the activity. The way I introduced the story and how I explained the ASL sentences and facial expressions, etc. worked really well. Sometime, when I have the time, I will have to write down the procedure. I wish you all could have been there. It was MAGICAL!
PS. One of the students came up to read a signed sentence and just told the story in his own words. I was able to say "Are you reading the story or telling us about it". He then looked at the Sign Writing and READ the story. By the third page of the story, the kids were figuring out the signs by themelves with no assistance from me.
Patti TOGIOKA
Elementary Teacher
Oregon School For The Deaf
patti.togioka@osd.k12.or.us
Please feel free to write if you have questions. Valerie Sutton
DAC@SignWriting.org
Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting
Center For Sutton Movement Writing
an educational nonprofit organization
P.O. Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA