August 20, 1999

From:
Stefan Woehrmann, Studienrat
stefanwoehrmann@HOTMAIL.COM

& Prof. Dr. Michels,
Director of the Landesbildungszentrum
für Hoergeschädigte Osnabrück

Dear Ms. Sutton,
Our school would like to participate in your SignWriting Literacy Project. We are one of four educational establishments for hearing impaired pupils in Niedersachsen/Germany. For more information, have a look at our homepage:

Landesbildungszentrum
für Hoergeschädigte Osnabrück
https://home.t-online.de/home/lbzhos

I am a psychologist and teacher for the Deaf and hard of hearing. I'm confronted with the problem that some deaf pupils demonstrate great difficulties in developing appropriate reading and writing skills in German. I'm teaching 5 deaf pupils at 7th grade and 5 pupils at 1st grade. In my first class that will start on September 2nd, there are several deaf pupils with foreign backgrounds. The families are from Lebanon, Kirgistan, Kasachstan and Germany. One child has deaf parents while the other kids come from all hearing families. They communicate in home signs, which are highly idiosyncratic. As these signs differ from one family to the next, it will be the first task to establish a common basis for communication. For these kids it must be an additional problem to realize that lipreading depends on what language the other person performs at home (Arabic, Russian, Russian Sign Language, German) or at school (German). Teaching these children makes it necessary to practice Signed German (LBG) throughout the day.

A combination of printed German words and photos, sketches or SignWriting symbols may help to improve our efficiency in teaching these pupils. I am always looking for ways to develop and increase my pupil's literacy levels.

I know that you have already donated various materials including workbooks, videos and a computer program to different schools in return for the teacher's feedback. I would be happy if you could support us as well and donate some materials.

I agree to complete three Web Reports in return for the SignWriting materials and technical support you donate to us. It's a matter of course that other teachers in the field of special education may take advantage of our experiences with your materials. So I understand that this letter and all three reports will become public information and will be posted to the SignWriting List and posted on the SignWriting Web Site. You have our full permission to use the information as needed.

As I don't know whether your materials can be used for our classes immediately, I would like to ask you in the beginning for one set of your SignWriting materials for one instructor and one pupil.

Thank you for considering us for your project.

Sincerely,

Stefan Woehrmann, Studienrat
stefanwoehrmann@HOTMAIL.COM

and

Prof. Dr. Michels,
Director of the
Landesbildungszentrum für Hoergeschädigte
in Osnabrück
https://home.t-online.de/home/lbzhos