Report from Val's desk ;-)

Valerie Sutton signwriting at MAC.COM
Thu Feb 1 15:40:20 UTC 2007


SignWriting List
February 1st, 2007

Hello Jonathan and Everyone!
Thank you for the message below Jonathan..I appreciate it, that you  
shared this with us. It is amazing to think that young Deaf people  
are writing rows and rows of symbols in Goldilocks workbooks around  
the world...including Honduras! Isn't the web a wonderful tool? We  
can post our work to each other, without getting on an airplane!

I plan to be back to work full-time on Monday, February 5th. I look  
forward to reading all your old messages that I have not responded  
to, and to post the two last Handwriting lessons, which you all can  
finish at your leisure.

Cherie sent me some videos of her signing in ASL, the stories already  
written and posted to the List, such as Little Miss Muffet etc....so  
it will also be interesting for us to look at the videos and then  
look at the SignWriting...an excellent way of clearing up some of the  
editing questions about grammar etc..THANK YOU, Cherie, for that gift...

February will be a fascinating month for me. Stefan Woehrmann has  
already created the first draft of the English translation of his  
textbook, The SignWriting Handbook, which at the moment is only  
available in German. With permission from his publisher, we hope to  
create a printed English document, that will be packaged with the  
book, when people purchase it...so they will receive both the German  
book and the English translation at the same time. This, I hope, will  
help spread the book in the US and to others, who do not know German.

February is also the month that I will write the new Reference  
Manuals for SignBank 8.5 and SignPuddle 1.5. I also hope to create a  
larger database in SignBank 8.5. Once the database is larger,  
SignBank 8.5 will be ready for sale, and also will be ready to  
display at the Linguistic Conference in La Jolla, California, at the  
end of March.

In the month of March, here on the SignWriting List, I hope to teach  
you all how to use SignPuddle 1.5 and SignBank 8.5, for those who are  
interested...

So that is the schedule!

February will be a great month!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone ;-))

Val ;-)

--------------------







On Jan 31, 2007, at 3:27 PM, Jonathan wrote:

> Hi Val,
>     I printed out the Goldilocks Level 1 for 3 of my Deaf  
> students.  They are all young teenagers.  They all thought well of  
> the coloring books and exercises.  I have only been back to visit  
> Allan since I gave it to them.  When I asked him about the  
> Goldilocks book, he started apologizing that he hadn't colored any  
> of the pictures yet.  So I asked him if had done any of the  
> exercises.  He got it out for me and it turns out that he had done  
> all of them!!!!!!!!! All within a week!!!  :-)
>     He had it all nearly perfect except that he forgot to color in  
> a few arrow heads for the right hand and fill in a few hands that  
> where flat palm down horizontal hands.  I have printed out the next  
> Level of Goldilocks for him to read I will give it to him soon.
>     I am looking forward to what my other 2 students have done in  
> their workbooks.
>     I have a suggestion in case you ever make another version of  
> it.  I think that it would be nice to have a full page of the flat  
> horizontal hands (like the flat vertical hands) just before the  
> "baby" sign or the "walk" sign workbook pages.
>     Another suggestion about the website, I think that such gems as  
> the 4 Goldilocks should be put on their own with a short  
> explanation you gave Cherie about the different levels.  There's so  
> many good things on your web site.  Sometimes we don't take the  
> time too look into some of them until you point them out to us here  
> on the sw-l.
>
> Thanks again for all the beautiful work you and others have done.
>
> Regards,
> Jonathan
>
>  Valerie Sutton wrote:
>> SignWriting List
>> January 9, 2007
>>
>> Here are the links to downloading the three books for kids:
>>
>> Workbook SW Level 1
>> http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs1/sw0076-US-Goldilocks- 
>> Level1.pdf
>>
>> Storybook SW Level 2
>> http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs1/sw0077-US-Goldilocks- 
>> Level2.pdf
>>
>> ASL Picture Dictionary for kids
>> http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs1/sw0078-US-Pict-Dict-1.pdf
>>
>> but I will try to print some for you today too...
>>
>> I look forward to getting more Level 1 workbooks with other story  
>> lines other than Goldilocks someday, so let's talk about taking  
>> your Mother Goose literature and creating workbooks for those  
>> stories too...in the future...for Level 1...it is not that hard to  
>> do...just need some focus time!
>>
>> and congrats once again for teaching SignWriting at the Georgia  
>> School for the Deaf!
>>
>>
>> Val ;-)
>>
>> ------
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 9, 2007, at 9:42 AM, Valerie Sutton wrote:
>>
>>> SignWriting List
>>> January 9, 2007
>>>
>>> On Jan 9, 2007, at 6:14 AM, CWren at doe.k12.ga.us wrote:
>>>> Val, As you know, Donna and I will begin teaching the kids this  
>>>> friday... would you recommend starting them with handwriting  
>>>> symbols, since that is primarily what they will be doing at  
>>>> first, or with the full symbols as done in the computer, since  
>>>> that is what they will be reading primarily...  Does my question  
>>>> make sense?  Should I do up a handwritten version of Hickory  
>>>> Dickory, for example, rather than use the computer printed one,  
>>>> since they will not be using the computer themselves right  
>>>> away?  Which symbol set should they learn first?
>>>
>>> My Goodness! You need the materials I developed for teaching  
>>> children in different Levels...
>>>
>>> No...do not start with Hickory Dickory Dock, which is beautifully  
>>> written, but is too advanced for beginning writers and especially  
>>> children...it is Level 3 or 4...that can be introduced after they  
>>> have completed a Workbook in Level 1...
>>>
>>> I was so hoping that you and Donna would join the Literacy  
>>> Project and ask for the materials and then I would print and send  
>>> them to you...that way you would have the Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 we  
>>> developed for children...
>>>
>>> But let me explain...
>>>
>>> We developed SignWriting Levels for teaching children...which we  
>>> used in the Albuquerque School system for years...
>>>
>>> Goldilocks at SignWriting Level 1 is a workbook and coloring book  
>>> for young children...the children learn specific symbols and  
>>> write them in rows, and color pictures and then write the signs  
>>> for those  pictures...then we graduate them to Level 2, 3 and  
>>> 4...later, after they have completed writing the whole Workbook  
>>> Level 1...they learn to read simple writing, and then graduate to  
>>> more complex writing, like your marvelous stories, Cherie, which  
>>> are at Level 3 and 4...
>>>
>>> You can download all four levels of writing and reading  
>>> Goldilocks on the web...
>>>
>>> All of your written literature, including Hickory Dickory Dock,  
>>> can be developed in 4 Levels too...but that takes some  
>>> development time ;-)
>>>
>>> So today, Tuesday, I am going to print 10 workbooks for you, and  
>>> send them Express Mail to you...they may not make it by  
>>> Friday...but we can try!
>>>
>>> You can also download the PDF of Workbook 1 and print them out  
>>> for your kids yourself...Can you print in color at your school?  
>>> Here is the link for Workbook 1:
>>>
>>> Download & Print Workbook 1, at Level 1 for kids:
>>> http://www.signwriting.org/archive/thumbnails/00025.html
>>>
>>> On this web page, you will see documents 76, 77 and 78...all  
>>> three are used with young children...but number 76 is the  
>>> Workbook Level 1...for Hand-Printing basic symbols...
>>>
>>>
>>> Val ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> -- 
>
> Jonathan & Yolaine Duncan
> 8-)  & ;-)
>



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