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Dear Valerie & SW members
<p>a few month ago I posted a questionnaire on the list to try and get
information about SW and literacy... my first questionnaire was very long
and maybe... people didn't have the time to answer...
<p>then I tried to contact persons whom I knew were using SW in classes
for deaf children, and I reduced my questionnaire to the few questions
below:
<br>
<p>-Since when did you (you and your tema) introduce SW in your class(es)?
<br>- How long did it take for your team (the professionnals) to get used
to
<br>SW before introducing SW to che children ?(or did the professionnel
<br>learn and developped it at the same time children were learning it
) did
<br>you organise courses for the teachers?
<br>- Did you prepare specific teaching material before introducing SW
to
<br>the children or did you only use Valerie Sutton's material (after havint
<br>translated it into your sign language)?
<br>- Do any deaf child take part in the project or do you only select
some
<br>of them ? (if so what are your criterias?)
<br>- Do you use SW for particular lessons (maths, grammar, .. others.)?
<br>- how many hours a week is SW used in the class (approximately)?
<br>- Do you have the feeling that children who used SW are able to transfer
<br>these skills to writing and reading english?
<br>I am the director of the Deaf school in Bluefields, Nicaragua, where
we have
<br>been incorporating SignWriting in our curriculum for several years.
As a
<br>school in an impoverished region, we lack the financial and personnel
<br>resources to even think about hearing aids or speech therapy.
Furthermore,
<br>because we are open only several months each year, we do not have the
time
<br>to debate whether or not we should be teaching spanish. I can
tell you that
<br>the full time schools in other parts of Nicaragua devote substantial
time to
<br>teaching spanish reading and writing, but with no real success.
In the
<br>process, little time is left to teach general world knowledge, math,
etc.
<br>
<p>I got several answers and I'm going to share them with all of you as
they are relaly very interesting!!
<p>Here's the first answer from <font color="#2D0CFF">James Shepard-Kegl:</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">We use SW a very great deal and most students
are comfortable with reading</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">it. THIS MEANS THEY ARE ABLE TO ACCESS
NEW INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">FORMAT. We do not have computers in the
classroom, and no student has</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">access to a computer at home. However,
we have worked with a few students</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">in working with the SW computer program.
Our experience is that they</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">develop writing skills fairly quickly.
In addition, because of the use of</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">the glossary program (some 1800 entries so far),
these students have a</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">better command of spanish vocabulary than their
peers in those schools that</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">emphasize spanish. Nevertheless, we do
not use SW to teach spanish grammar</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">and syntax, and our students cannot effectively
read in spanish. (After</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">many years in Nicaragua, I can't read too much
spanish, either.)</font>
<p><font color="#2D0CFF">We do teach classes devoted to the grammar and
syntax of Nicaraguan Sign</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">Language, and our ability to write sentences
on a chalkboard is of</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">immeasurable value.</font>
<p><font color="#2D0CFF">The biggest drawback to SW is the lack of reading
lessons. We have produced</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">over fifty, filling two volumes. It took
us several years to do this</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">because all material must be developed by a team
that includes NATIVELY</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">FLUENT signers -- otherwise the final product
will not be grammatically</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">correct. Production costs were high, but
many of our students are literate.</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF"> (If one defines literacy as the ability
to read a foreign language, then we</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">fail. If one defines literacy as the ability
to read and write</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">sophisticated material in your native language,
then we have had some</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">impressive results.)</font>
<p><font color="#2D0CFF">Our books are cherished by our students in Bluefields
and in our satellite</font>
<br><font color="#2D0CFF">programs.</font>
<p><font color="#2D0CFF">Hope this is helpful to you.</font>
<p><font color="#2D0CFF">James Shepard-Kegl</font>
<p><font color="#000000">Then I got this incredibly interesting answer
from </font><font color="#FF1722">Stefan Woehrmann</font>
<p><i><font color="#FF1722">Dear friends ,</font></i>
<p><i><font color="#FF1722">the reason that you have not get an answer
so far is a question of time and</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">resource -</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">GebaerdenSchrift as we call SW here in Germany
is time consuming -</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">day by day by day (Monday to Sunday) I spend
several hours in order to</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">prepare bilingual documents for my students!</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">I am not kidding!! This is true.</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">In addition to that - it takes time to create
all these graphics and fun-</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">things that should assist to understand the
idea of movement-writing better.</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">There is no competition going on about who
is the most active - but believe</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">me - the amount of documents, files, booklets
- that I have already made is</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">huge - I mean almost incredible - ha -crazy
about SW - well</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">Once you have seen the eyes of young deaf
students you are infected by this</font></i>
<br><i><font color="#FF1722">Sutton - virus ....</font></i>
<br>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">-Since when did you (you and your tema) introduce
SW in your class(es)?</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">Well - me and my team (?) - ha - I introduced
SW here in Germany in 1999 -</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">there is a long story about this in the documentation
"reports" of the</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">literacy project on the www.signwriting.org
website !!!</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- How long did it take for your team (the professionnals)
to get used to</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">SW before introducing SW to che children ?</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">I am not sure - have to look it up - but I remember
that I spent my</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">summerholidays on trying to get used to the program,
lots of emails,</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">phonecalls, translation and creative work with
graphic programs ....</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">Without any additional introduction it is not
easy and I am sorry today that</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">I confronted my students with many typing - mistakes
in the beginning.</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">So I tried to learn to use the SW44 program with
the manual and Valeries</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">tips and messages ... and then we started</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">- at first with students at age of 14 but later
first grade - students and</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">even younger children (my son Gordian learned
to read signs at age of 3 -</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">(or did the professionnal</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">learn and developped it at the same time children
were learning it ) did</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">you organise courses for the teachers?</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">(Yes I offer courses for teacher - some
of them on weekends, some of them</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">during extra-training sequences over a year )</font>
<br>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- Did you prepare specific teaching material before
introducing SW to</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">the children or did you only use Valerie Sutton's
material (after having</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">translated it into your sign language)?</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- well of course I translatedt the Goldilocks
stories in the beginning - but</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">then I created lots and lots and lots ... of
my own materials ....</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">The most important first step has been ( and
I recommend that very much) to</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">write the signnames of the students in GebaerdenSchrift
-</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">afterwords - some color - signs, personal pronouns,
some animal signs,some</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">other nouns with a good GebaerdenSchrift Gestalt
(lion, tree, hare, donkey,</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">cat, traffic lights, bus , car ) some Adjectives,
Satzzeichen (?,.!)</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">And within minutes ( that is t r u e )
your deaf students will be absalutey</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">happy that they can read with such an ease !!!</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- Do any deaf child take part in the project or
do you only select some</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">of them ? (if so what are your criterias?)</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">Everybody l o v e s to learn to read
GebaerdenSchrift! So I teach them</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">all -</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">Ha - just everybody who is part of my courses
- even hearing ...</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- Do you use SW for particular lessons (maths,
grammar, ...)?</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">the attache "mal sieben) 1 mal
7 = 7, 14,21, 28 ... is a nice example but</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">there are many more ...</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">no - it is a all day all lesson tool - music,
religion, maths, biology ,</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">german, german, german, Every subject that
offers spoken language should</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">incorporate GebaerdenSchrift! At least
from my point of view !</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- how many hours a week is SW used in the class
(approximately)?</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">(about 4 hours every day - in maths it is used
not as often but the computer</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">is available all the time ... )</font>
<br>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">- Do you have the feeling that children who used
SW are able to transfer</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">these skills to writing and reading english?</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722"> A B S
O L U T E L
Y (It is almost a
miracle!!! )</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">Students who did not learn to read and write
find their way now. Students</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">that learned much to slow are speeding up --
and the good thing is - the</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">level of the texts and documents is higher -
The students get the chance to</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">understand the idea of questions - and transfer
/extract this knowledge from</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">the documents that are written in the spoken
language</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">OK Anne - Claude - have a wonderful day and hopefully
you will be able to</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">start your SW - project in your area !!</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">Beware of the SW - virus - but once you are infected
there is no cure but an</font>
<br><font color="#FF1722">heart - attack ??</font>
<br>
<p><font color="#FF1722">All the best</font>
<p><font color="#FF1722">Stefan ;-) heart and soul for GebaerdenSchrift</font>
<br>
<p>Hope evrybody enjoyed reading these answers
<p>Take care
<p>Anne-Claude Prélaz Girod</html>