<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">In my sign classes (for adult staff new to our school) I hand out vocabulary lists with the gloss, a written description of the sign, and the signwriting. The text books have diagrams/pictures of the signs, but many people have trouble understanding them. So I am giving them three different ways to review the vocabulary we learn in a lesson: the picture, a written description, and the signwriting. Quite a few students have preferred the signwriting to the other two methods. I am not formally teaching the signwriting, but I am exposing them to the idea, and letting them see it in action (I use it in other ways during a lesson as well). Some students ask questions about it, and I give
them the address for the textbooks online, and offer to teach them more if they are interested. Since I work in a deaf residential school (some people very resistant to new ideas here,) I am cautious about how I go about it, but I have more then a few people interested. <br><br>cherie<br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Valerie Sutton <dac@signwriting.org><br>To: SignWriting List <sw-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu><br>Sent: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 4:52:45 PM<br>Subject: [sw-l] SignWriting in Sign Language classes<br><br>SignWriting List<br>October 2, 2007<br><br>Hello Stefan -<br>Thank you for this wonderful, thoughtful message...<br><br>Everything you wrote is totally understandable for your classroom of <br>Deaf students...<br><br>There is a phrase I love, that says: "Energy flows, where attention <br>goes"...which means that
wherever we focus our attention...we become <br>skilled at that....so wherever we direct our energy, that <br>expands...gets better...gets highlighted..is successful...<br><br>So naturally, if the school does not allow the Deaf students, to put <br>equal focus on learning Sign Language and SignWriting, along with <br>learning to read and write German spoken language, then of course we <br>cannot expect them to become good writers of Sign Language. They need <br>"permission" to focus on writing SignWriting. They need to practice <br>writing rows and rows of SignWriting symbols, just as in school, I <br>was taught to write rows and rows of A, B and C when I was in first <br>grade...that is how I learned to write...it took years of writing <br>rows of symbols and then more years of learning to write term <br>papers...I mean...no one learns to write in ten minutes...no matter <br>what
the language we are writing!<br><br>So you are creating miracles, Stefan, within the restrictions of a <br>difficult job with difficult restraints on your teaching of the <br>students...<br><br>But imagine for one minute, that you are teaching a Deaf child <br>outside of the school system...and that Deaf child was given all the <br>software needed, and all the time in the world, to learn to write by <br>hand in SignWriting...<br><br>You would have a Deaf poet, a Deaf author, a Deaf journalist, writing <br>directly in SignWriting with no spoken language, and on top of that, <br>his or her spoken language would improve as well, because he or she <br>would be so excited to translate the material from DGS to German to <br>show his parents and friends...that has been our experience in other <br>cultures...there are Deaf and hearing people who do become scribes, <br>or writers, and it is not
hard, if the child feels supported in the <br>freedom of it...but Deaf kids do pick up on it, if the hearing adults <br>think it is hard, or think it is not worth their time...I am not <br>referring to you...I know you support them all the way...I mean the <br>other kids in the school, and the other teachers who do not choose to <br>sign...<br><br>I never forgot there was a darling Deaf child in New Mexico who LOVED <br>SignWriting and was skilled at it, until one of her parents scoffed <br>at it, and she stopped using it immediately... That shows you how <br>smart Deaf children are...they can sense what they are not supposed <br>to learn...<br><br>So yes, I would hand out reading documents immediately if I am <br>teaching SignWriting...not because I do not believe they cannot <br>write, but because I know they can learn to read quickly...maybe not <br>in a deep knowledge, but good
enough to give them a feeling as to why <br>it is important to write signs and give them a feeling that it is not <br>hard to learn...<br><br>I am glad you agree (I knew you did ;-))<br><br>Thanks for your great message once again -<br><br>Val ;-)<br><br>---------<br><br><br>On Oct 2, 2007, at 1:23 PM, Stefan Wöhrmann wrote:<br><br>> Hi Val and SW List members,<br>><br>> reading all your comments I would like to add some thoughts to the<br>> discussion.<br>> Most of you know that I am a teacher for DEAF students and that my <br>> students<br>> and me started to incorporate SW for almost 6 years.<br>> It is almost impossible - at least from my point of view- to <br>> promote any<br>> best syllabus/curriculum or method if it comes down how to begin <br>> the SW -<br>> course.<br>><br>> The reason is that we are dealing with such a variety of different <br>> students,<br>>
teacher, (political) circumstances and goals -<br>><br>> Almost four weeks ago I started a new class with 4 deaf students.<br>> It took the less than a week to understand the advantage and the <br>> principles<br>> of how to read GebaerdenSchrift after they learned to identify the<br>> SpeechWriting-symbols and some easy to grasp handshapes and <br>> movement-arrows.<br>><br>><br>> We all know this for some years now.<br>><br>> What is new to me is that I have to accept that it is so <br>> tremendously more<br>> difficult to master the principles of SW as a scribe. So this seems <br>> to be a<br>> higher level task.<br>><br>> Although my first group students are exellent SW-readers they have <br>> a hard<br>> time to create new documents from scratch. They even show <br>> difficulties to<br>> write down rows of handsymbols with different fills at
different <br>> planes and<br>> orientation.<br>><br>> I bet that this is part of the fact that we (in Germany) do not <br>> allow them a<br>> tenth of time to play around with SW-software and to develop <br>> handwriting<br>> skills compared to learning to write the Spoken Language letters.<br>><br>> (There is still - 2007 - a long way to go to overcome the fear and <br>> prejudice<br>> connected with DEAF Education and Sign Language)<br>><br>> On the other hand - I am not talking of just a few signs. How many <br>> signs in<br>> a document would we teacher accept to be an reasonable achievement? <br>> Well the<br>> beginner should be happy to create a single new well written <br>> dictionary<br>> entry - smile.<br>><br>> But then - compared to the documentes they are accustomed to - new<br>> vocabulary, transcribed texts from the
blackboard, ... they feel <br>> frustrated<br>> to watch themselves how time consuming this can be to create a two <br>> pages<br>> document - As an adult we can motivate us to become successfull <br>> autodidacts<br>> and we do have an idea about the reason for all the struggle - ...<br>><br>> What I love to see is that they developed their own ideas on how a <br>> sign<br>> should be written, if I offer different variations, or that they <br>> ask me to<br>> write down a different performance of a given term. They understand <br>> to use<br>> the SW-documents to improve their bilingual competence.<br>><br>> So I myself would support your idea Valerie to hand out SW- <br>> documents from<br>> the very first SL-lesson. You can learn (even if you do not <br>> understand the<br>> background and our 1000 reasons) to read the SW-symbols like <br>>
meaningfull<br>> symbols that shoul remind you how to perform a sign <br>> ( fingerspelling and<br>> counting is a wonderful introduction with lots of "Aha", "I <br>> understand" - "I<br>> got it" - and I guess that nothing offers more motivation but <br>> success. -<br>> smile<br>><br>> It will take a l o n g time until the students will be able to <br>> develop a<br>> feeling of being able to take notes in SW. But there is nothing <br>> bad just to<br>> support their SL- development with SW-documents that are so easy to <br>> "read"<br>><br>> I am curious. I started a new method with this second group. ... <br>> and I will<br>> keep you informed.<br>><br>> All the best<br>><br>> Stefan ;-)<br>><br>><br>><br>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----<br>> Von: <a
ymailto="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu" href="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br>> [mailto:<a ymailto="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu" href="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a>] Im Auftrag von <br>> Valerie Sutton<br>> Gesendet: Dienstag, 2. Oktober 2007 16:08<br>> An: SignWriting List<br>> Betreff: [sw-l] SignWriting in Sign Language classes<br>><br>> SignWriting List<br>> October 2, 2007<br>><br>> Dear SW List members!<br>> Recently I have had several questions from teachers wondering how to<br>> teach SignWriting in their school...They have asked for "course<br>> outlines". I actually do not have a course outline for teaching<br>> SignWriting as a separate subject...I just follow the Lessons in<br>> SignWriting textbook format...<br>><br>> <a
href="http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/lessonsw/" target="_blank">http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/lessonsw/</a><br>><br>> But that is the OLD way of teaching...<br>><br>> I would like to suggest a NEW approach as well as the old way...<br>><br>> Maybe it is time to start using SignWriting as a part of Sign<br>> Language classes, without necessarily having a separate course in<br>> SignWriting?...<br>><br>> Of course there is nothing wrong with a separate course in<br>> SignWriting! But separating it as a separate subject can confuse the<br>> students too...<br>><br>> When we learn French or Spanish in school, we learn to speak French<br>> or Spanish in class, and we also learn to read it and possibly write<br>> it in class too...all in the SAME class...<br>><br>> So when you are teaching Sign Language courses, provide the students<br>> with the signs they are learning in class, written in
SignWriting on<br>> paper, which they can take home with them, to study with...<br>><br>> So although SignWriting can be taught as a separate subject, I am<br>> suggesting that it might be best to just use it during classes where<br>> students are using Sign Language...we write complete books in Sign<br>> Language now, in SignWriting...so what is really needed is more<br>> reading material in the Sign Languages of the world...<br>><br>> This week and I am putting a book together using SignBank <br>> DocumentMaker:<br>><br>> SignBank<br>> <a href="http://www.SignBank.org" target="_blank">http://www.SignBank.org</a><br>><br>> ...it is the ASL Bible, Chapters 1-7...a very large document!<br>><br>> I hope different religions will also start writing translations of<br>> their religious texts into SignWriting too...<br>><br>> After the book I am working on right now, I will do the layout
for<br>> Cat in the Hat and Sleeping Beauty...so we are slowly getting<br>> literature to read...<br>><br>> Many thanks to all of the writiers!<br>><br>><br>> Val ;-)<br>><br>><br>><br>><br>> ____________________________________________<br>><br>> SW-L SignWriting List<br>><br>> Post Message<br>> <a ymailto="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu" href="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br>><br>> List Archives and Help<br>> <a href="http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/" target="_blank">http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/</a><br>><br>> Change Email Settings<br>> <a href="http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l" target="_blank">http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l</a><br>><br>><br>><br>><br>><br>><br>> ____________________________________________<br>><br>> SW-L SignWriting
List<br>><br>> Post Message<br>> <a ymailto="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu" href="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br>><br>> List Archives and Help<br>> <a href="http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/" target="_blank">http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/</a><br>><br>> Change Email Settings<br>> <a href="http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l" target="_blank">http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l</a><br>><br><br>Valerie Sutton<br><a ymailto="mailto:dac@signwriting.org" href="mailto:dac@signwriting.org">dac@signwriting.org</a><br><br><br>SW-L SignWriting List<br><br>Post Message<br><a ymailto="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu" href="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br><br>List Archives and Help<br><a href="http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/"
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