answers to my questionnaire "SW and litteracy"

Wed Aug 27 20:50:10 UTC 2003

Dear Valerie & SW members

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...

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:

-Since when did you (you and your tema) introduce SW in your class(es)?
- How long did it take for your team (the professionnals) to get used to

SW before introducing SW to che children ?(or did the professionnel
learn and developped it at the same time children were learning it ) did

you organise courses for the teachers?
- Did you prepare specific teaching material before introducing SW to
the children or did you only use Valerie Sutton's material (after havint

translated it into your sign language)?
- Do any deaf child take part in the project or do you only select some
of them ? (if so what are your criterias?)
- Do you use SW for particular lessons (maths, grammar, .. others.)?
- how many hours a week is SW used in the class (approximately)?
- Do you have the feeling that children who used SW are able to transfer

these skills to writing and reading english?
I am the director of the Deaf school in Bluefields, Nicaragua, where we
have
been incorporating SignWriting in our curriculum for several years.  As
a
school in an impoverished region, we lack the financial and personnel
resources to even think about hearing aids or speech therapy.
Furthermore,
because we are open only several months each year, we do not have the
time
to debate whether or not we should be teaching spanish.  I can tell you
that
the full time schools in other parts of Nicaragua devote substantial
time to
teaching spanish reading and writing, but with no real success.  In the
process, little time is left to teach general world knowledge, math,
etc.

I got several answers and I'm going to share them with all of you as
they are relaly very interesting!!

Here's the first answer from James Shepard-Kegl:
We use SW a very great deal and most students are comfortable with
reading
it.  THIS MEANS THEY ARE ABLE TO ACCESS NEW INFORMATION PRESENTED IN
THIS
FORMAT.  We do not have computers in the classroom, and no student has
access to a computer at home.  However, we have worked with a few
students
in working with the SW computer program.  Our experience is that they
develop writing skills fairly quickly.  In addition, because of the use
of
the glossary program (some 1800 entries so far), these students have a
better command of spanish vocabulary than their peers in those schools
that
emphasize spanish.  Nevertheless, we do not use SW to teach spanish
grammar
and syntax, and our students cannot effectively read in spanish.  (After

many years in Nicaragua, I can't read too much spanish, either.)

We do teach classes devoted to the grammar and syntax of Nicaraguan Sign

Language, and our ability to write sentences on a chalkboard is of
immeasurable value.

The biggest drawback to SW is the lack of reading lessons.  We have
produced
over fifty, filling two volumes.  It took us several years to do this
because all material must be developed by a team that includes NATIVELY
FLUENT signers -- otherwise the final product will not be grammatically
correct.  Production costs were high, but many of our students are
literate.
 (If one defines literacy as the ability to read a foreign language,
then we
fail.  If one defines literacy as the ability to read and write
sophisticated material in your native language, then we have had some
impressive results.)

Our books are cherished by our students in Bluefields and in our
satellite
programs.

Hope this is helpful to you.

James Shepard-Kegl

Then I got this incredibly interesting answer from Stefan Woehrmann

Dear friends ,

the reason that you have not get an answer so far is a question of time
and
resource -
GebaerdenSchrift as we call SW here in Germany is time consuming -
day by day by day (Monday to Sunday) I spend several hours in order to
prepare bilingual documents for my students!
I am not kidding!! This is true.
In addition to that - it takes time to create all these graphics and
fun-
things that should assist to understand the idea of movement-writing
better.
There is no competition going on about who is the most active - but
believe
me - the amount of documents, files, booklets - that I have already made
is
huge - I mean almost incredible - ha -crazy about SW - well
Once you have seen the eyes of young deaf students you are infected by
this
Sutton - virus ....

-Since when did you (you and your tema) introduce SW in your class(es)?

Well - me and my team (?)  - ha - I introduced SW here in Germany in
1999 -
there is a long story about this in the documentation "reports" of the
literacy project on the www.signwriting.org   website !!!

- How long did it take for your team (the professionnals) to get used to

SW before introducing SW to che children ?

I am not sure - have to look it up - but I remember that I spent my
summerholidays on trying to get used to the program, lots of emails,
phonecalls, translation and creative work with graphic programs ....
Without any additional introduction it is not easy and I am sorry today
that
I confronted my students with many typing - mistakes in the beginning.

So I tried to learn to use the SW44 program with the manual and Valeries

tips and messages ... and then we started
- at first with students at age of 14 but later first grade - students
and
even younger children (my son Gordian learned to read signs at age of 3
-

(or did the professionnal
learn and developped it at the same time children were learning it ) did

you organise courses for the teachers?

(Yes I offer courses for teacher -  some of them on weekends, some of
them
during extra-training sequences over a year )

- Did you prepare specific teaching material before introducing SW to
the children or did you only use Valerie Sutton's material (after having

translated it into your sign language)?

- well of course I translatedt the Goldilocks stories in the beginning -
but
then I created lots and lots and lots ... of my own materials ....
The most important first step has been ( and I recommend that very
much)  to
write the signnames of the students in GebaerdenSchrift -

afterwords - some color - signs, personal pronouns, some animal
signs,some
other nouns with a good GebaerdenSchrift Gestalt (lion, tree, hare,
donkey,
cat, traffic lights, bus , car )  some Adjectives, Satzzeichen   (?,.!)
And within minutes ( that is  t r u e ) your deaf students will be
absalutey
happy that they can read with such an ease !!!

- Do any deaf child take part in the project or do you only select some
of them ? (if so what are your criterias?)

Everybody  l o v e s  to learn to read GebaerdenSchrift! So I teach them

all -
Ha - just everybody who is part of my courses - even hearing ...

- Do you use SW for particular lessons (maths, grammar, ...)?

the attache  "mal sieben)   1 mal 7 = 7, 14,21, 28 ... is a nice example
but
there are many more ...

no - it is a all day all lesson tool - music, religion, maths, biology ,

german, german, german,  Every subject that offers spoken language
should
incorporate GebaerdenSchrift!  At least from my point of view !

- how many hours a week is SW used in the class (approximately)?

(about 4 hours every day - in maths it is used not as often but the
computer
is available all the time ... )

- Do you have the feeling that children who used SW are able to transfer

these skills to writing and reading english?

 A   B    S   O   L   U   T  E  L   Y          (It is almost a
miracle!!! )
Students who did not learn to read and write find their way now.
Students
that learned much to slow are speeding up -- and the good thing is - the

level of the texts and documents is higher - The students get the chance
to
understand the idea of questions - and transfer /extract this knowledge
from
the documents that are written in the spoken language

OK Anne - Claude - have a wonderful day and hopefully you will be able
to
start your SW - project in your area !!
Beware of the SW - virus - but once you are infected there is no cure
but an
heart - attack ??

All the best

Stefan ;-)   heart and soul for GebaerdenSchrift

Hope evrybody enjoyed reading these answers

Take care

Anne-Claude Pr }_ az Girod
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