Teachers writing by hand ;-)

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
December 7, 2003

Dear SW List, and Stefan -
I am digesting the wonderful things you said in your long messages,
Stefan...

First, about this...

Stefan Woehrmann wrote:
> So I started this week to write my first message on the blackboard -
> handwritten SW - like (All children are asked to clean the blackboard.
> - or-
> all children are asked to start with mathematics 1 x 13  . Or -
> please take
> out your German exercise books and start writing sentences. "
> When I enter the classroom ( minutes late  ;-) ) They are already doing
> their job! In fact they are curious about my next message  the next
> day and
> they really think that it is easy just to take the chalk and write my
> signs

Val wrote:
So you are writing full sentences in German Sign Language, in
SignWriting, on the blackboard, like: "Please take out your
book..."...and your students understand you and follow your
instructions? Wonderful! That will encourage them to write by hand, if
they see the teacher doing it too... ;-)



Stefan Woehrmann wrote:
> Without GebaerdenSchrift my students would not be able to read and
> understand structures of German grammar as they do - ( at least most of
> them ) Without GebaerdenSchrift two of my students would not be able
> to read any
> written document. Just in contrary. The reading and understanding of
> written
> GebaerdenSchrift - documents is kind of catalyst for their developing
> skill
> to read and understand German texts. GebaerdenSchrift is a wonderful
> tool to support their identification with
> DEAF culture. Our chance to show both language - systems - (spoken
> language and SL) in a
> contrast - enables them to understand their confusion!!- and to
> overcome the
> mixture of the two grammar - systems.


So SignWriting (GebaerdenSchrift) is making a positive difference in
your classroom, even if it is different for every Deaf student?...;-)


On Dec 5, 2003, at 9:27 AM, Stefan Woehrmann wrote:
> One of my students at school starts to change signs that are found in
> the
> dictionary if they do not agree with the spelling! He is on his way to
> master more and more features of the SW - Program .

Great! That one Deaf child might become the next teacher of SignWriting
(GebaerdenSchrift)!

Val ;-)