[sw-l] LITERACY Project Report, Belgium (Flanders)

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 4, 2005

Flemish SignWriting Literacy Project continued...(final page)
A workbook would be very useful. The children asked for it, they had 
the feeling after reading the sentences they had earned a drawing to 
color or sometimes certain signs needed to be described in more detail.

We made the sentences with a number of classifier constructions 
included. So we could work with this in the grammar lessons.

The level 3 book of Goldilocks will concentrate more on spatial use in 
VGT.

Activities will be:
-Reading the SignWriting in the storybook themselves.
-Putting signs in sentences where they have been left out.
-Reading and understanding.
-Lessons about classifiers and classifier constructions. (what is the 
diffrence between a sign and a classifier? Search for classifiers in 
the story book)

We organised a course for the parents ourselves...
We explained to them what SignWriting is, why and how we use it in our 
classroom. Now for those parents who have studied to become an 
interpreter, they’ve already learned SignWriting. So for some parents 
it was not new. But I doubt if the information they got was sufficient 
and not related to educating Deaf children.
 
Lessons In SignWriting Textbook
There is a textbook out in Flemish how to write SignWriting. People can 
order it at www.fevlado.be. Fevlado is the Flemish Federation for the 
Deaf. But we hope to get a more extensive text on what SignWriting is 
all about and how it works in the future.

We have started to translate pieces of the SignWriting.org text on 
‘what is SignWriting’ ourselves and wish to put it on the website of 
our school, Kasterlinden.
 
We very strongly feel the need to show the importance of SignWriting to 
our colleagues and the parents of our students. There are a lot of 
question at the moment about the value and use of SignWriting at 
school.

Some parents feel it is a loss of time, they think we are teaching 
SignWriting on it’s own. Without a purpose, just teaching the kids 
these symbols and signs that seem to have no meaning to them. Why teach 
them this instead of teaching them what is important... written Dutch? 
They can’t seem to grasp the notion that SignWriting might actualy be 
important and essential in their child's education. Because we are the 
ones bringing this out to them. Some of the parents want proof this is 
an effective tool for education. Proof from people with big names in 
high places.

But... mostly, parents are very positive about this. They see 
SignWriting as something extra their child learns that other children 
cannot. They are amazed their child seems to read this so easily and 
they find it difficult.
 
Kathleen Heylen and Sara Geudens
March 30, 2005 

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