SW curriculum

[James Shepard-Kegl, Esq.]

Andree,

Your request reminds me of the fable of the cat and the mice.  As you may
recall, the mice lived inside the walls of a house where there was ample
food routinely left on the dining room table.  The problem was that a cat
also resided in the home.  Hence, the mice were afraid to raid the dining
room lest the cat sneak up on  them.  The mice held a meeting to discuss
their dilemma and one thoughtful mouse proposed putting a bell on the cat.
The other agreed this was a great idea, and all felt the mouse who proposed
it should undertake the responsibility of implementing the concept.

When we were teaching SignWriting in Nicaragua back when  our organization
operated the school in Bluefields, we thought having a body of literature
for children would be a great idea -- so we produced the stories ourselves.
We are still doing that, and, yes, it is very time consuming, especially as
we are all volunteers.

I don't think you have to worry so much about the age of the readers.  The
bigger issue is the signing ability of the individual student.  A native
signer will develop sign language literacy skills very quickly.  A
non-signer, in my opinion, needs to develop fluency first.  Then, the
student can learn to read SignWriting quickly -- at least at a level that
will enable that student to use his or her SignWriting skills as a bridge to
literacy in a sound based language (such as English or French.)  And, where
will you find a textbook in English for a Deaf reader who understands
SignWriting?  That, too, would be a great idea -- worthy of a grant, I
should think.  We made them for Spanish -- success, by the way, depended
upon the motivation of the teacher.

-- James Shepard-Kegl
Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc.



on 10/6/06 5:12 PM, Andrée Gagnon at atg at videotron.ca wrote:

Dear SW members, 

 

      Because I feel that Val really ought to know who I am, what I do and
why I wish to establish contact with the SW members, please find  below my
message. 

    

      Firstly, I will introduce myself.  I am deafblind.  I attended the
Deaf school in Québec city ( Canada) and I grew up in their dormitory.  I
use Quebec Sign Language ( QSL). Since 1998, I am professor in the
Department of Education at the University of Ottawa

 ( Ottawa is the capital of Canada).  I have been teaching six different
courses ( literacy and deafness: development of writing and reading for deaf
students.  The students can obtain a certificate of deaf education in
Ontario, Canada. 

 

     At the Deaf school in Ottawa, a project called ³ Fais-moi signe² ( in
English, ³ Make me a sign²) is being developed to be presented to the
Ontario Ministery of Education for their approval.   I am preparing the QSL
curriculum as the first language from kindergarten to grade 2 ( 2006-2007),
from grade 3 to grade 8 (2007-2008) and from grade 9 to grade 12 (
2008-2009).  Upon approval of the project, the guide of QSL curriculum will
be distributed to teachers of Deaf students in the province of Ontario.

 

    And now I would like to learn more about SW curriculum.  Do you have a
Sign Writing curriculum from kindergarten to grade 12 for deaf children, not
adults?  To my knowledge I believe that only 2 teachers

 ( Cecila Flood in USA, Stefan Worhenman in Germany and one researcher(Kegl
in Nicaragua)   (another may be Brazil) have been teaching sign writing
course to deaf children  since many years.  Also, I know that Juliette (
France), Katheren ( Belgium) and others ( Germany- Swiss, and so on) have
been teaching the Deaf children an introduction to SW  for a few years. What
about the popular hearing trainers ( Val, Ingvil, Stefan)  and deaf trainers
( Therirry, Lucyna, Stuart) who give to hearing and deaf adults an
introduction to SW.

 

   While visiting the Centre of Total Communication in Danemark in 1998, I
asked the hearing and deaf teachers if they were using the SW in the class
in 1998 and the answer was no.

 

   I already checked your SW book for adults and also found you have a few
children books ( literature) for reading.  Do you have a strategic
instrument to teach deaf children how to read and write SW?  As an example,
French hearing children in grade 1 learn to form the regular plural of the
nouns by adding an ³ s²: chat-chats ( in English, cat-cats).  But, they
cannot acquire the plural ³aux²of nouns ending in ³al²  in grade 1:
cheval-chevaux ( in English ox-oxen).  It is only in grade 2  that the
hearing children can acquire appropriately the plural ³ aux² of the nouns
 ending ³al². 

    As the level of grades seems important for deaf children to acquire the
symbol of rotation, my question is : should it be in grade 2 or in grade 3? 
As far as  I am conserned I do not know.

 

Best regards 

 

 

 

André Thibeault 



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