SW curriculum

Sat Oct 7 04:16:31 UTC 2006

Part of the problem with trying to make comparisons between spoken vocabulary and sign language symbols is that signs that are early to learn in SW, like "milk" or "finish" are rather complicated to write, but they are some of the earliest signs to learn.  Kids learn as they go, no matter how complex.

  Just my observation,

  Charles Butler

"James Shepard-Kegl, Esq." <kegl at MAINE.RR.COM> wrote:
  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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