Teaching Signwriting to deaf children in Tunisia

Wed Dec 18 21:57:21 UTC 2013

SignWriting List
December 18, 2013

Hello Dali!
Thank you for this message and thank you for all the SignWriting work you are doing in Tunisia. We love your Tunisien SignWriting Forum on Facebook, and to see your exams and the books you have already prepared for your Tunisian Sign Language students who are learning SignWriting at the University there…

Regarding teaching young Deaf children, I hope Stefan Woehrmann in Germany, who has done remarkable work with Deaf children, not only with SignWriting, but also with his development of Mundbildschrift, which aids in learning speech, and Andre Thibeault in French-Canada has also worked with young Deaf children learning SignWriting...They are both members of the SignWriting List. There are also other teachers who teach young Deaf children on our List and off our List... in Flemish-Belgium and French-Belgium, James Shepard-Kegl in Nicaragua, and a score of teachers in Brazil, and also in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dr. Cecilia Flood taught Deaf children for 5 years, and Dr. Mohamed AbuShaira taught Deaf children SignWriitng in Saudi Arabia and Jordan...so we do have people for you to talk with about this...

I would suggest that your student/teacher join the SignWriting List and the SignWriting Literacy Project. The SignWriting Literacy Project is my way of donating starter books in SignWriting for teachers and children, in written ASL, and then later the students and teachers write their own books in their own sign languages - so the ASL books at least give them a way to start…and it can be fun to get a box of books from America! ;-)

To apply to join the SignWriting Literacy Project, go to:

SignWriting Literacy Project
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/teachers/

and go to:

How to Apply
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/teachers/teach001.html

Scroll down, you will see this:

WHO CAN APPLY?
Schools or teachers with deaf students K-12. The deaf students should be sign language users.

HOW TO APPLY?

1. Write a letter on School Stationery
Write an official confirmation letter (a letter on school stationery with letterhead). Follow the format provided on this web page: www.signwriting.org/forums/teachers/teach005.html#anchor205024

2. Fill out Teacher's Report 1.
Along with the letter, we will need Teacher's Report 1 , which includes questions about why you chose to participate in the Literacy Project: http://www.signwriting.org/forums/teachers/teach002.html#anchor557125

3. Send the Letter and Teacher's Report to Valerie Sutton
Send both the Confirmation Letter and Teacher's Report 1 to Valerie Sutton at the Center for Sutton Movement Writing through email is best in PDF format.

The donations of books are given in return for permission to post the letter and the Teacher’s report on the web, and to receive information from the teacher from time to time about how they are making progress, so if for any reason they cannot be public about participating then this will not be the project for them, but if they are happy to share their experiences with us, then I am happy to donate the children’s books, which include printed copies of the books that can already be downloaded on the web, including the two children’s workbooks and coloring books:

Goldilocks in ASL Workbook & Coloring Book
http://www.signwriting.org/library/children/Goldilocks.html#Goldilocks

Snow White in ASL Workbook & Coloring Book
http://www.signwriting.org/library/children/SnowWhite.html#SnowWhite

Perhaps you have already created the Tunisian Sign Language version of these books, Dali?

Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

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On Dec 18, 2013, at 1:22 PM, Dali balti <livingtabernacle at YAHOO.FR> wrote:

> Hello everyone!
> One of my students is preparing her Graduation Project, and she chose to write about teaching signwriting to deaf children in Tunisia.
> She will be teaching children who are 6,7 and 8 years old, that will be for 4 months, after that we will check the results and how signwriting does help children:
> 1/ Memorize Sign Language, 
> 2/ Learn Arabic and French (our official languages), and also English later on.
> 3/ Embetter sound recognition.
> 4/ Make them express themselves using their mother tongue.
> Etc....
> This is very important to my student, she was very courageous to work on such a project, but I have no idea how we can work that out, neither the materials we can use in this deaf school for teaching.
> Does anyone have an idea how to start, and what kind of materials I can make....
> If this small project is well made and if it could bear fruits, many other deaf schools will be happy to ask us to teach SW in all over the country!
> Please I need every single advice from you!!!
> Blessings

________________________________________________

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sutton at signwriting.org

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