[Sw-l] Presentation

Wed Oct 30 16:35:40 EDT 2019

Hi, Val ,

You are welcome to share this with the online group if you think it would
be of interest to others.

Dale

On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 12:07 PM Valerie Sutton <
0000001342802f5f-dmarc-request at listserv.valenciacollege.edu> wrote:

> SignWriting List
> October 30, 2019
>
> Hello Dale!
> This is really a moving description of the use of SignWriting in
> Nicaragua, and thank you for sharing this story with us.
>
> Thank you for presenting SignWriting there, and I am glad that your 80+
> brain is benefitting too!
>
> Do I have your permission to post this description, on our SignWriting in
> Nicaragua web area?
>
> SignWriting in Nicaragua
> https://www.signwriting.org/nicaragua/nicaragua.html
>
> Before I do, I will show it to you, to get your approval.
>
> I haven't posted anything new there in a long time, and I think it is
> important to point out that SignWriting continues to be used in Nicaragua:
>
> Thanks again for this message!
>
> Val ;-)
>
> ---------
>
>
> On October 29, 2019 at 10:08 PM, Dale Spoor <dale.spoor27 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
>
> Hi, Val,
>
> When we arrived on Ometepe last January, our office staff knew we were
> coming to teach SignWriting.  But of course they really had no idea what we
> were talking about.  So  that first afternoon we showed them a few of the
> materials we brought, and how we planned to go about teaching SW to the
> children.  Our Director on Ometepe, who is wonderful Nicaraguan lady, just
> rolled her eyes and smiled, then told us to forget about it--way to
> complicated, even for her, let alone for the children.  We could never get
> across all of that information in the week we had there--probably not even
> in a month.
>
>  Fortunately one class had already been scheduled for the following
> morning, and about 20 kids and family members showed up, so we went ahead
> with our plan.  It sort of reminded me of the first sign language workshops
> we organized in 2009, when we brought a couple of deaf teachers from
> Bluefields to teach Nicaraguan Sign Language.  During the two months the
> children and some family members attended the afternoon workshops, I was
> told they learned maybe 80 words.  I have to say I was a little
> disappointed at first, thinking that at that rate it would take forever for
> them to develop any fluency with Nicaraguan Sign Language.   I realized
> later that what was so important about those workshops was not how many
> words they had learned, but that for the first time in their lives they
> understood that there was a language they could use to communicate with
> their families and each other. Definitely a brilliant comic strip light
> bulb type situation.   So they were totally motivated and primed to apply
> themselves when we had the next set of workshops.  And the rest is
> history--our older kids teach now the younger ones at our sign language
> workshops every Saturday.  All of the kids are conversational fluent, and
> most of the parents and family members have picked up some.
>
>
> Like those first sign language classes, the children only learned a few
> basic concepts about SignWriting that first morning.  But the idea had been
> planted, the "light bulb" had been lit, and they came the next day highly
> motivated to learn more.    The next few days we practiced and introduced
> more and more of the symbols, and they absorbed it all.   By the time we
> left, there was a large group of them with their noses still buried in the
> dictionaries that we brought (thanks to James Kegl!), signing to each
> other, laughing and interacting, and they were learning lots of new words.
> There is still much for them to learn about SignWriting, of course, but
> they are totally motivated, and they love the idea that they can have their
> own written language.  I plan to visit the island again in January and I'll
> try to remember to send you a report.
>
> Dale
>
> PS  One added benefit: maybe it will help to keep my 80+ year brain
> functional for a few years more!  :-)
>
> On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 9:32 PM Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org>
> wrote:
>
>> SignWriting List
>> October 29, 2019
>>
>> Hello Astrid and Dale!
>> Thank you, Astrid, for joining the SignWriting List and for your message.
>> And welcome to the SignWriting Literacy Project. I will be happy to send
>> you some books, and I am glad to learn that you have already downloaded the
>> books in French on this web page:
>>
>> Lessons in SignWriting translated into French by Anne Claude Prelaz Girod
>> https://www.signwriting.org/lessons/books/French.html
>>
>> Anny has also developed some wonderful games teaching vocabulary. I will
>> try to make a little video showing you all examples of these lovely games
>> that Anny sent to me - I am so amazed at the detail and how beautifully
>> artistic they are - teaching sign language vocabulary with SignWriting. It
>> so fortunate that the two of you know each other in French-Switzerland.
>>
>> And Dale - thank you for mentioning your project in Nicaragua. How
>> fantastic that you continue to teach workshops for Deaf children, and you
>> are using the SignWriting Basics manual and the Parkhursts wonderful
>> textbook.
>>
>> I will send another email message later with the links for our List
>> members -
>>
>> Send my best wishes to your students!
>>
>> Val ;-)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 12:09 PM Dale Spoor <dale.spoor27 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> For a number of years we have been providing sign language workshop for
>>> deaf children on our sister island, Ometepe, Nicaragua (Nicaraguan Sign
>>> Language).    Last January a delegation went to Ometepe to teach
>>> SignWriting to the people who attend our workshops.
>>>
>>> A very good introduction to basic SignWriting I used when I was learning
>>>  is the book by Valerie Sutton:  "SignWriting Basics".  On the SignWriting
>>> website, if you click on books, you'll see this one in the upper left-hand
>>> corner (the cover has a man in a red shirt in three different poses). It's
>>> only about 15 pages.    A much more detailed version is the Signwriting
>>> book by Steve and Diane Parkhurst, which I think is #6 at this link-- close
>>> to 150 pages. You can download or buy either of these.
>>>
>>> Dale Spoor, Chair
>>> Special Needs Committee
>>> Bainbridge Ometepe Sister Islands Association
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 11:50 PM Astrid Willi <astridwilli at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello all.
>>>> I am a French mom, from Switzerland, homeschooling my children : a 10yo
>>>> girl, a 6yo boy, a 4yo girl deaf and a 10mo baby.
>>>> I am very interested in learning SignWriting to further use it with my
>>>> deaf daughter and my others children, it is of great importance to know
>>>> different langages.
>>>> My family learns LSF, like ASL, for almost 2 years but without any
>>>> courses. The situation is very difficult here because it is all for oralism.
>>>> I think I will soon learn ASL because there is a lot of in this langage.
>>>> I don't know if there is online courses.
>>>> Feel free to ask questions.
>>>> Thank you for reading and have a good day.
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>>>>
>>>> Valerie Sutton
>>>> SignWriting List moderator
>>>> sutton at signwriting.org
>>>>
>>>> Post Messages to the SignWriting List:
>>>> sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>>>>
>>>> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
>>>> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>>>>
>>>> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
>>>> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>>>>
>>> ________________________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>>>
>>> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>>>
>>> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>>>
>>> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
>>> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>>>
>>> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
>>> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>>>
>> ________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>>
>> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>>
>> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>>
>> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
>> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>>
>> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
>> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>>
> ________________________________________________
>
>
> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>
> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>
> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>
> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>
> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>
> ________________________________________________
>
> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>
> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>
> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>
> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>
> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1
>

________________________________________________

SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION

Valerie Sutton
SignWriting List moderator
sutton at signwriting.org

Post Messages to the SignWriting List:
sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu

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