Sign Language has been an interest of mine that stems back to my teen years where I was part of a deaf and hard of hearing community through the church where my family belonged. These early years of learning to sign through friendship led me in my later years as a parent and educator to take several sign language classes through the Burlington Parks and Recs Dept reaching the equivalency of conversational ASL. While I did this to satisfy my own growth and interests (and even had my kids take a class with me when they were young) I didn't really find a way to establish the use of ASL in the classroom until now.
I think I initially felt self conscious moving my hands around in a hearing classroom. And it felt odd to be waving my hands about with out a dialogue in return. But this Fall things changed. After children took an interest in the song "Give Peace a Chance" and Anya Jiggidy practiced from her own volition how to sign the song from a performance I had shared during one of our Shows! Ever since Anya caught fire with ASL so too have other children taken interest, Nora, Lila, Miles, Ayush, Nolan, Bronwyn, Mara, Keldon, Mo Mo. Our first efforts took on a sort of "see what I can do" challenge, but now parents report that children are teaching them ASL signs at home. And we are using ASL to communicate daily at school. Some phrases have become routine "If you're ready to go outside then sit down," and "I love you" and "Halloween can be very spooky", "Milk please" "Water" "Yes and No" and such. The children's interests have inspired Holly to learn and share new signs too like "Poor Kitty", "diaper". And now Holly and I are starting to sign with each other. Learning sign language is an interesting process. It involves paying attention with your eyes, interpreting what you see into words, and it involves eye-hand coordination, fine motor skill, remembering, and expressing oneself in a physically dramatic way. If you don't like something you make a mad or yucky face. If you like something, you smile. It is a great exercise in expressing and reading emotions. It also is a great tool for backing up our spoken words. The sign language acquisition is growing much faster than I am able to chart around the room with visuals, which reminds me that I better get some more pictures printed for my writers tomorrow. Just a few ramblings to open the topic. Liz
0 Comments
|
Archives
October 2016
Categories
All
|