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Deaf culture fascinates students - Martinsville Bulletin
What do Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low, former Miss America Heather Whitestone and former Major League Baseball outfielder Curtis Pride have in common? All three were deaf.
Learning about famous hearing-impaired Americans is one part of Deaf Awareness Week at Stanleytown Elementary School. All this week, students are learning words in sign language and doing other activities to better understand deaf culture.
This is the fourth year of the program, and “every year we add to it, just to make kids aware of deafness in a positive way,” said organizer Kim Myers, a sign language interpreter with the regional hearing-impaired program at Stanleytown.
“We tell them, deaf people can do anything but hear,” Myers said.
Throughout the week, Myers enlisted help from hearing-impaired students, including third-grader Vivian Mata, fourth-grader Malcolm Manns and fifth-grader Zachary Gillespie, to demonstrate sign language and be “ambassadors” to their classmates.
Hearing-impaired students at Stanleytown are mainstreamed, Myers said, which means they spend time in regular classes every day using a sign-language interpreter.
On Wednesday morning in Lisa Gallagher’s third-grade class, students used a SMART Board, an interactive white board, to learn the sign-language alphabet. The screen showed pictures of hands spelling out different letters, and the children took turns translating the words.
“We’ve been spelling out all these words. Do you think it would be easy to have a conversation like this?” Myers asked the class.
“No,” the third-graders said.
Then Myers explained that using word signs makes it easier to communicate. She showed the class the signs for words such as “yes” and “no,” “eat” and “drink” and different colors, as well as how to sign abbreviated versions of people’s names.
The third-graders were full of questions on how to sign certain words. They wanted to know the signs for “happy birthday,” “friendship,” “please” and “thank you.” Once Myers demonstrated the words, one girl in the class turned around to Vivian and Malcolm and made the sign for “thank you.”
“It’s so important when you’re talking to someone with hearing loss that they can see your face so they can lip-read,” Myers said. “You also show your emotion in your face.”
She also explained that people can be born with hearing loss, or they can lose it from an illness or from listening to loud music.
Gallagher said the children responded well to the activities.
“Vivian comes in (the classroom) every afternoon, so they’re very interested in how to talk to her,” Gallagher said.
During the week, students are finding out how deaf people deal with tasks such as answering the door and talking on the phone. Myers said a bed shaker and flashing lights are some of the tools to alert deaf people when someone is at the door.
In a fourth-grade class Wednesday, she demonstrated how to use the computer to make a relay phone call. Hearing-impaired people use a machine that shows the conversation written on a screen, she said.
In Kristin Hearn’s fifth-grade class, students have been exposed to sign language during Deaf Awareness Week for four years. Many of them were eager to demonstrate spelling out their names in sign language.
On Wednesday, the class did an activity using the book “Moses Goes to a Concert,” about a deaf boy who goes to the symphony and uses a balloon to feel the vibrations of the music. In the story, Moses and his classmates meet a deaf percussionist who cannot hear the orchestra but keeps the beat by watching the conductor and feeling the vibrations through her bare feet.
While Myers read the story, Zachary showed the class how to sign the words. Afterward, each student held a balloon to feel vibrations from a song playing on the stereo.
“They love this,” Hearn said of her students. “And because they know Zach, they can relate.”
Fifth-grader Trevor Martin said the week’s lessons were “fun and interesting.”
“You get to learn how deaf people ‘hear,’” he said.
Keonna Gravely said the balloon activity was fun and the vibrations from the music “felt ticklish.”
Both agreed the “coolest part” of Deaf Awareness Week was learning how to sign. Keonna said she sometimes tries her sign language words when talking to Zachary.
“We’ve done some cool activities in the past years” with Deaf Awareness Week, Keonna said.
What do Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low, former Miss America Heather Whitestone and former Major League Baseball outfielder Curtis Pride have in common? All three were deaf.
Learning about famous hearing-impaired Americans is one part of Deaf Awareness Week at Stanleytown Elementary School. All this week, students are learning words in sign language and doing other activities to better understand deaf culture.
This is the fourth year of the program, and “every year we add to it, just to make kids aware of deafness in a positive way,” said organizer Kim Myers, a sign language interpreter with the regional hearing-impaired program at Stanleytown.
“We tell them, deaf people can do anything but hear,” Myers said.
Throughout the week, Myers enlisted help from hearing-impaired students, including third-grader Vivian Mata, fourth-grader Malcolm Manns and fifth-grader Zachary Gillespie, to demonstrate sign language and be “ambassadors” to their classmates.
Hearing-impaired students at Stanleytown are mainstreamed, Myers said, which means they spend time in regular classes every day using a sign-language interpreter.
On Wednesday morning in Lisa Gallagher’s third-grade class, students used a SMART Board, an interactive white board, to learn the sign-language alphabet. The screen showed pictures of hands spelling out different letters, and the children took turns translating the words.
“We’ve been spelling out all these words. Do you think it would be easy to have a conversation like this?” Myers asked the class.
“No,” the third-graders said.
Then Myers explained that using word signs makes it easier to communicate. She showed the class the signs for words such as “yes” and “no,” “eat” and “drink” and different colors, as well as how to sign abbreviated versions of people’s names.
The third-graders were full of questions on how to sign certain words. They wanted to know the signs for “happy birthday,” “friendship,” “please” and “thank you.” Once Myers demonstrated the words, one girl in the class turned around to Vivian and Malcolm and made the sign for “thank you.”
“It’s so important when you’re talking to someone with hearing loss that they can see your face so they can lip-read,” Myers said. “You also show your emotion in your face.”
She also explained that people can be born with hearing loss, or they can lose it from an illness or from listening to loud music.
Gallagher said the children responded well to the activities.
“Vivian comes in (the classroom) every afternoon, so they’re very interested in how to talk to her,” Gallagher said.
During the week, students are finding out how deaf people deal with tasks such as answering the door and talking on the phone. Myers said a bed shaker and flashing lights are some of the tools to alert deaf people when someone is at the door.
In a fourth-grade class Wednesday, she demonstrated how to use the computer to make a relay phone call. Hearing-impaired people use a machine that shows the conversation written on a screen, she said.
In Kristin Hearn’s fifth-grade class, students have been exposed to sign language during Deaf Awareness Week for four years. Many of them were eager to demonstrate spelling out their names in sign language.
On Wednesday, the class did an activity using the book “Moses Goes to a Concert,” about a deaf boy who goes to the symphony and uses a balloon to feel the vibrations of the music. In the story, Moses and his classmates meet a deaf percussionist who cannot hear the orchestra but keeps the beat by watching the conductor and feeling the vibrations through her bare feet.
While Myers read the story, Zachary showed the class how to sign the words. Afterward, each student held a balloon to feel vibrations from a song playing on the stereo.
“They love this,” Hearn said of her students. “And because they know Zach, they can relate.”
Fifth-grader Trevor Martin said the week’s lessons were “fun and interesting.”
“You get to learn how deaf people ‘hear,’” he said.
Keonna Gravely said the balloon activity was fun and the vibrations from the music “felt ticklish.”
Both agreed the “coolest part” of Deaf Awareness Week was learning how to sign. Keonna said she sometimes tries her sign language words when talking to Zachary.
“We’ve done some cool activities in the past years” with Deaf Awareness Week, Keonna said.