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Weston high school students teach hearing-impaired with sign language: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The conversation picked up, but the classroom remained quiet.
Using sign language, high school junior Lindsay Leider asked students at Seminole Middle School in Plantation about a book on marine life. Her hands fluttered, smacked and pointed as she gestured.
"Do seahorses change color?" Leider asked, whispering the words as she signs them.
The deaf seventh-graders nodded their closed right hands up and down, the sign for "yes."
Leider is among a group of advanced sign language students from Weston's Cypress Bay High who visit the middle school's deaf and hard-of-hearing program twice weekly. They come to practice their sign language skills and to help deaf students review math and science lessons in the process.
American Sign Language continues to be popular among hearing students in Broward County schools. More than 1,300 students take sign courses at 11 Broward high schools, nearly double the enrollment from 10 years ago. Next year, even more students will enroll as Seminole will become the first Broward middle school to offer a sign language course.
Statewide, enrollment took off 15 years ago when public schools began accepting sign as an alternative to meet the college-entrance requirement of two years of a foreign language.
Cypress Bay junior Emily Sikorski, 17, said she was inspired to learn the visual language two years ago after befriending two hearing-impaired girls at a summer volleyball camp. She likes that learning the language provided her a quick access to the preferred communication for the deaf community.
"You learn so much so fast," Sikorski said. "You instantly get immersed with the culture."
Shamir Aarons, 15, a deaf student at Seminole, said he did not know many hearing people who sign.
"It's a good idea for them to learn," Aarons said through an interpreter. "Then I'll understand what other people are saying."
Seminole teacher Karen Burnside said the high school students bring enthusiasm to the lessons they do with her students.
"Having extra people to help one-on-one is great," Burnside said. "I've been impressed with how accepting the kids are of each other."
The high school students who work with Seminole Middle students have completed three of the four levels of American Sign Language, said second-year Cypress Bay teacher Stefanie Sirois, a former interpreter.
Sign language appeals most to students who learn through visual cues, she said.
Students often take the course assuming they will get an easy "A," but they quickly learn the language is not just English with hand signals, Sirois said.
Sign language has its own grammar rules and vocabulary, though the verb tenses don't change.
To mean, "I'm going to the store tomorrow," one would sign, "Tomorrow, store, I go."
Students must be comfortable with reading and expressing body language and facial expressions, Sirois said.
"Yes, no" questions require raised eyebrows while "who-what" information queries take scrunched or lowered eyebrows. If describing someone who is heavy, you would puff your cheeks, Sirois said.
The theatrical aspect of sign may be one reason why females typically outnumber males 2-to-1 in the high school courses, students said.
Outside class and during lunch, it's fun for sign language students to carry on silent yet animated conversations, students say.
"The people we sit with [at lunch] get so upset," said Leider, 16. "They think we're talking about them."
Cypress Bay junior Samantha Garcia said an October field trip to the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine stirred her to consider becoming a teacher in deaf education.
The weekly field trips to Seminole Middle could be a preview of her future career.
"Coming here really helped me decide what I wanted to do," said Garcia, 16.
Garcia said she took sign language because she's already fluent in Spanish.
"It's just another way I can express myself," she said. "It helps me get to know everybody."
The conversation picked up, but the classroom remained quiet.
Using sign language, high school junior Lindsay Leider asked students at Seminole Middle School in Plantation about a book on marine life. Her hands fluttered, smacked and pointed as she gestured.
"Do seahorses change color?" Leider asked, whispering the words as she signs them.
The deaf seventh-graders nodded their closed right hands up and down, the sign for "yes."
Leider is among a group of advanced sign language students from Weston's Cypress Bay High who visit the middle school's deaf and hard-of-hearing program twice weekly. They come to practice their sign language skills and to help deaf students review math and science lessons in the process.
American Sign Language continues to be popular among hearing students in Broward County schools. More than 1,300 students take sign courses at 11 Broward high schools, nearly double the enrollment from 10 years ago. Next year, even more students will enroll as Seminole will become the first Broward middle school to offer a sign language course.
Statewide, enrollment took off 15 years ago when public schools began accepting sign as an alternative to meet the college-entrance requirement of two years of a foreign language.
Cypress Bay junior Emily Sikorski, 17, said she was inspired to learn the visual language two years ago after befriending two hearing-impaired girls at a summer volleyball camp. She likes that learning the language provided her a quick access to the preferred communication for the deaf community.
"You learn so much so fast," Sikorski said. "You instantly get immersed with the culture."
Shamir Aarons, 15, a deaf student at Seminole, said he did not know many hearing people who sign.
"It's a good idea for them to learn," Aarons said through an interpreter. "Then I'll understand what other people are saying."
Seminole teacher Karen Burnside said the high school students bring enthusiasm to the lessons they do with her students.
"Having extra people to help one-on-one is great," Burnside said. "I've been impressed with how accepting the kids are of each other."
The high school students who work with Seminole Middle students have completed three of the four levels of American Sign Language, said second-year Cypress Bay teacher Stefanie Sirois, a former interpreter.
Sign language appeals most to students who learn through visual cues, she said.
Students often take the course assuming they will get an easy "A," but they quickly learn the language is not just English with hand signals, Sirois said.
Sign language has its own grammar rules and vocabulary, though the verb tenses don't change.
To mean, "I'm going to the store tomorrow," one would sign, "Tomorrow, store, I go."
Students must be comfortable with reading and expressing body language and facial expressions, Sirois said.
"Yes, no" questions require raised eyebrows while "who-what" information queries take scrunched or lowered eyebrows. If describing someone who is heavy, you would puff your cheeks, Sirois said.
The theatrical aspect of sign may be one reason why females typically outnumber males 2-to-1 in the high school courses, students said.
Outside class and during lunch, it's fun for sign language students to carry on silent yet animated conversations, students say.
"The people we sit with [at lunch] get so upset," said Leider, 16. "They think we're talking about them."
Cypress Bay junior Samantha Garcia said an October field trip to the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine stirred her to consider becoming a teacher in deaf education.
The weekly field trips to Seminole Middle could be a preview of her future career.
"Coming here really helped me decide what I wanted to do," said Garcia, 16.
Garcia said she took sign language because she's already fluent in Spanish.
"It's just another way I can express myself," she said. "It helps me get to know everybody."
