QUESTION: A new sign language teacher asks:
Dear Dr. Bill,
Good afternoon! My name is Jane Smith [name changed to protect her privacy]. I
have written to you several times over the past several months and several years
as an ASL teacher. I am trying to become acclimated with my local Deaf
community. It's going very slowly as I only go to their once-a-month gatherings
and I am unbelievably shy in groups. At any rate...I only know one other ASL
teacher in my area and he isn't welcoming to me at all. (I'm not sure what the
deal is with him. I've seen him about 3 times this school year and he snubs his
nose at me now. I have the position he had a couple of years ago as he moved to
another school in the area. But I digress.)
As this is the situation, I only know of you to whom I can ask questions. How do
you teach Deaf culture in your ASL classes? When I took classes in college, Deaf
Culture was its own semester long course. In my diocese's (districts)
expectations, I am to teach Deaf culture as part of the curriculum, but I am at
a loss on how to do it. Any guidance in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Jane Smith
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ANSWER:
Dear Jane,
To teach Deaf culture as part of a "basic" ASL class, one (of many) approaches
is to include one or two factoids each class session. See: www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/culture1.htm
You can just copy and paste one section each day and display it on the overhead.
If you want to get more in-depth you require "reaction journals" or "research
papers." Some teachers use games and/or role playing to teach cultural
principles. I think one of the BEST ways to teach Deaf Culture in an ASL class
is to embed the cultural concepts into the signing practice. For example, one of
my sentences is: DEAF PREFER KITCHEN WHY? -- Which seems like "very" strange
sentence until you know the answer to the question: The reason Deaf people
prefer the kitchen is because the lighting is usually better in the kitchen.
Better lighting means it is easier to see and understand each other's signing.
My point here is that if you are teaching a general ASL class (and not a
specific class on Deaf Culture) then it seems to me that "embedding" Deaf
Culture into the language practice is the best way to maximize classroom and
homework time. This is known as "teaching across content areas." Our
content area is "ASL." Rather than teach Deaf Culture as a separate topic we
instead are incorporating culture into and throughout our lessons
Dr. Bill
Notes:
See: CULTURE
Notes: