Help me give my students reading resources for independent study and presentations that interest them with real life experience and stories of Deaf people in the hearing world that surrounds them.
What I love about my students is that they are involved in a racially and culturally diverse learning environment. We are a rural Ohio school with open enrollment to Akron. I truly love seeing my students every day interacting with each other. We have open discussions about our differences, and in my classroom, have a mutual respect for each other.
I teach American Sign Language as a World Language, and in this class students learn about a culture of people, using a different language, living in a hearing world everyday, not by choice.
Because we are a language class, we focus on communication. Using real-life as a way of learning allows us to learn about each other as well as learning our content area. The joy I experience from students who talk about the friendships that have made in my class that never would have normally associated in high school makes it worth it.
My Project
Having these resources available to my students will allow them to research Deaf history, experience personal stories, a relate to people through novels through Deaf eyes in a hearing world. These are important resources to learn about the people of the language we are learning. American Sign Language is so much more than just a beautiful manual language and my students will learn about the amazing people who use it as their first natural language.
My students are looking at cultural diversity in more ways than just race and religion, but through a flourishing Deaf culture that is part of every culture with a rich history and language.
These books will be used in research projects, independent reading, and used in my lessons and teaching. Students are not just learning a language but about a parallel Deaf world that surrounds them.
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