Inquiry-based active learning in science is helpful to all students but especially to those who have a hearing loss. For many deaf or hard of hearing students, the English language may be their second language, with American Sign Language (ASL) being their primary language. Therefore, many of the accommodations for the deaf are similar to those…

The article describes a structured approach to teaching sign language to severely disabled students through task analysis. The approach emphasizes four basic principles from developmental and behavioral theories: (1) environmental influence, (2) imitation, (3) reinforcement, (4) practice. A functional sign vocabulary of 250 words grouped according…

"Grandfather Moose" rhymes, written to follow the Mother Goose tradition, are short, appealing, easy-to-memorize sign language nursery rhymes which employ visual poetic devices such as similar signs and transitional flow of movement. (CB)

A language arts teacher of junior high students with deafness or hearing impairments familiarized her students with "Romeo and Juliet" by telling the story in speech and signs, exploring the characters's personalities, reviewing vocabulary, putting the characters into contemporary situations, and directing the students in a full-scale…

Buoyed by the success of an informal, unexpected "pilot study" using sign language and Spanish and a challenge from a university colleague, a Florida middle-school teacher expanded the use of second languages in her classes. An ensuing study involving 115 eighth graders showed a positive change in students' attitudes toward foreign…

Describes the Shared Reading Program, a home-school effort of Gallaudet University's Pre-College National Mission Programs. Under the program, mentors teach parents and caregivers how to read to deaf children using American Sign Language. Describes a family with six young children includes 12 tips for reading to a deaf child. (DB)

The Sharing Shakespeare project at New York City's Public School for the Deaf developed a unique, elective, process-oriented literature class that combined teenage profoundly deaf students and culturally diverse, limited-English-proficient hearing students. Aided by multimedia technologies, these students collaborated in learning, reading, and…

A bilingual education program for deaf children (ages 13-16) in American Sign Language (ASL) and English is described. Using a team-teaching approach, a deaf teacher taught social studies using ASL while a hearing teacher taught language arts using Signed English and speech. Follow-up activities are summarized and a teaching unit outlined. (VW)

This paper reviews the research on use of American Sign Language in elementary classes that do not include children with hearing impairment and also reports on the use of the manual sign language alphabet in a primary class learning the phonetic sounds of the alphabet. The research reported is overwhelmingly positive in support of using sign…

A study of a bilingual program in a Deaf school in Minnesota examines the following: the principles primary grade teachers articulate and demonstrate as important for the use of American Sign Language (ASL) to teach English literacy; the strategies primary grade teachers use to teach English literacy through ASL; and how primary grade teachers use…

Describes the "Personal Communicator," a CD-ROM communication tool designed to enhance social interactions of deaf children and their hearing associates. Each of the program's five components is described: the chat screen, the dictionary, the writer's notebook, the conversation recorder, and the sign language playroom. Examples of the program's…

This booklet describes some recent participant planned staff development activities in Massachusetts. To varying degrees, programs are initiated, governed, and designed by participants. In the first section, profiles are presented of six programs which represent a cross-section of models serving small, medium, and large school systems. Included in…