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From: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: ASL lit.14
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Date: 16 Apr 91 20:31:40 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

        Can you see all of the discussion that can result from a story
like this.  We've discussed cultural aspects, the use of language,
characters, and the deaf experience.  A lot of discussion has come
from just one small segment of a story.  That 's what I think ASL
literature means.  An oral story can be presented and analyzed with
the help of a workbook.  Remember I told you that the workbook uses
questions, descriptions, and class discussion.  With planning and the
use of the workbook in c ombination with the videotape students will
notice things they didn't initially notice while watching the
videotape.  Initially, they'll watch the story and enjoy it just like
you did.  In the back of your mind, you understand what the story is
all a bout or maybe you didn't understand it because you didn't enjoy
it enough.  As we discuss the story more and more, you have become
more and more amazed by what is in the story.  You have become more
sensitive.  You've grown to enjoy, appreciate, and understand it more
than before.  I hope that the ASL Literature Series can help with
that.  (Response: Would it also help develop English reading and
writing through the use of ASL literature?)
        If this were the first part of the curriculum, there could be
a second part or version connected with the deaf experience which
would focus on writing English equivalences and the resulting
discussions.  That would be a bilingual approach.  T hat would be one
way to do it.  Once the students study the story in ASL and see its
story structure, (it has a universal base) and understand what the
story is about, then that would help their ability to write about it
in English.  That's just doin g it in another language.  The important
part is the story structure, and who the characters are.  This will
make the students think when they write in English.  As they write,
they can be reminded of what a particular character, such as the
father, was like and what he looked like.  When they say he was a
drunk, the English word "drunk" can be introduced.  In this way a
connection between written English and the ASL story could be made.
It would certainly make learning English more interesting .

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