Transcript for October's Bilingual Corner:

Hello, I'm June Ann (sign name J on forehead, A on chin). I am the ASL specialist in the Elementary Department at FSDB. I work with another specialist named Lenore Boerner (Sign L-wiggle along with the hair). She works in the middle and high school departments.

Lenore and I coordinated a 2-day ASL Day with the 6^th grade class. On the first day, Lenore played the game, Guessture, with the class to get them acquainted on the difference between signs and gesturing. The students enjoyed the game very much and asked to play it again. On the second day, I joined Lenore and provided everyday application skills on gesturing. We assigned the students into groups. The groups were told that they would be flying to a specific country where no one knows how to sign in ASL, write or read in English, nor speak English. The students had to gesture their way to different requests such as, “My WiFi is broken”, “Where is the gym?”, and “I need a larger towel.” Lenore and I took up the role of a hotel receptionist and played along. The students enjoyed themselves very much and it was an educational experience for them.

I am continuing with my push-in visits to different elementary classrooms. I continue to work with students in the ELC on eye contact, getting attention, and using classifiers. I continue to attend 3rd grade classrooms working with students on retelling in ASL their reading story of that week. I have discussions with the students in a conversational level (in ASL) on everyday happenings and discuss their thoughts, perspectives, and feelings about the story that they read. In 5th grade, I continue to work with students who are reading at “Read to me” level by signing in ASL the stories in their books. The students will re-tell what they watched and they will discuss related information that is not included in the book.

I also continued to observe elementary grade classes offering teachers with strategies to help students with their comprehension skills.

The FSDB Deaf Elementary school has implemented a program called SOI-IPP to help students who are experiencing challenges in the classroom. I created and developed video clips in ASL so that teachers who are providing testing can use the clips for consistency.

In September, Lenore and I traveled to Colorado to attend a new ASL curriculum workshop called “True Way ASL” (TWA), We discussed with our HS ASL teacher about the new curriculum and how we can use it with our Deaf students on their acquisition of ASL.

I created a video about the National Literary Competition covering its guidelines and rules and asked for it to be sent out to parents. This competition is hosted by Gallaudet University. There are two components - ASL and Writing. A number of students have expressed interest in participating in the competition in both areas. I'm excited and hope to see their names as one of the winners! If your student has not participated this year, there is always next year. Fingers crossed for the students that submitted their work!

ASL Classes for FSDB’s faculty and staff began on October 8^th. Lenore and I teach several ASL classes along with two other OPS staff that are teaching a couple more classes. This is a team of four staff teaching ASL to approximately one hundred faculty and staff that need to meet their SLPI level required for their job position.

I provided my first of six series of Professional Development for the Elementary Department this year. I discussed three areas in my first presentation. I shared the history of Deaf Education from 1700’s-today. I also shared information about Dr. Richard Ruiz’s language orientation framework (Language as a problem, language as a right, and language as a resource). She ended her presentation on how teachers of the Deaf can strengthen student’s first language and use it to apply to learning a second language, which is English.

Boarding programs had their in-service workshops on Friday, the 12^th of October and I was asked to provide a one hour presentation on the importance of developing conversational skills for our Deaf students. I shared information about brain development and how it is very important to have access to language at a very young age. I also explained how we can help our students with their conversational skills by talking to them about everyday happenings such as Hurricane Michael, the reasons for a lockdown drill, and the why’s for different things.

I developed a new Pineapple Professional Development slice to be added to my slices. She discussed the importance of teaching Deaf students gesturing skills. Acquiring such skills also helps students be able to communicate with the outside world or even with their family members that do not know sign language.

For FSDB's homecoming week, I was asked to be on the Homecoming judge panel for the HC skit night. I attended skit night and enjoyed watching different grades give a performance on “Good and Evil”. She enjoyed mostly how one grade level was able to incorporate dancing and acting, using appropriate ASL signing in their skit. Good job!

I created a Bilingual Corner website so that it can used in order to be transparent with the parents of Elementary Department on what I is doing. It goes out to parents once every month, maybe at times two months, via teachers.

In November, Lenore and I will attend ASL RoundTable conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. At the conference, we hope to gather more information about using ASL Content Standard K-12 Curriculum and using Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist. Both the curriculum and assessment were created by the Center for the Science of Visual Language & Visual Learning (VL2) which is based at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.

Have a fabulous winter break, stay warm!

Transcript for September's Bilingual Corner:

Hello, I'm June Ann (sign name J on forehead, A on chin). I am the ASL specialist in the Elementary Department at FSDB. Last month I shared bits that was happening in the Bilingual Corner and now I am doing the same for September.

Lenore and I are both still finalizing the list of ASL assessments used in Deaf schools in America. Schools in the northeastern part recently opened and we are making contacts with them again.

I have been visiting at least one class from almost every elementary grade level. In the ELC, I work with students on eye contact, getting attention, and taking turns when in a conversation. In Kindergarten, I work with students on acquiring ASL vocabulary and comprehension. In 1st and 3rd grades, I work with students on retelling in ASL their reading story of that week. I also discuss about everyday happenings with students to develop conversational skills. The students and I also talk about thoughts, perspectives, and feelings of the story that the students have read in class. In 4th grade, I work with students with their vocabulary words. They will sign to me the word, explain in ASL its meaning, its application, and finger-spell the word. In 5th grade, I work with students that are reading at “Read to me” level by signing the books in ASL. The students will re-tell what they watched and we discuss related information that are not included in the book.

Lenore and I attended TWA (True Way ASL Curriculum) workshop in Colorado Springs, Colorado. TWA Curriculum is a digital based curriculum designed to teach ASL to both hearing and Deaf people. We also met with the DHS ASL teacher to give an overview of TWA Curriculum. We will schedule another time in the month of October to do trainings for ASL instructors, HS ASL teacher, ASL tutors, and those who will use the curriculum as a resource in their classrooms.

I am currently working with DES on scheduling Bilingual Professional Development sessions with teachers during their planning periods. I will do my first workshop in October.

I am currently in the works of doing another Pineapple PD. I created three other videos. You can find them on FSDB Pineapple PD website. The three other videos are about classifiers.

Lenore and I have begun scheduling ASL classes for FSDB faculty and staff. The classes are designed for faculty and staff that need to meet a certain SLPI level that is required for their job position. ASL Classes will begin in early October.

Lenore and I are on the FSA translating team. The team translates English passages into ASL and the team is currently developing videos. This provides access to ASL for passage that are written in English on the FSA exam.

In October, June Ann will be attending a DOE/DOH EHDI meeting in Tallahassee. She is on the Advisory Board representing the Deaf community and is a Deaf parent of Deaf children.

Thank you and see you next month!

Transcript for August's Bilingual Corner:

Hello, my name is June Ann. I am the ASL specialist in the Elementary Department. I work with another woman named Lenore. She works in the middle and high school departments.

In August, we have been collecting specific information from different Deaf schools in the U.S.A. We wanted to know which ASL assessments and ASL curriculums schools for the deaf were implementing. Our findings are beneficial in the decision making of what type of ASL assessments FSDB should use. According to our results, at least 35 Deaf schools in the USA are actively using ASL assessments on all of their Deaf/HoH students. Currently, we are working on writing a three-year plan for FSDB. Aside from that, we are entering classrooms to observe, brainstorm and consult with teachers, and try interventions or enhancements.

We are currently researching several websites designed for ASL Specialists and teachers. For example, ASLCIA (ASL Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment) and ASLAI (ASL Assessment and Instruction.) Those websites have a collection of different ASL resources available to their members. We are currently working towards becoming members of these websites. Last but not least, we will attend a conference in November called ASLRT (ASL Round Table). It is a conference where ASL professionals and administrators can discuss best practices and issues related to ASL as a content subject in the areas of language development, curriculum, instruction and assessment for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners in PreK-12 educational settings.

During the time of our collecting different information regarding ASL assessments, we also created a contact list of over 50 ASL specialists and teachers (who also have to take up the role of a specialist) working at different Deaf schools in America. As soon as we complete the list, we intend to establish a Google Team where all ASL specialists across the country, along with their email addresses, can have a space to share and borrow information.

We have met with ELA Specialists to discuss the implementation of specific ASL assessments as well as working with them on creating videos for FSDB's Signed Reading Fluency. We will translate the rubrics used for scoring into ASL.