LIVERMORE FALLS – SAD 36 directors have approved a request from Livermore Falls Middle School staff to develop an American Sign Language course. Directors also left it open that other schools in the district could develop similar courses.
The class proposed would enhance the Middle School staffs’ ability to meet its goal to teach diversity, according to an outline given to board members Thursday by teacher Terry Buchanan.
“It would use the teachable moment’ so to speak, because it is practical,” Buchanan stated. “Students would learn to communicate with a deaf student in the school community. Motivation is usually better when there is a genuine and practical use for any subject taught.”
Learning other languages allows students to know and understand other cultures, she noted.
“This is vital in becoming an intelligent, well-rounded and tolerant student,” she said. The course would meet the Maine Learning Results standards for modern and classical languages.
The class would use a pass/fail grading system to allow the students to focus on the learning, without the stress of traditional grading.
During the course, students would be introduced to American Sign Language and master finger-spelling and signs to express basic needs and wants. Students will learn hand shapes and movements necessary to make signs.
Students will learn to develop communication skills for direct conversation and written correspondence at the grade-five through grade-eight levels.
American Sign Language is primarily used by deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans and Canadians, according to the Web site of the American Sign Language Teachers Association, www.aslta.org.
In addition, it’s used by hearing children of deaf parents, relatives of the deaf, and adults who are becoming deaf, the Web site states. This site also says that a growing population of hearing students is learning the language in elementary, secondary and post-secondary classrooms.
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