School for the Deaf opens literacy lab

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http://www.gazette.net/stories/110105/frednew124318_31925.shtml

Middle school students at the Maryland School for the Deaf will have greater access to literacy thanks to a pair of grants from the Verizon Foundation.

On Tuesday, the school held the formal opening of the Verizon Literacy Lab at the Frederick campus to assist students in connecting the visual aspects of American Sign Language with written English. The new lab has 20 computers for students to use for research, complete class assignments and develop presentations.

‘‘Maryland School for the Deaf has had a long tradition of going after new technology, and the new technology now is SMART boards with computers hooked up to the Internet, that will help our students learn the English language,” Superintendent James E. Tucker said.

Last year, the Verizon Foundation awarded the school a $30,000 grant to create the computer lab for middle school students and this year gave another $35,000 grant to fund the school’s Connected Classrooms project, which provides print-rich environments in middle school classrooms.

By seeing text, lesson plans and even Web pages before them while a teacher is signing provides a great tool to help students increase literacy, according to school officials.

Assistant Principal Marsha Flowers praised Verizon’s generosity in helping students thrive in the classroom and prepare for tomorrow.

‘‘This fall, when the kids came back, they were all so motivated with such high spirits, and we’ve seen them read, write and gain so much,” she said. ‘‘We were concerned about the Maryland State Assessment, but with all this new technology, it has really helped them advance and we are all so proud of them.”
 
By seeing text, lesson plans and even Web pages before them while a teacher is signing provides a great tool to help students increase literacy, according to school officials
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This improves literacy..... exactly how???
 
Oh that's easy....it's like simultanous interpretation.....you look at the teacher signing, and then look at the English translation.
 
deafdyke said:
Oh that's easy....it's like simultanous interpretation.....you look at the teacher signing, and then look at the English translation.


What good is the English text if you cannot read English?
 
loml, it would be like you hearing a speech in German and then seeing a real time translation of it in English.
 
deafdyke said:
loml, it would be like you hearing a speech in German and then seeing a real time translation of it in English.

Sure, that can be done. Still, it doesn't mean the person will understand the words spoken in German. They'll only understand the translation.

That's what Loml is trying to say.
 
Banjo said:
Sure, that can be done. Still, it doesn't mean the person will understand the words spoken in German. They'll only understand the translation.

That's what Loml is trying to say.


Exactly Banjo! TY!

It is unrealistic to expect people to become literate, by showing them English text, especially an older individual. I am presuming middle school, would be ages 11-14??

ASL is ASL... English is English


It would be of great interest to see how the decision was reached by the "school officials".

I can only imagine :-o
 
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