A "Signability Index" is presented for sign language interpretation of children's books. The index is based on such variables as reading rate, sentence length, quantity of text used to express thoughts, word imagery, and complexity and concreteness of passages. Suggested books for classroom reading are listed, categorized by six levels of…

The simultaneous presentation of picture book and signer on split screen videotape made literature more accessible and vital to hearing-impaired students. Suggestions are provided for preparing students for the viewing, discussing the story after viewing, and making videotapes. (CB)

A signing-singing group was organized to help hearing students form friendships with their mainstreamed hearing impaired peers. (CL)

This literature review examines selected variables that may influence teachers' ability to read books to preschool and elementary deaf children in total communication programs. The paper explores the role of signs in reading stories and factors influencing the signability of stories, including reading rate, length of sentences, length of text used…

Describes ways one teacher of deaf and hard of hearing elementary students used videotape recordings to communicate with parents on classroom activities and on the progress of individual children. Tapes show the teacher introducing new signs; teaching speech skills, academic activities, and inclusion activities; or speaking directly to parents…

Five children with severe educational retardation, aged 5-12, were involved in sign training in which the spoken words corresponding to signs were receptively known to participants. Whether signs were taught concurrently or in a serial fashion, signs taught by total communication were acquired faster than those taught by sign-alone training.…

Suggestions are offered for teaching young children with hearing impairments to read and write. The strategies emphasize the importance of making the sign-to-print relationship explicit, helping children understand that there is not always perfect sign-to-word correlation, increasing students' metalinguistic knowledge, and building comprehension.…

A hearing teacher for whom American Sign Language is a second language identifies nine strategies developed for reading and telling stories to deaf children. These include: ask obvious questions related to the story, portray written dialog as conversation, emphasize points by saying the same thing with different signs, and adapt the story to…

Activities designed to increase deaf students' self-esteem and positive attitudes toward their deafness included a bulletin board displaying the different things deaf children and adults could do; and a trip to see actors from the National Theater of the Deaf. (CB)

A bilingual instructional program was developed to teach written English to elementary-aged deaf students who are fluent in American Sign Language. The student-directed language learning uses interactive video and offers five activity options: watch a story, read a story, answer questions about a story, write a story, or caption a story.…

An instructional prereading using American Sign Language (ASL) was effective in improving the ability of 7 prelingually deaf children (ages 11 and 12) to understand and retell a story after reading it in print. A six-step procedure for using the ASL technique is explained. Other applications of the technique and its appropriateness for public…

This book provides student activities organized around a class science project with the Gorilla Foundation. The gorillas featured in the project have been taught American Sign Language. Many of the activities involve the use of the story "Koko's Kitten" by Francine Patterson (New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1985). Sections of the book include: (1) "To…

Deaf children need reading programs which emphasize comprehension of meaning rather than syntax and grammar. Successful reading programs can emerge when reading is viewed as a highly social experience, reading materials are meaningful and highly contextualized, and semantic processing in American Sign Language is used to assist reading in English.…

Principles of "shared reading," in which a book is read by the teacher, then by teacher and students together, and then by the students independently, are discussed and applied to language acquisition and reading instruction of deaf and hearing impaired children. Students use the book to help them write and compare English and American…

Teachers can help deaf elementary students adjust to the total communication classroom setting by: evaluating signing skills; conducting a class orientation; submerging students in the sign language environment; using sign language vocabulary cards; offering sign language classes; encouraging peer tutoring; scheduling individual conferences; and…