The high school American Sign Language (ASL) educator, Marie Deregnaucourt, recently had her students write stories featuring deaf characters that were sent to the students at West Oakview.
Deregnaucourt desired to bring attention to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community within Northview as well as bring forth a feeling of togetherness. Her assignment did just that.
“I came up with [the assignment] as a new way to connect our Deaf and Hard of Hearing community in all levels with our ASL classes,” Deregnaucourt said.
Though the assignment was not a part of the ASL curriculum, the inspiration for the task was quite heartwarming.
“I saw an article just before I assigned it where there was this group of kids that were looking for deaf characters, because they were deaf themselves and wanted to see themselves portrayed in literature,” Deregnaucourt said. “I coupled that with the idea of adding vocab into it and having deaf characters, while signing new words for the kids.”
All of the books from the project were sent to West Oakview for the students to read.
“I wanted to allow elementary school kids to see that there are many people they can communicate with in all levels of the district,” Deregnaucourt said.
Sophomore Kelsey Nickell, an ASL student, wrote a book featuring a character that was initially unaware that she was deaf.
“My book was about a dinosaur and a koala that were friends. The koala was confused because she couldn’t hear her friend,” Nickell said. “She told her parents, and she was able to get hearing aids so that she could hear her friend and play with her.”
Junior and ASL student Rachel Kamps wrote her book in a unique way. While the other students in her class mostly focused on animals, Kamps decided to take a different route.
“My book was about a Sun who was deaf and was struggling with loneliness because she had no friends, because she was deaf,” Kamps said. “But then the Moon comes and befriends her and takes the time to learn ASL, and then eventually he teaches the other planets ASL and they all become friends.”
The ASL students learned a lot from writing the books.
“I learned how to inspire younger children with these books and was able to teach them the culture of ASL,” Nickell said.
The assignment was a great learning opportunity for students taking ASL, but it is much more than that. It acknowledges the many people that are deaf and hard of hearing in the local community and may give some students a feeling of belonging.
“I hope that it encourages the deaf kids in the elementary schools to not be ashamed that they’re deaf and to not feel bad about that,” Kamps said.
Deregnaucourt not only wanted to teach her students a lesson, but also promote inclusivity within the DHH community.
“The biggest thing with this assignment was bridging that gap between ASL and our DHH program and knowing that we are just one solid unit,” Deregnaucourt said.
