A New Writer's Journey, Keep Revising and Revising...

How fast has the time flown? The path I traveled along is at the end of the journey as a renewed learner of this writing course — a reflection of what I have learned.

'In awe' are the words I continue to react when reading every single assignment in this course. Dr. Johnson surely has picked greatest reading assignments. I have not found any reading assignment that I find very dry or dull. I learned a lot each time. I have the ‘supposed to be for Quick Write’ journal that Dr. Johnson handed to me on the first day of the class. This journal now has a full of notes I treasure and reflect on for years to come. This journal is once again something I will cherish forever.

What I wrote:
Linda Christensen has full wisdom of teaching. The takeaway list:

• She teaches from the heart. 
• She empathizes every student’s learning struggles.
• She believes in the students’ abilities to be writers. 
• She encourages the students to do their best at their best.
• She pulls the students away from the traditional English instruction and pushes them into liking or loving to write more and forget about scary red markers. 
• She has a rigorous expectation of each student. 
• She has coolest teaching tools. 
• She makes time for each student. 
• Grading isn’t my thing either. I grade based on efforts and give credits when due.   
• Malcolm X’s quote is powerful. Even back in the 1960s, he has foreseen something that still rings true today. I love to read Malcolm X books when I was young, and I have always had respect for Malcolm X. 
• Shaughnessy’s teaching tool that I like is to be a scientist and find the patterns of grammar errors in each student. 
• Have the student master the most straightforward convention and then move on to the next one.
• Always do mini-lessons for grammars.
• Recognize the home language in each student’s writing rather than correct them as a grammar error. 
• Remember to praise the students’ writing before finding faults. 
• As a teacher, teach the writer, not the piece. 
• Finally, a perfect closure. Ask myself this question, “Will my words keep them writing or send them scurrying for cover?” 

Another familiar tool I learned is 6 Traits are what I used10 years ago, and it is good to see that it is still useful.

Another excellent teaching tool from Danling Fu has continued to amaze me. Speaking of the familiar parallel between Danling Fu’s Four Stages of Writing Development and Kristin DiPerri’s Bedrock Literacy Curriculum I mentioned in the previous blog, I saw Kristin DiPierri last week. I asked her if she was familiar with Danling Fu’s work. She replied that she has no idea and after listening to what I thought, she is so interested in reading Fu’s work.

Hybrid of two languages: I thought about the word: ASLish. To me, the word looks like it is ‘nearly ASL’ instead of two languages combined: ASL and English. In the definition of -ish, I find many ways to define ASLish: “belonging to”; “after the characteristic of”; “addicted to”; or “inclined to.” I prefer to keep these languages separate. Hybrid is out of the question when it comes to ASL. Meshing is not possible at all, either, when it comes to the language, but it is possible to mesh cultures between the Deaf and the hearing.

Something to keep in mind, Fu reminds that the students can get carried away with learning the second language and wean out the native language. As Deaf person, it is impossible to wean out ASL while I learn English.

In closing, I would like to point out that it is a real shame that the monolinguists believe that losing the native language is a price the immigrants have to pay for wanting to live in the United States. It is embarrassing to say that it is something our U.S. President, Donald Trump, would probably tweet, “Resounding Yes! It is a price to pay for coming to the United States.”

The Rigorous Classroom, a High Expectation for my students

The Stewart readings were not as pleasant as the previous readings. Don’t get me wrong. It is not because I don’t like what I learned. I am merely overwhelmed with the complicated information. What makes it so complicated is DHH students, whose first language is American Sign Language, do not read, write or speak foreign languages. Most of DHH students didn’t learn their native language because they couldn’t hear their families speaking the language on a daily basis. Not only this but also, most of the time the parents didn’t know the sign language in their countries, either. As a teacher, I am trying to figure out how to integrate the valuable information I learned from Stewart in DHH classroom. I certainly have to figure out how to make the multilingual and multicultural work in this unique situation. I will not dismiss the importance of integrating the culture, language, and community into my lesson plans, but I find myself feeling challenged trying to process the information and make sense out of everything.

Stewart’s Keep it R.E.A.L has a great, simple, yet complicated teaching tool. In the areas of relevant and engaging, he pointed out that we, as teachers, cannot assume we know what students are interested in and be sure to make them feel engaged in learning. I agree with him that we have to ask questions and lead a discussion to see what they are interested in. As a contemporary ELA teacher, I believe in asking students questions and discussing with students at the beginning of the year to see what their interests are and what will motivate them in to write and read before I decide the year-long curriculum. Also, I often ask them questions after every unit or lesson plan to collect pros and cons feedback.

Stewart’s bilingual theory is very helpful because it reminds me to ask students who came from other countries questions about their language and culture. I agree that it will make them feel included in my classroom. What challenge me is how to integrate the “bilingual’ concept into my lesson plan because they are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Their first language usually is American Sign Language. They may not feel included culturally and linguistically at home because they didn’t have a good communication with their own families. However, I believe that the students should have the opportunity to learn everything that they may have missed at home.

I agree with Stewart when he emphasizes we still need to affirm students’ culture and language identities. I can only imagine how lost the DHH students feel because they feel like they identify themselves as Deaf persons away from their own cultural and linguistic identities. I could help to bring them back to where they really belong to and at the same time, they can appreciate the multilingual and multicultural learning experience. Pahl and Roswell’s Conceptualizing Artifactual Literacies are amazing perfect tools for DHH students to be able to share their own cultural background and experience through their artifacts. DHH students rely on visual aids, and this is a perfect way to ‘elicit stories to open up the students’ home experience and enable the teachers to access communities that may not be visible within schools.’ (Stewart). Anything to link the motivation in writing, reading, learning, and communicating is the way to go!

The reader response theory is something I want to make a habit to use in my classroom every day. I truly believe it is the best way to elicit the DHH students into writing, thinking, signing, and reading. Stewart made it clear that reader response is a foundational principle of R.E.A.L. Instruction so the theory definitely is a takeaway. I admire Louise Rosenblatt’s metaphor about including contemporary literature with the classics in order to connect to reader’s experiences, “the poem”. When she said it is important to continue and evaluate our curriculum library and assignments with a critical eye, I feel relieved because that is what I do every year. I often wonder if I am on the right path. Thanks to Rosenblatt, I am on the right path.

The word I learned from the professional development workshop I attended at the beginning of the school year was ‘rigorous’. Our school’s new Curriculum and Instruction principal is awesome because she brought something I strongly believe in, a high expectation for all of the students. She used the title, “Rigorous Classroom” and explained what the word, “rigorous’, really meant. Many of us thought of it as strict, but in fact, it means high expectation. Likewise, in the Stewart Chapter 2, the statement from Beers and Probst strikes it true, “Rigor is not an attribute of a text, but rather a characteristic of our behavior with the text… [It] resides in the energy and attention given to the text, not the text itself.” Another point Stewart made is right, we cannot allow students to get by or get away because these lessons might be difficult. We need to encourage them to keep going writing and reading constantly including doing homework with high expectation attitude.

My philosophy related to homework is I don’t believe in giving homework because students have their own lives at home. They need a break from 8 hours of schooling. Why should I add more hours to their personal time? However, because Stewart made a good point about consistency of practicing, I need to reconsider my philosophy of homework.

Teaching the students the ability to engage in critical thinking, evaluating ideas, creatively expressing thinking using linguistic repertoire in motivating and articulate ways are the key components I will carry close to my heart. I also like Stewart’s 5 simple rules and finally, nothing is too complicated about the rules. If I want my students to do things I expect of them, I have to be a role model. Above all, despite the confusion and complications, I may face, all of these tools I learned definitely are worth my time and energy. 

Bilingual English: ASL and English

Danling Fu hits it on the nose when introducing Four Stages of ELL’s Writing Development. It is exactly what the teachers of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) need to learn. The parallel between the Fu’s Four Stages and the idea of how to teach DHH English Language are similar. The only difference is that Fu focused on foreign students only.

There is no research to prove that Fu’s Four Stages are exactly what works for DHH students. However, through the experiences, I have been working with DHH students and the pieces of training I received from the Bedrock Literacy founder, Kristi DiPerri, I can see clearly that is what works best for DHH students. (www.bedrockliteracy.com)

The way Kristin DI Perri has taught me through the training I received from her using the Bedrock Literacy Curriculum is incredibly similar to Danling Fu’s Four Stages of ELL’s Writing Development. For example, Kristin Di Perri believes in allowing the students to be able to write expressing their thoughts freely through their first language, American Sign Language. Because ASL is not a written communication, there are symbols that can be used to help to write down what they already know how to sign but don’t know how to spell the word. It is called ASL Classifiers.

ASL Classifiers are signs that use handshapes. For example, to sign, “tree”, the handshape is 5 with an arm bend into L shaped and the elbow sitting on the back of the palm of another hand. The hand with CL:5 moves in a half arc back and forth quickly. See this video for visual aid. https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/TREE/5405/1.

For more information about ASL classifiers, check out athttps://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/classifiers/classifiers-frame.htm.

In writing activities such as quick write and/or daily journal, if a student knows the sign for a word, but she doesn't know how to spell it, she writes down, “I see CL:5 and it is so big.” Also, the students can draw a picture of the handshapes. When students complete their writing activities, the teachers have a mini one-to-one conference with the students. When they sign the words they don’t know how to spell, the teachers will help with the spelling. Then the students write down the words in printed English as part of vocabulary list activity.

For example: CL:5 = tree.

The cool thing about this activity is that the students can use reference by looking back to their previous vocabulary list for specific words they learned earlier.

The samples of a Deaf student’s quick write:

September 2017

December 2017


Like Fu’s Stage 2 of Writing Development: Code-Switching or Mixed-Language, the DHH students have proven successful at making the transition from using their first language using ASL classifiers into prints English words. As for Fu’s Stage 3: interlanguage, the students’ English syntax is still in the first language-mode, but the students are in progress in learning how to put them in order through daily mini-grammar lessons.

Not only this but also, there is another method I used with my students who are fluent in American Sign Language than in written English. As Fu mentions, the students express themselves better in their own native language. Also, by allowing them to use their native language, it reduces the cognitive demand when they write. I encouraged my students to do video clips in ASL first. Then, I have them watch their videos and translate them into written English. They can easily rewind and pause anytime they want when writing down what they said in the video clips. In the video clips, I see their full cognitive thinking process.

Before I read Danling Fu’s textbook, I have had my own doubts if these methods I learned from DiPerri and the idea of using ASL video first to help with writing skills ever worked. Right now, thanks to Fu, I can see that these methods are effective, regardless of requiring a lot of work and time-consuming. The results speak by themselves in the long run. There is no proven evidence to support the claim that DiPerri knew Fu's four stages, but it appears their research and conclusion align strongly.

The research related to teaching English to the DHH in Deaf Education is very limited. Many researchers on teaching strategies to the DHH are either not effective or not accurate. This has pushed me into wanting to find the best way to teach the DHH students English. I have tried so many things in four years of my English teaching experience. Through this course and reading Danling Fu’s Four Stages of ELL’s Writing Development, I see that there are many important points that strike true for the DHH people. For example, Fu mentioned that some students may have limited first-language literacy. They are called Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE). Many DHH did not have a strong first language, either. They were mostly language deprived at an early age. Fu’s SIFE fits perfectly to identify DHH students’ educational backgrounds. Using Fu’s Four Stages of Writing Development is the way. Another point that I take away with me is that Fu discussed children need to have oral language proficiency first before they can express ideas in writing. BINGO! The parallel is the same as the Deaf Education. Although they don’t do oral language, they do sign language. Once the DHH students have sign language proficiency, then they will express ideas in writing better as well.

Fu’s advice, to start with the students can do and build the content knowledge through learning and writing in the first language, no matter what age or grade level they are in, is exactly what I do every day as a Bilingual English teacher. I strive to find the best tools in hopes to see the breakthrough in Deaf Education. I strongly believe I have found the answers I have looked for through Danling Fu’s textbook. Maybe I have discovered the golden key to the door of teaching English to the DHH students.

I believe I have rambled way too much on my thoughts on the reading of Danling Fu.

I want to add that the Martinez article is heart-touching and makes me feel angry at the racists all over the world. It is very cruel, inhumane of anyone, especially, the educators, to put their students down. Their job is supposed to teach and promote their students, not destroy them. Shame!

I will be sure to keep in mind to support my diverse students all the way like Martinez suggested. I definitely will be sure to ensure that all of my students have full self-confidence and strong self-esteem.

Evolving into a Digital Literacy Teacher

What a compelling argument!  My mind blew after reading Turner and Hicks’s articles about teaching English students digitally, 5 practices that destroy digital literacy.  I am thoroughly convinced by the authors. The questions: What is a truly digital learning and what is not? made me want to reconsider my lesson plans.  I realize what I have done. I did what Turner and Hick warned, that some of us thought we are teaching the students digitally, but we were not really doing it right.

I grew up learning the rigorous traditional way about English.  Picturing an image of my essay being edited with red markers, either you are right or wrong and re-do your essay until you get it right, is basically what I was brainwashed.  It is a no-brainer because every time I am so excited about presenting the new lesson plan, my students didn’t look excited and complained that they didn’t feel challenged. Clearly, I am teaching them the way I learned, a very dry-academic approach.

After reading these articles, I immediately thought of the professional development workshop I went to two weeks ago.  The professional development workshop was about STEM: Vocabulary and Language in American Sign Language. At first, I was not happy to attend to the workshop because it has nothing to do with English department and that I will be stuck from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. learning about something irrelevant, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.   Boy, was I wrong! I learned a lot that day. This workshop blew my mind. The biggest take away from the workshop was the Flipgrid app. The presenter introduced us a digital learning app, Flipgrid.

After feeling convinced that I need to reframe my thinking on how I develop my lesson plan, I decided to radically change my lesson plan.  I decided to try Flipgrid in my English class. What a head-turning! I can see how excited my students were about using Flipgrid. My lesson plan was ASL Presentation/ASL Storytelling.  At first, they were to create the slideshow on their presentation topic and then do the presentation in front of the class. I realized that I didn't use digital literacy. Then, I changed the plan by having them doing the presentation using video in Flipgrid.  After creating the video, they also get to watch other students’ videos and make comments. The students get to use emoji to mock other students’ mistakes. I can see the huge difference in their learning experience. They are making their learning more fun on their own without me having to make an effort to make their learning experience a fun one.  Second, I also used Storybird for those students who chose to write poems and short story. They get to create and design their own mini-books. They didn’t like it and said it is not student friendly so I tried another app called Book Creator. The most interesting thing is that their faces lightened up when I introduced them into using an app to spice up their work.  That is what digital literacy looks like. I can’t wait to introduce them to more fun learning experience.

I envy today’s Post Millennial generation for having an adventurous education which is far better than I had during my Generation X period especially with today’s advanced technology.

In my earlier blog, I said that it was a big responsibility as an English teacher.  However, for this blog, it is a big commitment to invest my time to learn how to be a digital literacy teacher.  

Will Richardson was mentioned in the Turner/HIcks Chapter 2.  I was surprised to see his name because I am following him on Twitter.  He has one most brilliant mind. A very radical thinker.

The podcast has a wonderful transcript so I could read the interview with Danah Boyd.  One thing that strikes me is that the letter of her first name and last name were both in lowercases.  I wondered why. Also, another thing I have learned from her is that she did not like to be around people and that she likes to socialize people online better.  Often, I would tell my students that it is a bad thing. Now, I think I better reconsider what I tell my students. Maybe, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.  Maybe, I can teach my students to keep their lives in balance. I like that she asked herself often, “what kind of relationship do I want to have with the internet.”  It will help my students to be aware of their intentions.

My Educational System Ideology

The articles I read have changed how I view myself as an English teacher. Who would have thought that I have a big responsibility as an English teacher? I certainly did not. I took my job for granted. I have no clue how important my job is because as an English teacher, I have work to do! To do the work is a huge responsibility. The responsibilities are heavy and burdensome. I am stunned and am trying to put all the information together.

I am referring to the “In Stories They Tell” article on the main responsibilities as an English teacher. 1. To ensure that I teach the morals (the right things to do) to my students; 2. My job is to teach my students how they can argue intellectually through print and digital writing; 3. My job is to be sure that my students are able to see each reason in different perspectives with an open-minded attitude. Like Turner and HIcks mentioned that argument increase intelligent and compassionate conversation with people who immerse the disclosure of a topic; 4. As a teacher, I want to see my students be able to know how to write in all kinds. Depending on the audience, purpose, and situation, Turner and Hicks explained how important it is for the students to write in a different mode and media. 5. It is a chunk of information on my mind that I crave to share with my students all at once, but unfortunately, it is not possible to share such important information overnight. This is beyond my control, however, as an English teacher, I only can start to teach them right now and things will flow over time.

Where do I start? Which one do I start with first? I am overwhelmed with the idea of having huge responsibilities as an English teacher. A job I once thought was simply teaching my students how to write and read well. I no longer think that way and I take my job seriously.

I picked up the idea of having a responsibility as a teacher from “In Stories, They Tell” article. In 1964, Malcolm X envisioned an image of what a newspaper should do: Be responsible. He did not realize how right he was back in 1964. He knew exactly what he was talking about! Look at today’s media, beyond irresponsible, exactly what Malcolm X envisioned. Also, I am stunned when to learn how important it is to be sure that the Black youth to be able to encounter the constant badgering from the media because of the color of their skin. To encounter the constant badgering, they can write to speak up their minds and stand up for what is right. That’s my job to ensure that all of my Black students are able to do that. Not only this but also, it applies to all of the students with different genders, races, and disabilities.


This photo, “Our Education System” reflects my educational system ideology. My ideology is to educate my students based on common senses. I am to adapt, adjust, and modify the curriculum to fit each student. I could not fathom why highly educated people can’t think of a simple concept of what’s best education system for everyone. There is no such One Size for All. I always admire and appreciate Albert Einstein’s simplicity of thinking.

There are brilliant resources I have picked up from the readings: Turner and Hicks have convinced me to agree that I should teach my students the importance of digital argument. Christensen shared wonderful tools I can use to show my students to keep revising until my students get it right. Allsides.com website has given me a better picture of an image what unbiased media look like. I can imagine what my students will think and they will think about how easy it is to understand what unbiased news looks like. I am far impressed with Allsides.com because I like that they allow me to decide what I want to read and what to ignore. Also, it is a perfect place for my students to research related to Baker-Bell, Stanbrough, and Everett’s Pedagogy of Healing lesson plans when assigning my Black and all other races students writing assignments.

Baker-Bell, Stanbrough, and Everett’s article got me thinking about the identity marker activity. At first, I didn’t understand what identity marker was until I checked this website http://www.sidewaysthoughts.com/blog/2013/08/sniffing-your-identity-markers-who-do-you-say-you-are/. 

In the Who Are You? section, I can relate to the feeling of how people decided about who I am. When they labeled who I am, I often correct them immediately. I always wonder why I felt the need to correct my identity. Edward Gorey’s powerful quote gave me an idea why I felt the need to correct my identity. Thanks to Mr. Gorey, he got me thinking about my preference.



There are two identities I prefer to be called: Deba, personally and a teacher professionally at school. Even though, I was born with the name, Debbie Kay; I am a woman; I am a mother to my daughter; I am an English teacher; I am Deaf; I have Deaf family; I am a White; I am a German, and I graduated Gallaudet University. Personally, I prefer to be called Deba because that is exactly who I am. As a professional, I prefer to be called a teacher, not a woman, a girl, Deaf, White or a mother.  These are what my students often called me.  Immediately, I correct them that I am their teacher. 

Why do people find it easier to complicate things than to keep things simple? It is something I will never comprehend for as long as I live.

Do we really have a choice over what’s best education for ALL of the students?

After reading the assigned readings, a question popped up in my mind. Do we have a choice over what’s the best education for the students in all races and with or without disabilities? Except for “The Racial Justice” article, the other two articles I read outlined how white supremacy theory had and continued to design the public education and standardized tests for only the “white students.” I hope that NCTE has recognized the minority (rather than just the race) equality of high-stakes standardized tests. When reading CCSS standards, I can see that they are generally for white, Ivy-league type of educated students. However, because of my high expectation and strong belief, I do believe that anyone can pass the high-stakes standardized tests only if these tests are not directly biased for white, rich, educated parents with children. The public educators need to revisit and re-design the “bias” standardized tests to “unbiased” standardized tests for ALL students.

For example, when doing the norm-referenced testing, the test takers should be specifically selected from all areas such as all races, family income, neighborhood, educational levels of parents, type of disability, and access to resources. Not only this but also, the importance of the schools and the teachers’ positive attitudes toward believing in all students’ abilities to “master abstractions’, regardless what Stanford Professor Lewis Terman said. Linda Christensen believes in her students, so do I. All it takes is all kind of communities to work together to make this happen. While I respect Au’s idea of restorative assessment and transformative assessment and that the teachers need to have a restorative understanding along with transformative strategies and skills to help students to manage to pass the standardized tests. I do not think this is the answer to the real problem. An answer to the real problem with the biased high-stakes standardized tests is that they did not have proper norm-referenced test takers I mentioned above, this needs to be changed for once and all. Sound so simple, Correct? No, there will always be more complicated issues arise related to change the high-stakes standardized tests. Only if there are people who like to solve the problem in a simple conception, the real problem will finally be solved. Do we have a choice in this matter? Heck, no.

In all those years as a student learning and currently as a Teacher teaching, the subconscious effect of white supremacy in the school textbooks and the high-standardized tests never occurred in my mind. After I read the word, white supremacy, an image related to the KKK came across in my mind. I have heard, read, and watched a lot about the KKK when growing up. I believed KKK is all about racial hates among the Confederate States in the South during the Civil War. What I didn’t realize is it still is very much alive, even the whole educational system still is being controlled by the white supremacy just like how President Trump runs the Congress and possibly how the newly elected Justice Brett Kavanaugh will factor his final decisions in the Supreme Court. In Au’s article, Mr. Au discussed how the high-stakes standardized tests were developed intentionally as the weapons towards the students (communities) of color, immigrants, and poor to conclude how superior the white race has been and is. To see the whole picture as truth is a rude awakening to me and my teeth are clenched with a disgusted feeling.

I was taken aback by Stanford Professor Lewis Terman’s analyses on the “feeble-minded” and “mastering abstractions” among the ethnic groups such as African-Americans, Spanish-Indians, and Mexicans. I see the very same for the Deaf that occurred after the 1880 Milan conference. It was the Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf conference (1) where and when the conference delegates voted for the oral-only method, as opposed to the sign language method, as the primary method of instruction of the Deaf. The vote has a profound impact and destroyed the Deaf education. By banning sign languages, the deaf children were denied and fully deprived of early language acquisition and development through sign language. By language deprivation, many deaf lost educational privileges so badly that they were labeled feeble-minded after years of lack of access to first language use, lack of proper Deaf Education, and lack of trained teachers of the deaf among other untrained support professionals. It makes my blood boil when the professionals diagnosed the Deaf children's learning process as a defection by the deafness itself. Being Deaf is and will never be a problem, to begin with, if a Deaf baby has full access to his or her first language to express and acquire the learning environment any child does at home and the school.

Speaking of "feeble-minded," the name has been linked to the Deaf Education for a very long time since the 1800's. Let me share with you a few of many examples of state school titles to help you to catch on what I meant by this.

American Asylum for the Education of Deaf and Dumb Persons 

Currently is called American School for the Deaf

Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind

Currently is called Gallaudet University

Minnesota Institute for Defective (Deaf, Blind, and Feeble-minded)

Currently is called Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf

Washington School for Defective Youth 

Currently is called Washington School for the Deaf 

If you wouldn’t mind, fill in my shoes and see from my perspective, read this article to see how the prominent doctors were thinking, intellectually when discussing what’s the most appropriate word to rename the Minnesota State School. When reading, my stomach churned and clenched my teeth in anger. For your information, the dialogues among the doctors are not a new “news” for us, the Deaf community Even still in 2018, a large majority of Medical Professionals still think that way when it comes to Deaf Education. President’s Address, Frankfort meeting,1891
https://mn.gov/mnddc/past/pdf/90s/91/91-CCN-ACR.pdf

This article is about a pleading from Clarke School for the Deaf Principal for better instruction and after-school care for feeble-minded deaf students. Reading the word feeble-minded repeatedly in this article is a stomach-churning, and I don’t want to think about what the Deaf people had to endure during that time.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM191710041771406

Here’s another article (another example) where the words, “feeble-minded” and ‘backward”, are used to identify the deaf students in Montana. Ugh.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44464705?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents

When Francis Galton invented eugenics, it has hurt the Deaf community greatly because Alexander Graham Bell adopted the eugenics in his oral-only method theory of Deaf Education. Back to Alexander Graham Bell’s (AGB) destructive oral-only method theory of Deaf Education related to the eugenics link below and my previous blogs. It’s relevant to me that it all happened due to the underlying actions and decisions coming from the white, male supremacy. Let me share the excerpt of an article on AGB. (http://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/tree/535eee797095aa000000025f)

“Graham Bell’s support of oralism was tied to his belief in eugenics. In 1883, Alexander Graham Bell delivered an address to the National Academy of Sciences entitled Memoir upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race. In this presentation and publication, he discusses the high rates of Deaf-Deaf marriages, and how it increases the number of Deaf children through the passing on of generational Deafness. Alexander Graham Bell argues that this “phenomenon” was creating a Deaf race that shares a language and culture. He says: “Those who believe as I do, that the production of a defective race of human beings would be a great calamity to the world, will examine carefully the causes that lead to the intermarriages of the deaf with the object of applying a remedy.

He goes on to argue that the use of American Sign Language in regional residential schools, the development of Deaf social clubs and programs, and the exposure of young Deaf children to Deaf adults and administrators were encouraging the pattern of Deaf-Deaf marriages. Bell believed that by eliminating these factors, and instead using local oral education schools, Deaf individuals would assimilate into mainstream hearing society, and have more Deaf-hearing marriages, which would decrease the number of Deaf children born. He also argued that oral education would give Deaf individuals greater access to more opportunities in education and employment.”

For more reading, here is the link: https://www.rootedinrights.org/alexander-graham-bell-and-the-deaf-community-a-troubled-history/

Let me redirect my thoughts back to the Racial Justice Is Not A Choice article, Deaf people are in a very same boat as the Black in the field of education. Many deaf students did not pass the standardized tests due to several factors such as 1. the prolonged years of language deprivation; 2. Untrained teachers of the Deaf, and the support services professionals, Audiologists, Early Intervention Specialists, and the health care physicians who were taught and told Alexander Graham Bell’s oral-only method theory in the field of Deaf Education. Graham Bell’s theory was that all Deaf should learn to speak and go to oral school and stay away from the Deaf schools, American Sign Language, and the Deaf Community.), and lack of proper Deaf Education. Many Deaf students still are not able to meet the standard level of education. The Deaf Education has a long way to go, and I am determined, more than ever, to change the Deaf Education from a monolingual, white race (the white supremacy) to a multilingual, multiracial theory and practices to educate Deaf children. What choices do we have? I say we continue to educate and push for a bilingual and multiracial Deaf education for our visual learners (Deaf children).

References
(1) Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_International_Congress_on_Education_of_the_Deaf

Narrative Writer

Surprisingly, the fact Christensen mentioned, in general, English teachers consider writing a narrative essay a child-play for high school students.  What an attitude!  As an English teacher, I find this viable to start with for my language deprived high school students  Christensen made sense when she encouraged students to move up their narrative writing skills after capturing the skills and then study other authors' construction styles.

Playing with language is fun! Christensen repeatedly emphasized how important it is to let students play with the language after learning how authors construct their work.  Not only this but also I like when she suggested that to write narrative stories will build community and connect their lives to the curriculum.  She made more sense that the method of sharing stories are to bust the myth of our society and increase feeling safe to take academic risks.

I tagged a lot of the pages with notes in the book because I definitely want to use those ideas for my classes!  I am feeling so excited and hope that they will bring the best out of my Deaf students.  Speaking of one topic related to social injustice.  I thought of Brett Kavanaugh and I discussed him for the quick write session. One of my female students mentioned that Brett has a "UGH" at the suffix of his last name.  She said it was a perfect fit last name for Brett.  I laughed at her for her sense of humor.  I really enjoyed the discussion and what I learned from Christensen did work very well.

Christensen's suggestions to use the past, current, and ongoing issues to go at parallel with classic novels and short stories as part of a writing assignment.  What a great idea!

My favorite teaching philosophy of Christensen's is she does not grade the papers, but to give them credit for their efforts and show how much they work on their essays through revision and edit.

Christensen focuses a lot on poverty and racial difference while I am not in the same boat.  However, I am in a similar situation with the poverty part, but as for the students, they are more about being Deaf than their race.  For example, Deaf students faced discrimination based on their hearing loss in employment, education, and society.   One of the narrative essays Christensen's students wrote used a word that strikes me is "handicapable."  How true!  Most of the Deaf people hated the word, "handicapped."  The Deaf community prefers to be called disabled than handicapped.  After reading a student's story, I will go for "handicapable."

Michelle Kenney's Politics of Paragraph strikes me the truth behind 5 Paragraph rule.  Almost daily, my Deaf students would ask me repeatedly, "How many paragraphs do I have to have?"  I told them they need the basic 5 Paragraph to start with.  They still did not get it because they would ask a very same question again and again.  I felt like cringe them and say, "Please stop asking this question because it drives me crazy!"  Thanks to Michelle, I know I am not only one!  I enjoy how much she uses food as metaphors to writing tools.  Now, I know the complete truth that there are not very many good English teachers out there right now because they are so stuck to traditional English teaching methods.  Not everyone thinks like the Ivy League students.