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.

Why not? Deaf people can write poems.

After reading about Linda Christensen, I was inspired to find out that she is from Oregon, my birthplace. I easily picture the images of Grant and Jefferson High School buildings. They are huge and old, but beautiful. Plus, it is very true that the city of Portland population is full of diversity because when I used to teach at Portland State University, I have met a lot of students of all kinds.

Christensen's teaching strategies surprised me with many cool tools that I never thought of. I am excited about using these ideas for my lesson plans. I really hope I could get my students to enjoy sharing and learning from each other. The school where I teach at has an average of 4 to 5 students per period. It is a very small school and everybody knows everything about everybody. However, I trust that there are details from sharing poems that might surprise them about who they are on the inside.

I admire how Linda thought thoroughly about how to work with students.  She emphasized on when teaching, learn "how to gain sights in students' knowledge about literature and history" and encourage them by "sharing laughters and tears, sharing their lives give other students hope, courage, strategies, and allies as they wrestle with a hard time."

I snickered at the way Linda played with the language. Who would have thought of the words, language weightlifting? I weightlift two to three times a week at the gym. Language weightlifting gives me an idea that it takes time to build up writing good poems like it takes time to build a mass of lean, dense muscles.

When spotting the keywords Linda used, workhorse, to represent verb as a workhorse of the sentence, all sudden, my flashback of my mechanic Deaf dad popped up. The words made me think of how much he loved to fix hot-rod engines. As he only has three daughters, it didn't stop him from teaching us about cars. He would go as far as explaining about the key of having a powerful workhorse to make the best hot-rod engine. Clearly, I was clueless, so he stood up at 6'0 feet tall and weigh at 200 lbs in front of me.  As a little, wee kid looking up at him with my head bent backward against the back of my neck, he lifted his thick arms at 90 degrees revealing big muscular biceps and then he shouted at a high-pitch.  It was so loud that the forceful vibration startled me. What a perfect example of how to describe a powerful and loud the hot-rod workhorse was like.

The flashback of Dad's hot rod gave me a vivid idea of how important verbs are when writing poems. Like the hot rod, the verbs will deliver the reader to picture an image of a forceful vibration when reading the poem.

Christensen mentioned how important it is to milk for more information out of the students once they start sharing their ideas. I often feel at a loss at how to encourage them to share more ideas. Inspired by Linda's idea, I will use her tricks of milking the ideas out of the students by keep asking for more specific information out of general ideas they share at first.

Another fabulous idea by Kati Macaluso made me want to preserve it for my lesson plan. She shared her learning experience from her teacher suggesting to go places to capture a poem.  Kati's metaphor of orange juice strikes me about the fact that poetry has been forgotten by our new generation. I notice that poetry is not as popular as it used to be.  I will ensure that I do not forget how important poetry is to our writing experience.  To create a great poem, I agree with her that one must works in the space between experience and language. Both Kati and Linda shared many great tools for me to use when teaching poems.

Writing a poem is not easy because often it involves sound such as rhymes, alliteration, homonyms, and so on. Poems have so many rules that students may be overwhelmed to learn, but thanks to Linda, I will teach what she suggested. The basic idea of a poem includes the power of verbs, power of specificities, and power of repeating lines. This conception of a powerful poem is so basic that I will definitely feel very comfortable to teach my students what to focus on more than ever.

Sharing away a very powerful poem by the fourth generation of Deaf family poet, Colin Thomson, with you. Deaf persons can write beautiful and powerful poems. I strongly believe they had wonderful teachers like Linda Christensen, who deeply believed in her students' ability to write.https://limpingchicken.com/2013/01/11/poem-if-i-told-you-i-was-deaf-would-you-turn-away-by-colin-thomson/ I hope to be an example as a Deaf English teacher who re-images the language art classroom for the Deaf like Linda Christensen one day.

A journey into my own thoughts

Sharing and Responding article: 
As an English teacher, I often ponder the editing process and which tool is the most optimal ways to edit? Given English as my second language, I was led to believe, when it comes to editing, there is one and only tool. The tool I’m referring to is a 1. Grammar (verb tenses, sentence structures, and spelling); 2. Organization of the paragraphs (flow of contents and presentation); and 3. Word choices (suggest different words). After reading the Sharing and Responding article, I learned there are several editing tools and techniques. For some unknown reasons, when I see and read the word, edit, it cringes my stomach and made me nervous (hands sweating) when I edit my students’ paper or when someone asks me to edit his/her paper. The tool for giving and getting feedback will enable me to provide various kinds of responses instead of limited to the tool of grammar edits, an organization of paragraphs, and sentence structures. Instead of the word I see and read (edit), this word, feedback, gives me the comfortable feeling of knowing someone is merely helping with ideas with honesty. I only can imagine my students feeling relieved if I announce them in a response to feedback instead of editing the papers. I know my students will feel much more comfortable when they see and read this word, feedback, rather than the ‘edit’ word. With the learned concept of feedback when editing, it will boost my confidence to give feedbacks more consciously. I’m reassuring myself to provide the feedback responses and with an open-minded attitude, I’ll listen to the writer/reader.

Out of these 11 response tools and techniques, I already relate my editorials, even without realizing it, to several of these response techniques and tools. I even actually use several of them when I edit my students’ papers. For example, I use the criterion-based feedback tool with my students and I can be lack of consciousness of how I provide feedback to them. If I had not provided the feedback more accuracy and cautious, they easily can put my students down.

The Movies of the Reader’s Mind technique is a deaf-friendly method because we, the Deaf readers, always picture the images in our mind while reading. There are some tools in the Movies of the Reader’s Mind I never thought of and it gives me a better idea of how to respond effectively. As for some kinds of responses I am unfamiliar with, but am willing to learn how to use them, I persuaded myself this way because Elbow and Belanoff mentioned that it is important to try all the kinds of responses depending on what kind of essay. There goes my open-minded attitude.

Since I am Deaf, the Voice technique does not apply to me because I am not familiar with sounds and how to identify those sounds to the feelings. However, I am willing to visualize the different sound tones in my mind what the paper says. It is still challenging for me because it is not natural for me. I could easily pretend to be hearing and speak in my mind as I read, but how can the reader listen to me?

The Metaphorical Descriptive tool may be one of the most difficult tools. How can I identify the feelings of each animal, shape, and/or color? As for clothing and weather, I can easily identify based on my common sense, but I am not 100% confident and familiar enough with the relationship between feelings and each of these categories. Speaking of another difficult kind of response, Skeleton feedback and Descriptive outline give me the uneasy feeling if I am to try and use this kind of response. I am not an expert at editing or giving professional feedback. It requires a lot of my confidence and experience to use that kind of response. I am not there, just yet.

What I learned a lot about the kinds of responses is that I should try to sign aloud to myself and to the reader as often as I could because I completely agreed with Elbow and Belanoff that to sign aloud does help me recognize where I want my paper to go. It is a self-criticized by nature as well as help the reader to recognize where I am going especially with my thinking and tone/voice. The idea is wonderful, yet, it is imperative to recognize that American Sign Language (ASL) and English are both different languages and I could easily overlap these languages which are a big no-no especially with grammar structures. I probably could use ASL to sign aloud to see what kind of tones and where my thoughts are at, but when it comes to the grammar structures, I will have to avoid using ASL.

TED video clip: 
The video clip called "The Urgency of Intersectionality" by TED inspired me. TED is one very useful resource. I am thankful that their videos are closed-captioned. The video clip has put me in a speechless position after Kimberly Crenshaw mentioned the names of these people that I am not familiar with. When Ms. Crenshaw asked the audience to stand up if they know who these names are, I was surprised to see many people know who they are. I feel awful that I didn’t even know one of them! After she identified who they are, I was floored. Yes, I do recognize these kids from the media, but I didn’t know their names. I was awed even more when many of this audience knew the black boys and none of them knew the black girls who were killed by the police. I was appalled by Ms. Crenshaw’s activity in all her workshops, most of the workshop participants had recognized the black boys’ names, not the names of these black girls. I told myself, “Wow, that is a serious problem! We need to realize how we think and how we choose to remember.” When she mentioned that White women and Black men are far more recognized than Black women, I was floored again. How can people simply forget this particular group? What about Rosa Parks? Everyone knows Rosa Parks. It does not make any sense to me.

After listening to Ms. Crenshaw, I looked into my attitudes and thoughts as a White, Deaf woman. I simply followed what others were doing for years. Now, after many workshops on cultural diversity and reading this article, I’m much more aware of my own surroundings and be more conscious of those people I follow.

Culturally Relevant In Everything

What a truly powerful article in "Dear White Teacher”. The title grasped my eyes loud and bold and when I was reading it, my mind was figuring out what to expect at the end of the article. Mrs. Lathan (author) knew how to target to a right audience. The author's experience with these faculty members who are White reminded me of when I worked, as a Teacher Aide, with a small group of deaf students who were mainstreamed at a regular public high school. Almost all if not all hearing teachers, counselors, and support staff had relied on me, as if I was a Deaf Interpreter, to relay the spoken/signed order English to American Sign Language (ASL) to the deaf students. More than often, when I was “teaching” the deaf students, I felt that I am their classroom teacher instead of a classroom aide. The issue ( challenge) was all about the ASL fluency among the hearing teachers and support staff and me as a deaf teacher whose ASL is my primary language. They often tell me that the deaf students learn and understand quite a lot more from me due to my ASL fluency as compared to their ASL which is the second language to them. Moreover, the hearing teachers often feel that the deaf students do not listen to them because they are hearing (non-Deaf). And that the deaf students will listen more to the Deaf teachers since they feel more related to the Deaf adults (teachers). I often was tempted to point out that, "If I had to take additional English classes to read and write better, therefore you should have taken additional classes in ASL and Deaf Studies to better understand the deaf students’ ASL.” 

Seattle is my home! The article of Students Kneel took place in Garfield High School, one of the largest black high school in Seattle. The picture of Garfield High School below defines its beauty more than I can describe here. I remember when I stood in front of the school building, I was in awe and totally inspired by the center part of the building. It reminded me of a royal crown.

The newest Nike advertisement, having Colin Kaepernick as the face of the company, is bold and straightforward. I applaud Nike’s action to tell America that racism and social injustices are simply unacceptable. Nike’s executive management team had a clear vision and plan when they decided to have Mr. Kapernick to be the face of their company. I, myself come from Pacific Northwest (born in Oregon and grew up across the Columbia River in Washington). Nike’s message displays their belief in diversity, racism, and social justice. When I was reading the article, I rolled my eyes up and said, "There you go again, idiot, are you totally blind or what?" "You" who? I was referring to these traditional, conservative, stubborn nosed old-schoolers especially the “Baby Boomer” white men generation who just need to go for once and all. They are denying or fail to understand that the America society has evolved over time. Nothing stays the same forever. Things change. Life changes. Words change. And the World changes. These Baby Boomers has been too busy fighting to keep the “White America generation” alive in spite what the America history has done toward Native Americans and Black Americans. They lack empathy and sensitivity of the evolving changes since World War II. Since we are trying to be culturally sensitive toward every race in this world, the Star-Spangled Banner needs to be revised. 

For example, the original sentence, "No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:"  I suggest changing "hireling and slave" to the "trespasser"? How about that? I don't see any harm to revise Star-Spangled Banner from time to time to reflect the changing America society. These questions often appear in my mind every time when I see Colin Kaepernick’s news.

Why are the media avoiding the issue of changing the merely few words themselves? Why the heck is everyone avoiding the real issue here? How can we be proud of ourselves if we fully understand what the National Anthem represents? We cannot continue this enabling behavior, just standing-by or to say nothing out of fear that our heads will be bitten off by these Baby Boomer generation who continues to deny the truth behind the changing society.

We need to embrace the facts and the truths instead of arguing the meaning behind these National Anthem words. I ask, "Let's re-word them and move on and we will not see any more kneelings.": As simple as it sounds?? Sadly, that we are making it so complicated. The issue here is “Without an open mind and soulful heart, no one will comprehend and perceive things clearly.”

Enough about those political issues which often gets us nowhere when there are so many disagreements.

The Winn/Johnson article got me thinking about the deaf and hard of hearing students and their academic achievements in the regular public education system. The article discussed the discrepancy of academic achievement gaps among the ethnic groups (minorities). How similar (and how true) these achievement gap issues are for the deaf and hard of hearing students. For example, the national and state standardized tests are basically biased.  The minorities including the deaf are bound to fail these tests.  

An article by National Association of the Deaf (NAD) will support points I have made about biased national and state standardized tests. https://www.nad.org/about-us/position-statements/position-statement-on-high-stakes-assessments-and-accountability/ 

One frequent and most misunderstood fact is that deaf and hard of hearing students, after they graduate from high school, read and write around the 3rd/4th-grade level because of their disability (hearing loss). The sad fact has nothing to do with their hearing loss, but all due to the hearing parents learning and fluency in ASL and failed to provide full communication and information access through sign language. 

For over 100 years, NAD has been trying to break through the barriers of the obstacles the deaf and hard of hearing children have in the public educational system.  Similar to the article I read, one néeds to be aware of what deaf and hard of hearing population need in order to achieve academically.

The authors said exactly the right things how to become culturally relevant teachers and how the school curriculums need to reflect the culturally relevant pedagogy, spaces, and practices for the Black, Hispanics, and Native Americans. It very much applies to the deaf people’s language (ASL) and Deaf culture and how it will be extremely helpful if everyone realizes this as well. Deaf people can write and read as equally as anyone. Some may be lousy at that, some may be an average at that, and some may be excel at that. To become a Deaf Education teacher, the teacher should not practice the low expectations misinterpretations of students’ hearing loss disability, and the cultural background and needs to happen in the classrooms. 

Back to the language deprivation issue within the deaf and hard of hearing population, I am sharing an article by Marc Marschark and other authors to see and understand why a majority of deaf students read and write below the 4th-grade level when they graduate from high school. The article explains what the deaf and hard of hearing students had endured and experienced learning in the classrooms in the public education system, and who is also completely responsible for those deaf children’s academic achievements other than their own parents’ accountability to provide a full access of communication at home.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4634639/.

Hope you learn more about the 100+ Years of Deaf Education and how it continually fail the deaf and hard of hearing students when the ASL has been deprived as the language of instruction after it was banned in 1880 (The Milan Conference). We, the Deaf teachers and leaders continue to argue and fight for the bilingualism in Deaf Education where the dual languages of ASL and English are the languages of instruction throughout the K-12 public education system. For more information on how sign language was banned during the 1880 Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf Conference in Milan, Italy.  https://www.verywellhealth.com/deaf-history-milan-1880-1046547 

What does it meant to teach writing in the accountability and digital eras?

First of all, before I address my response to three readings: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron, The Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing by NCTE, and Argument in the Real World: Chapter 3 by Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks, I realize there are more to teach and to write at the same time. To make a point to why I said that there are more to teach and to write at the same time, I am a second-year Secondary English teacher in a deaf school and a college student taking required courses in order to get a state Secondary English certificate.

After the readings, I picture myself needing to become a digital writer first before I can teach what the students need to know to be a great digital writer. I am fully aware that I do not have to be a great digital writer. I just need to know what makes a great digital writer. As Cameron said in her article that she believed we are born to be writers. I immediately agreed with Cameron and came up with the thought about Joy Luck Club book writer, Amy Tan, what she said. I once read her biography about struggling with writing English as a second language. She said that it took a lot of determination, self-discipline, and constantly practicing to become an excellent writer and she believed anyone can do it. 

English is my second language. My first language is American Sign Language because my parents are deaf, too. Fortunately enough, I grew up reading a lot of books and wrote a lot of personal journals. My mother always believes in a good education. I am fortunate to have such a determined mother wanting the best for me because she didn’t have that opportunity herself.

Reading Cameron’s article has promoted my inspiration and motivation in writing. She used the coolest techniques to encourage me to practice in each chapter. I like her quote very much, “Writing is about getting something down, not about thinking something up.” Another point she made that I completely related to the most is when she believes that it is a myth to have more uninterrupted time to write. Do find time to write is the best advice I ever had.

Now, to teach students to become digital writers is a whole another story. That’s something I am willing to learn at the same as a new, novice digital writer, which is a great tool for me to learn before I teach my students. To teach students to become a digital writer involves more teaching than writing in both ways, myself as a teacher and them as a student. For example, in NCTE article, it emphasizes a lot on what the teachers need to know and understand in order to teach. In the Real World chapter, the authors emphasize on how important it is to understand the declarative and procedural knowledge and how they are related to each other especially how important it is to know about copyrighted sources. The authors made a point of saying that every source you find online has a home. It hits me that there is a lot of structures I need to teach before letting my students write something online.

One big issue, these articles have not discussed the privacy issue related to adolescents. Not every school allows access to social media. I can say that for my school. They are very strict and protective of students’ privacy because some parents do not want their adolescents on the internet publicly. So how can I really teach my students to be digital writers at school if there are so-called “policy” that prevents me from teaching freely?

An Avid Writer's Introductory Video

View the short video clip of my writing journey.
Click this: An Avid Writer's Introductory Video