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