Fortunately, MCC is all about character building and stretching and sucked me in with a 'social worker' job title which really should have been 'substitute teacher with other random duties.'
I've come to find that my fall-back 'teaching tool' (which might make a lot of teachers cringe) is hangman. The game.
1. Deaf people hear with their hands.
- For example, when a student is running the game, they face the board and finger-spell the letters down by their legs or close to their stomachs where no one can see them do it. When I play I spell it out in my head, saying the letters to myself and counting on my fingers. That has no meaning for them, but finger spelling helps them to 'hear' it, so to speak.
- I've also found this to be true when they read. Most older deaf students sign the words as they are reading to be able to comprehend a text. If they come across a word they don't automatically recognize as having a sign, they finger-spell and then make an 'Oh, OK, I get it!' expression and continue on.
2. Sign language has its own grammar and syntax.
- One girl wanted to put a phrase on the board and she pulled me aside and signed 'mi mamá en amor' which literally means 'my mom in love.' I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but I knew the other students would. I asked someone later and she told me it meant 'I love my mom.'
- I was playing the phrase 'Yo amo Nicaragua' (I love Nicaragua). The students had gotten to '_ _ am_ Nicaragua' and they said 'El amo Nicaragua' (he I love Nicaragua) and then 'Mi amo Nicaragua' (my I love Nicaragua) and much later finally said 'Yo amo Nicaragua.' The way to communicate 'He loves, I love, she loves, we love, they love' is all based on the same sign, but they only learn one way of writing it, which is in first person present tense. A little complicated to explain in English, but fascinating.
