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Here are some general questions about how to teach writing to deaf children in Kenya:
How do I teach my children that KSL and written English (and Swahili) are different languages with their own grammars?
What are some strategies for teaching writing?
What are some writing projects that might get students interested?
How do I teach my children that KSL and written English (and Swahili) are different languages with their own grammars?
Teachers of the deaf have a common complaint about teaching their children to write: students fail to grasp how a written language has its own grammar and that they cannot simply transcribe their KSL. Children need to be taught that ideas they express in sign language can also be expressed in a written medium, with different rules that must be followed.
Children will come to understand this through consistent repetition. Increase the exposure your children have to written English and continually translate it so that your children see that written English can contain ideas that are expressed in a different structure in KSL. Furthermore, introduce your children to the idea of a language and teach them that different languages have different rules. It can be useful to write on the board, "KSL, English, Swahili" and show how ideas are represented in each of the three languages.
Emphasize to your children and fellow teachers that this translation process is not a word-for-word substitution. Appropriate translation means looking at the whole of a sentence and working to express the same idea as faithfully as possible in a different language. The best way to do this is to use what you know and use fingerspelling.
Swahili can be taught to deaf students, just like any other subject. It only requires that teachers distinguish between English, Swahili and KSL. Children may often confuse English with Swahili. However with repetition and continuous reinforcement, children will understand that languages have their own rules; this is the same way a hearing child learns that in the textbook version of Swahili, you don't mix English words and grammar.
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What are some strategies for teaching writing?
Language Experience/Writing is discussed in the Reading section. Basically, you and your students experience some event and then they write about the experience. They can write a story, draw a cartoon strip type story, write the sequence of events, or draw a picture and label it. This writing can be published and added to your classroom library for reading. Students can do this individually, work as a group, or as a whole class.
Dialogue Journals are a written conversation between a student and teacher. The teacher does not correct any grammar or spelling, but models the appropriate written language (English or Swahili). This method is most effective when the teacher and student write daily in the journal.
Journals and Logs can be used in any subject, but are easiest to use in GHC and Science. Records can be kept about observations, predictions, and outcomes. Students can document their feelings during an activity as well. Journals and logs are great for recording information visually such as graphs, charts, maps, and pictures.
Shared Writing is the process where a teacher writes a passage with students while thinking aloud about his/her process of deciding about grammar, spelling and punctuation. The teacher can also solicit ideas from the class about what to include in the writing and how to write it.
In Guided Writing, students are more independent than in Shared Writing. They can work in small groups, pairs, or individually. Students work together to draft, edit and produce a final draft.
Writer's Workshop can be the heart of a writing program. Students select topics of interest to write about in the future. They write, revise, edit, and publish their work. Students work at their own pace and work on pieces they are interested in. They usually keep a folder of "writing in progress" pieces.
Writer's Workshop begins with the teacher giving a mini-lesson on some grammar, spelling, or punctuation topic and usually ends with the Author's Chair where a student or two shares their writing with the class and gets feedback from peers.
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What are some writing projects that might get students interested?
Writing wall stories on posters or manilla paper and big books
Stories, essays, and poems
Retelling or rewriting stories
Class journal entries
Shared experiences (field trips, experiments, sporting events)
Weekly newsletters
Books or book reports
Letters to parents, teachers, or friends
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