Welcome to Module 4, !

11. Deaf readers use eye gaze to elicit participation

Eye contact is very important when reading to deaf children. If you look away, they’ll think you’re not paying attention. Research has shown readers use two kinds of eye contact during reading sessions: individual gaze and group gaze. Your physical placement as described in Principle 2 will affect how you use eye gazing.

12. Deaf readers engage in role play to extend concepts

Research has revealed that deaf readers often act out parts of the story to help clarify meaning. They use body shifting to indicate different characters and mime the different actions. For example, a deaf teacher who was reading The Three Little Kittens to a group of preschool deaf children noticed that the children weren’t following the story. So she used body shifting and mime to indicate the kitten characters that were tracking mud into the house. Then she brought the children into a role-play by “becoming” the mother cat and scolding the kittens.

Give Me Back My Book 

Watch the book's video, written by Travis Foster and Ethan Long. 

Give Me Back My Book! 

Watch the video of the live reading above. 

Give Me Back My Book

Watch explainer video No. 1 above. 

What Did You Notice?

Now, let's read it again! 

Note how the body shifting involves only the reader whereas the role-play brings the child into the activity. Role-play can be incorporated by reacting to the child as if he/she were one of the characters or asking the child to pretend to be one of the children in the activity. Role-play can be incorporated by reacting to the child as if he/she were one of the characters or asking the child to pretend to be one of the children.

Practice: Take a look at some pages & practice reading aloud these pages while using body shifting to convey each character.

Deaf readers use ASL variations to sign repetitive English phrases

Many predictable books for young children have phrases that are repeated over and over again. For example, “He huffed and he puffed and he blew the house in.” When deaf readers read these repetitive phrases, they don’t always sign them the exact same way. Children, therefore, are exposed to a variety of ways to sign the concepts, while seeing the English text remain constant in the book.

Roll Over! A Counting Song

For instance, in the story Roll Over! A Counting Song by Merle Peek, the chant “Roll over! Roll over!” is repeated 10 times as each character in turn rolls off the bed. When a deaf mother read this to her son, she pointed to the English text, which was the same each time, but then signed the text in various ways. Expressing the same concept in different ways maintains interest and attention.

It also illustrates that there is no direct word-to-word correspondence between English and ASL, and that there are several ways to convey English meaning in ASL.

Within ASL there may be several different signs for the same word or construct. Another way is to fingerspell the word or construct. You could also use the same ASL sign but add body language differences or even body shifting to it to add variety.

Deaf readers provide a positive and reinforcing environment 

Principle 14 says that deaf readers provide a positive and reinforcing environment.

Reading is supposed to be fun. It’s also supposed to be interactive, with readers constructing meaning from the text. Research with deaf parents shows that they provide a positive, interactive environment. They don’t always look for “correct” answers from the children during reading. Rather, they themselves simply model the correct signs and use correct explanations.

As you can see from the cartoon, how we were read to makes an impression on many of us.

Deaf readers expect the child to become literate

A study done by K.M. Whitesell (Whitesell, K.M. (1991). Reading between the lines: How one deaf teacher demonstrates the reading process. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, Ohio.) examined an effective teacher to determine why this teacher was so successful in teaching children how to read. The researcher went into the classroom again and again, observing what this teacher did. In the end, after comparing this teacher’s behaviors with others, the researcher concluded that the only difference was that this teacher expected the children to become literate. And they did! How we convey our belief (or lack of it) in children’s capabilities can have a major impact on their belief in themselves.

You have now completed the last seven principles and would like to have you see them working together with the other eight as a methodology.

Watch, Caps for Sale, and look for examples of all the 15 Principles. The handout once again, is available for your review. After viewing the video, you will respond to your reflection questions on the next page.