This project grew out of a concern over the limited number of resources interpreters have to practice interactive interpreting.  Given the prevalence that this type of interpreting has in both real-life situations and in national certification exams, it seems to be a significant gap worthy of attention.These scenarios attempt to give as realistic a situation as possible–showing a Deaf high school senior and her mother going through a series of meetings with officials at the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD).  Two of the scenarios include both the moth-er and daughter, so there is an opportunity to work with the challenges of having two Deaf participants in an interactive event.  This can be a great challenge, and for more information on it specifically, be sure to check out some of the resources listed in the last strategy on the next page.  In some of the situations, there were also situations of overlap–where both a Deaf and hearing person were talking at the same time.  That challenge, too, is addressed in some of the resources mentioned. Having the connected scenarios also allows interpreters to practice the process of preparing for an assignment.  On each page, there are links that you can click on which will take you to information can assist you in preparing for the assignment.   Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to be as prepared as possible before you begin working with the scenario.  In addition, there are links to summaries of each of the situations that you can use for preparation or for assistance in analysis.  On the next page, there are also suggestions for how to go about the process of using this resource.  They are, of course, merely options, and we hope that you will discover even more ways to use these resources. We hope that you find this resource to be both engaging and educational, and we wish you the best of luck in its use.

On behalf of those involved in this project,

Doug Bowen-Bailey

March 2002

Here are resources related to Narrative Skills – as some towards understanding other discourse genres as well.

The clip of the Coyote

Debbie’s Rendition of the Coyote Clip

A Clip of Quidditch

Debbie’s Rendition

Other Video Resources

• Goats, Trolls & Numbskulls: A Middle School Lecture on Folklore Genres
• Navigating Discourse Genres:? Parallel Texts in American Sign Language and English on Canoeing in the Boundary Waters

Social Literacy

Resources from the field of Speech and Language Pathology can be extremely useful in developing these social literacy skills. You may nave a Speech/Language clinician who is a part of the team who you can work with and get other ideas for how to support this work. (In the same way that you might tutor a student with the support of a teacher, you may work on social interaction with the support of the a speech/language clinician.)

• Resource on Fostering Turn-Taking Skills

Another suggestion for developing social literacy is including the student as an assistant teacher in ASL instruction for their peers.  For some students who are hard of hearing or use a cochlear implant, it may develop a higher regard for the use of sign language and provide a greater benefit for having an interpreter as part of the educational team. Additionally, it can help provide a role for the student that needs to focus on taking turns within the activities and clue students in to the ways that people need to wait for their turn.

• Learning is in the Details: A Curriculum for Teaching ASL in Primary Settings

Why Academic ASL Matters to Sign Language Interpreters

This is a presentation by Dr. Ben Bahan at StreetLeverage in Fremont, California in 2016.    The video of the presentation is presented as well as an English translation.  Though it takes more time to watch the ASL, I would recommend it is worth it to see such an excellent example of Academic ASL.

Dr. Bahan refers to the work of James Gee who is a social linguist and literary theorist who focuses on “Discourse” – differentiating between the primary Discourse a person learns in their family of origin and the “secondary Discourse” they learn in other settings.  (Which connects to the idea of BICS/CALP described below.  Read more about Gee’s work in his article “What is Literacy?”

Importance of Early Exposure to ASL

Henner et. al.  American Sign Language Syntax and Analogical Reasoning Skills Are Influenced by Early Acquisition and Age of Entry to Signing Schools for the Deaf.  Front. Psychol., 26 December 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01982 

This article shares research about the impact of the age of acquisition of ASL for students.   Importantly, it points out that early exposure to ASL is a benefit for both signing skills, but also cognitive development – which supports the acqusition of speech skills as well.

BICS/CALP

More information about Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills & Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency

• An article on BICS/CALP from the field of teaching English as a second language
• Information from Wikipedia on Professor Jim Cummins & BICS/CALP
• An ASL presentation of Kindergarten Readiness for Deaf students on ASLized.org

Learning English as a Second Language

The bottom graphic demonstrates what is often attempted for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students – which in part explains such poor results.

Academic ASL

• A blog supporting using ASL to developing BICS & CALP
• Resources from Gallaudet on ASL Composition
• ASL in Academics Lecture Series at Gallaudet
• Deaf Studies Digital Journal at Gallaudet University (The first journal published in ASL.)
• ASLized.org:  This is a site designed to the promotion of ASL and provides ASL texts in a variety of genres. 

A Video presentation of Dr. Raychelle Harris on Academic Discourse in English and ASL (Provided in ASL with English captioning)

The kick off lecture for the ASL in Academics Lecture Series

Use of Academic ASL in a High School Math Class

See the Mirrored Math resource.

Answers to Math Questions from Veditz

John Brooks, a Deaf math teacher from San Diego, explains how to do a number of different problems and processes in ASL.

A Lesson on Shapes

Sample interpretation of the Lesson

Doug’s reflection on the interpretation

First of all, for the context of the interpretation: I had seen the video once before all the way through and had helped prepare the lesson so I was familiar with the pattern blocks and their usage in a geometry lesson. I have also interpreted similar lessons in an actual classroom, so that familiarity was of great benefit for feeling ready. In doing my analysis, I watched it with no audio so that I could focus in on my own work, without the interference from the spoken English.

In thinking about the features that I saw in my own work sample, I have a couple of large overarching items which stand out – one focused on classroom management and interaction between teacher and students. The other focused on the content which is being taught.

In terms of classroom management, as we have been discussing in the course, the IRE structure is very present in this interaction and I was striving to try to make it clear of how. When it started, I felt that I was a little bit stuck in first gear. Working too fast to try to fit everything in. Some of my initial fingerspelling was too rapid (which we’ll talk more about in the next module) mostly based on my trying to manage that interaction and be sure that I was able to get in the teacher’s evaluation. There was some repetition on the teacher’s part, and I wonder, in hind sight, if it would have been better for me to reduce some of the repetition to slow things down at first.

In terms of the content of the discourse, the most significant piece for me was effectively using space to convey the ideas, both in terms of the process of creating patterns and in terms of discussing the geometric shapes. As mentioned before, one advantage I have is my experience interpreting in classrooms where pattern blocks are used, so I was able to quickly visualize both the shapes themselves, and the creative ways that students use them.

I also tried to have a variety of different spatial maps in a variety of orientations. While in class, I would have relied a lot more on the “Vanna White” model of interpreting i.e. pointing at the overhead to show the shape, without that, I felt the need to re-create the shape. It made for a more busy interpretation… (perhaps I was in second gear by then) but I think that the use of space really helped. For example, on the description of the regular hexagon, I think the repetition in the interpretation of the sign “equal” in all the same spots where I had showed “sides” was a relatively effective way to show that concept.

One spatial construct that I wish I would have done differently was at the end, when she gave directions that students could work as partners to create a joint pattern or as individuals to create separate patterns, my interpretation of both options occurred on my non-dominant side in the same spatial set-up. Given that this was a contrast – I think it would have been more effective for the spatial set-up to happen on the left and the right so the students would have seen more clearly that they had two distinct options to choose from.

There is much more in this work to consider, but for the purposes of discourse, I think those two main points are the ones which are most important to reflect upon.

Lecture on the Neuron

Extended Lecture on Neuron

Doug’s Interpretation

Example of Nigel Howard talking about communication through the nervous system

This was filmed for another project, but is an example of a very skilled Certified Deaf interpreter who is an expert in health care talking about similar physiological processes.

Here’s a list of articles that are relevant to the topics discussed in the workshop.

Resources Related to Educational Interpreting

The National Association of Interpreters in Education

The National Association of Interpreters in Education (NAIE) is a professional organization for interpreters in educational settings established in 2016.    http://naiedu.org/

More than Meets the Eye: Revealing the Complexities of an Interpreted Education

by Melissa B. Smith
http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/MTMEbookpage.html

View the Ph.D. Dissertation this book is based on here.

Dr. Smith did a lecture at Gallaudet University on this topic.

You can see all of the presentations archived by Gallaudet University Regional Interpreter Education Center here.

Understanding the Impact of Interpretability in Mainstream Classrooms

This chapter by Betsy Winston lays out the limitations for rigid understandings of interpreting in classroom settings.

Winston, B. 2004.  “Interpretability and Accessibility of Mainstream Classrooms,” In Educational Interpreting:  How it Can Succeed.  Gallaudet University Press.  See the article.

Articles about Educational Interpreting

New Paradigms in the Interpreted Classroom:  An article written by Doug Bowen-Bailey for the RID Views -(in press August 2014)

Ethical Choices: Educational Sign Language Interpreters as Change Agents

Perspectives from Gina Oliva

Dr. Oliva is the author of “Alone in the Mainstream” sharing her experience as an “only” going through mainstreamed settings – as well as some of her research about other deaf people who went through the mainstream in a similar way.

• Sign Language Interpreters in Mainstream Classrooms: Heartbroken and Gagged
  An article  on Street Leverage.  Check it out.
• K-12 Interpreters:  A Call to Arms for Sign Language Interpreter Programs
  An article on StreetLeverage.  Check it out.

Determining a Student’s Readiness to Successfully Use Interpreting Services

This is an article from Cindy Huff, a teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, about a framework for assessing if students are at a developmental level appropriate for benefiting from an interpreted education.

View the article

Language Acquisition

The link below has a presentation in ASL about the Common Errors of Young Children Acquiring Sign Language, helpful information in seeing what is normal language development.

Common Errors by Young Children Acquiring a Sign Language

Providing Access: New Roles for Educational Interpreters

By Bernhardt E. Jones, Ed.D., C.S.C.

Originally published in the RID VIEWS

Conflicts can, and do, occur when it is unclear as to the interpreter’s role at any given time. This function changes during the day, especially in the lower grades. I am suggesting (as has Winston) that the title, “educational interpreter” is too narrow, and, in fact, this position is a multi-faceted responsibility. If this is true, how do we separate the roles? How do we define what it is that we do and when?

A year ago Winston (Views) did a fine job in delineating educational interpreting responsibilities into three roles: interpreting, tutoring and aiding. Since then, Winston has discussed the notion that consulting is also a role that educational interpreters play. Consulting may be a new area that you had not considered before. But, think about all the times you have given your input in the school situation. How many times have you talked to parents? How many times have you explained “deafness” to others in the school? to students? to administrators? to regular education teachers? You may find that this list is long. Go to the dictionary or, better, go to the Web and search the word, “consulting” or “consultant” and see what you find. Do you fit into this definition during part of the time you are working in the school setting?

The public school educational interpreter is viewed quite often as a paraprofessional and, in fact, is categorized that way in many states. However, we can make the case that, although the interpreter does perform many of the duties of the paraprofessional, she/he also performs a duty that is quite different and requires separate and distinct knowledge and skills: interpreting itself. Are we not, then, more than an educational interpreter? Might we be, to use a term that Winston has expressed, an “Accessibility Specialist?” I don’t want to confuse the issue with additional terms for us, but think about the variety of tasks you perform. Perhaps we are not “just the interpreter,”but we are more than the interpreter.

Take a look at your day (or week or month, if you would like). Make a list of all the duties you perform. Try to think of everything that happens in your job. What do you do? How long do you do it? Make the list as long and comprehensive as you can. You should have a collection of everything you do. You may be surprised to see that you do quite a bit for the school and the students (both deaf/hard of hearing and hearing).

The Windmill Model

Note: The graphic has been updated since the article was written so it does not perfectly correspond to the article.

The next step is to draw your own windmill and categorize the duties/tasks that you have listed. Interpreting will include anything you do in the role of an interpreter. Tutoring will include all the tasks you do within that context. Aiding is a large and varied area or responsibility. Think of all the things you do in an aiding capacity. As discussed above, consulting is also an important role of the educational interpreter.

Isn’t this appropriate? A windmill spins in the wind and must be flexible (accommodating) in order to operate effectively and efficiently. If one of the blades is broken or damaged, the windmill will not operate properly. Are we like that?

I suggest that we are. With this model we can delineate our roles. When we are able to do that, we can better understand why dilemmas cause conflict. Conflict arises when we are not sure on which blade to categorize our dilemma. We are better able to handle conflict if we know the rules by which to address the conflict. When conflict arises, we know where it fits and, therefore, we know how to respond (how to “spin” our windmill). [I guess it depends upon who is blowing on our windmill.] The blades of the windmill can be viewed as contexts. When we know the contexts, we know the rules. This is where the Code of Ethics has caused us concerns. When applied to the interpreting blade (role, context) of the model, it is easy to understand the importance of the Code and to adhere to its principles. When we apply those same criteria to the other blades (roles), it becomes cloudy and appears to conflict with the role. The problem is compounded if other professionals do not know our contexts and/or confuse our contexts (roles, blades). We then can apply the “educating others about our role(s)” principle of the Code by explaining our contexts and the roles to others on the educational team. The other members of the educational team will not realize this by themselves. We have a professional obligation to educate our fellow professionals. By doing so, we will be viewed as professionals.

This is only the beginning. When we understand which role we are working within, we can start addressing bigger questions in our field. These questions might involve questions of interpretability in the classroom, accessibility to content, an interpreted education. These questions impact our windmill and, therefore services to students who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Information about the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment

This site provides information both about the test and about the expectations for interpreters  working in educational settings.  classroominterpreting.org

Guides for Classroom Interpreting for Parents, Professionals, and Students

Dr. Brenda Schick, the co-creator of the EIPA, along with Boys Town, created a series of guides for the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center.

http://www.gallaudet.edu/clerc-center/our-resources/publications/classroom-interpreting-for-students-who-are-deaf-or-hard-of-hearing.html

Training in Interpreting Public Schools (TIPS)

TASK12:  This is the organization that led to the development of the Training in Public Schools (TIPS) module. The project serves 14 states and provides both training and assessment with the EIPA.

Post-Secondary  & Transition Resources:

The Minnesota Transition Guide for Teachers of Deaf/Hard of Hearing was created as a pilot project for the school year 2012 – 2013. It is meant to give guidance in the area of transition for Deaf or Hard of Hearing students.  View Transition Guide.

PEPnet:  An organization focused assisting Deaf and hard of hearing students in their transition to post-secondary education.   They have a module, Map It!, that is designed as a support for students in the transition stages.

Article from 2003 RID Views

Research brief from Visual Language and Visual Learning Science of Learning Center. (2010, July). The Importance of Fingerspelling for Reading. (Research Brief No. 1). Washington, DC: Sharon Baker. http://vl2.gallaudet.edu/assets/section7/document100.pdf

Click here for more Research Briefs from Visual Language and Visual Learning Center at Gallaudet.

Information on Developing Alliances

• Resources for Ally and Coalition Building

Information on SWOT Analysis

• The entry from Wikipedia on SWOT Analysis

Tentative Course

These are maps of the course for the first Homemade Half.  We expect that it will be very similar, though Holly is wanting to contemplate some changes.

Click on the image to see a larger version of the map.

• 
  PDF Version of First Half
• 
  PDF Version of Second Half

Handout from Workshop

The Values of Emerging-Paradigms-slide deck (11.8 MB)

AUSLAN Resources with English Translations

This page contains both some suggestions for how to work with AUSLAN videos with English translations – as well a list of texts that can be used in this way. Scroll down for links to videos.

Possible Activities:

Working from AUSLAN to English:

1. Interpret the video with sound off and blocking captions.  It is most helpful if you can record your interpretation to review and reflect on – as well as to compare to the original translation in the next step.To block the captions, simply fold up a sheet of paper and lean it against your computer monitor. Here’s an example:
   Original Video
   
   After Covering Captions
   
2. Listen to the original translation or read the captioned English version.  Compare this source to your interpretation in step 1.  Note the areas that you were on target as well as the places where your interpretation diverged.  What was happening in the video at those points?  Does that fit with any patterns that you see in your work?
3. Re-Interpret the video with the sound off and captions blocked.  Try to incorporate what you learned from Step 2 in your new interpretation. (This is not cheating.  This is an opportunity to practice fluency in our work.)

Working from English to  AUSLAN:

1. Interpret from English to AUSLAN:  Listen to the English translation of the video, but don’t watch the AUSLAN version.  Interpret this into AUSLAN.  Again, it is best to record yourself to assist in analysis and reflection.
2. Watch the original AUSLAN version.  Compare this source to your interpretation in step 1.  Note the areas that you were on target as well as the places where your interpretation diverged.  What was happening in the video at those points?  Does that fit with any patterns that you see in your work?
3. Re-Interpret again using the English translation as source.  Try to incorporate what you learned from Step 2 in your new interpretation. (This is not cheating.  This is an opportunity to practice fluency in our work.)

The links below have a variety of topics explained in Auslan, with captioning and English translations. Videos formatted in this way are excellent opportunities to practice interpreting in a variety of ways.

These videos were created to be a part of workshops delivered by Doug in Australia

Source without Captions

Original Video (with English captions)

A Visit to Gallaudet

Thanks to Sherrie Beaver for her willingness to share this video.  You can see more from Sherrie on her Facebook page, I Sign I Wander.

Visit to Gallaudet – English Translation

This translation was created by Jen Blyth. It is not designed to be the exemplary way to translate the source text, but one approach to be used as a resource for considering how you can create a more effective interpretation than your first attempt.

I am at Gallaudet University, wow, it is beautiful. Me and my friend Pip have had a tour of this university, and it is really beautiful. There is so much history here. Gallaudet is now 152 years old, so much history. I had a look at the buildings and met Gallaudet’s President, Bobbi, I forgot her last name. It was nice to meet her finally, she was a nice woman, we met coincidentally. We also saw the Deaf Space, wow, such an amazing concept. So much history, so many stories. We met an old man who told us about his experience at Gallaudet twenty or forty years ago. While on our tour we saw so many Deaf people around, socialising and talking. This is truly a Deaf space – a ‘Deaf Mecca’, truly wonderful. I always envisioned studying here one day, but I need money! Perhaps I should go to the bank or marry an American person! Look behind me…

A Visit to Gallaudet – Slow Motion

The video has been slowed down to provide a better opportunity for analysis and practice.  (It is 80% speed of original video.)

Resources from the Deaf Society New South Wales

These video resources were created to share information in the Deaf community. Because they are formatted with both AUSLAN and English versions, they allow for interpreter skill development similar to practiced in the workshops.

http://deafsocietynsw.org.au/auslan_resources

The Philosophy
Whether this is a race or a run is really up to you.  We won’t have any official timing… and if you aren’t ready to start when others start, you can still run and pie will be there at the end for you.  This is about fitness, fun, community and building up our appetites for treats.

Race Date:  Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Start(s)
The Half  (13.1 miles):  8:30 am at Hawk Ridge at the pedestrian crosswalk on Skyline Parkway.  You can park alongside the road.  (To get to Hawk Ridge, take Glenwood and head east on Skyline to where raptor programs happen.)
The Half-of-Half (6.6 miles):  approximately 9:40 at Hartley Nature Center parking lot – accessed from Woodland Ave.  Plan to be there by 9:30 for information.  There will be an aid station there for runners doing all 13 miles.  Doug will be there with maps & info.

Transportation
This is a point-to-point run, meaning the finish line is no where near the starting line.  If you want to carpool to Hawk Ridge for the start, meet at the Bowen-Bailey house by 7:50 AM. (728 E 7th Street, Duluth 55805) We will work together at the end to collect vehicles still at Hawk Ridge or Hartley.  Parking near the B-Bs will be on the street.

Registration and Fees:
Most of you have already officially signed up and signed the waiver.  If you have not, we will have waivers at the start.

Fees:  Money will be collected at the FINISH LINE only.  Too much hassle otherwise.
($20.00 just to run, $20 additional cost if you ordered a shirt.  If there is any money left over from the run, it will be donated to CHUM Food Shelf.)

Shirts:  Ff you have ordered a shirt, we will have it for you at the finish.  There are a few extras, so you may be able to get one if you’d like.  (Shirts are $20)

Finish Line
There will be pie for you and any fans you bring along.  There will also be some beverages.  If you want different post-race food, please plan for yourself. Hang out as long as you like.  We expect some runners to finish in two hours, others may need closer to three hours.

Door Prizes:  Many people have indicated they are bringing Homemade Items for prizes.  Those who bring prizes will have their names will be put in a hat and drawn at random.  Tentatively, we are anticipating this to happen around 11:30.  (If you need to leave early, we’ll figure something out.)

Course Info
On race day, it will be marked with pink flagging to the best of our ability.     There will be some paper maps of each segment of the run at the aid stations.  The longer course is approximately 9 miles of trails, 4 miles of roads. There is one section of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) between Vermillion Road and Pleasant View which is extremely rocky.  In addition, there is a need to cross some roads that will have traffic. We expect everyone to be cautious as they navigate both roads and trails. (Check out the link for Course Maps for more specifics.)

Aid Stations
There are three aid stations (Vermillion Road, Hartley Nature Center parking lot, Bagley Nature Center parking lot).  Each will have water and gatorade, as well as maps and a check-in to make sure no one is lost. We ask that you stop/holler your name as you go by so we know you are okay.
Bathrooms:  There are biffies at Hartley and Bagley, and three bathrooms at our house.  Hope that is enough!

What to Bring

• Water bottle/fuel belt strongly recommended. Good if you can tuck a copy of the map into the belt.
• Your own watch – no fancy or “official” timing system in place.
• Cell phone if you are prone to getting lost.

What NOT to Bring

• Dogs.   Our chickens thank you for this consideration.

Apps for Distance Mentoring

Video Conferencing Software

If you want to have synchronous mentoring sessions via distance, there are a variety of options:

Free:

• GoogleHangout
• FaceTime (for iOS devices)
• Skype

Subscription Services:

• Adobe Connect
• GoToMeeting
• Zoom

If you want to see more options, you can check out PC Magazine’s review of 2016’s best video conferencing software.

Video Texting

This allows for video conversations to take place but with the convenience of texting.

• Glide (You can use voice, sign, or text through this app.)

Fairytales from Auslan Storybooks

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• The Three Little Pigs
• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Gingerbread Man | Aussie Version
• Cinderella

Spoken English Versions

You can use these as a source text if you want to practice from English to AUSLAN – working to incorporate what you saw in the storytelling from Auslan Storybooks.

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears | Another version
• The Three Little Pigs
• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Gingerbread Man
• Cinderella

An Imperfect Project: An Overview

What this project is and what it is not:

This project offers some resources for beginning to better understand discourse genres and how knowledge of them can inform the work of interpreters. It is a contribution to a growing field of study addressing this area. However, it is not intended to be a complete course in discourse analysis. There is page on here with possibilities for further study and research. My hope is that this resource will allow interpreters to begin to see the relevance of discourse analysis and for interpreter educators to more easily incorporate these ideas into workshops and courses.

It’s also important to be clear that the texts and interpretations on the CD-ROM are not perfect. In fact, they are filled with imperfections, and as the person responsible for pulling this together, I couldn’t be happier.

On the Source Texts:

These offerings are opportunities for studying discourse genres and how they affect the language that we use. There is more about that on the following page, but want I want to stress here is that these texts and interpretations were very much unrehearsed. I simply invited Eric Larson and Jenny Stenner to talk about a common topic with which they both are familiar. I specifically asked them not to do any extensive preparation, but rather to just talk about it and see what came out.

To me, this is important because the reality of language is that it is riddled with tiny errors, which we mostly are able to ignore as we focus on the larger purposes of communication. As an interpreter (and an interpreter educator,) I have found most of the resources available for practice show a higher level of rehearsal than I find in my daily experience of actual interpreting.    On the other hand, these texts, because they are not rehearsed, offer many opportunities for looking at how we really communicate in ASL and in English.

On the Interpretations:

In the same way, there are not many interpreters who have been willing to share their unrehearsed work based on really challenging materials. My great thanks goes out to Anthony Verdeja for being wiling to do just that in this project. He had only the introductory and background materials to prepare before actually interpreting. (He didn’t have access to the transcripts and outlines included on the CD.) He had never met either Eric or Jenny- -and only got to see their introductions minutes before having to interpret this series of texts. Beyond that, Anthony has some experience with canoeing and the Boundary Waters, but has never actually been on a trip into the BWCA. Within this context, Anthony produced interpretations that I think will serve as great learning and teaching tools. Taken as a whole, I think you will find the interpretations to provide a wide variety of strate- gies for how interpreters manage difficult assignments.

Again, I just wish to express my gratitude for Anthony’s willingness to risk and to share his work so that this project can be an even more useful tool for improving our collective understanding of how to work more effectively between languages and between genres.

On the Wonder of the Digital Age:

I also can’t help but comment on the amazing reality of what is possible with CD-ROMs. This small disc holds almost 2 hours of video, background, scripts and outlines, as well as suggestions for how to use it all. My great hope is that this project can also inspire others to begin creating resources such as this–and that the familiar cry of interpreters about a lack of practice materials will soon be a thing of the past.

Doug Bowen-Bailey, February 2002

What They Are

The genesis of this project came from Robert Ingram’s foreword to Innovative Practices for Teaching Sign Language Interpreters.(Edited by Cynthia Roy and published by Gallaudet University Press in 2000.) In this article, Ingram talks about about teaching interpreting students about discourse genres using Kathleen Callow’s book, Discourse Considerations in Translating the Word of God. He lists out the 6 rhetorical genres that she elaborates in her book.

• Narrative: Recounts a series of events ordered more or less chronologically
• Procedural: Gives instructions as to the accomplishing of a task or achieving of an object or
• Hortatory or Persuasive: Attempts to influence conduct of listener
• Explanatory:  Seeks to provide information required in particular circumstances
• Argumentative:  Attempts to prove something to the hearer
• Conversational:  Conversation between two or more people

(Note: The Conversational genre is not in this project. The focus here is on monologues.)

After explaining these different genres, Ingram then wrote on the board the title of a speech, “Backpacking in Yosemite,” and took his students through an exercise of predicting what the speech would be about if it were given in the different genres listed in Callow’s books. Students quickly gained insight into the importance of recognizing genre and how it might impact the language used in any given text.
From the example of backpacking in Yosemite, my mind quickly drifted to “Canoeing in the Boundary Waters.” The texts contained on this project represent an opportunity to do a similar exercise that Ingram did with his stu- dents and then go beyond to actually look at how texts might differ across genre and across languages.

Why We Should Care

Given that this project was originally created as part of a series of workshops targeted at K-12 interpreters, I think it’s worth making a larger case for why understanding genres is important. Given that the nature of the texts are more recreational in nature, one might ask: How does this relate to the academic experience of Deaf students and the interpreters who work with them?

In a word, everything. For those of us who grew up immersed in our native language, we are easily able to recognize different genres–even if we can’t consciously name them. We know, by the nature of how someone is talking, whether they are trying to persuade us, entertain us with a story, or explain something to us. Part of our language development involved exposure to all the different forms of language that allow us to intuit what perspective a certain person is coming from.

For Deaf students who receive language through an interpreter, this experience of different types of language depending on the text’s goal and context is not necessarily a given. Too often, students who are mainstreamed have a much more limited exposure to language models, and so an interpreters ability to model a variety of types of signing is critical if Deaf students will gain the intuitive sense of reading the intent of speakers, and not just the overt meaning of their words or signs. The hope is that this project might make that challenge more attainable for interpreters.

The diagram at left provides an illustration for understanding how discourse fits into a linguistic picture. This metaphor starts with the smallest units at the center and moves out to larger parts of language. Morphemes and phonemes are the parts that combine to make a word or sign. In ASL, they are generally described as the parameters: handshape, location, movement, palm orientation, and non-manual markers. The next level of language is the lexicon or individual vocabulary items. Above that is grammar and syntax. What holds all of these things together, encompassing them all, is discourse. Things at all of those levels can provide significant clues for interpreting–and it is a study of discourse that helps us to make these connections.

An example from Minnesota shows how even the change of parameters can provide significant information if a broader understanding of discourse is applied. In Minnesota, there are two different ways that “P” is articulated. If a signer uses the “Minnesota P” as shown in the picture below, it is a sign that the person either was a student at the Minnesota School for the Deaf in Faribault, or was taught by people who were students there, and thus has a strong connection to the residential school experience. It also gives a hint that the person may be interested in preserving the “old signs” of ASL. All this information from a change in parameters shows how discourse can help us to make connections.

Impact of Genres

This project, however, is focused specifically on discourse genres, and I think it is worth giving some specific examples from the text of how to do the work of discourse analysis and how it can make a difference to interpreters.

The first two texts are both narratives, that is recountings of events told more or less chronologically. One interesting thing to compare between the two is the use of dialogue or direct speech. During Jenny’s ASL narrative, there is a lengthy section at the height of the conflict when she describes the interaction between herself and her son– using what would be perceived as direction quotations. This functions to show the emotional impact of the situation both on her and her son–and gives us a reason as viewers to care about the story. In contrast, Eric’s English narrative uses very little direct speech, but relies more on narration. At the height of the conflict when Eric and his wife, Amy, are making their way across a rough portage, he does not use any characterization of Amy’s emotions. Instead, he uses narration and description: “And, as we neared the end, the tears started to flow a little bit.” In many respects, this narration requires the listener to infer what Amy’s emotional response is to the situation. While some of the dis-course differences here may also be attributable to gender, it is important for interpreters to note that English and ASL uses direct speech differently. Often, if English interpretations keep the form of ASL dialogue–that is the “he said, she said” form–it can turn a more formal narrative into one that sounds like it is being delivered by a teenager. “Like then he said, “‘Oh, yeah?’ and then like I said, “‘Yeah!’”    instead of “Then he challenged me and I stood up for myself.” Both may convey the same meaning, but will be received differently by an English speaking audience.

Another example of how understanding discourse can help is noticing asides and digressions within the flow of a narrative. During Jenny’s narrative, she frequently goes off the point of her main narrative to provide background information. One example of this is after arriving at their departure lake, she explains about the route having many short portages, what a portage actually is, and why it isn’t possible with two young children. She then returns to her description of the actual events. Some of these digressions are marked by lexical items: signs like “HALT” (5 hand – shape briefly waved in front of torso) and then ANYWAY marks a return to the narrative. Other digressions are marked by subtle body shifts–either backwards or to the side. If interpreters do not pick up on these clues, it will be an easy mistake to assume that the narrative is flowing more chronologically than it really is–and thus will not catch when the actual canoe trip begins and will take much of the background to be a part of the events. This can lead to an interpretation that strays significantly from the original message.

There are many possibilities for working with these texts. It is hoped that what is suggested here will lead you to discover other ways of becoming more familiar with discourse genres and the impact that they can have on our interpreting work.

1. Practice prediction skills

Based on your knowledge that the text is about “Canoeing in the BWCA” and fits into a certain genre, predict different possibilities for what the text might be about and what language features it might contain. For example, predict what you might expect as differences between a text that is argumentative in nature and one that is a narrative.

2. Do comparative/contrastive discourse analysis

Using the sheet on the next page as a framework for analysis, watch one of the texts. Analyze what features are present within that text and try to figure out what function they carry out within that genre. Then, assess what would features in the target language would carry out the same feature. After watching a text in one language, watch the text in the other language and see what similarities and differences you note. On each page, there are starter questions to get you going. These are only suggestions, and it is hoped that they will start you on a path towards deeper analysis.

You can also compare texts within the same language that are of different genres. For instance, try watching the Narrative and procedural texts in ASL. See what different features exist between these two texts, even though they are the same signer communicating in the same register.

3. Practice interpreting texts within specific genres

Using the narratives as an example, practice interpreting from English to ASL. Videotape your interpretation. Watch your ASL interpretation and note what linguistic features are included in the interpretation. Then watch the ASL narrative and compare the features that are in your interpretation. After making that comparison with a native signer, try interpreting the English text again and see if you note any differences between your first and second interpretations. This process can also be used for interpreting from ASL to English as well and working with any of the genres.

4. Analyze the interpretations

Given the resources in this project, as well as the other suggested resources, analyze the interpretations to see how effectively they convey the different features of the genre. You can use the text in the other language as an example of some of the things we might expect to find in the target language. You can also use the transcripts or outlines of the source texts to help analyze the interpretation and to detect the ways that the interpreter manages the process of interpreting from a source that he is not able to interrupt or ask for clarification.

A Framework for Analysis

This table is strongly influenced by the work of Elizabeth Winston as explained to me by Patty Gordon.

Salient features are parts of the language that have a specific importance for helping to interpret the overall meaning of a text. For example, in an ASL text, a signer may choose to fingerspell the word “S- L-O-W,” rather than using the sign. This choice provides emphasis to the degree of slowness. Depending on the text, almost any feature of language can have saliency—it’s all a matter of seeing the feature’s position within the larger whole.

Below is the beginning of a list of salient features to look for in the texts. Some occur in only ASL, some only in English, and some are in both. As you do this work, continue to add to this list so that you can be more aware of how different features add meaning and texture to our communication and work.

• Use of space
• Lexical choices
• Cohesive devices
• Use of repetition
• Constructed Action/Dialogue (Roleshifting)
• Use of Classifier Predicates
• Characterization
• Body movement
• Rhythm
• Listing
• Pacing
• Fingerspelling
• Eye Gaze
• Pausing
• Alliteration
• Rhyming

Communicative Functions

This, as well, is a very partial list. However, each salient features carries out a certain function. Our challenge is that often certain functions are carried out by different features in ASL and English.

• Compare/Contrast
• Involve Audience
• Tie text together (Cohesion)
• Show impact of action on character
• Provide Order for text
• Aside—Provide background information
• Maintain face/Be polite
• Show Respect
• Establish connection/demonstrate alliance
• Emphasize

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a federal wilderness in Northeastern Minnesota that is administered by the United States Forest Service. It’s a land of lakes and trees and rocks that is visited by millions of wilderness seekers every year. It is made up of several large areas and to access it you must have a permit. The map below shows its location as well as marking entry points.

For more information on the BWCA, you can go to the following websites.

For General information about the Boundary Waters:

• Superior National Forest web site
• BoundaryWaters.com
• CanoeCountry.com

For Information on the Pemitting and Reservation Process:

• National Recreation Reservation Service

For two different perspectives on the re-introduction of motors in the Boundary Waters:

• Friends of the Boundary Waters
• Conservationists with Common Sense  

Discourse, and discourse analysis, are both extremely broad and complicated topics.    This single project cannot pretend to be more than either an entry point to further study, or a resource to someone who has already begun this journey. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for other resources for deepening one’s understanding of discourse and discourse genres. (I have included as many Web links as possible to assist in locating these resources.)

Books/Print:

• Callow, Kathleen. 1974. Discourse Considerations in Translating the Word of God. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan.
• Hatch, Evelyn. 1992. Discourse and Language Education. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Particularly relevant is Chapter 5 on “Rhetorical Analysis.”) http://us.cambridge.org/language/
• Johnstone, Barbara. 2001. Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. http://bookshop.blackwell.com/bobus/scripts/welcome.jsp?isbn=0631208771
• Metzger, Melanie. Constructed Dialogue and Constructed Action in American Sign Language. In Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities, Vol. 1. Lucas, ed. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.    http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/2878.html
• Roy, Cynthia, ed. 2000. Innovative Practices for Teaching Sign Language Interpreters. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/IPTSLI.html
• Roy, Cynthia .    1999. Interpreting as a Discourse Process. Oxford University Press. www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-511948-7
• Roy, Cynthia. 1989. Features of Discourse in an American Sign Language Lecture. In The Sociolinguistics of the Deaf Community, C. Lucas, Ed. New York: Academic Press.
• Tannen, Deborah. 1986. That’s Not What I Meant. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Winston, Elizabeth, ed. 1999. Storytelling and Conversation: Discourse in Deaf Communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/SAC.html

Discourse analysis is also a topic that is gaining currency on the workshop circuit. So, either look for a workshop in your area, or contact your affiliate chapter of RID and suggest having a workshop on this topic.

This series of videos is designed to both learn about the features of discourse mapping and practice incorporating them in your work.

A Lesson on Weather and Climate in Australia

The video above was captioned for accessibility. The original video is at: https://youtu.be/QHn8YGdApOs

Lesson Plan for This Video

Objectives: Successful students will be able to:

• Identify the difference between weather and climate
• Compare and contrast Tropical and Temperate climate zones
• Explain the difference between weather and climate at Uluru in central Australia.
  

Example Video without Discourse Mapping

This video was created with an attempt to not have discourse mapping feature – which is a significant challenge.

Example Video with Discourse Mapping

This video was created with a more complete range of discourse mapping features.

Year 11 Lecture on Anatomy of a Neuron

You can see a similar process in this post with a lecture on the anatomy of a Neuron.

Meet Eric Larson

Transcript of English Text

Hello, my name is Eric Larson. I’m a certified therapeutic recreation specialist and for the last seven years, I’ve worked for Courage Center here in the Duluth area, the Twin Ports, providing recreation and sports opportunities for people with disabilities. I have a background in Parks and Recreation administration from Indiana University and love the Northland and am a strong advocate for all people getting out and playing.

Meet Jenny Stenner

Outline of ASL Text

• Name is Jenny Stenner
• Grew up in Wisconsin
  • Went to School for the Deaf there
• Have Deaf parents
• Have hard of hearing brother
  • Not part of Deaf world
• Went to Gallaudet after graduation
  • Majored in history
• Moved around after college
  • Settled in Minnesota 12 years ago
• Married hearing man
  • Have two hearing children
• Work as Social worker
  • No longer called State Hospital, but Regional Treatment Center, in St. Peter
• Am Deaf myself

Meet Anthony Verdeja

Transcript of English Text

Hello, my name is Anthony Verdeja and I have been a professional sign language interpreter for the past 11 years. I currently hold my RID CI and CT and my NAD IV. I’ve been working in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota for, well, all of those eleven years and currently do quite a bit of performing arts and theatrical interpreting in the Twin Cities. Thank you, and enjoy the CD-ROM.

Body Language – Auslan Style

With the assistance of James Blyth and ASLIA  Victoria, vicdeaf and Sign Language Video Productions, we have created a professional development module based on the CATIE Center at St. Catherine University’s successful series of Body Language modules.

The ASL Series has the following topics:

• The Cardiovascular System
• The Digestive System
• The Respiratory System
• The Muscular-Skeletal System
• Dealing with Diabetes

The Auslan version provides a sample activity from each of these 5 modules.  Check it out here.  We hope that this will be the start of a series of professional development opportunities that can be offered in Australia.

View “Body Language: Auslan” modules

Recounts a series of events ordered more or less chronologically

The texts on this page are recountings of personal experiences of canoe trips in the Boundary Waters. To see the English transcript and ASL outline, use the menu at left.

English Narrative

Eric’s story is of trying to avoid a long portage by taking a canoe upstream on the Basswood river. This ordeal is undertaken with his wife, Amy, on her birthday.

This length of this text is 7:23.

ASL Narrative

Jenny’s story is of the first time she brought her two children on an extended trip into the Boundary Waters where they moved camp each day, instead of just staying in the same place the entire time.

This length of this text is 6:27.

Starter question: Using the transcript and outlines as guides, go through the texts and notice where digressions and asides occur, that is, where background information is given that breaks away from the actual flow of events. What features of lan- guage mark when the speakers go off and return to the point?

Deaf People’s Experiences in Education

Critical in the consideration of interpreters in education is the impact it has on D/deaf and hard of hearing students.  This section is not meant as an all-inclusive resource, but hopefully will be a growing list of resources.

Gina Oliva:  Alone in the Mainstream

From the Gallaudet University Press website:

When Gina Oliva first went to school in 1955, she didn’t know that she was “different.” If the kindergarten teacher played a tune on the piano to signal the next exercise, Oliva didn’t react because she couldn’t hear the music. So began her journey as a “solitary,” her term for being the only deaf child in the entire school. Gina felt alone because she couldn’t communicate easily with her classmates, but also because none of them had a hearing loss like hers. It wasn’t until years later at Gallaudet University that she discovered that she wasn’t alone and that her experience was common among mainstreamed deaf students. Alone in the Mainstream recounts Oliva’s story, as well as those of many other solitaries.

In writing this important book, Oliva combined her personal experiences with responses from the Solitary Mainstream Project, a survey that she conducted of deaf and hard of hearing adults who attended public school. Oliva matched her findings with current research on deaf students in public schools and confirmed that hearing teachers are ill-prepared to teach deaf pupils, they don’t know much about hearing loss, and they frequently underestimate deaf children. The collected memories in Alone in the Mainstream add emotional weight to the conviction that students need to be able to communicate freely, and they also need peers to know they are not alone.

Gina A. Oliva is a former professor in the Department of Physical Education and Recreation at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.

http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/AITMbookpage.html

Positioned as Bystanders:  Deaf Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of Informal Learning Phenomena

by Dr. Melinda “Mindy” Hopper

This is a dissertation produced from a study that looks at the experiences of two Deaf middle school students and how they had access (or didn’t) to incidental learning and other social encounters.  Very worth the read.

Download the PDF

I had an experience some years ago–I think it was in 1990, August of 1990, it happened to be–with my wife. We had the good fortune of spending 6 days together in the Boundary Waters and it happened to fall over her birthday which is August 8th. And, uh, I had as so many times, decided to ford a long portage by walking upstream and making our own little route out of the day. We were fording a 300 plus rod portage, which is a pretty extensive portage. And I thought we could take some time off of it. She wasn’t real comfortable with that situation, but we agreed to follow on and do it. And uh, we happened to be going upstream on the Basswood River, instead of downstream, and I didn’t realize that until we had gotten into it and committed. But uh, the portage consisted of pushing the canoe up a series of small falls and lining around some rapids, and we made our way. At some points, we had to take bags out of the canoe and fishing rods, and whatever else–miscellaneous gear that we had–and make our own paths through the woods which can be pretty tough, as you know if you’ve spent some time in the Boundary Waters. It’s pretty thick forest.

And, uh, as we made our way through. I’d go up maybe 50 rods or so, with the canoe, and then come back to see how Amy’s progress was, and it spent, we probably spent 3 1/2 to 4 hours. And when we started this adventure, it was right around lunch time, so…Two hours into it, the frowns and the long faces started to show up. I remind you that it was her birthday. And, as we neared the end, the tears started to flow a little bit. And uh, when I would come back, and I would reassure her and try and say, “Come on honey! This is a good day, and any day in the Boundary Waters is a good day, no matter what the adversity or inclemency is.”

Um, and as we showed up toward the headwaters, where the river begins from a large body of water, we had just finished and come out into the opening. There was a lot of relief, and uh, we kind of soothing wounds in the water. We were kind of scratched up, and so on and so forth. And we were kind of sitting silently and soaking it all in as we rested before we made our way out in the big water to, to find a campsite, and it just seemed like, oh, we might have wasted a whole bunch of time. And we started to hear some ruckus and racket coming from an old, what looked like an old overgrown beaver lodge off on the side of this little nook where we were sitting. And we started hearing this little “E-e-e-e-e-e! E-e-e-e-e!” Chattering sounds, and sure enough the grass was moving, and we both were keenly interested in what was going on there. And all of a sudden, some otters started showing up and goofing around and frolicking, literally, playing with one another, on top of the beaver lodge, and around. They didn’t know we were there at first, and then we decided to start moving around, and then they realized we were there. And, uh, didn’t seem fearful or intimidated by our presence at all. We couldn’t have been more than 30 yards away from them. We were pretty close so we could watch them. So we decided it was time to move on and we had some, we kind of felt like that was a neat way to end that trying experience. And as we loaded the canoe, the otters kind of really watched us and we made a few noises as we were putting things in. We got in the boat and we eased our way over closer and were able to get a couple of photographs which was really neat and we still have.

And uh, the bay was sort of a long narrow bay and as we paddled, we weren’t in any hurry, we knew that we were going to find a campsite. The sun was starting to set. It was really quite peaceful. And as we paddled, we continued to look back and watch the otters, and it was just amazing. The three of them, it was as if they were escorting us out of the bay, kind of saying farewell. The three, if you’ve ever watched otters swim, it’s like a periscope, and their head sticks up and they just kind of move along this way. Well, all three were right next to one another, kind of swimming along. And we paddled real slowly. We weren’t in any hurry because we were just marveling at this experience. And not sure why it was happening, but happy by it nonetheless. And as we just about turned around the corner, we looked back and there was a big sloping piece of granite, or rock of some sort, and the otters all climbed up on that and three of them sat, the three otters that were watching us, sat and just kind of, it was like they were just watching us and if they had the will to do they were saying, “Hey, have a good day. Let the rest of the day, be what it may and be good.” And, uh, so we turned around the corner and sure enough there’s a gorgeous campsite right there and uh, everything kind of all laid out and in sight.

Amy decided, we put up the tent as we do, we get everything dialed in first and then worry about dinner after that. She said, “I’m gonna go get some rest” and went in and took a rest. Right about dusk, when the mosquitoes had really started to come out, I had packed a brownie mix in packing the food, and though, I’m going to surprise her in making a little cake, a brownie-quasi cake, kind of thing. And uh, as I thwarted mosquitoes and tried to make this cake on a sputtering stove, my little fire on top of the pot lid, baking surround baking-type thing going on, I was just absolutely overwhelmed by mosquitoes, and it was one of those nights where the mosquitoes are just as thick as you can ever imagine. And right as I had finished everything up and I thought, OK, I’m going to surprise her and I said, “Amy!” And I didn’t get a response. “Amy!” No response, and I thought, OK, I’ll just start singing Happy Birthday, and I cracked into “Happy Birthday…” I started singing a little birthday ditty on the way over and as I got to the vestibule of the tent, I thought I heard something and stopped singing, and sure enough, there was “unnnhh, shoo” She’s snoring away.

So the birthday adventure kind of ended in that way, but uh, that was a story that sticks in my memory quite well as a situation. The boundary waters is a magical place in a lot of different ways, and uh, I think it’s just a story that was fond for me, I had fond memories about, and I wanted to share that.

For Those With Budgets

GoReact:  This is a software that students need to pay for using during a course.  I am not sure if it would be possible to use it for mentoring, but in many ways, it is probably the easiest way to provide time-coded feedback. Drawback is the expense.

For Those Without Budgets

ELAN:  A tool that is used for Linguistic Analysis might be useful.  It allows you to create all sorts of streams to analyze language behavior, but  I don’t believe that video comments are possible in this.  Again, it is free – but is really designed more for linguistic analysis.  Della Goswell, an interpreter educator from Australia, wrote an article in the International Journal of Interpreter Education discussing how this tool can be used by sign language students for self-reflection and analysis. 

What I use:  My technique is Mac specific.  It might work on a PC, but I am not sure of the software.  The key component is to have QuickTime Player.  Usually, I am working with a YouTube video from my student.

Steps:

1. Open student/mentee video. Re-size browser or video window so that there is room for another video window either to the side of it or below it.
2. Open a New Movie Recording in QuickTime Player.  (File > New Movie Recording.)  This opens up a window on the screen that uses my web cam – and allows me to sign – or make comments in spoken English – depending on the purpose of the comments.  Position this video window next to the Student Video window so you can see both of them simultaneously. Important:  Don’t actually start this recording.   
3. Open a New Screen Recording in QuickTime Player (File > New Screen Recording)  This is what you will use to record both of the video streams.  Start the Screen Recording.  I generally do the click and drag option to only focus in on the two video windows.
4. Start the Student video.  You can either make comments while it is running, or pause the video and make comments during the process.
5. When you are done, stop the screen recording.  You can then upload that to YouTube or other video service to share with the student.

Again, this is more work, I believe, than GoReact.  And probably harder to navigate, but it is free… so what do you expect?

Narrative – ASL outline

(Note: These outlines were created after the texts were signed. They represent an outside attempt to organize the information in the text, and were not used in anyway to prepare for creating these texts.)

Formatting Under Construction

• Family enjoys going to BWCA
  • For natural environment
  • Goes every year
• Have two children
• Haven’t gone on canoe trips with a lot of traveling
  • Hard to manage portages and packing gear while young
    • Last summer did trip with more travel
  • Son is 8 and can manage backpack
  • Daughter is 6–can carry school backpack
• I carried Duluth Pack
• Another family of four came
• They brought the food
• I carried clothes in my pack
• Arrived at the BWCA
  • Off the Echo Trail
    • Hegman Lake
  • Had to walk 1/4 mile from parking area
  • Trip went from Hegman lake to other lakes
    • Have to portage between lakes
      • Portage means carrying boat on shoulders
    • Chose Hegman Lake because of short portages
      • Didn’t want long portages with kids
  • At Parking area, sent kids off
  • Experienced with being in BWCA
    • Know what is safe or not
  • I carried gear down to lake
    • Not very far
    • Calculating how many “knots”
      (Editor’s note: The term she is searching for is actually “rod” which is the measurement used for portages. One rod equals 16-1/2 feet .)
      • Unsure of the math
      • Wanting help on figuring out equation
        • Never mind
      • Felt like 1/4 mile
    • Brought canoe first
    • Got Duluth Pack Second
    • Have to be careful of my back
      • Some can carry both pack and canoe
      • Trip went a long well
        • One day particularly memorable
        • Happened on a big lake
          • Should know that I don’t always require my son to wear a life jacket
            • He’s good at swimming
            • More tough on my daughter about life jacket
            • She doesn’t like wearing it
            • Set up in the boat
            • Me in back
              v My daughter in the middle ß My son in front
              v If daughter in front, canoe tips way back ß Kevlar canoe, but still hard to paddle
              •    Better to have son in front plus day pack to balance weight v Very windy that day with big waves
              y? Heading back at the end of the trip ß At first, son very excited about canoeing
              v Cocky about his own ability y? But had only gone on shorter trips
              •    Toward the end of trip, started to get crabby about having to paddle ?    This day was the worst
              v Couldn’t go straight into the wind y? Had to zig-zag
              ?    Boat was unbalanced v Wanted to daughter to move up by son, but didn’t want her to move and tip the boat
              ß Boat was stable, but I was paranoid ?    Got son’s attention and asked him to move forward and paddle
              •    He was obviously angry
              y? I was frustrated v Yelled at my son and called him lazy
              ß Can you imagine me saying that to my own son? •    Ordered my daughter to move forward to balance the boat
              v What would have taken 2-3 hrs in calm weather took all day y? Sometimes we got stuck in currents which made it worse
              ß I was paddling on my knees which hurt but I didn’t care •    Finally, gave up on trying to make a direct crossing
              v Hugged the shoreline until we made it around
    • y? Made it take much longer ß We made it to shore
      y? My son was exhausted
      y? I felt awful v I apologized to my son for my outburst
      ?    He accepted my apology v The memory still bothers me
      y? But it was a horrible situation trying to make that crossing

Building Scaffolding

Lev Vygtotsky, a Russian born psychologist, has had a significant impact on educational approaches with his theory of learning being a social process.  The term, Zone of Proximal Development, which helps teachers identify the sweet spot of challenge for students to gain the most from educational activities grows out of his work.

In mentoring, it is also important for mentors to help mentees identify activities within their Zone of Proximal Development – and then provide the needed resources for them to gain competency.  You can see in the graphic below how the ZPD comes between what is too difficult on the left and what a person can already do on the right.  (For you Goldilocks fans, you can think of it as the “Baby Bear” zone – where things are not too hard and not too easy, but just right.)

In my experience, I have found activities in the following three steps to be a successful framework.

Step 1:  Work with Object

This first step in the process is for someone to work with some task on their own.  In doing this, the learner identifies what her challenges are.  It helps to cognitively prepare to benefit from seeing the ideas of how another person might address this.  So, for mentees, it is important to have them interpret a text or try to explain some topic in ASL before showing them how to do it.  If you show them first, they won’t be as focused as if they have to try it and see where their own challenges lie.

Step 2:  Work with Resource

This draws on Vygtotsky’s idea that learning is a socially-mediated process.  That is, we learn from our interactions with others.  Now, as a mentor, your job is to help provide resources to the mentee – not necessarily be the resource.  So, the resource might be you asking a series of questions that helps mentees clarify their own decision-making processes.  Or it might be identifying another video resource for them to work with – perhaps an ASL model of some text that they can both watch and shadow (sign along with) to gain more insight into how another person might convey those concepts.  Finally, it can be you sharing some of your own experience and perspective – but offering a variety of resources can be really important.

Step 3:  Work with Self

The final step is for mentees to take what they have gathered from the resources and put it into practice.  Re-interpret the text.  Try out what works.  See what fits with their interpreting style – and what to leave for another day.  It is really important to physically do this, rather than just think about what you would do.

With these three processes, it becomes a learning spiral as demonstrated in the diagram below.

In doing this work over and over again, the Zone of Proximal Development for a learner shifts. All of us in our learning still continue to have a ZPD – it is just the amount that we can handle independently grows.

For more on this framework please check out my post outlining my chapter, “Just want the doctor ordered?  Online possibilities for  healthcare interpreting education,”  in Swabey & Malcolm, ed. In Our Hands: Educating Healthcare Interpreters  http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/IOHbookpage.html

See More on Online Frameworks for Education

Procedural–Gives instructions as to the accomplishing of a task or achieving of an object

The texts on this page are procedural in that they are descriptions of how to go about the process of preparing to go on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters.

Use the menu on the left to go the transcript or outline for these texts.

English – Procedural Text

The length of this text is 4:38.

ASL – Procedural Text

The length of this text is 6:25.

Starter question:

A procedural text gives the steps towards doing something. What are the ways that each text uses to show moving from one step to another?

Peer Dialogue

Explanatory–Seeks to provide information required in particular circumstances

The texts on this page are explanatory in that they offer information without attempting to persuade or alter the behavior of the audience.

In these texts, Jenny and Eric both explain different choices one might have in selecting a canoe at an Outfitters or some other location. The choices described are: aluminum; Kevlar, fiberglass, Royalex, and Wood/Wood and Canvas.

Explanatory Text – English

The length of this text is 3:26.

Note: This text was delivered to Doug Bowen-Bailey–which explains the direct address in the beginning.

Explanatory Text – ASL

The length of this text is 6:25.

Starter question

The introduction of the different boats happens in different ways. Eric introduces each boat as he goes along and Jenny introduces them all in the beginning and then explains them more fully. Do you think this difference is characteristic of English and ASL discourse, and if so, how do you effectively handle it in an interpreting situation?

Educational Interpreter Form

• A form for an Educational Plan you can use in your mentoring.  (This is a template.  Make a Copy before you use it.)
  
• A Mentorship Agreement Form.  (This is a template.  Make a Copy before you use it.)

Forms from the Minnesota Department of Education related to Mentoring

• Two-Year Provisional Form for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Interpreters – 9/17/13
  Form for two-year provisional certification for interpreters/transliterators working with students who are deaf/hard of hearing.
• Request an Extension for an Interpreter/Transliterator – General Information – 9/16/13
  This and the following five documents are for an extension to the two-year provisional license for interpreters/transliterators working with students who are deaf/hard of hearing. This document contains due dates and instructions for the letter of intent and Forms A and B.
• Request an Extension for an Interpreter/Transliterator -Cover Sheet and Checklist – 9/15/13
  Cover sheet and checklist for extension request for interpreter/transliterator
• Request an Extension for an Interpreter/Transliterator – Procedures – 9/14/13
  Procedures for submission and review of forms
• Request an Extension for an Interpreter/Transliterator – Form A – 9/12/13
  Form A for extension request for interpreter/transliterator

• b.) Completed by 4 individuals in support of extension:

       Request an Extension for an Interpreter/Transliterator – Form B

  Print out 4 copies of this document. These must be given to the interpreter/transliterator’s mentor, a parent of the pupil served by the interpreter/transliterator, the special education director of the school district, and a representative from Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS).  The 4 individuals are to send them directly to MDE so remember to include pre-addressed and postage paid envelopes for them.   *The representative at DHHS can change from year to year.  The interpreter’s mentor should know who the representative is and if they don’t, contact an interpreter from Step 2 to help figure it out.

Understanding How the EIPA Currently Fits in the QA Law

Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment – 5/19/15
May 8, 2015 memo from Commissioner Cassellius: MDE is examining issues related to interpreters’ scores on the Educational Interpreter Proficiency Assessment (EIPA). Until that work is completed, the commissioner is temporarily lowering the score needed on the EIPA.

Resources from MRID

The MRID Educational Interpreter Committee has also collected a number of these resources and more – including what to do if a district is not in compliance.

Check out MRID’s Resources

Hortatory–Attempts to influence conduct of listener

Hortatory texts are attempts to persuade audiences who have already accepted certain ideas expressed in the text–sharing the same root as the word “exhort.” Both of these texts are focused on imagined audience of Wilderness Outfitters who want to make their services more accessible.

Eric’s talk focuses on providing access to people with disabilities, and Jenny’s talk is about providing access to people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. In your analysis, you may want to compare the explanatory and Hortatory texts and see what differences exist. These are sometimes grouped together as “Expository” texts and so there may be many more similarities between these genres than there are differences.

Hortatory Text – English

This length of this text is 5:40

Hortatory Text – ASL

This length of this text is 4:53.

Starter question:

Both Eric and Jenny refer to other resources and agencies. How does mentioning these outside authorities contribute to the text’s ability to influence the audience?

Discourse mapping is a term used for both the process of analyzing texts in interpreter education and skill development and the features of an interpretation that use linguistic features to create a connected and cohesive product.  These resources are related to both doing the analysis and being able to create more effective discourse mapping in your work.

Analyzing Discourse:  An independent study packet for working with Life in Parallel

This is a packet that takes you through a step by step process for doing discourse analysis.

Navigating Discourse Genres:  Canoeing in the BWCA

This video series features a Deaf woman and a hearing man talking about their experiences canoeing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  There are 6 parallel talks in this topic in the following genres:  narrative, procedural, explanatory, hortatory, and argumentative.

Depiction, Blending, and Constructed Action

This is an online workshop that explains about features that are a part of spatial use, classifiers, and depicting action and conversation in ASL.  By Miako Rankin, from Galladuet University.

Created by the workgroup of:

Sheryl Boman, Doug Bowen-Bailey, Dick Dolezal, Cindy Donner, Ann Mahoney, Ellen O’Neill, and Lyn Clark Pegg

With support from:

The People’s Institute North
Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation
Otto Bremer Foundation
Walker Foundation

This curriculum was developed to create a space for white people interested in being effective allies with people of color in the work of dismantling racism and undoing white privilege.  This is a process designed to support people wherever they are on their journey.  While this process is designed for white people to go through this experience with other white people, it does not mean that white people should act on their own in doing the work of transforming society.  This time of preparation is to empower people to be more effective allies in partnerships across racial lines.

Using the Curriculum

If you are using the curriculum with a fee for participation, we suggest that at least a portion of that fee go to support initiatives in the community that are led by people of color.

Argumentative–Attempts to prove something to the hearer

The texts are attempts to persuade audiences to have a certain perspective on the preservation of the Boundary Waters as a wilderness area, particularly ones that are devoid of mechanized use.

Disclaimer: This project is not seeking to promote one perspective over another and the presence of these talks does not represent an endorsement by the agencies involved in sponsoring this project. They simply represent texts that offer opportunities to see the features involved in attempts to persuade that occur in English and ASL.

Argumentative Text – English

The length of this text is 3:15.

Argumentative Text – ASL

The length of this text is 4:58.

Starter question:

Analyze the way word choice and vocal inflection set the tone of Eric’s text. Then look at how sign choice and facial expression/characterization set the tone of Jenny’s text. In contrasting the two, which depends more on lexical choices and which depends more on the inflection or characterization?

Emily Ott, in her master’s research, looked at the concept of Horizontal Violence in the field of interpreting.  She suggests that;, as happens in other professions that work in situations where oppression and injustice is frequent, frustrations that build up in the professionals from witnessing injustice is sometimes directed at colleagues.

Read her Master’s thesis.

Narrative Text – English to ASL

Procedural Text – English to ASL

Explanatory Text – ASL to English

Hortatory Text – English to ASL

Hortatory Text – ASL to English

Argumentative Text – ASL to English

This project was created with funding and support from the
Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project
and
RSA Region V ITP Award #H160A000008
at the College of St. Catherine in partnership with SLICES, LLC.

February, 2002

This project is the result of many people and organizations. We are grateful for the collaboration that brought this project into being.

Language Models:

Eric Larson–Courage Duluth
Jenny Stenner

Interpreter Model:

Anthony Verdeja

Audience for ASL Texts:

Albert Walla

Lighting Assistance and Advice:

Rolf Hagberg

Canoe Equipment Models:

Sylvie and Frost Bowen-Bailey

CD-ROM Reviewers:

Paula Gajewski ~ Cynthia Roy ~ Christine Skoczynski ~ Laurie Swabey ~ Todd Tourville

Concept/Filming/Computer Design/Producer:

Doug Bowen-Bailey

The staff of the Region III Low-Incidence Project:

Regional Low-Incidence Facilitator:

Pat Brandstaetter

Administrative Assistant:

Tasha Honkola

The staff of the RSA Region V Interpreter Training Project:

Adminstrator:

Laurie Swabey

Project Managers:

Paula Gajewski
Richard Laurion

Administrative Assistant:

Darla Barrows

Here is a series of videos for working on depiction and ASL Narrative skills.

The Roadrunner Wins Again

This clip from Ella Mae Lentz is from Sign Media, Inc. “Tales from the Green Book“.

Here are a list of articles that touch on the importance of Case-Conferencing:

Suggestions for Preparing a Case

These are suggestions based on my experience of helping to facilitate case conferences.  It is based strongly on the Demand-Control Schema as developed by Robyn Dean and Robert Pollard.  (See more on the DC-S here.)

General Principles:

• Case conferencing is about improving our practice.  While it may be interpreters talking to each other, we need to keep at the forefront or discussion how this benefits the people with whom we work.
• Describe the case in a non-evaluative manner.  Share the facts of what happened and specific observations. Do not include judgements and conclusions.
• Be as discreet as possible in sharing identifying information.  If possible, check with those involved to ask for their permission in sharing the case as a situation from which to learn with colleagues.
• Be accountable.  This process is not only about looking at our role, but also our responsibilities.  (Dean & Pollard, 2011)  The person presenting the case is the one who determines where dilemmas exist.  You will learn from your colleagues in the discussion, but it is vital for the discussion that you acknowledge that you have the greatest insight into the situation because you were there.  This is not about simply looking at the choices of the interpreter but also looking at the consequences for all participants.

What to Consider:

• The Participants:  Share who was involved in the case.  If relevant, include:
  • Demographic information:  age, gender, race, ethnicity, hearing status/identity, language, education
  • Relationship between participants, including balance of power
• The Purpose/Goal(s) of the interaction
  • Recognize different participants may have different purposes or goals for being present
• The Setting:
  • Description of the physical environment and the logistical set-up;
  • Any other stimulus (e.g. visual aids, music, background noise) that affects the dynamics
• Duration and frequency of interaction

What to Present:

• Demands, Controls, Consequences & Resulting Demands
• Share the points in the interaction that represented the dilemma for you as the interpreter
• Use DC-S dialogic work analysis (Dean & Pollard, 2011)
  • What were the constellation of demands?  (Identify both main & concurrent)
    • Environmental, Interpersonal (most commonly main), Paralinguistic, or Intrapersonal
  • What controls were used?
    • Where did they fit on the conservative to liberal continuum?
  • What were the consequences?
  • What were the resulting demands?

Your Reflections:

• What role-space was occupied implementing different controls?
• How did you align with the participants?
• What degree of influence did you exert over the interaction between participants?
• What level of presentation of self did you use?
• What questions were generated by your experience in this case?
• What is your sense of the perceptions of the participants about the interaction?
• What did you learn from this case that you will apply to your future practice?
• What information can your colleagues provide you that can help clarify the issues in this case?

References:

• Dean & Pollard, 2011.  “Context-based Reasoning in interpreting” in The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 5(1), 155-182.
• Lee & Llwellyn-Jones, 2014. Redefining the Role of the Community Interpreter:  The concept of role-space.  Lincoln, UK:  SLI Press.

The following texts are modeled after a resource created by Amy Williamson.  She is a heritage signer, growing up with Deaf parents and natively speaking both ASL and English.  You can check out Life in Parallel here. In addition, there is a free downloadable study packet entitled Analyzing Discourse.  Though designed for an ASL – English resource, the same activities could easily be applied to Auslan-English work.

Australian Parallels

Gratitude to Julie Judd and Michelle Ashley for agreeing to create texts to model this process.

Introductions for Michelle

In this text, Michelle Ashley introduces herself in Auslan and shares some of her professional journey.

In this text, Michelle Ashley introduces herself in spoken English and shares some of her professional journey.

Introductions for Julie

In this text, Julie Judd introduces herself in spoken English and shares some of her professional journey.

In this text, Julie Judd introduces herself in Auslan and shares some of her professional journey.

Julie’s Favourite Thing

In this text, Julie explains in spoken English what her favourite pastime is.

In this text, Julie explains in Auslan what her favourite pastime is.

Michelle’s Favourite Thing

In this text, Michelle explains in spoken English what her favourite pastime is.

In this text, Michelle explains in Auslan what her favourite pastime is.

Research on Deaf-Parented Interpreters

Amy Williamson’s research has been looking into what the experience of Deaf-parented and Heritage signers are in interpreter education.  Here are some of the resources she has created:

• Master’s Thesis:  Heritage learner to professional interpreter:  Who are deaf-parented interpreters and how do they achieve professional status?
• Presentation at Street Leverage Live
• An Article on “The Cost of Invisibility”

Perspectives on Language Brokering

A blog post from Jemina Napier on Sign Language Brokering Expierences in the Deaf Community

Bonus Activities

Charting Your Role-Space

This activity is best done in conversation with other colleagues.

Download PDF of Role-Space Activity sheet 

Fill out the diagram above for 4 different classroom scenarios.

1. First grade morning check-in
2. High School Science Lab
3. Assembly
4. Middle School parent-teacher meeting

Think about what type of choices you might be called on to make in that specific scenario. (Depending on the students and teacher you have in mind, this might also shape your choices.)  They do it alone and then compare.  It’s a chance to see how they might function differently and make different decisions than a colleague.

If you need more information on Role-Space, check here.

Interpreting Batman Forever

As we are learning to incorporate more discourse mapping in our work, we can also learn to take advantage of discourse mapping to help us navigate voicing for Deaf students. This activity is designed to help you see some of the strategies being used by a Deaf student when describing a movie and its characters. This activity also is designed for you to become more comfortable with the Gish Approach – focusing on the main ideas being presented without getting too caught up in the details.

We recognize that this is a very challenging text – more so than what you would find on the actual EIPA. We have tried to provide a lot of support so that you can work your way up to actually interpreting it. As facilitators, we also will be interpreting it to provide some sample interpretations. Because of this challenge, we are going to have the activity open throughout the module so that you can work on it as you see fit. (It is definitely not something that we would want you to try to do in one day, but try to absorb over the course of several days or even a couple of weeks.) With that disclaimer, good luck. Hope that this will be a good learning process.

For this activity, you will work with 3 minutes of ASL video, but in a variety of ways.

1. Warm-up: Watch the video of a young boy responding to questions in an interview format. This is the same signer who will be talking about a different topic for the activity.
   Password:  Doug
2. Preparing for the Assignment: The text in question is a student sharing some information about the movie, “Batman Forever.” Use the following information to prepare for working with the ASL text.
   

   Movie summary:

   The Dark Knight of Gotham City confronts a dastardly duo: Two-Face and the Riddler. Formerly District Attorney Harvey Dent, Two-Face incorrectly believes Batman caused the courtroom accident which left him disfigured on one side; he has unleashed a reign of terror on the good people of Gotham. Edward Nygma, computer-genius and former employee of millionaire Bruce Wayne, is out to get the philanthropist; as The Riddler he perfects a device for draining information from all the brains in Gotham, including Bruce Wayne’s knowledge of his other identity. Batman/Wayne is/are the love focus of Dr. Chase Meridan. Former circus acrobat Dick Grayson, his family killed by Two-Face, becomes Wayne’s ward and Batman’s new partner Robin, the Boy Wonder.
   from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112462/plotsummary
   

3. Create an Initial Interpretation.
   Try creating an interpretation for this text. Recognize that this is relatively a cold way to approach the text. If you want to record your interpretation to compare it to your later interpretation, that would be great.
   
   Password: Doug
4. Complete a Discourse Map for the Text
   We have started a discourse map for this text, but left a lot of blanks. Watch the text again and see if you can fill in the blanks. Please note that there would be many ways to map this text, so if you want to re-arrange the structure, feel free to do so. The changes in color and shape are designed to help show the different levels of detail in the text.
   – Download map as word document that you can fill out.
   – Download PDF document that you would need to print and write on.
5. View more complete discourse map.
   Download the completed map. Again, this is not the only way to do this and does not include every detail.
6. View a guided tour of the text.
   The following video in YouTube has annotations with comments about choices the signer makes. Use this to familiarize yourself in more depth with the text. (Note this is part of a longer text.. you just need to watch the first 3 minutes. You also should feel free to pause the video to be able to read the annotations. You can scroll over the white dots on the control bar and read the comments while it is paused.)
7. Create another interpretation of the text. You just need to record the audio of your interpretation. If you have a camera, set it to film the computer screen. If you are doing this activity with colleagues, share your reflections on what you learned through the process with them.

The following texts are designed to help incorporate narrative and depiction skills in Auslan.  Thanks to James Blyth for sharing his storytelling talents.

Suggested Process

Based on Vygotskyan principles, use three steps.

1. Create an Auslan explanation of the video clip.  (Imagine that you are re-telling what you saw to a Deaf person.)  If possible, video your Auslan version.  Reflect on what parts went well and what sections were more challenging.  Use that reflection to focus your attention in the second step.
2. Watch Auslan example of how to convey the video clip.  You may want to watch it more than once.  On the second time, try copy signing or signing along with the signer to be able to not just see what the signer is doing, but physically incorporate some of the new ideas.
3. Re-tell the video’s narrative in Auslan.  Think about what you saw in Step 2.  Work on incorporating features that you thought were particularly effective.  Some might call this “stealing.”  In professional development, we call this “learning.”

Talking About Coyotes

Source:

Auslan Example

Source:

Auslan Example

This original video comes from a project called “Goats, Trolls and Numbskulls: A Middle School Lecture on Folklore Genres.”  Thanks to James Blyth for sharing his talents in Auslan.

Suggestions

• For more background on Lise Lunge-Larsen, the lecturer, and the project as a whole, check out the original resource.
• For maximum benefit, use Vygotskyan framework of three step process:
  • Work with object
  • Work with Resource
  • Work with Self

Source Lecture

Lise explains about this genre and tells the story of “How the Bear Got His Tail.”(3:46)

Auslan Interpretation

This original video was created by a federal grant project. Thanks to James Blyth for sharing his talents in Auslan.

Suggestions

• For maximum benefit, use Vygotskyan framework of three step process:
  • Work with object
  • Work with Resource
  • Work with Self
• Also take time to preview lesson
  • Think about the significant features that can contribute to literacy
  • Identification of key vocabulary that should be fingerspelled
  • Consider what depiction strategies you might use

Preparation Material

Key Vocabulary

In a high school anatomy class, this lesson is focusing on helping students to understand the basic anatomy of a cells and how impulses are relayed within that structure.  Included in the lesson are the key vocabulary of:

• cell body
• dendrites
• axon

Source Lecture

This excerpt of the lecture is 1:46.

Auslan Rendition without Discourse Mapping

This version was created for the purpose of showing how a lack of discourse mapping features contributes to a less intelligible text.  Thanks for Karen Bontempo for doing the best job possible in removing those features.  (As I shared at the workshop in Perth, Karen’s example here is of what not to do – which a participant came up to me and shared how ironic that is because Karen’s work is often lifted up as the model to follow.  So grateful that she was also able to provide a model NOT to follow but to learn from in understanding the importance of discourse mapping features.)  You can see more on Discourse Mapping in Auslan here.

Auslan Interpretation

See an ASL Version of this activity.

Learning from Cognitive Science and Psychology

For the grant project that I am working with the CATIE Center on, this is a real focus for me now – looking at evidence-based practices for how we actually learn.  Here are the two books that I am finding extremely helpful.

Make It Stick:  The Science of Successful Learning

by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel  Published in 2014.

This books uses stories to illustrate evidence-based practices that help promote durable learning – that is things that last beyond regurgitating items for a test.  Here are some of the principles that help learning last:

• Effective learning is effortful.  (If it is easy, you probably won’t remember it for the long-term.)
• Effective learning is spaced out.  (Waiting a week and then testing yourself to try to see if you remember the information – using techniques like flash cards to make yourself try to remember – and then checking to see if you did accurately.)   It is the trying to remember that actually helps establish the neural pathways which allow you to retrieve information for use.
• Effective learning includes reflection, elaboration, and generation.  Reflect: look back on what you studied and think of how it connects with what you already know; elaborate: make connections to other concepts you use and see how the ideas can be tied together into a mental model; and generate:  imagine how you would apply the concepts in future scenarios.
• Effective learning uses dynamic assessment.  This includes frequent and low-stakes assessment – like quizzes that both help you know where you stand and also force you to try to retrieve information.  Research shows that this is much better time spent than re-reading or re-watching texts.

I really suggest that this is a book worth reading – to help you learn some powerful tools – and perhaps even more importantly, to be motivated to try some of these new techniques because research also shows that though they produce good results, people sometimes prefer what is familiar because it feels easier and gives the illusion of knowledge.  You might feel like you are learning things more quickly using strategies like re-reading a text – but the reality is that it won’t stick.

Thinking Fast & Slow

by Daniel Kahneman.  Published in 2011.

A book for the lay person by an economic psychologist and Nobel Prize laureate, Kahneman lays out many principles of how our brains work that have an impact on the way we learn.  He uses a great number of examples for the two systems of our brain:

• System 1:  Our automated brain that is the “thinking fast” part of how we deal with the world.  This is a system designed to make connections, fit information into a cohesive narrative, and jump to conclusions.  It also sometimes fools us and makes serious mistakes because of a number of biases that are built into the process.
• System 2:  This is the part of our brain requiring conscious effort and is designed to be a check on system 1.  This is the “thinking slow” part.

Kahneman lays out a number of psychological experiments that have demonstrated how these two systems interact and how we sometimes get caught up in thinking errors because we believe we are making decisions solely with our system 2, but that they are often influenced by our system 1.

Here are some resources specific to interpreting in healthcare for Auslan.

• Video Resources from the NABS:  This page has a series of videos related to Anatomy and different body systems.  Some of the material is in both English and Auslan.

These three videos come from The Linguistics of Auslan page created by deaf CONNECTEd.

The videos use information drawn from the following text:

Johnston, T. & Schembri, A. (2007). Australian Sign Language: An introduction to sign language linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Here are some of the resources which inform our approach to education.

Make it Stick:  The Science of Successful Learning

by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel

This book uses stories of successful learning to illustrate the principles of how our brains actually develop the capacity to learn and remember, using techniques like forced retrieval, spacing, interleaving, priming, etc.

To read more about these principles, check out an article on how these principles can be allied to online learning.

Thinking Fast & Slow

by Daniel Kahneman

This is a book that explains how the two systems of the brain work – and how it applies to our decision making process.

Here’s a video book review and explanation of the many of the concepts in the book.

• What the Weather is like in Duluth
  
• Download Slides from Presentation
• Example of Old Paradigm
  
• Sample of New Paradigm

Developing a Theory of Mind

Brenda Schick, in a chapter in the book, Educational Interpreting:  How It Can Succeed, explains how the developing of a Theory of Mind (ToM) is related to educational development for students and how that can be impacted by receiving schooling through an interpreter. Theory of Mind is defined by Wikipedia as “the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own.”

Schick argues that an important part of children developing this ability is to see how people talk about certain topics – recognizing that different people will display different emotions. Receiving information through an interpreter can distort the ability to see/hear how other people are conveying information. Based on the EIPA scores of approximately 1,3000 interpreters, she notes the average prosody score for elementary interpreters was 2.8 for elementary interpreters and 3.0 for secondary interpreters.  (Many states recognize 4.0 as an overall score denoting being qualified to work in classrooms.)  Schick writes of this situation:

Ironically, elementary-aged deaf and hard of hearing children with hearing families, who are likely to be delayed in their Theory of Mind skills and who are still developing their understanding of how minds work, may have the least amount of information in the classroom interpretation to figure out register and identity of the speaker.  (pp 77-78)

Interpreters working with students developing a ToM need to be particularly aware of identifying who is speaking in the classroom and providing information about how someone is talking about the topic and what might be the underlying meaning to the message conveyed by the prosodic nature of the discourse.  Schick gives the example of a teacher “issuing a warning to finish seatwork by saying ‘It’s getting close to reeecceeesss,’ meaning ‘you may not get to go out if you don’t finish.'”  Note that in this example, the teacher’s pronunciation of the word “recess” is elongated giving it a different meaning than is contained by the word on its face.  If an interpreter doesn’t include that prosody, then a student would not have access to the actual meaning of the phrase.

So, another important thing for interpreters in educational settings to attend to in helping support the educational development of students who are deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing.

Schick, B.  “Learning through an interpreter,” (pp 73-87) in

Educational Interpreting: How it Can Succeed

Edited by Elizabeth Winston

View more information on Gallaudet University Press web site.

Not What You Say, But How

See a more extended consideration of Theory of Mind and its implications for educational interpreters in a blog post I wrote for MRID.  Click here to see the post.

• Shared Reading Project, Gallaudet University
• Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) at Gallaudet’s Science of Learning Center
• Classroom interpreting web site (direct link to “Interpreting and children” page) – Boy’s Town

Hop on Pop: English version

Hop on Pop: ASL phonemes

The Story of Ferdinand: ASL sample  (From ASL Inside)

To Kill a Mockingbird AudioBook sample

• The Importance of Fingerspelling from VL2 at Gallaudet
• The Transition from Fingerspelling to English Print by Tamara S. Haptonstall-Nykaza and Brenda Schick
• Presenting Rare Words by Kevin Williams

On Fingerspelling Tests

Recognizing that the most dynamically equivalent way to represent spoken English in sign language is through rapid fingerspelling, Kevin Williams articulates why this approach is an effective option.  That just as hearing students get phonemic clues that they need to put together to actually spell the word, deaf students can get phonemic clues from rapidly fingerspelled words but need to be able to translate those fingerpselled letters into a written word.

The CATIE Center at St. Catherine University is a part of the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers.  It has been a part of producing a number of resources for interpreting in health care settings.

• Domains and Competences for Healthcare Interpreting:  This document identifies the broad domains and individual competencies needed for effectively working in healthcare settings.
• Annotated Bibliography:  This resource identifies relevant resources and articles/books and suggests which domains they apply to.  It is available in a variety of formats, including a spreadsheet that is searchable.
• Towards Reflective Practice:  This document developed by Karen Malcolm uses the framework of the Demand Control Schema from Robyn Dean and Bob Pollard to help interpreters work toward being more reflective in their practice.
• Body Language Workshops:  These workshops provide a focus on developing language for talking about anatomy and medical procedures.
• Healthcare Interpreting Career Lattice:  The Healthcare Interpreting Career Lattice provides an outline of what is needed to enter this specialty, and identifies specific steps towards developing competency.
• Videos available on Healthcareinterpreting.org

Here are the handouts from the workshop in Hawai’i in April 2015.

• Anatomy of Healthcare Interpreting- Presentation:  These are the slides that were used during the presentation, although there were some that weren’t used.
  
• Anatomy of Medical Interpreter Handout:  This is the one page handout that was provided.

These are some video resources that may be helpful for reflecting on race, whiteness, and white supremacy.

Danger of a Single Story

See video on TED web site.

Race: The Power of an Illusion

Race As a Social Construct

Excerpt from “I’m a good person.  Isn’t that enough?”

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

A description from the website:

The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. Since its publication in 2010, the book has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; been dubbed the “secular bible of a new social movement” by numerous commentators, including Cornel West; and has led to consciousness-raising efforts in universities, churches, community centers, re-entry centers, and prisons nationwide. The New Jim Crow tells a truth our nation has been reluctant to face.

Check out the book.

An Interview with Michelle Alexander

13th (Documentary)

Available on Netflix, this award winning documentary looks at the history of mass incarceration.

http://www.avaduvernay.com/13th/

Slavery by Another Name

This book by Douglas Blackmon has been made into a 90 minute documentary by PBS.

http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/

Podcasts & Blogs

An Incomplete and Growing List

It is not really possible to separate the links below in to podcasts or blogs – as many of them contain both written material as well as audio programs. So, check them out and see how they can be helpful in

If you are someone who likes listening to material, check out the podcasts listed here. that you might find these podcasts interesting Here are a series of podcasts that address issues of race and social interactions.

Code Switch

Check out a podcast from the NPR Code Switch team that looks at race and identity. This one is a good one to start with as it includes a well-supported and diverse team that takes a broader look and invites many guests which can help you discover other resources.

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/

Black Girl Dangerous

This podcast and blog seeks to amplify the voices of queer and trans people of color.

https://www.bgdblog.org/

They Call Us Bruce

Hosts Jeff Yang and Phil Yu engage in an unfiltered conversation about what’s happening in Asian America.

http://theycallusbruce.libsyn.com/

About Race

While this podcast just wrapped up, there are archives you can go back and listen to. Here’s description of the show: Co-discussants Anna Holmes, Baratunde Thurston, Raquel Cepeda and Tanner Colby host a lively multiracial, interracial conversation about the ways we can’t talk, don’t talk, would rather not talk, but intermittently, fitfully, embarrassingly do talk about culture, identity, politics, power, and privilege in our pre-post-yet-still-very-racial America. This show is “About Race.”

https://www.showaboutrace.com/

Good Muslim Bad Muslim

Tanzila ‘Taz’ Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh host a conversation on what it means to be Muslim American women.

http://www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com

Hidden Brain

A Conversation about LIfe’s Unseen Patterns hosted by Shankar Vedantam

http://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain

Revisionist History

Malcolm Gladwell, an author and writer for The New Yorker, takes a look back at historical events with a new lens to provide us better understanding of both the past and the present.

http://revisionisthistory.com/

Here is a growing list of resources to think about and understand the nature of “whiteness” and how it shapes our interactions as individuals and communities.

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Privilege

This is an important foundational article by Peggy McIntosh. It is distributed by the National SEED Project. Click here for the article.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism

Dr. Robin DiAngelo explains why white people implode when talking about race. Click here for the article.

Resources for Discourse Mapping

Discourse mapping is a term used for both the process of analyzing texts in interpreter education and skill development and the features of an interpretation that use linguistic features to create a connected and cohesive product.  These resources are related to both doing the analysis and being able to create more effective discourse mapping in your work.

Analyzing Discourse:  An independent study packet for working with Life in Parallel

This is a packet that takes you through a step by step process for doing discourse analysis.

Navigating Discourse Genres:  Canoeing in the BWCA

This video series features a Deaf woman and a hearing man talking about their experiences canoeing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  There are 6 parallel talks in this topic in the following genres:  narrative, procedural, explanatory, hortatory, and argumentative.

Depiction, Blending, and Constructed Action

Miako Rankin, from Gallaudet University, did a workshop on Depiction that provides a good framework on how space is used, how classifiers are incorporated into that, and how depiction of action and conversation is an important framework for helping to understanding the mapping of space and discourse.

Videos for Discourse Mapping

A Source Text for Discourse Mapping Practice

Source Text with Processing Time

Translations without Mapping

To the best of our ability

With Mapping

Slavery and American Revolution

Source Text

No Mapping

With Mapping

Echolocation

The original lecture

With Commentary on Fingerspelling & Discourse Mapping features

A High School Anatomy Lecture

Captioning YouTube Videos

• Here’s a tutorial Doug developed for how to caption YouTube videos.
• Here’s an explanation of how to caption ASL videos that don’t have sound.
• Here’s a post for how to caption someone else’s video and still respect copyright law.

Described and Captioned Media Program

Here is a resource that anyone working with Deaf or Hard of Hearing students can have access to high quality captioned videos:

https://dcmp.org/

Download Handout for Participants (Word .doc) | Download Facilitator Guide

Session 1

Who We Are

Objectives:

• To build a safe environment and cohesiveness
• Understanding white identity individually and collectively

Opening Reflection: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelou

“Stories are, in one way or another, mirrors. We use them to explain to ourselves how the world works or how it doesn’t work. Like mirrors, stories prepare us for the day to come.” Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

Introductions

Covenant for safe environment for sharing

What is needed to create a safe and cohesive environment in these sessions?

Our World Views: A Different Look

Key Terms:

• Ethnicity
• Dominant Culture
• Racial Identity
• World View

Significant Question:

Why Are We Here?

Identifying Whiteness

When did you begin to realize you were white and what did it mean?

Deepening Question:

What’s the relationship between whiteness and racism?

Homework: Family of Origin Stories

Before the next session, work on creating a story that shares more insight into your racial socialization. Your facilitators will share examples of how this might be done, but it is really up to you to figure out what is the most meaningful approach for you. You will share your stories in small groups next time.  See examples by clicking here.

Example from Debby Irving

Debby Irving is the author of “Waking Up White.”    This is an excerpt from a talk she gave at the University of Virginia.

This video is an excerpt from Debby Irving’s presentation for the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLz-8… This excerpt is hosted on the Digiterp YouTube Channel to allow for captioning to provide accessibility.

Homework: Building a Collage of Whiteness

Please bring a picture or image that represents in some way white privilege or whiteness. You can find the image on the internet, or in a magazine. We will add them together to make a collage next time. (If you forget, we will have some magazines available that you can choose from.)

Reflection

“I have divided the book into several sections reflecting the key lessons about whiteness that I am in the process of learning and which lessons I hope to pass along to others. The first of these is that to be white is to be ‘born to belonging’. …To be white is to be born into an environment where one’s legitimacy is far less likely to be questioned than would the legitimacy of a person of color, be it in terms of where one lives, where one works, or where one goes to school. To be white is even more, to be born into a system that had been set up for the benefit of people like us.” ~ Tim Wise, White Like Me

Publications

The work by Robyn Dean and Robert Pollard has facilitated a fundamental shift in the interpreting profession from a deontological sense of ethics to a more teleological one. If you are curious about what that means, check out their web site at: Demand-Control Schema

From their web site, you can contact Robyn Dean for the latest information.  It is important to recognize that understandings of the Demand-Control Schema is not static.  Dean & Pollard are continuing to refine the application of DC-S so be sure to look for the most up-to-date publications and materials.

The latest article from Dean and Pollard which contains the most updated formulation of the Demand-Control Schema in an article format.

Dean & Pollard, 2012.  Context-based Ethical Reasoning in Interpreting:  A Demand Control Schema Perspective.  The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 5(1) 2011, 155-82.

You can access more of Dean’s publications here.

Webinars & Videos

MARIE Center Webinars

Robyn Dean did a series of webinars in 2014 for the MARIE Center as part of the NCIEC.  These are presented in spoken English with captioning and ASL interpretation.

Videos as Part of NCIEC Mentoring Toolkit

Robyn Dean and Bob Pollard created a series of ASL videos explaining the Demand-Control Schema.  (These are created in ASL without any English translation.)  See those videos under the heading “Robyn Dean.”

Additional Resources

Facebook: get updated information here.

Observation-Supervision: Here’s a blog post from Robyn Dean about the important of developing these groups for observation-supervision.

Text Book:  In 2013, Robyn Dean and Robert Pollard published a textbook on Demand-Control Schema. You can order a copy here.

A Resource on Tacit Schemas for Ethical Decision-Making

Rest, J.R., Navarez, D., Bebeau, M., and Thoma, S.J. (1999).  Postconventional moral thinking:  A neo-Kohlbergian approach.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Download Handout for Participants | Download Facilitator Guide (Word .doc format)

Session 2: Socialized into Whiteness

Objectives:

• To identify and begin to understand the manifestations of internalized racial superiority.
• To understand how and why “white” was socially constructed.

Reflection:

“We are what we know.  We are, however, also what we do not know.  If what we know about ourselves-our history, our culture, our national identity-is deformed by absences, denials and incompleteness, then our identity-both as individuals and as Americans-is fragmented.”  William Pinar

Check-in

Interactive Exercise:  “A Collage of White Identity”

Looking at the Manifestations of Internalized Racial Superiority

Download Handout

Family of Origin Stories:

In small groups, share the stories that you created this past week related to your racial socialization.

Large Group Discussion:

•    What were your feelings as you wrote your stories?
•    What did you hear in other people’s stories?
•    Were there commonalities in the stories?
•    How does this speak to the collective experience of whiteness?

Please keep your stories with your folders as we will be returning to them in a later session.

Closing Reflection

“We need help to look at ourselves. We need help to understand how we as a people through history have used others for our own ends.  We need help to understand that our own worth and power is not lost in a just distribution of power.  The emotional weight that racism produces in whites blinds us from a vision of the fundamental changes we must work for and which will, in fact, free us all.” ~ Frances Kendall

Homework:

Read:

• Membership Has Its Privileges by Tim Wise, and
• A Long History of Racial Preferences – for Whites by Larry Adelman

The most complete treatment by Robert Lee and Peter Llwellyn-Jones is in their book:

Re-Defining the Role of the Community Interpreter: The concept of role-space.  2014.  Lincoln, UK:  SLI Press.  View on Amazon.

• The presentation from Robert Lee and Peter Llewellyn-Jones from the CIT Conference
• A paper from Supporting Deaf People conference in 2011
• A video explanation in ASL of this concept by Robert Lee – created for the Gallaudet University Regional Interpreter Education Center

Download Handout for Participants | Download Facilitator Guide (Word .doc format)

Session 3: Where and When We Come From

Objectives

• To understand how and why “white” was socially constructed.
• To understand the process of establishing white superiority.

Learning From History

“The psychic and physical devastation that so marked slave and colonial systems echoes into our lives today…If we could but see a causal chain, a procession of events linked over time, it might teach us many lessons about the long-term consequences of violently exploiting humans as only capital.” ~ Patricia Williams, 1997

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” Winston Churchill

Reflections on Homework

In small groups, share your reflections on the articles “Membership has its Privileges” and “A Long history of Affirmative Actions for Whites”

Video: RACE – The Power of an Illusion ~ “The House You Live In”

This video is created by California Newsreel and was shown on PBS.

For more info on the video, visit: http://www.pbs.org/race/

• What was your reaction to hearing the current statistics?
• Has this information changed your perceptions of racism and white privilege in the U.S.?
• How does what was shared in the video related to your own family of origin story?

Video: Allan Johnson – The Economic Legacy of Slavery

If you cannot access this video clip, you can read Allan Johnson’s essay, “Where White Privilege Comes From.”

You can also use the video by Doug Bowen-Bailey , “The House I live in” in which he explains how racism and white privilege has been a part of building his home.

Homework: Unpacking Our Own Knapsacks

In the next session, you will be asked to bring artifacts from home that represent your understanding of how white privilege plays out in your life. Read Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Privilege by Peggy McIntosh.

Here are two video examples of the assignment to fill your own knapsack with artifacts from your life which represent your understanding of how white privilege has played a role in your life.

Closing Reflection

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” James A. Baldwin
“I am responsible for the house which I did not build but in which I live. “ Dorothee Soelle

Come join in a run from Hawk Ridge to the Bowen-Bailey house, mostly on trails, but some roads as well. The course will be approximately half-marathon distance. If you prefer to run half-of-a-half, join us at Hartley Park, or for an even shorter, downhill jaunt, start at Chester Park. Finish Line is at 728 E 7th Street in Duluth.  Check out the link for Race Course for more details.

We will work together to drive back to where cars are parked along the course after we finish. Or, get dropped off and picked up by a trusted buddy. Homemade pie will be served at the finish line. 2-3 aid stations will be set up along the way, with water, maybe some gatorade. I recommend you carry at least some of your own water if you are running the longer distance.

$40 donation suggested if you would like a standard t-shirt. ($45 if you want a 3/4 sleeve v-neck shirt.)  If you don’t want any shirt, registration is only $25.  After the cost of shirts and pies, any remaining funds will be donated to the CHUM for the Steve O’Neil Apartments.  Click registration information for pictures of the t-shirts.

RSVP is very helpful, so I make enough pie. Invite a friend if you wish, the run is just for fun, and open to anyone who likes running, Duluth, and treats.

If you have something HOMEMADE you want to wear or bring, that would be great. For those who bring door prizes, we will put your names in a hat and do a drawing at the end.  If you don’t want to hassle with door prizes and just want to come run (or just eat pie), no worries.  Just don’t be offended when your name isn’t drawn because it won’t be in the hat.

Download Handout for Participants | Download Facilitator Guide (Word .doc format)

Exploring The Legacy of White Privilege

Section 4 Objective

• To deepen our understanding of white privilege and how it affects our lives
• To move from an intellectual understanding of white privilege to an emotional understanding

Opening Reflection

I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was meant to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions: maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks. – Peggy McIntosh

Unpacking Our Own Knapscks

Divide into small groups of 3 to unpack your own knapsacks.

Dealing with the Emotional Impact of White Privilege

1. Take a couple of minutes to reflect on your overall reactions to the activities you have experienced so far today. Using the crayons available, silently write down words, symbols, pictures that are associated with your feelings. Do this on the half-sheets of paper in front of you, then place them in the interior circle on the paper covering your table.
2. Once everyone at your table has placed their images in the circle, share with each other at your table what feelings came up as you reflected on the video and homework articles. Be aware of the tendency to intellectualize your responses at this time, focus only on your emotional reactions.
3. Discuss with each other your responses to the question: what does it mean to live with white privilege and how does it impact us individually and collectively?
4. As you do this, write all of your responses within the outer ring of the paper covering your table.
5. Report back to the whole group.

Addressing White Fragility

Since the creation of this curriculum, Robin DiAngelo has brought forth the concept of “White Fragility” which can surface in dealing with the emotional impact of deconstructing white privilege.  Here is a video clip of her describing that conflict.

For more from Dr. DiAngelo, you can view a more formal presentation.

Closing Reflection:

“We who grew up white southerners two and three generations ago learned something else the whole society needs to ponder. We found that when we turned ourselves inside out to face the truth, it was a painful process, but it was not destructive. Rather, it became a moment of rebirth – and opened up new creative vistas in our lives.” Ann Braeden, from Understanding White Privilege, by Frances Kendall

Homework:

• Bring an example of a white person who you admire for her or his efforts to build racial justice.
• Read The Life Long Journey: The ladder of empowerment for white people by tema okum.

Subject to Change

The course will be a combination of trails and road running going through the following parks and neighborhoods:

• Hawk Ridge
• Superior Hiking Trail Spur
• Woodland
• Hartley Nature Center
• Bagley Nature Center
• Chester Bowl
• Bowen-Bailey home

The map below has a tentative course. This equates to just over 13 miles – but is based on taking a more circuitous route within Hartley, Bagley, and Chester.  No one is obligated to run the extra mileage to make it to 13 miles. (You get pie either way.)

Below are maps of the 4 parts of the race.  Click on the image to see the complete map.

Download 2015 Homemade Half Map Cards

Aid Stations:  We plan to offer a couple of aid stations.  For sure, there will be one at Hartley Nature Center parking lot. We also should have one near Bagley Nature Center

Download Handout for Participants | Download Facilitator Guide (Word .doc format)

Allies in Resisting Racism and White Supremacy

Section 5 Objective

• To identify how white people can move to being more effective allies
• To identify characteristics of effective white allies
• To analyze systems and institutions and begin action planning

Opening Reflection:

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.” Barry Lopez ~ Arctic Dreams

The Ladder of Empowerment for White People

Responding to “the life long journey” by Tema Okun.

Significant Questions:

• Where are you in your own process?
  What are the next steps in that journey for you?

Using your own personal stories, including the Family of Origin story you developed for the first session, identify how you have lived on the various rungs of the ladder and where you see yourself now.

Looking at Systems and Institutions

Key Terms:

• Individual Racism
• Cultural Racism
• Institutional Racism

Select one of the three institutions to look at and in small groups, discuss how white privilege functions in the institution and what might be some strategies to dismantle it.

FAMILY    |    CHURCH/CONGREGATION      |     EDUCATION          |     OTHER INSTITUTION

Looking at Allies

Significant Questions:

• Who are role models of white people who have effectively worked to dismantle racism and partner with people color in the struggle for racial justice?
• What are the characteristics of effective allies?

Handout:  Characteristics of Effective Allies & Perspectives from Treasurer Jenkins

Closing Reflection:

The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen … Perhaps it can’t be done without the poet, but it certainly can’t be done without the people. The poet and the people get on generally very badly, and yet they need each other. The poet knows it sooner than the people do. The people usually know it after the poet is dead; but that’s all right. The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world. — James Baldwin

Homework:

• Bring one situation that you would like to role play or discuss in terms of how to effectively respond.
• Begin to create an action plan for the next parts of your journey.  (Action Plan Handout)

Registration Options:

With T-shirt – $40 | No Shirt $20 | With Pie/Dessert $10

This shirt is a mock-up of what style we will have.  (Long sleeve with hood.)  We haven’t decided on color and Ahme is designing a new logo.  2015 apparently is the international year of banana cream.

 

Download Handout for Participants | Download Facilitator Guide (Word .doc format)

Creating Action Plans for the Future

Section 6 Objectives

• To develop action plans for future work
• To practice skills in responding to challenging situations

Opening Reflection

Sometimes change comes not in the first round, but at the second, third or fourth. Change starts with one person questioning, challenging, speaking up and doing something to make a difference. We can each make a difference…because each of us is already part of the community where racism exists and thrives. ~ Paul Kivel, 1993

Significant Questions:

• What’s the role of white people in undoing racism?
• What knowledge and skills do you need to work on to build your capacity to be effective in addressing racism/white privilege individually and in group settings?
• What can you do to contribute to and sustain a white anti racist collective in your community?

A Framework for Responding
from Shelly Tochluck, Witnessing Whiteness

Download “Ways to Respond” Handout

This handout is from witnessingwhiteness.com. It outlines different ways of responding.

Role Playing/Discussing Challenges

Last week, you were asked to bring a scenario that you would like to practice how to respond. We will do some brainstorming as a group and practice how to respond.

Our Plans of Action

• Share your action plans in small groups (Amend and revise as desired)
• Share one goal with the large group

Next Steps ~ Opportunities

Wrapping Up

• Appreciations/Final Check-in
• Evaluations
• Living the Contradictions
  • Amazing Grace
  • 
    Password:  cracking123

Closing Reflection

The Future

The faces and the tactics of the leaders
may change every four years, or two, or one,
but the people go on forever.
The people-beaten down today,
yet rising tomorrow;
losing the road one minute
but finding it the next;
their eyes always fixed on a star
of true [connection], equality and dignity
-the people are the real guardians
of our hopes and dreams.
Paul Robeson, 1952

1.  Practice Prediction:

Choose a language to focus on.  For example, if you select ASL as your target for prediction, listen to the English segments of the interaction.  At the end of the turn, pause the video.  Then, make a prediction about what the ASL speaker will say. If working with a partner, make this prediction in ASL, not English, to better prepare your brain for that visual mode.  Then, watch the next segment to see how close your prediction was, and whether it assisted you in comprehending the message.

2.  Analyze Discourse Features:

There are many features of language and discourse that are unique to interactive situations.  Two researchers,Cynthia Roy and Melanie Metzger, make a very compelling case that for interpreters to be successful in managing this process, they must take an active role, rather than attempting to maintain the myth of neutrality.  Here are some of the features that require our attention:

• Introductions
• Summonses/Attention-Getting Strategies
• Turn-taking & Overlap
• Responses to questions aimed at the interpreter

You can also use the summaries of the situations to assist you in this undertaking.  Since this is a video interaction, not all of these features will be present, but attention to discourse features can contribute to better management of these situations.  More significantly, it will lead to more successful interpretations for actual inter-actions. The first resource listed in Strategy #5 gives a much more in-depth description of how to go about this process.

3.  Interpret in a consecutive manner.

Using the pause button, stop the video at natural pausing places, what linguists term “utterance boundaries.” In general, the ASL sections are shorter because the Deaf participants are generally asking for information, so it should be possible to watch most ASL portions in their entirety. The English sections generally will be longer than can be managed as a single “chunk.”

4.  Interpret in a simultaneous manner.

Particularly in the scenarios with both Jonie and Ketsi, attempt interpreting with a special focus of making it clear to the hearing person who is saying what.  Metzger and Roy call these “relaying factors” and they  signify an instance when interpreters need to generate contributions  in order on to make the event a success.

5.  Read through some of the literature about Interactive Discourse and Interpreting.

Metzger, Melanie, 2000. “Interactive Role-Plays as a Teaching Strategy,” in Roy, ed.  Innovative Practices forTeaching Sign Language Interpreters.  Washington, DC:  Gallaudet University Press. http://gupress.gal-laudet.edu/IPTSLI.html  (This article has a more extensive bibliography on the topic.)

Metzger, Melanie, 1999. “Footing Shifts,” in Winston,  ed. Storytelling and Conversation:  Discourse in DeafCommunities.  Washington, DC:  Gallaudet University Press. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/SAC.html

Metzger, Melanie, 1999. Sign language interpreting:  Deconstructing the Myth of Neutrality.Washington, DC:Gallaudet University Press. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/0742.html

Roy, Cynthia. 1999.  Interpreting as a Discourse Process.  Oxford University Press.  http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/0195119487.html

This curriculum is offered for use, but is not necessarily actively maintained.   If you find a broken link or an issue with the web site, please send an e-mail to:

Doug Bowen-Bailey

He will do his best to respond to your concern and fix the issue as quickly as possible.

This page contains an introduction to all the participants for each of the scenarios.  Be sure to take some time to meet the folks you will be working with in this interactive assignment.  This is their actual information, as opposed to the parts they play in the scenarios.

Outline of Introduction

• Name is Jonie Langdon-Larson
  • Shows name sign
• In real life, graduate student at University of Minnesota–St. Paul
• Working on Social Work degree
  • Graduates in May–Really a mom, though not Ketsi’s mom
• Has 4 children, three of whom are Deaf

Outline of Introduction

• Name is Ketsi Carslon
  • Shows  name sign
• Senior this year
  • Attends MSAD (Minn State Academy for the Deaf) in Faribault

Transcript of Introduction

My name is Sharon Witherspoon.  I work at the UMD Financial Aid office. I’ve been employed here for about 11 1/2 to 12 years.  I work—I see students. I work in an area called the Student Assistance Center.  It’s like a one-stop shop area and any need that the student have, we try to assist them.  And, even if it’s not about financial aid, we try to steer them in the right direction.

Transcript of Introduction

I’m Nancy Diener and I coordinate support services for Deaf, hard of hearing and DeafBlind students at UMD.  My name sign is (shows sign).  And, I would like to tell you that I actually can sign, and if Ketsi came into my office on regular day, I wouldn’t have to have an interpreter.  I could actually communicate with her one on one, butt hen you wouldn’t have anything to practice with, would you?  So, that’s why we set this up and hope you have some good practice time here.

Transcript of Introduction

Hi, my name is Doug Bowen-Bailey and I work as a sign language interpreter and an interpreter educator and mentor, and I’ve also, um, turned into a computer geek.  So, I’m the one who is kind of producing this CD-ROM.  And hope that you enjoy it. I live here in Duluth, Minnesota, with  my partner, Holly, and my two kids, Sylvie and Frost.

You’ve been asked to interpret a meeting at the Access Center of the University of Minnesota-Duluth.  A high school senior, Ketsi, and her Deaf mom, Jonie, are scheduled to meet with Nancy, who is the Coordinator for Deaf and Hard of Hearing services on campus.  Be sure to take the chance to meet them before you start with the assignment.  You might want to visit the Access Center’s web page to get a little background about UMD. (The Access Center is now called Disability Services & Resources –  http://www.d.umn.edu/access) or visit PEPnet to get background info on transitioning issues  http://www.pepnet.org/resources/transition.

Note: There was a misinterpretation of Ketsi’s first question during filming.  See the written summary for details. This note is so you won’t be thrown in practicing if that answer doesn’t match your interpretation.

The length of this text is 0:24.

The length of this text is 0:13.

Let the Interpreting Begin…

The length of this text is 16:04.

Summary of Interaction

The following summary is intended as a tool for preparation and as a guide for analysis.  It is not a formal transcription.

Nancy: Hi.

Jonie: Hi.

Nancy: Welcomes them to UMD;  Introduces self and Access; Offers to start with description of programs or for them to ask questions first;

Ketsi: Tells Nancy to go ahead and start

Jonie:Concurs with Ketsi

Nancy:  Describes different services and accommodations that Access Center can provide.  Require documentation of hearing loss; and has information about rights and responsibilities of student and of access Center.  Emphasizes difference between college and high school.  Expect students will make requests for accommodations.  Sometimes, students are unsure about what might be needed for course, and can meet about that.  Asks if they have any questions.

Ketsi: Asks if this is the place to come for complete services with interpreters and help?  (Note:  During actual filming, there was a misinterpretation.  The question was interpreted as:  Are there many students here who require interpreting services)

Nancy: Number of Deaf students vary from year to year, between 2-20 students who use sign.  Also have 10-20 students who are hard of hearing who use services.

Jonie: Expresses interest in response.  Notes that Access Center is for academic support.  Wonders what kind of support there is socially with other deaf students on campus.  Wonders if that is something the Access Center sets up.

Nancy: Social aspect—student can participate in any activity or club on campus.  Interpreters provided for other University-sponsored activity.  Some years have a club specific for Deaf students

Jonie: Says that was what she was talking about.

Nancy:…Depends on student group.  Sometimes Deaf students group together, sometimes socialize in more mainstream ways.

Jonie: That was clarifying—that it’s student motivated…not set up by the office.

Nancy: Right;  Large student center on campus with many groups.  Idea is to promote student leadership.  So, student groups run by students, perhaps with faculty advisor. Advisor could be from this office, or from ASL or Deaf Education departments.

Jonie: OK, asks Ketsi if she has questions.

Ketsi: Currently senior at school for the Deaf.  Has open access to communication with everyone. Would be a big difference at UMD.  So, interpreters more important.  Wonders how much timer equests for interpreters need to be made.

Jonie: Good question.

Nancy: Affirms it’s a good question.  Time varies.  Like one week’s notice.  Can build it in interpreters’weekly schedules.  But if not a week, can still make the request.  Will try their best to fill the request.  Better with notice, but try to fill anything.

Jonie: Asks about interpreters’ certification levels.

Nancy: Says that’s another really good question.  Have 3 full-time interpreters.  (Other years have had as many as 5)  Total staff of 8 interpreters (full and part-time)  4 are certified and 4 are pursuing a study program to take their certification tests.

Jonie: Ok

Nancy: So it is definitely a goal to have all certified interpreters.

Ketsi: Emphasizes importance of clear communication for education.  Wonders what to do if she can’t understand the interpreter, due to using SEE signs or signs Ketsi doesn’t know?

Nancy: Tries to schedule interpreters to match students.  As mainstreamed University, get variety of students who prefer a variety of sign systems.  Interpreters have a variety of skills, both for subject area and related to student preferences.  Interpreters have different specialty areas:  one in Biology; one in Human Services, one more a generalist.  So, try to match signing skill and content area as well to provide best interpretation.

Jonie: Sounds good.  Nice to have plan in place.  Is there a way to provide feedback to interpreters?  Isit formal or informal?

Nancy: Have both;  After each term, all students get eval form for each interpreter in each class.  Can evaluate same interpreter in different classes.  Can provide very specific feedback.  Encourage students and interpreters to maintain dialogue throughout course.  Provide work time for students and interpreters to meet to prepare for a presentation with interpreter—so interpreter prepared for that situation.  Or meet for technical class to meet and review vocabulary.

Jonie: OK, that’s good.

Ketsi:(To Jonie,) reminds her that  she had told Ketsi about ASL classes here for hearing students wanting ASLas their second langauge…

Jonie:(To Ketsi) Says that they have that here.  Asks Nancy if that is correct.

Nancy:Affirms that offer 5 levels of ASL.  Very popular with students.  Many students on campus across all the colleges and majors.  Encourages Deaf students to take ASL class and serve as a teaching assistant later. Offer tutoring class, and student can earn credit and experience in Tutoring Center as ASL tutor.

Jonie: Asks if she means Deaf students can do that.

Nancy:  Yes.  Hearing students find deaf tutors valuable.  Years with native ASL tutors, hearing students do better in classes.

Jonie: Thinking about previous comments, asks if all support services mentioned are included and they don’t have to pay extra for them.

Nancy: Services mandated by ADA and other state statutes.  No cost to them for appropriate academic services.  UMD does require documentation.  And make sure that it is clear what roles and responsibilities are for both student and Access Center.

Jonie: Expresses uncertainty about the last time Ketsi had an audiogram done.

Ketsi:(To Jonie) Thinks maybe 1 or 2 years ago.

Jonie: Thinks maybe even longer  Asks Nancy how recent the audiogram needs to be.

Nancy: Try to have records within 3-5 years.  With hearing loss, if history in high school of using academic support like interpreters is established, shouldn’t be a problem.  If problem arises, would contact them to have one done, but should be OK.

Jonie: Asks about how tutoring works, if it happens with interpreter.

Nancy: Access Center not required to provide tutoring.  Have Tutor Center, and provide interpreters for visit to the center.  Has been more successful over the years.  Tutors have content area expertise and training on how to tutor.  Rarely, interpreters serve as tutor.  But generally, interpreters and students meet for mutual study session, working on vocabulary or preparing for presentation.  Generally use tutor center which is also free.

Jonie: That’s nice.  Asks Ketsi if she has anything else.

Ketsi: Replies in the negative.

Jonie: Asks if Nancy has anything to add.

Nancy: Has material for them with information about application and admissions.  Invites them to contact via e-mail or tty number.

Jonie: That’s nice.

Ketsi: Thanks.

Jonie: Thanks for your time.

Nancy: Thanks for coming.  Hope to see you in fall.

Ketsi:Thanks.

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You’ve been asked to interpret a meeting with Ketsi and Doug at the Art Department. Ketsi is inter-ested in learning about what programs UMD has for photography. Before you start, read throug the Course Schedule for the Photography Minor and perhaps even go to UMD’s Art Department’s web page.

Photography ~ Minor Only (from 2001 U of M Course catalog)

This minor provides experience with both traditional silver-based photographic processes and digital manipulation from photographic sources. Students learn the principles of design and composition and are introduced to theories of visual communication, particularly within the art and design context.

Minor Requirements (27)

• Art 1002*—Intro to Art (3)
• Art 1013—2-D Digital Design (3)
• Art 1600—Photography I or Art 1607*—Freshman Seminar: Fundamentals of Photography (3)
• Art 2900*—Visual Literacy (3)
• Art 3016—2-D Digital Studio I (3)
• Art 3600—Photography II (3) course must be repeated (6)
• Art 4600—Photography III (3) course must be repeated (6)
• Note: Art 1002 is waived for art majors; instead, they take an additional 3 credits in Art 4600, for a total of 9. Art 1605 may be substituted by non-art majors with art department head permission.

* Courses that may be used to fulfill UMD liberal education program requirements. Disclaimer:  This description is taken from the 2001 University of Minnesota Course Catalog, and is solely used for purposes of preparing for the scenario.

Meet the Participants

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Written Summary

The following summary is intended as a tool for preparation and as a guide for analysis.  It is not a formal transcription.

Doug: Opens by thanking Ketsi for interest.  Introduces himself as part of Art Department.  Asks if Ketsi has any specific questions

Ketsi: Asks if need to take 2 years of General Education first, or if can start on Photography major immediately.

Doug: Can take courses throughout.  Clarifies that there is no major, only minor housed in the Art Dept.  Some courses meet General Ed Credits:  Example:  Intro to Art meets requirement for General Ed.

Ketsi: Asks if some of courses offered during summer.

Doug: Responds in affirmative.  Shows list of courses.  Asks if any questions.

Ketsi: Expresses that she hasn’t worked with film, only digital photography.  So is not sure she will like it, and wonders how easy it would be to transfer to another major.

Doug:Responds that many students do that.  Re-affirms that photography courses can meet other requirements so change might not mean an extension of college.  Asks about her photography experience and if she is interested in working with film and darkroom.

Ketsi:Expresses interest in the old-fashioned film, rather than the technological innovations of digital photography.Though hasn’t tried it yet, so isn’t sure if it will really be for her.Asks about the future of the job market in photography.

Doug: Says that film-based photography still used a lot.  Program offers both old and new. Affirms good opportunities in photography.  Example of working for a newspaper. Asks if Ketsi has something selected for a major.

Ketsi:  Clarifies what he means by the question.

Doug:  Photography is minor.  Need to have other field like teaching or business as major to go with photography. Asks if she has another interest.

Ketsi:Plan is to go with photography first, and if that doesn’t work out, to become a language arts teacher.

Doug: Says that lots of other professions can use photography.  Example of teacher using photography with students for projects.  Or in business, using pictures for publicity and marketing.So very good skill to have whatever the field.

Ketsi:Expresses concern about how communication would work in photography.  Can’t have an interpreter all the time.  Wonders how that would work.

Doug:Never had experience with a Deaf photographer. Thinks communication could happen with gestures.  Thinks it could work.  (Phone rings)  Mentions phone.  Asks if there are any other questions.

Ketsi:Says no questions.

Doug: Appreciates Ketsi taking the time.  Hopes he answered questions.

Ketsi: Thanks Doug for answering some questions and clarifying some things she hadn’t thought of.

Doug:Concludes with thank you.

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You’ve been asked to interpret a meeting with Ketsi and Jonie in the Financial Aid department.  The counselor that they will be meeting with is Sharon.  Before you start, be sure to meet Sharon.  You also might want to spend some time checking out these websites that provide some information about Financial Aid for colleges in general and for UMD in particular.

Do Some Research

• UMD Financial Aid
• Federal Financial Aid Programs
• Free Application for Federal Student Aid

Meet the Financial Aid Counselor

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Interpret the Scenario

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Written Summary

The following summary is intended as a tool for preparation and as a guide for analysis.  It is not a formal transcription.

Sharon:Invites them to have a seat.Jonie:Introduces herself and

Ketsi.Sharon:  Says Hi.  Introduces herself.  Asks if Ketsi is an entering freshman or still in high school?

Ketsi:Currently in high school, will be a freshman.

Sharon:Asks if thinking about attending UMD?

Ketsi:Possibly.

Sharon:Asks what questions they have about financial aid.

Jonie:Asks about accessing money, and what kind of support UMD provides.

Sharon:  First, need to complete FAFSA.  Will give one to them.  Other questions answered in student guide book.  Before FAFSA completed, need taxes and W-2 forms and parents’ taxes.Describes government’s definition of dependent child, which is not what some students expect.

Jonie:So throughout college, she’ll be considered a dependent?

Sharon:Right, if doesn’t fall into categories previously described……Reference to scholarships, UMD’s financial aid website has a place to click for scholarships.  Admissions office also has information on this for incoming freshmen.  Normally, scholarships are for top 5, 10 or 25 % of class based on merit.  Other scholarships are Sep/SALT. ..

Jonie: Asks about if it matters that standards might be different from Ketsi’s school and others.That the top GPA at the Deaf School might be 3.7 compared to a 4.0 at another school.

Sharon:Directs Jonie to Admissions office for that answer.  More knowledgeable with financial aid. Another thing:  to receive financial aid, need to be admitted to university in eligible program, meaning a college like Fine Arts, or College of Education or SBE (School of Business and Economics), or CSE (College of Science and Engineering).   FAFSA allows listing 5 different institutions you are considering attending.  Each will receive report.  Not until you’re admitted will you be able to receive financial aid.  Asks if they have any questions.

Ketsi:Wonders about experience working with Department of Vocational Rehabilitation.

Sharon:Have students who receive funding from VR.  They require FAFSA to be done, too.  They try to award you based on info from FAFSA.  Starts over describing FAFSA.  It determines your need or EFC (Expected Family Contribution.)  That’s the key figure.  If EFC is 0 to 3700 dollars, eligible for federal Pell Grant.  Below 5800 dollars, eligible for Minnesota State Grant.  Rehab tries to eliminate loans for students.  Need to let counselor know that you are attending classes.  They send voucher to the billing office and also an authorization to the bookstore.  If eligible for state and Pell grants, you’ll receive a combination of those funds together.

Jonie:Asks if State of Minnesota and Pell Grants have to be paid back.

Sharon:Grants and scholarships are gift aid.  Only pay loans back.  Scholarship, grants, rehab funding, all considered gift aid.

Ketsi: Asks if Financial Aid covers all the costs including tutoring, food, dorm.Sharon:If living on-campus, all those things are part of bill.  Tutoring doesn’t cost anything, though.Just go to Tutoring Center.  Bill consists of tuition, fees, housing, possibly phone bill.  Any scholar-ship and grants go towards clearing that bill.  A variety of meal plans if you live on campus.  Some include all means, some only two meals a day.That’s a student’s choice.  Currently, housing runs about 2,300-2,400 per semester.  Cost to attend UMD is 13,442 per year—6172 per semester.  Can get financial aid up to 6172.  Tuition, fees, housing is about 4,000.  The difference would be for use at your discretion.

Jonie:Asks what percentage of students receive financial aid.

Sharon.Doesn’t know.  Office does have stats,  a high percentage.  Includes loans, though some students don’t consider that financial aid.  But it is.  Offer alternative loans, applications from different banks, and SEP loans where State of Minnesota is the lender.  Has lower interest.  Also the Federal Student loan.  Have annual loan limits.  2625 for freshman year.  Only half a semester, so1300 doesn’t go far.   Sophomore receives 3500 per year.  Juniors and seniors receive 5500 per year.  Maximum loan through college is 23,000.  Sounds like a lot, but is eaten up quick.  Most students take 5 years instead of 4.  Wise to talk with counselor and figure out what you want to do. Not come in undecided and take classes you don’t need.  Have additional services available to test your interests.  Encourages students to take advantage of these supportive services.

Jonie:This is very helpful.

Sharon:Once FAFSA filled out, may have more questions.  Can come back or call.  Once information is in system, can check on it.  You may have other questions, if taxes are not done, you can do this process…but we will request verification.  Would require copy of taxes and W-2s.  May have to verify SS# and citizenship.  Has a very good process.  Here to help.

Jonie: Clarifies:  First step fill out FAFSA; Next be accepted to University, then Financial aid Sent.

Sharon:First step is completing FAFSA.  To receive aid, must be accepted to university.  Rehab doesn’t require acceptance, just registering for classes.  For traditional financial aid, have to go through admissions process.  Admissions has application fee, and then an orientation which answers lots of questions.  There’s a financial aid counselor at orientation.  If additional questions, feel free to come into our office right next to admissions office.

Ketsi:Wondering about how to pay down loans.  Any jobs available on campus?

Sharon:Packet also determines eligibility for work study.Two forms of College work study:  need based and/or miscellaneous employment.  Miscellaneous is when department just hires you.  Need based where government pays 70 per cent and department pays 30 per cent.  Jobs posted on-lineat website.  Get paid for hours worked, bi-weekly check.  Awards usually limited to 1,500 becausemany people need it.  If can’t find a job within a month, the award may be taken back.  But can beadded back if you find a job.  Food service and the library hire a lot of students.  Can also approachother departments and ask if they are hiring.  Also a community service work-study program withplaces like Boys and Girls club and America Reads.  So, on campus and off-campus jobs.

Jonie:Appreciates the time to meet.

Sharon:Glad could do it.

Jonie:Thanks.

Sharon.Bless you and have a good day.Take care.  Nice to meet you.  Be sure I’ll be meeting you again.

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Here are all the folks who helped to bring this project into being.  Gratitude goes out to all who helped make this a success.

The Crew for the Project

Actors for Scenarios:

• Doug Bowen-Bailey
• Ketsi Carlson
• Nancy Diener
• Jonie Langdon-Larson
• Sharon Witherspoon

Interpreters for Scenarios:

• Doug Bowen-Bailey
• Nancy Diener

Filming/Computer Design/Production:

• Doug Bowen-Bailey

The staff of the RSA Region V Interpreter Training Project:

Administrator:

• Laurie Swabey

Project Managers:

• Paula Gajewski
• Richard Laurion

Administrative Assistant:

• Darla Barrows

The impetus for this project came out of my experience working as an educational interpreter and seeing how important it was for Deaf students to have peers who could sign.  I say it over and over throughout the project, but my great hope is that the multitude of resources on this CD will contribute to helping make mainstream classes a more welcoming place for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.  Additionally, the CD is broken up into three parts.

Two are for teachers and simply represent the difference between something laid out for the computer screen and something laid out to be printed.  The other represents a glossary designed to support students in their learning.

Download print version of curriculum here.  (3.9 MB)

(The CD contains numerous video examples that will not be contained in the print version, but it will give you the framework and activities that you can use to make for a more accessible classroom.)

Goal: To provide a practical and theoretical framework for the activities contained on the CD

Learning is in the Details….perhaps a strange title for a sign language approach, but it is one I firmly believe is true for elementary settings.  In order to engage students in the learning process, I think it is vital that, as much as possible, all the activities be tailored to fit the specific situation in which you are teaching.  That as much as possible, the details of the activity should be the details of your classroom.  It is my hope that you will find this CD-ROM to be a tool that gives you the resources to do that in your own setting and assists you in creating more accessible class-rooms for Deaf and hard of hearing students.  See the final lesson on “Creating Your Own Units”for more specifics about how to go about this process.

The Philosophical and Theoretical Stuff

This activity packet is designed to provide support for interpreters and others who are called on to teach sign language for classrooms that seek to include Deaf and hard of hearing students.  The lessons contained were developed in my experience of working at Lakewood Elementary school in Duluth, Minnesota.  I found these activities to be helpful in creating a classroom environment that allowed for more independent and direct communication—and the possibility for deaf students to feel a part of the community.

Who Should Teach American Sign Language?

I want to recognize that providing support to interpreters teaching sign language is not an idea without controversy.  Deaf people, through organizations like the National Association of the Deaf and the American Sign Language Teachers’Association (ASLTA) are pushing for higher standards for people who teach sign language, to ensure that the integrity of the language is maintained.  Thus,there is grave concern about interpreters who may not be competent in the language passing on their own incompetencies. ASLTA’s website, http://www.aslta.org, is a good resource for exploring some of these perspectivesand concerns.  ASLTA asserts clearly that teachers of ASL need to be competent both in the language and in methods of teaching.  They suggest that teachers should have been using ASL on aregular basis for at least 5 years and be involved in ongoing continuing education to further their skills and knowledge in both ASL as a language and in how to teach it. These concerns of the Deaf community about maintaining the integrity of ASL through higher standards for teachers are extremely important for anyone considering teaching sign language to reflect upon.  Interpreters who take on this task need to be very cognizant about their role not only in teaching that classroom, but inrecognizing the special role that American Sign Language plays in the life of the American Deaf community.  I firmly believe that maintaining the integrity of the language is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly.

Yet, young deaf children desperately need to have peers with whom they can communicate directly.  What is abundantly clear in the experiments with mainstreaming and inclusion is that the presence of an interpreter, even a qualified one, is no assurance that Deaf students’ experiences will be successful.  Deaf and hard of hearing children need to have access to communication through a multitude of sources—and it is important that it isn’t all channeled through an interpreter.

The fact that Deaf students need to have signing peers does not necessarily mean that interpreters need to be the ones doing the teaching.  Other options may exist in some situations, including bringing in a member of the Deaf community to teach on a weekly basis, or using Teachers of D/HH students who have experience both with sign language and with teaching.  In some situations, these options may be workable, but often they aren’t even really options.

What I think is important to consider in discussions about who should teach sign language to young children is understanding how critical it is for students to have a relationship of trust with their instructor. As children grow, they are able to learn more effectively from people with whom they have little history or context, but for young students, it is absolutely imperative that student see this person often, build trust, and be able to create a relationship that fosters linguistic development.

Regardless of who teaches, balancing the concerns for individual students and larger concerns of Deaf people needs to be something that happens within the context of conversation with and respect for the Deaf community.

An Integrated Approach

This project grew out of my experience of the “Signing Naturally” curriculum and its functional-notional approach.  This method of teaching language grows out of “Speech Act” theory, that is the theory of discourse that the principal reason for language is to do something, to get something.(One of the characters in a play  entitled the “The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything,”declares:  “I believe that people developed language out of a deep inner need to complain.” )  Our need to complain, our need to have the ketchup passed to us, our need to learn about each other—it is out of these needs that language arose.  And so, “Signing Naturally” developed a curriculum that places students in situations that practices these different functions of language.In my own experience, I found that young children were not able to resonate with the situations of a curriculum developed for adults, but they were extremely receptive to the functional-notional approach.

So, in developing new activities within the context where I was working, I drew on the experiences of the particular classroom and created dialogues and activities based on what students were actually needing to communicate about during their day.While I hope that the activities that I have recorded on this CD will prove helpful, my real hope is that they will provide enough practice with the process that you will be able to create individual dialogues and group activities for any topic.  So, that when the lessons run out on the CD, you will always be able to create new lessons that are integrated into the life of your specific classroom.

Teaching Language, Not Just Signs

As part of a workshop I gave in Wisconsin on Ethics and Role of Educational Interpreters, one interpreter explained that in teaching sign to the classroom in which she worked, she tried to be very clear that she only taught signs, not language.  That is, that she was only comfortable teaching vocabulary, but not the broader aspects of language that these vocabulary items are embedded in. Her comments have stayed with me, and I think they represent an honest perspective and also a commentary on the state of materials targeted for teaching sign language in elementary settings.  Most of the resources available only teach individual signs, but not the whole of language.  Sadly, this misses out on the potential of young children for learning language.  More and more, language immersion programs are being instituted in elementary schools to capitalize on the fact that young brains are wired for learning language.  For ASL instruction to be successful in teaching language, interpreters and teachers need to be cognizant of the different linguistic levels that exist.  The following is a brief summary of these strata of language–and is intended to more raise questions that push you on to further understanding of the linguistic structure of discourse.  In this overview, I move from the more specific, smaller units to the broader and larger units of language.

The contents of this project were developed under a grant from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning and with support from the NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Children, Families, and Learning , and you should not assume endorsement by the Minnesota State Government. Because it is a state funded project, it has an open copyright and maybe transferred to the hard drive of as many computers as wished. It is also duplcate this material, provided they are not used for making a profit.When duplicating this resource, take care to give credit to those who created and produced this project.

These ASL texts were filmed as part of the 2002 Educational Interpreter Institute held at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) in Faribault, Minnesota.  Mike Cashman provided two evenings of entertainment and education.  The first night was a tour of the MSAD.  The second night was a presentation on Current Events.  On this CD, the texts are presented in the opposite order, that is the Talk on Current Events is presented first. This is due to the fact that Mike presented in Noyes Auditorium and the setting was more conducive to quality filming and texts that could be captured and shared.  However, since there was room on the CD for more texts, I decided to include as many as I could of Mike?s explanations of the history of people and places at MSAD.

Because these were live presentations directed at a specific audience, some of the context for understanding them may not be evident in the video.  Writ-ten summaries have been included to provide support for comprehension and analysis.  They are intentionally not presented as interpretations so they are not mistaken as the “correct” way to interpret these texts.

Mike?s talk on Current Events happened in August of 2002 and, as time passes, it will obviously become less current.  However, his use of language and his engagement with his audience will offer interpreters and students of American Sign Language ample opportunity hone their skills.  The selections from the tour of MSAD will continue to remain relevant for people interested in Deaf Culture and the history of Schools for the Deaf.

Mike Cashman is a graduate of the Minnesota School for the Deaf and Gallaudet University.  He currently works as a public policy analyst for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division of the Minnesota Department of Human Services.  Prior to that, he worked as the Deputy Di-rector of the Minnesota Commission Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (MCDHH)–working with people who are Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing to promote their priorities at the Minnesota Legislature.  Described as a “tireless advocate at the legislature,” Mike is renowned for his knowledge of government and his commitment to making Minnesota more accessible for its citizens who are Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing.  At the 2003 Legislative Day, Mike received awards from the Minnesota Associations of Deaf Citizens and MCDHH for his advocacy efforts, and was recognized as a distinguished alumni by the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf.

Disclaimer:  Though Mike worked at the time for the State of Minnesota, during these talks, Mike was speaking as an individual citizen and his opinions and perspectives are solely his own.

1.  Watch texts for language use and information.

Mike talks about some specific situations—demonstrating interesting ways to describe both current and historical events.  Within these clips,  you can both learn about the Minnesota and the world—and you can see how to describe these events in ASL.

2.  Watch texts for discourse features.

Because these texts come from an authentic interaction with an audience of interpreters, you can watch the texts for ways that Mike shifts his discourse to interact with his audience.  Notice how he shifts between topics.  How he uses repetition, clarification, and questions to be sure his audience is still with him.  Also, notice his use of ASL sprinkled with many English idioms.  Within all of the texts, there is much to see.

3.  Practice interpretations and analyze them for equivalence.

1. Select a source text—initially one of the shorter, more straight forward texts.
2. Create and videotape (or audiotape) an interpretation/translation of the text.  (This process can happen consecutively, simultaneously, or a as a process of translation, depending on your intent and area of focus.  The critical factor is that you should feel in control of the process.  If you feel out of control, try a process such as consecutive interpreting which allows you more control or do more preparation by using the written summary as support before attempting the interpretation.  For details, see the free Independent Study Packet available here.
3. View/listen to your interpretation.  (Be sure that you cannot see the source text.)
4. Create an outline/map of your interpretation. (See sample next page for outlining techniques.)
5. If necessary, watch interpretation again to complete outline or map.
6. View/listen to source text.
7. Create outline/map of that text. (Don?t begin outlining until the entire text is complete.)
8. If necessary, watch video again to complete outline or map. (At this point, use the summary of the text for support if necessary.)
9. Write outlines/draw maps side by side to facilitate analysis.
10. Do analysis of equivalence of interpretation with source text.  Begin with these questions in mind:
    a. Is the meaning of the target language the same as that of the source language?
    b. Is the message clearly understood by the audience for whom the message was intended?
    c. Is the form natural?

(Notice if there are any patterns to differences.  Any areas where the outline of the interpretation demonstrates lack of clarity in the points made, or transitions between points?)

The outline below is by no means the only way that text could be outlined or mapped.  However, it does represent a way in which the main points and supporting details can be organized to show their relationship.  The main points begin further to the left on the outline and the details are nested to the right underneath the points which they support.  This is an attempt to focus more on the content of the text than on its form.  That is, it focuses on meaning, rather than on what individual signs were used.

Sample Outline for Schools on in a Blizzard

1. Story about Principal
   1. Mr. Easterline
      1. Name sign A-C-E
   2. At MSD
   3. Also sheep farmer
2. A snowy day
   1. Heavy snowfall
   2. Students excited
      1. Thought school cancelled
      2. In boys? dorm
         1. Barron Hall
      3. Looking through windows
   3. Tractor coming to campus
      1. John Deere
      1. Easterline arriving
   4. Students called to class
      1. After Phone Rings
   5. Students felt not fair
      1. Hearing students had no school
      2. Went through tunnels to class
   6. Principal called teachers
      1. Teachers came on snowmobiles
   7. Had class all day
3. Principal driving on tractor to school Very memorable

With an outline of an interpretation done in a similar manner, then they can be compared and contrasted to see how equivalent the interpretation really is.  In doing these outlines, you can also make notes and comments about the text or interpretation.  For example, if I didn?t catch that he spelled “John Deere” I could put a note there in that spot like “?Fingerspelled something?”  Similarly, you can make notes in outlines for interpretations if there are sections that are unclear.

These directions were developed for an Independent Study Packet in connection with  “Life in Parallel.”  Click here for more information.  The process itself draws heavily on ideas and work described in two articles:

Ross, L. and Criner, S.,  “Equivalence Assessments:  Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice,” in Swabey, ed. (2002) New Designs in Interpreter Education.  Conference of Interpreter Trainers.  http://www.cit-asl.org/store.html

Winston, E.A. and Monikowski, C., “Discourse Mapping:  Developing Textual Coherence Skills,” in Interpreters,” in Roy, ed. (2000) Innovative Practices for Teaching Sign Language Interpreters.  Washington, DC:  Gallaudet University Press.  http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/IPTSLI.html

The video segments in this section are from a talk that Mike gave as part of an Educational Interpreter Institute during August of 2002 in Noyes Auditorium at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in Faribault.   In the audience are about 50 educational interpreters who work throughout the state.  Because it is an actual event, later texts may draw on information provided in previous ones.  Additionally, with interaction with the audience, some relevant information was not captured by the camera. The summaries provide some of the contextual information which might not be included in the video.

Schools On in a Blizzard

Mike began his talk with some reflections on being a student in the Auditorium, including a remembrance about what his principal did one time to keep school open during a blizzard.  (1:29)  Written summary of Text

The Events of 9/11

Mike begins his focus on current events by talking about the events of September 11, 2001.  He talks about his learning about what happened that day, as well his involvement on a task force on Terrorism for the Department of Health. (8:23)  Written summary of Text

In the Command Center

Mike shares his experience of having been at the State of Minnesota’s Command Center on the night of September 11, 2003 and what his perspective as a Deaf person had to being prepared in the event of an emergency.  (1:49)  Written summary of Text

Task Force on Terrorism

Mike explains in more depth about his participation on a Task Force for the Department of Health which focuses on being prepared for terrorism and other risks.  (1:35) Written summary of Text

The Governor

Mike shares some reflections on Minnesota’s Governor at the time, Jesse Ventura.  He particularly focuses on the Deaf community’s attempts to work with the Governor in creating access to what is going on in the state.  (6:10) Written summary of Text

Legislative Allies

Mike talks about the importance for the Deaf community to have allies in the legislature.  (0:28) Written summary of Text

The 2002 Governor’s Race

Mike talks about the candidates in the 2002 governor’s race in the state of Minnesota.    (5:14)   Written summary of Text

All Aboard Light Rail

Mike talks about his reasons for being a strong supporter of light rail and the concept of mass transit.    (4:56)  Written summary of Text

Putting Rail in the Budget

Mike explains how the legislature has handled Governor Ventura’s desire to move on building light rail transportation.  (0:47) Written summary of Text

The Importance of the Legislature

Mike talks about why we ignore the legislature at our own risk.    (3:08) Written summary of Text

Change Face of the Legislature

Mike talks how the traditions of legislative control in Minnesota have been shifting in recent years.     (0:57)  Written summary of Text

Redistricting and the 2002 Election

Mike explains how changes in population growth and redistricting is affecting people?s representation and the election process.     (1:36)  Written summary of Text

On Stocks and Cell Phones

Mike talks about how the corporate scandals in 2002 have affected the stock market, and how the use of cell phones has grown (and how that plays into people’s relationship with their stocks.)     (5:00)  Written summary of Text

Pagers and Beyond

Growing out of the discussion of cell phones, Mike talks about how technological developments are affecting possibilities for Deaf people to communicate.   (2:14)  Written summary of Text

Strike Three?

As this talk was given a short time before the deadline for a baseball strike, Mike talks about the impact a strike would have on baseball. (3:52) Written summary of Text

A Valuable Baseball Card

Mike shares his most valuable baseball card, that of the only Deaf player to pitch in the World Series.   (4:07)  Written summary of Text

Cochlear Implants

Mike discusses the pros and cons of cochlear implants, from the perspective as a Deaf person and as a parent.   (4:21)  Written summary of Text

Written Summaries

These summaries are offered not as definitive translations, but as support fo comprehension, analysis, and your own interpretations.

School’s On in a Blizzard

Mike tells a story about Mr. Easterline (A-C-E) who worked as a principal at the Minnesota School for the Deaf and also raised sheep on a nearby farm.  One winter day, all the students were excited because they were sure school would be cancelled due to heavy snows.  Then, from the windows of the old boys’ dorm, Barron Hall (B-H) they saw something they couldn’t believe:  a John Deere tractor arriving on the campus.  They knew this meant Easterline was there.  Sure enough, the phone rang soon after in the dorm and the students were called to school.  It didn’t seem fair that the hearing students got a day off to play while the deaf students had to make their way through tunnels to class.  Calls had been made to a couple of teachers who were able to come to school on snowmobiles.  So, they ended up having class all day.  The fact that the principal would drive into school on a tractor is something Mike will never forget.  Back to Video

The Events of 9/11

Mike gets to the point of his talk which is current events.  He encourages audience participation and discussion.  He begins with the events of September 11, which he recognizes everyone knows about.  The plans crashing into the towers turned the world on its head and 9/11 is now equally a “day of infamy,” just like in WW II when Japan dropped their bombs on December 7, 1941.  On that day, Ventura (Ed note:  the Minnesota Governor) made an interesting point.  Mike was watching his press conference at noon—which at first didn’t have captions, but after some phone calls, one channel got the captions working.  Ventura made an interesting point that during WW II, at least we knew who hit us, but on September 11, we didn’t know who hit us.  It was a different situation.  We have suspicions about who was behind it, but it wasn’t like WW II when the emblem of the Rising Sun  was emblazoned on the wings of the aircraft that were dropping the bombs.  So, with 9/11, we?re not quite sure who is behind it.

That day, when Mike got to work, someone told him that a plane had crashed into the World Trade building in New York.  Sean Virnig came over at that time, and they both were there to see the interpretation about what was going on.  Mike envisioned that it was a small plane which had accidentally crashed into the building.  He thought perhaps it was a foggy day or something.  Back in the 1940?s, an airplane had crashed into the Empire State Building on the 90th floor, and Mike thought it was a similar situation.  Then, when he saw that another plane had crashed, his suspicions were up.  Of course, everyone one was tuned into those events all day—shocked at what was happening in the world.  Mike stayed connected with it, learning about what was happening with the nation, with Osama Bin Laden, and Al-Qaeda.  That these people had been planning for years for this and that it was connected to the bombing in the basement of the World Trade Center years before.  It was the same people who orchestrated this.  Now, the news is reporting a possible “urban jihad.”  Mike then asks people if they know what “Jihad” means.   He explains it means “Holy war.”  And that al-Qaeda is planning different attacks on cities—through bombs or assassination.  CNN reported that they found tapes at al-Qaeda?s headquarters which showed how to make bombs, and how to use chemicals.  As well as showing tests of those chemicals on animals—like testing them on dogs and timing how long it takes to work.  Which means that America now knows that they have weapons of mass destruction.  All of that really intrigues Mike, keeping him reading the newspaper.

One reason Mike keeps up with the news is part of his work.  Through his work, he is on a commission—which he clarifies is a Task Force from the Department of Health.  The Task Force?s focus is Terrorism.  He is the only Deaf member of the Task force, and they have another big meeting next week.  They meet monthly to talk about terrorism here at home and what to do to prepare for that possibility.  The committee which Mike is on is “Risk Communication” which means how to rapidly communicate information, particularly to people who are Deaf, Hard of hearing, or DeafBlind.    An example of one topic they have dealt with is remote captioning.  Mike explains that captioning services don?t have to be local, though he knows Channel 11 uses local services.  But captioning could happen in another state.  His sister-in-law, who is Deaf, lives in Baltimore.  A couple of years when he was visiting, Mike was impressed with her station?s captioning.  She explained that it wasn’t her station, but that they contracted with a company in Pittsburgh.  So that was the beginning of Mike?s learning about how that system works, which he now knows well.  So, the captioning doesn’t have to happen on site, but could be in other locations.  Back to his point, Mike raised the point of using a remote captioner at the task force meeting, and people nodded in agreement that it was a good idea.  But he wondered if they really understood all of what it meant.  After another topic went around for discussion, he again raised the captioning issue and asked people to consider the possibility that a captioner might be in Rochester, but if Rochester was bombed, that would destroy that communication.  Mike wasn’t trying to play games with these people by bringing this up, but he realized that most of them didn’t fully understand the needs of Deaf and Hard of hearing people, and he wanted them to understand the need of having captioning services in a variety of places so that in the event that one went down, there would be a back-up in place.  Back to Video

In the Command Center

Mike is talking about the night of 9/11/2001 at the “Nerve Center” or “Command Center” in St. Paul.  The governor and several key military people were there.  Mike was also there, and when he entered, he immediately noticed two large TV screens—similar to the one on stage which is out of view from the camera.  In front of the screens military officers engaged in discussion.  Mike asked where the closed captions were, and was told that they were down in another room at the end of a long string of larger tvs.  The captions were on a very small screen.  Mike was accepting of it at that point, but later he explained how to improve services.  Instead of having the captions on in the corner, they should be on the main screen in front of everyone.  That way, the captions would be larger, and in case the sound on the TV went off, which sometimes happens, people would still be able to read the captions and know what was going on.  Which was a point that they hadn’t thought about but which made sense.  So if later, the sound was for some reason cut off, the military officers would be able to read the captioning and still know what was going on.  Back to Video

Task Force on Terrorism

Mike begins talking about the committee which he is involved in focusing on terrorism and our response to it.  Not just for people who are Deaf and hard of hearing, but for the public in general.  Mike then asks the audience what they think might be a new item added to the agenda of that committee?s work.  It?s related to health and is on the same agenda as dealing with terrorism.    Someone responds anthrax, which Mike says is included in terrorism.  He reminds the audience that it is a Department of Health committee.  The hot issue is finally answered by someone in the audience as the West Nile Virus.  So, it has finally been placed on the agenda for the Task Force to look at.  The virus has been showing up more often and so it?s an interesting thing for them to look at.  Mike then says that people should watch out for mosquito bites, though the Deaf School, of course,  is free from the disease.  Outside of the ring around campus, there might be infected mosquitoes, but not on campus.  Particularly there in Noyes Hall, where Noyes ghost would scare them off.  (Ed. Note:  This is a reference to Mike’s discussion of Noyes’ ghost from the previous night.  See “Ghost Stories.”)  Back to Video

The Governor

Mike starts off talking about “our friend” Jesse Ventura.  (Someone in the audience refutes that Jesse is their friend, which Mike copies to the entire group.)  Mike then asks the audience if they are happy that Jesse Ventura is almost done with his time as governor?  Or not sure?  Or if they are ready to throw him out?  (As no one responds, he wonders if anyone is paying attention or if they are counting the tiles on the ceiling, a reference to another story of his school days that is not on the CD.)  Mike then responds that he is read to see Jesse go.  The Deaf community had invited the governor to have a meeting with them.  MADC had sent a letter to the governor asking for the meeting but they didn’t receive any response.  Last month, MADC sent Ventura another letter and he finally accepted their invitation.  Which was a surprising response, but he is also leaving office soon.  There is a meeting in the next couple of weeks with the Deaf community and John Wodele, who is Venura’s right hand man and spokesperson.  Wodele is quoted in the newspaper often.  The meeting will focus on a variety of issues.  One of the complaints the Deaf community had was that there was no captioning for the governor’s press conferences.  (Mike then spends some time remembering his next point, reviewing the complaint about the press club, communication and language, and captioning.)  The other example is how, every Friday, the governor has a radio show entitled “Lunch with the Governor.”  That event is publicized in state information and on the state home page on their website.  Public money is used for that, so the Deaf community sent a complaint about not having access to knowing what was being said on that.  That all the information was being conveyed to people who can hear, but that Deaf people weren’t included in that process.  That Deaf people what to know what the Governor is saying, and what he is planning.  They voted for him, too, and want to be included.  The response that came back in regards to the press conferences that it was a media decision to have captioning or not.  That it wasn’t in the governor’s authority to dictate that, but it was up to individual media outlets.  For the concern about the “Lunch with the Governor,”  they were willing to meet to discuss ideas about that.  But as for the press conferences, that was up to the media, not the governor’s office. So, they will meet to discuss that.  Mike’s perspective on the press conferences is that if it takes place at a public building like the Capitol, it should be accessible because the Capitol is owned by the people of Minnesota.  If it?s a press conference that takes place out in the rain, Mike is fine with however it happens.

Ventura is leaving soon, but they will be ready to meet with the next Governor.  Mike is working with MADC (and he then asks if people know what MADC is, and he goes on to explain that it is the Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens.)  The collaboration is nice because MADC is a community organizations and legislators tend to listen to them more than to Mike, who is a state employee.  That as a consumer organization,  legislators tend to be more open to work  with MADC because they realize their potentials as voters, so Mike works with them to help do some arm-twisting in influencing Ventura.  Mike isn’t sure if that will work, but they’ll try.

Mike then gives an example of working with Ventura.  In talking about September 11, he references a story from the previous night of trying to get the interpreter to be closer to the speaker.  Then, he explains how there was a press conference on September 11th.  There was an interpreter there, but when Mike looked on the TV screen, there was no interpreter.  Instead, Ventura’s wife was standing behind him—blocking out the interpreter.  Mike sent a letter expressing his frustration about that lack of access.  It was not intended as an insult to Ventura’s wife, but just a concern about the lack of information to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community…because there are some hard of hearing people, too, who could get information from the signing.  With Governor Ventura as our boss, it has meant some difficult struggles for the Deaf community.  Mike begins to sign something about 2002..and then goes off on a tangent about a friend encouraging him to sign 20+0+2 because it is more consistent with ASL’s number system for separating dates into two numbers, rather than 4 separate numbers.  Back to Video

On Legislative Allies

The Deaf Community is always encouraging and looking for someone who is a friend to the community who is also in the Legislature.  Having allies in the legislature who can work with the Deaf Community is important for being able to work for the programs and services on the Deaf Community’s agenda.  Back to Video

The 2002 Governor’s Race

With Governor Ventura exiting office,Mike is talking about how will come after him in the election.  The three candidates include the Independence Party?s Tim Penny, who Mike remembers from his days as a Congressman in Washington, DC.  He was known as a “boy wonder” who suddenly left politics because of family reasons.  He?s one to watch being as politically savvy as he is.  Having left politics and now returning to run for governor.  Naturally, many people remember him from his time as a congressman.

Mike then asks the audience who the Republican candidate is and says that it is Tim Pawlenty.  And the Democrat is Moe.  Someone from the audience then offers up that the Green Party candidate is Ken Pentel, which Mike interprets as a possible show of support for the Green Party.  Mike has tried to immerse himself this year in the political scene.  He was at the DFL caucus in Rice County and was then elected as a delegate to go on to the DFL state convention.  Which was a good experience.  He begins to tell a story about captioning and the interpreter, but then backs up to say that it was an exciting convention.  His delegation was one of the front ones, but still far from the stage.  It was at the downtown convention center.  It was hard to see the interpreter well, so Mike motioned for the interpreter to move close to the speaker?s podium, because the speaker was being projected up onto large screens.  As the interpreter moved over, the camera only caught half of the interpreter.  Mike then motioned up to the camera person to use what he considered a little common sense and include the full interpreter.  Mike may have seemed a little crazy there waving his arms, but the camera person saw what he was getting at and widened the camera angle to include both the speaker and the interpreter which made the convention all the more enjoyable for Mike.  Good experience to see the political process in action.  Moe, who had been in politics over 30 years, was one of the founders of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division.  He was a signer on the legislation that brought the Regional Service Centers into being.  He was involved in that process in the late 1970?s that finally got the legislation passed in 1980.  Moe, Mike says, is one of the “old guard,” which some call the “good old boys? network.”  Still, Moe is a pretty smooth politician.

The Republican, Pawlenty, tries to sign because his neighbor is Deaf.  His neighbor is the President of MADC (Minn Association of Deaf Citizens) and one time, Mike and his friend met Pawlenty in the hall of the Capitol.  Pawlenty tried to sign, but not clearly, but Mike, being as smooth as he is, just feigned understanding and shook Pawlenty’s hand.  Even though it made his eyes cross to see the signing, he didn’t let on that he didn’t understand what he was saying.  After Pawlenty left, Mike turned to his friend and asked him if he was teaching him to sign that way.  But kidding aside, Mike recognized that the attempt meant that Pawlenty had a good attitude.  Back to Video

All Aboard Light Rail

Mike is a strong supporter of light rail because of his strong belief in mass transit.  He was spoiled by his experiences in Washington, D.C. and New York City, among other places.  When Mike was a student at Gallaudet, it was the fall of 1974, and the city was working round the clock to get ready for the Bicentennial celebration in 1976.    Sometimes, driving was tough because they were working so hard to get the subway tunnels ready.  They started in the center of the city and built spokes out toward the edges of the city.  He then refers to Susan, an audience member, and that she would be familiar with this system.  When he was first in DC, they had small lines built, which he rode and really enjoyed.  In New York City, the subway there is full of history.

Subways are very efficient. New York has a very good transportation system.  Minnesota’s is more of a regular system, but after time with other systems, including travels in Europe where there are many subways, Mike feels strongly that Minneapolis and St. Paul should have a subway system.  Those cities really have a terrible system right now.  Mike recently drove to South Carolina and driving through Chicago, he was surprised by how improved the traffic was.  Then he went through Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis; Lexington, KY; and Knoxville, TN.  All of these cities had better traffic flow than Minneapolis and St. Paul.  It seems that here we start too many projects before finishing other ones. To Mike, it seems like we really have a bad system here.

Mike has also asked people about the old streetcars.  When Minneapolis and St. Paul had streetcars, people said it was one of the best in the nation.  Mike wonders what was wrong with Minnesotans when they decided to get rid of that system, in about 1950 (52 years ago) and exchange it for polluting buses.  The street car used to run from downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul all the way out west to Excelsior.   Excelsior used to have an amusement park which was the Valley Fair of its time.  The Deaf people he asked about it said the streetcar system worked really well.  You didn’t have to worry in the wintertime because there was a plow on the front of the streetcar that cleared the street.    So, people were able to continue working in the winter because they could get where they needed to go, since the street car would plow the streets.  It?s interesting how people decided to get rid of that system without really being able to predict the changes in the future.  Mike thinks its related to people having weak math skills.  People DO multiply.  He thinks people in the 1950?s should have been able to see that there would have been more people in the future, that it was simply common sense.  That there would be more of people, more interpreters.  Anyway, it?s interesting how the environment changes.  How urban sprawl has become more pervasive.  Some people call it progress, but Mike disagrees.  He doesn’t call that progress.  Back to Video

Putting Light Rail in the Budget

Light rail,  which was supposed to be started this year, has been put off from 2003 to 2004.  Governor Ventura is not happy about that delay.  He wanted it to begin before he left office. But it was delayed because of construction costs.  But the legislature has had to partition up the budget, and because the economy is having such a slow turnaround, not at all a quick rebound.  The long and difficult climb for the economy really makes all of this rough. Back to Video

The Importance of the Legislature

Mike begins by asking the audience who likes the legislature and receives a few affirmative responses.  He feels it is important because if the legislative process is ignored, legislators can make policies which impact his life in many ways, whether related to work, property taxes, schools, or education.  If the legislature makes incorrect decisions, they can really mess with the education system.  Right now, a hot topic is vouchers and whether or not that is a good idea.  They are also discussing home schools vs. traditional schooling; cuts to higher education and increases in tuition.  The legislature also has to make priorities.  It’s possible that they would focus all of the budget on light rail and end up shortchanging education.  Mike’s in favor of rail, but what happens to high school graduates who can’t afford to pay 100,000 dollars over four years for college.  And that’s for college cost now.  It?s hard to imagine what the costs will be in the future.  That’s why the legislature is important to try to help keep the costs down.

Mike is a daily reader of the newspaper, particularly keeping a close eye on issues that relating to education and the Deaf and hard of hearing community.  There is now discussion of a charter school with an oral philosophy; there is MDS (Metro Deaf School) and here (referring to MSAD.)  If more and more schools are set up for Deaf children, Mike is unsure of what the consequences will be of all of those choices.    He worries that there won?t be the critical mass considering that there are not many Deaf people to begin with.  With a small school of 40-50 students, it can be a good situation but Mike wonders about if it is as stimulating an environment as one that has a lot more deaf students.  So, that is an interesting part of the discussion related to Deaf education trends.  This is a new trend.  Back in Mike?s time, all of the Deaf students from K-12 came here (MSD) for school.  There were 300-350 students there then—which had pros and cons, but for Mike looking back, it was quite an experience to see all the discussion that went on in such a large group of deaf people.  Sometimes when he comes to the school to visit and sees small groups of students in the auditorium, he thinks back to the days when he was young and the same space was filled with students.  One side had 100 boys and the other had 100 girls—or maybe 150 on each side.  So, there have been lots of changes, and it’s not totally clear whether they are good or bad.  It’s important to keep an open mind, but it all goes back and relates to issues that come up in the legislature.  Back to Video

Changing Face of the Legislature

Mike talks about the traditional parties in Minnesota being the Republicans and the DFL, with Minnesota traditionally being a DFL state.  That is changing however with the emergence of the Green Party, and with Republicans taking control of the house.  The Senate is still under Democratic control, but it may be that the Republicans will gain control there too.  The governmental processes are interesting to look at, especially considering Republican budget ideas.  Mike wonders if there could be problems under a Republican budget for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf Blind services.  Mike can’t say for sure, but he says that if you work for a long time with legislature, you can begin to see people?s agenda, in a sense, to read their minds.  And under the Republican house, he has seen several red fags that make him wonder what the future might hold.  Back to Video

Redistricting and the 2002 Election

Mike begins talking about the upcoming election, on the local, state, and national levels that, because of population growth, have been affected by redistricting.  So some people had their long-time legislator move into a new district and they end up with a new legislator who they don?t know anything about.  So, it?s an interesting challenge.  Mike worries because, after 9 years of experience working with the legislature, many good people are retiring or deciding not to run again.  So, there will be a line of new legislators starting at the bottom, who don?t have any knowledge of the Deaf agenda.  So, they?ll have to come up with a new game plan.  MADC will have to develop new strategies for working with legislators.  Some legislators are easy to make in-roads with while others are more standoffish.  Newly-elected legislators often come in with a whole list of ways for solving problems overnight, which doesn’t really work.  Other legislators are very smart about how they go about learning the process and what needs to happen to make things work.  Mike has seen a lot of different approaches like that in the legislature.  Back to Video

On Stocks and Cell Phones

Mike begins talking about Enron and the severe drop in the stock market.  Just yesterday, a man admitted to guilt.  His name was something like Kopper.  He was in the upper management at Enron. Those at the top had raked in millions of dollars.  It looks like Kopper will be convicted, but probably not end up with a long jail term because of a plea agreement.  In yesterday?s news, they announced that a plea was reached.  That means Kopper will name others involved in exchange for a lessened sentence.

The economic drop has really impacted people on small budgets whose investments and stocks are now just gone.  All of it due to the greed of a few who stole the money from their pockets.  Some people lost their life savings and their security is now gone.  All of that has really had an impact on Mike.  He has really taken his budgeting and investments more seriously.  Before he used to just trust the companies he invested in, but now things are different.  When he gets a notice about an election for a board, he used to tear it up.  But now he takes the time to read it, decide who is the best candidate based on their background, and send his vote in.  He really has become much more involved, influenced by the events around the stock market.  When companies send stacks of information asking for participation, he finds himself now going through it because of his sense of responsibility for making sure his investment doesn?t disappear.  He makes the point that the environment of what is happening in the world really influences him more than it did in the past.  Security simply isn?t there like it was in the past.  Even working for the State, security is not there.  The economy is simply tough and it is an influence coming from the newspaper, radio, and TV.

Mike kids a friend often about the radio and cell phones.  He began commuting a long distance about 10-11 years ago.  At that time, there were cell phones in about 1 out of every 100 cars.  Now, almost EVERY car has a cell phone. Sometimes, the husband?s driving and talking on the phone. The wife is in the passenger seat talking on another one, and the kids are in back talking on phones of their own.  One time, Mike was trying to pass a car, and as he finally passed it, he noticed the driver was in deep discussion on a cell phone.  So, Mike decided to enjoy himself, and as he pulled up to the driver, he mimicked that he was having a discussion on the phone, except he was just using his hand and he really had no phone.  When the other driver saw him, that person was a little confused, but Mike feels like it is important for people to “lighten up.”  But there are a lot more cell phones than there used to be.  And Mike teases a group of his friends that hearing people are getting rich so quickly because they listen to the stock reports on the radio and then can use their cell phones to buy stock.  But Deaf people have to drive to the office and look at the computer to see what their stocks are doing, while hearing people can listen to the radio in the car and take care of buying stock on their phone.  But one of my Deaf friends said that we shouldn?t worry, because Deaf people will eventually be rich after all the hearing people get cancer from talking on their cell phones too much.  That Deaf people will then take control of the world as a way of getting even.  Back to Video

Pagers and Beyond

Mike begins by responding to a question from the audience about whether or not he has a pager.  Which he says he doesn?t, but then goes on to say that it is true that some Deaf people use pagers while they are driving.  He tells the story of two years ago going to a reunion of his fraternity in Washington, DC, and staying at a friend?s house.  He was driving with his friend through the Washington traffic to the site of a group photo that they didn’t want to miss.  His friend was using his pager to communicate with a car four cars ahead to tell them when to exit, and to wait for others coming behind to be sure everyone made it.  It really is an improvement in communication.  Then, he asks if anyone has seen the recent TV commercial (and he doesn?t know if it is good or not) but there are four guys playing cards and he looks at his phone and sees a picture of his wife (and then he asks again if the audience has seen that ad)  and the picture on the phone is supposed to be something exciting – it?s his wife showing some food.  This wasn?t something Mike hadn?t thought of but he envisions being able to sign to his wife Jeanine and tell her that he will be home late.  The possibility is really wonderful.  When he explained it to Jeanine, she thought it was a good idea.  So, technology is really good.  Mike then envisions a scenario where he is signing into a video cell phone and he pulls up next to other drivers who look at him questioningly.  Or even having a video screen where the rearview mirror is and having conversations while driving (that need to be suspended during bad traffic.) But the possibilities technology offers for communication are really wonderful.   Back to Video

Strike Three?

Mike takes a little tangent (with permission) to talk about baseball.  He first shows the Minnesota sign for BASEBALL. (with a C contacting a B handshape) He also shows the sign like swinging a bat which is gaining currency, but reiterates that his sign growing up was the other one. When he attended Gallaudet, he got a lot of flack for all of his “Minnesota signs,” but he goes on to talk more specifically about the possibility of a baseball strike.  The deadline is set for August 30th, and he wonders what can be going on with baseball.  He had read in that day?s paper that one owner (he couldn?t remember the team) made the comment that he would be fine with a strike that lasted a year.  Which would mean from August 30 to the end of the next August.  Which would mean a big loss in revenue…

Mike then speculates about the impact that a strike would have on fans.  First thinking that it would be the fourth strike, and then realizing it would be the third strike, he thinks many fans would lose faith with major league baseball.  Since players make so much money, with the minimum salary at 200-250,000 dollars.  Mike would be more than happy to be stuck in right field catching foul balls for that amount of money.

Mike had spent some time talking with old-timers about baseball’s past.  One of these interviews was with someone at Gallaudet who was originally from Brooklyn.  And when the Dodgers were there, before they moved, players used to have to clean up the bleachers after the game was over.  Famous players like PeeWee Reese had to clean up the all the popcorn, peanuts, and pop that was left after a game.  It?s hard to imagine telling players today who make 200,000 dollars minimum to clean everything after a game was over.  (Even having them polish the floors until they ended up with holes in their knees—a reference to a story from the previous evening.)  But the difference does show how baseball has changed over the years.

That day in the paper, Mike also read about Senator Johnson from Wilmar saying that if baseball goes on strike, all discussion in the legislature about possible funding of a new Twins? stadium would be off, a comment intended as a warning to the players representative named Hocking.  Mike tends to agree with the sentiment that if baseball did go on strike, money that might have been put to the stadium should be put towards something like education.  That it should go to someone other than the “Fat Cats” who are already making such large salaries.  Back to Video

A Valuable Baseball Card

Going back to Baseball, Mike was a card collector growing up.  (He jokingly claimed to have burned them all.)  He did have one favorite card which he brought with him.  The card is of a Deaf man who graduated from the Kansas School for the Deaf in 1896 or 1897.  This person was the only culturally Deaf person to be in the World Series.  (By “culturally Deaf,” Mike means having gone to a School for the Deaf and knowing ASL among other things.)  He played in the 1905 World Series for the New York Giants.   He was a very popular pitcher named Luther “Dummy” Taylor.  Many Deaf people in baseball during that era were called  “Dummy.”  Many Deaf people now are very insulted by that knickname, and when Mike was younger, he agreed.  But with  an understanding of how historically, the word only meant that you couldn’t speak, and that it evolved over time to have a more degrading, insulting meaning—i.e. someone is an imbecile—that it became more offensive.  At Gallaudet, on the weather vane on one of the oldest buildings, the inscription reads I.D.D., for Institute for the Deaf and Dumb.  Some people want to take that down, but Mike takes no offense and thinks it should be left as a reminder of history?s legacy.

Back to Taylor, who was in the 1905 World Series, Mike was at a Baseball Card show and saw Taylor?s card.  The card was from 1906 (and Mike bought it about 15 years ago.)  It?s not that it is monetarily worth as much as other cards; the real value for Mike lies in its connection to Deaf culture and as an inspiration that someone who is culturally Deaf can “make the grade.”

The card (which he says he will pass around) is from the minor league team of the New York Giants.  (The Giants later moved to San Francisco, but at the time they played on the Polo Grounds in New York.)  The farm team was from Buffalo.  It’s very difficult to find a card from playing with the Giants, but he does have the one from Buffalo.  Back to Video

Cochlear Implants

Mike begins by showing two different ways of signing “cochlear implants.”  He then goes on to talk about an article he saw that talked about cochlear implants causing spinal meningitis.  This was published in a national newspaper.  When cochlear implants first came on the scene, Mike had several reservations about their use.  One was that it was in the head, and from a health perspective, too close to the brain.  Additionally, although the surgery techniques may have improved, originally they removed the mastoid bone.  This is the hard bone right behind the ear, and provides significant protection to the inner ear.  With it removed, there is less protection while playing sports like basketball in which an elbow might accidentally strike the back of someone?s head.  Mike then clarifies that his intent is not to be negative about cochlear implants…that they work for some people while not working for others.  For the people for whom they are successful, it doesn’t mean they are able to function completely as a hearing person.  They might be better able to discriminate words, but there still might be some struggle in catching everything.  Mike knew one person who was a graduate of Gallaudet whose office was across from his in Pollard while Mike was working at MSD.  This person had become deaf at 14.  So for some people it can work and allow them to speak, and use the telephone.  For others, it is not so successful.  Mike knows of people who had the surgery, and then later, remove the implant apparatus.  Many people ask Mike if he had Deaf children, if he would have them implanted.  His immediate response is “no” because he wants his children to have a normal experience of being able to play sports and swim.  Being able to communicate with Deaf children right “off the bat,” he wouldn?t want to have the surgery when they are young.  When they grew up, it would be up to the children to decide.  As he was raising his own children, he taught them to swim by throwing them in the water, and is afraid he wouldn?t be able to do that if his child had the surgery.  So, while there are many pros and cons to cochear implants, Mike personally has some concerns.

Going back to the newspaper article, the suspicion is that some corrosion with the wire that is used in the implant might be the cause of the spinal meningitis…which is something you simply don?t want to have.  Mike has a good friend who became deaf at the age of 3 or so due to spinal meningitis.  He almost didn?t make it through the illness, but only became deaf.  Some people in the audience may know him…his name is Steve B.  Interestingly, Steve doesn?t have good balance underwater.  Spinal meningitis destroys the sense of balance, so he can?t swim straight underwater.  Mike ends by reiterating that spinal meningitis is something you don?t want to mess with if you can avoid it.  Back to Video

The video segments in this section are from a talk that Mike gave as part of an Educational Interpreter Institute during August of 2002 in Noyes Auditorium at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in Faribault. In the audience are about 50 educational interpreters who work throughout the state. Because it is an actual event, later texts may draw on information provided in previous ones. Additionally, with interaction with the audience, some relevant information was not captured by the camera. The summaries provide some of the contextual information which might not be included in the video.

A Cannon on Campus

Mike explains why there is a cannon on the MSAD campus and how it relates to the school?s history. (2:50) Written summary of Text

Frechette Hall

Mike explains about the history of Frechette Hall, which is now the boys? dorm on campus. (1:18) Written summary of TextWritten summary of Text

Barron Hall

Mike tells of Barron Hall, the dorm where he stayed when he was a student. (3:17) Written summary of Text

Mott Hall

Mike explains brieflyabout Mott Hall, and Rodney Mott who it is named after. It was at this point on the tour that rain forced participants inside. (1:02) Written summary of Text

Rodney Mott

Mike goes into more detail about the original Mott Hall, and Rodney Mott, who is the man after which the building was named. (4:39) Written summary of Text

Noyes and the No Yes Society

Mike explains about the No Yes Society and a tradition of debating and interpretation. He also explains about Noyes, who was superintendent of the school from 1866-1896. (3:52) Written summary of Text

Ghost Stories

Mike tells a few of the many stories circulating about the ghost of Noyes. (2:01) Written summary of Text

A Legacy of Good Teachers

Mike describes some of the many people who became prominent on a national level and also spent some time in Faribault at MSAD. (4:04) Written summary of Text Written summary of Text

Mary Bowen

Mike tells about his fourth grade teacher who was also the leader for the Girls Scouts. (1:45) Written summary of Text

Signs of Minnesota

Mike describes how people at Gallaudet were able to recognize him as a Minnesotan when he first arrived. (0:54) Written summary of Text

Life in the Tunnels

Mike tells of some of the antics that the boys got themselves into in the tunnels which connect the older buildings on campus. (2:44) Written summary of Text

And the Consequences….

Mike describes some of the consequences for the antics described in the previous segment. (1:28) Written summary of Text

Written Summaries

These summaries are offered not as definitive translations, but as support fo comprehension, analysis, and your own interpretations.

A Cannon on Campus

Mike begins asking why a cannon might be on campus when Deaf people cannot serve in the military. Someone off camera responds that it is maybe for waking up students. Mike responds that the girls? dorm was too far off for them to hear. With the boys? dorm closer, they might be able to feel a blast. He then goes on to explain some of the symbolism behind its presence. There used to be a militia on campus, established in 1915. A Deaf man, named Quinn, came to MSD from the Fanwood school in New York, which was a military school. At that time, Quinn approached Tate, who was the third superintendent of the school, with the idea of starting a militia, and in 1915, this came to be. It was popular with the boys and soon grew in size. They practiced for the Faribault parades and were a “crack squad” in their ability to march with rifles. Many people wondered who they could have such good timing without being able to hear. Boys also joined the Hermain Society which was also formed in 1915. The goal of the boys? in this society was to earn a badge which read, “Ich Bien” which meant “I Serve.” The militia continued until 1952. At that point, there were more programs and opportunities for students and so interest in the militia faded. So this connection to the militia is the reason why the cannon is on the campus.

The cannon had been on campus for many years, and then suddenly disappeared for a year. Then, the school received a call from Shattuck, the private school which is next to MSD. Shattuck conincedentally was also a military school until 1974. They had discovered it in a ravine, seemingly there from some prank. After determining it belonged to MSD, it was returned to its present location to stay as a part of history. Back to Video

Frechette Hall

MMike is describing Frechette Hall (F-H) which was named after Edward Frechette, a hearing man who started working at MSD in 1906 as a houseparent. Deaf people who were at the school before Mike?s time said that Frechette was a great guy. A large man who never married and was a fluentsigner, he was just a good person. The dorm was opened in 1968 when Mike was a small boy. The building has three units. A unit is for the youngest children. B unit is in the middle, and C unit is for high school students. It also has a lobby. It also has a weight room, a card room, and an education center that both the girls and boys use. It?s now over thirty years old. Back to Video

Barron Hall

Mike describes Barron Hall, which was his favorite dorm. It was built in 1892 and demolished in 1970. It was almost 80 years old when it was torn down and was a huge building, with 5 floors. Initially, Mike described it as 100 ft by 200 ft, and then, after more thought, described it as 86 ft by about 260 ft.. It had two sides, East and West, and people used to say where they slept by saying EAST or WEST. He also described how age categories were described and that younger children began on the East side of Barron Hall and worked their way up to the West side. The youngest group?s sign was a 1 handshape at the nose, which was up to 3rd grade. The second group was 4th and 5th grade, and the 3rd Group was 5th and 6th Graders. The older students were on the West side and had a similar, somewhat confusing, naming system. Generally, it was a source of pride to make it to the West side with the older boys and be away from the younger children.

Mike then describes some antics in the playroom. This room had pipes which the students used for jungle bars, only the pipes were 50 feet off the ground. Sometimes, they would hit a hot pipe and have to quickly move to another cooler pipe. So, it was a little dangerous, but fun. Barron Hall also had tunnels that connected to all the other buildings on campus. Many people were sad to see Barron Hall go.

The building was named after a man named Horace Barron who was a State Seward (Ed. Note: possibly Steward) who lived in Faribault. A hearing person, he was a big supporter of the school, and went to the legislature often to get funding for the school. Back to Video

Mott Hall

Mott Hall is named after Rodney A. Mott, who was a lawyer and legislator from Faribault. He served on the board here for 50 years. He lived not too far away on Mott Ave. Mike has read a lot about Mott. He didn?t know sign language, but his vision for and understanding of the needs of Deaf people was impeccable. He is one of the people from history that Mike wishes he would have had the chance to meet. He wishes he could have an interpreter there with him (or perhaps all of the interpreters to whom he is talking right now.) Regardless, Mott was really a wonderful person.

Old Mott Hall, which he had mentioned before in having things moved to other buildings from there, was in this place. He then describes its dimensions, placement, and relationship to the road. He also describes the central portion of it which was an 150 foot tower. He plans to show pictures of old Mott Hall later when the tour gets to the museum.Back to Video

Rodney Mott

Mike goes back to talking about old Mott Hall. It was built in two parts between 1874 and 1879. First the north part was built, then the south, and then center. Mike indicates he will show a picture of it later over in the museum. It was finishedin 1879 and was torn down in 1926. Some deaf people think it was a good idea to tear down the building because it was deteriorating. Mike believes they should have saved the central tower because of its beauty. It turns out the building had lots of rotten wood in it, so it was not a clear decision, but Mike believes it sad to have lost a building like that which he thinks was one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Minnesota.

The building itself was very tall and named after Rodney Mott. The reason it was so tall was because Mott, who was hearing, wanted Deaf people to be able to look out and see what was going on in the broader world. To see the trains, business, and economy of the town. These would things hearing people might get by listening, but Deaf people needed to “visually” hear them. This is the type of “out of the box” thinker that Mott was.

Mott was one of three Commissioners who were involved in setting up the school after a law was passed in 1863. The other two commissioners aren?t as significant because they were always to busy with their schedules. But Mott was a very laid-back person who got the work done. He was a lawyer, so also very busy, but he would take on the responsibility when other commissioners were too busy to do it. He?d roll up his sleeves and go to it. He took the train to Ohio to finda superintendent for the school, Rosewell Kinney. At that time, the school was in downtown Faribault near the Library, Mike asks if people know where the library is, just down on the big bridge. He then explains the old school was across from where the library is. It was only there for 3 years. They had already bought land, 40 acres, out near where I-35 and the mall is now. But that spot was far away from the train (and back then there were no cars) so it seemed like very far away. So an agreement was made with the city of Faribault to exchange that land for the land on the top of the hill where the school is today. So that process all started in 1863. Then, 1866, and finally in 1874, the school was up on campus where it is now.

The school started with 14, no, 3 students. Rodney Mott worked with the school for 50 years, and by the time he retired, he had seen the school to grow to over 300 students. The first student to graduate was in 1869, a woman named Anna Barnes. And she was the first of between 4 and 5 thousand students who have been through this school. Back to Video

Noyes and the No Yes Society

Mike looks out the window to Noyes Hall (N-H) and then starts to talk about the NO-YES Society which was established in1887. It was begun as the debate team. Every Saturday, boys and girls would gather in the auditorium, or in another meeting room, to discuss different topics. Sometimes it was just a single word. For example, Mike read that they discussed the word “messenger” and its different meanings and interpretations. Mike starts off saying it was the 1892 minutes, but then changes that to the 1891 minutes where he read of that debate. So the participants all discussed the different meanings and interpretations of the word, “messenger,” and they had judges who had to listen to be able to tell who was making good points in the debate. That?s why it was named the No Yes Society. It was named after the second superintendent of the school, Jonathon Lovejoy Noyes. He was the superintendent here for 30 years, from 1866-1896. People have said that he was a very good superintendent. A graduate of Yale, he met Laurent Clerc. (Mike then asks if people are familiar with the name sign for Clerc.) Clerc was know as the “first teacher in America,” and he knew Noyes. Of course, Noyes knew of Clerc, and Noyes brought all of that history, culture, attitude, and support of Deaf Schools from the American School for the Deaf was the first one established. That was in Connecticut. Mike then thinks for a while about Noyes name sign, and then goes on to say that Noyes was a very competent signer. And when he died, all of the pallbearers at his funeral were deaf. When he retired from here, he built a home downtown which is still there. It is a beautiful house that is now a bed and breakfast. That home was designed by a Deaf man, Olof Hanson. Anyway, the building next to the one he is talking is named after him. Noyes Hall was started in 1902, or the East Wing was started in 1902. The East Wing and Central portion were built by 1910. Mike talks about the Central dome, where the auditorium is, and mentions the paintings which his audience had seen the previous night. The paintings are of sculpted hands, and Mike points out that their meaning is really left up to the interpretation of the viewer. That painting was done during the WPA years. (Ed. Note: Work Projects Administration—part of the New Deal.) Back to Video

Ghost Stories

Some people have heard of ghost stories related to Noyes Hall. There are many stories, though Noyes is known as a “friendly” ghost. Or at least to Deaf people; Mike isn?t so sure if he is friendly to hearing people. Mike maybe saw the ghost one time on the west window of Noyes Hall. He was with a group of Deaf people and looked up to see a glowing circle—which possibly was Noyes. Other stories are of chairs moving during plays, or people feeling an unexpected breeze pass them. So it seems possible that Noyes is roaming the hall named after him. There are so many stories about this. One man, on seeing the ghost, ran down the hill and forgot about a clothesline. He was looking behind and ran into the line which sent him flying15 feet. Just one of many stories—about the ghost being friendly, or just passing by, or being involved with the theater. Doug Bahl, who was an instructor and director for the theater program, has many Noyes ghost stories. Mike isn?t afraid to walk at night, however. He knows that Dr. Noyes was good to deaf people. If he saw the ghost, he?d probably strike up a conversation in ASL with him. Anyway, Noyes actually died in 1905. Back to Video

A Legacy of Good Teachers

Mike is talking about some of the legendary figureson campus. One is Louis A. Tuck who graduated from the American School for the Deaf and lived to be 90 years old. He worked as the school librarian for 55 years after having traveled around the country and finallysettling here in Minnesota. MSAD has been fortunate to have over the years many “household” names, both Deaf and hearing, who once worked or taught here. Many children of Deaf parents who taught here later went on to become superintendents of other Deaf schools. (These CODAs or Children of Deaf Adults) Louis A. Roth had two boys who went on to be Superintendents of schools in Kansas and Arizona. And those are just a few of the many luminaries in MSAD history.

Another person who was here was Byron B. Burns (BBB), a famous teacher who started his teaching career here. He later moved to California and thought there for 34 years, but Minnesota has a long line of good teachers…and good dorm people too. People who worked in the dorm here and then went on to other things. One of them is Bummy Bernstein, a famous figure in the National Association of the Deaf and a Deaf parliamentarian. He?s famous for his workshops and lectures as one of the only Certified Deaf parliamentarians in the nation. He taught here for 15 years. He taught English, or rather, he taught Math. So looking back at MSAD?s history, there were a lot of good teachers who taught here or started their careers here. And those people all said that working in Minnesota was a very positive experience.

At Gaulladet as well, Mike found that many people talked positively of Minnesota. On Gallaudet?s campus, there is a building named after a graduate of MSD—the Washburn Art Building. When Mike was first there, he wasn?t aware of that because their were no Deaf Culture studies during his time. So, when he first got the tour at Galladuet (just like the tour he was giving to his audience) someone told him that Washburn was from Minnesota, but he didn?t know anything about him. Mike discovered that he was Cadwaller Washburn who lived to 99. He was a writer during the Boer war, which was way back in history involving the British. He wrote for the New York Times and also did drawings and paintings. Some of his art and pencil sketches are in museums around the world. In Thompson Hall (T-H ) the portraits of Indians in the kitchen are Caddy?s work. Mike then asks who in the audience has visited Thompson Hall, the Deaf Club in St. Paul and explains again that there are many of his drawings there. But his point is that there are many buildings named after graduates from Minnesota. And one building still standing was designed by Olof Hanson, who was a world renowned Deaf architect. He designed may state buildings and was from here. And Gaulladet still has one of the buildings that he designed. So, there is a legacy from this school that goes on.Back to Video Back to Video

Mary Bowen/h3>
Mike is explaining about the Girl Scouts? and their leader, Mary Bowen. She was Mike?s former 4th grade teacher. She was so gifted in sign language that Mike was convinced that she was Deaf. For the longest time, he continued with that idea. About 4 months later, he saw her talking in the hall and was talking with his friend about how good she could talk, and then someone called her name and she turned her head toward the sound, and Mike realized she could hear. He later found out that she was indeed hearing, but her father was a famous Deaf man, John Bowen, a veritable household name here. He was a strong leader and advocate here and he had two daughters, one of which was Mary, who was Mike?s teacher and a Girl Scout leader for over 40 years. The girls loved Mary and Mike really liked her as a teacher because her signing was so smooth. He was floored when he later found out that she could actually hear. She was about 98 years old when she died.Back to Video

Signs of Minnesota

Mike talks about how at Gallaudet, many people recognized him as being from Minnesota, even if they hadn?t met him before. He soon learned that the tell-tale sign was his “P”. After observation, Mike realized that Minnesotans were the only ones who made the P as he did. That use of the P is changing now, but when Mike was youngers, there was much more of a predominance of the “Minnesota P.” Lots of people at Gallaudet teased him for his use of it, especially the emphasis of the “thick” P related to the sign for Party and Politics. But the more he was teased, the more resolute Mike became in keeping that way of signing P. But he was impressed how people were able to tell he was from Minnesota, until he realized that it was the “P” which gave him away. Back to Video

Life in the Tunnels

Mike is telling the story of using the tunnels at the school which connect the different buildings. The boys found a key and found their way through the tunnels to the pantry, where the pies and cakes were—but before you knew it, they were gone. The next day, the girls would wonder where their pies and cookies were. And Mike would ask the same questions. One or two years later, Mike finallyadmitted that he was behind those disappearances—and the girls were upset about him taking their pies. In response to an audience question, he said that they kept it quiet (about going through the tunnels) because they didn?t want the consequences which were pretty rough. But it was fun, looking back. They would eat cookies until someone said the dog was there. They had the same night watchman for a long time. He always brought a dog with him. So, when they would see the dog, or the shadow of them on the wall, they would run for their “dear lives” to the dorm. Sometimes, when he would get to the door, his friend would have shut the window. And so he would walk into the dorm looking very confused and claim that he was sleepwalking. The dormparent would ask questions, but he would talk his way through. The reason they had to go through the window was because the tunnels led to the power plant, (which was a building he had shown previously on the tour.) The tunnels led to some other buildings that were closed. But with the new dorm, they didn?t connect any tunnels to it because they knew the boys were using the tunnels. So, they had to exit through the power plant—which had metal stairs which made a lot of noise if they didn?t walk carefully on them. So, they would wait for the right time to leave and then run for the dorms. Mike says that it was fun—and he did it for the exercise. And then he says he better stop his stories there. Back to Video

And the Consequences….

In this text, Mike is talking about the consequences for misbehavior in the dorms. He says that Barron Hall had the cleanest floorsin the world because the boys? consequences for misbehavior was to have to polish the flooruntil it shined so much you needed to wear sunglasses. It was a black tile floorthat students would have to go back and forth over and polish. Sometimes, the houseparents would tell them to stop and go into the library. This was when parents would arrive to drop off their kids. The parents would remark that the floorwas tremendously clean, and Mike wanted to take credit for that shine, but he never did. Once the parents were seen to be in their cars and on their way, the houseparents got the students back to polishing the floo. Mike?s parents would always complain about him wearing holes in the knees of his new jeans, which was from all the polishing he had to do. In fact, you could sometimes see a line of boys marching back to the dorm—all with holes in the knees—marks of the consequences of their misbehavior.Back to Video

Language Model:  Mike Cashman

Audience The Participants of the 2002 Minnesota Educational Interpreter Institute

Filming/Computer Design/Summaries:  Doug Bowen-Bailey Digiterp Communications

Reviewer: Lauri Krouse

Supporters in Production and Distribution:

NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project

Facilitator: Pat Brandstaetter
Administrative Assistant:  Tasha Honkola

RSA Region V Interpreter Education Project

Project Director:  Laurie Swabey
Project Managers:  Paula Gajewski & Richard Laurion
Administrative Assistant: Rosa Ramirez

There are many possibilities for working with these interactive scenarios. What is suggested here may lead you to consider new ways of preparing to work in interactive settings.

1. Practice prediction skills

Given the information in the introductions (both written and signed), spend several minutes predicting what topics and themes may be in the dialogue. In addition, you may want to generate a list of fingerspelled words that you might expect to see.

2. Practice interpreting in a consecutive manner

The video segments were edited to include a fade out and some additional time between each turn. Because of this, it is possible to pause the video by clicking the Play/Pause Button on the control bar at the bottom of the video window. An easy way to do this is just have your mouse positioned over the button and click your mouse to pause and start the movie.

3. Practice interpreting in a simultaneous manner with more processing time

Because of the added time separating speaker turns, it is possible to give yourself more processing time for your interpretation. The amount of time added is:

• Visit to the Vet: 3 seconds
• Travels in Africa: 2.5 seconds
• Parent-Teacher Conference: 2 seconds
• In Trouble at School: 1 second

Near the bottom of each page, the amount of extra time is also stated. You may choose to work in a consecutive manner with initial scenarios, and then move to working in a simultaneous manner with the latter situations. Regardless of what strategies you choose, we hope that this resource will prove to be beneficial as you seek to improve your interpreting skills in interactive settings.

Debbie Peterson

Debbie Peterson, CDI-P, hails from a Deaf family in Alabama.  She received a B.A. degree in Psychology from Gallaudet University and a M.A. in Teaching ASL Program (TAP) from Western Maryland College.  She was an ASL instructor and coordinator of ASL Programs in Maryland, Alabama, and Minnesota.  She coordinated the Educational Interpreter Training Grant Program at St. Paul Technical College before moving to Seattle, Washington.  She is now teaching at the Interpreter Training Program at Seattle Central Community College.  She is on the RID – CDI Task Force, implementing the written the test for Deaf Interpreters.

Patty Gordon

Patty Gordon, CI,CT, has a B.A. in Linguistics from Metropolitan State University.  She is working towards a Master’s in Interpreter Education at the University of Colorado- Boulder. In addition to community interpreting work, she designs and provides support services to mentors working with interpreters in K-12 settings.  Her experience as an interpreter educator includes work at  Western Oregon University; the College of St. Catherine; Front Range Community College as well as work-shops on the interpreting process, peer assessment and feedback, discourse analysis and ASL-English skill development.  She is a Co-Author of the “MRID Self-Paced Modules for Educational Interpreters” and “A Plan for Mentorship of Educational Interpreters in Minnesota”.

Doug Bowen-Bailey

Doug Bowen-Bailey, CI,CT, lives and works in Duluth, Minnesota.  He coordinates mentoring for educational interpreters through the Northeast Service Cooperative and teaches an ASL V course at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.  He also presents workshops on a variety of topics related to interpreting.  Most recently, he is a bit surprised to find himself turning into a computer geek who is producing a series of CD-ROMs.

In the following situation, Patty brings her two cats to the office of Dr. Debbie Peterson, veterinarian extraordinaire.

Intro from Dr. Peterson

Complete Scenario

This length of this situation is 9:10.  Three seconds are added between turns.

In the following situation, Debbie interviews Doug about his study-abroad experience in Zimbabwe and his time in other countries in Africa.

Background Information

Zimbabwe is a landlocked nation in Southern Africa.  Formerly Rhodesia, it became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe in 1980.  English is the

Official Language and Shona and Ndebele, the languages of the two largest ethnic groups, are the national languages.

For more information, visit:  www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Zimbabwe.html

Intro to Travels in Africa

Complete Scenario

This length of this situation is 11:11.  Two and a half seconds are added between turns.

In the following situation, Debbie is the parent of a boy named Doug who was recently caught smoking marijuana on school grounds.  Patty is the school counselor who has called a meeting to break the news to Debbie as part of the school’s Zero Tolerance Policy.

Intro to “In Trouble at School”

“In Trouble at School”

This length of this situation is 11:21.  One second is added between turns.

In the following situation, Debbie is the parent of a Deaf 5th-grade student, Jaime.  She is having a meeting with Patty, Jaime’s mainstream teacher, to find out about her progress in class. (A note on the audio:  This was filmed in a room next to where a party was taking place.  There are points when there is some extraneous noise, but we hope it is not too much of a distraction.)

Intro to “A Parent-Teacher Conference”

A Parent-Teacher Conference

This length of this situation is 23.39.  Two seconds are added between turns.

The staff of the Region III Low-Incidence Project:

• Regional Low-Incidence Facilitator:  Pat Brandstaetter
• Administrative Assistant:  Tasha Honkola

Actors for Scenarios:

• Doug Bowen-Bailey
• Patty Gordon
• Debbie Peterson

Computer Design/Producer:

Doug Bowen-Bailey
Digiterp Communications

The contents of this CD were developed under a grant from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning and with support from the NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Children, Families, and Learning , and you should not assume endorsement by the Minnesota State Government. Because it is a state funded project, it has an open copyright and maybe transferred to the hard drive of as many computers as wished. It is also allowable to burn your own CDs, provided they are not used for making a profit. When duplicating this resource, take care to give credit to those who created and produced this project.

This project was produced with many different possibilities for use. What is listed here are simply suggestions for focusing on developing
interpretation skills within mathematics settings.

1. View and analyze the parallel lessons.

1. First, study the lesson plan to have an idea of what topics will be covered.
2. Then, watch either the ASL or English lesson in its entirety. Make note of how specific math concepts are explained and conveyed.
3. Then, watch the parallel lesson. Compare and contrast the language usage.

The lessons range from 8 – 20 minutes in length, so be sure to allot enough time to allow for viewing both in one sitting.

2. Practice interpretation from English to ASL.

• First, study the lesson plan. You may even want to print it out so that you will have it for a reference.
• Then, interpret the English version of the lesson. If desired, videotape this interpretation to provide a baseline.
• After this, watch the ASL version of the lesson. You can then compare Steven’s use of ASL to the language used in this first interpretation
• After this analysis, return to the English version and re-interpret it, attempting to incorporate new ideas taken from the ASL lesson. Videotape this again, so that you can compare with the baseline videotape and see what improvements were made.

3. Practice interpretation from ASL to English.

This may be more challenging due to the movement of the ASL instructor making it a more difficult source to work from.

• First, study the lesson plan. You may even want to print it out so that you will have it for a reference.
• Then, interpret the ASL version of the lesson. If desired, videotape this interpretation to provide a baseline.
• After this, listen to the English version of the lesson. You can then compare Harv’s use of English to the language used in this first interpretation.
• After this analysis, return to the ASL version and re-interpret it, attempting to incorporate new ideas taken from the English lesson. Videotape this again, so that you can compare with the baseline videotape and see what improvements were made

The movies on this page give some background about the instructors, and also allow a bit of an opportunity to familiarize yourself with their signing/speaking styles before starting with the Math lessons. Be sure to “meet your instructors” before moving into the lessons.

Lesson 1 – Lesson Plan

Objective: Students will use perimeter, area, and volume formulas.

Procedure / Development of Learning Activity

1. Give a lecture about perimeter, area, and volume formulas. Draw three different formulas on the chalkboard. Ask students to identify all three formulas.

2. Given 3 different sample problems:

3.  Discuss about real-life situations that utilize all three formulas

Back to Lesson Plan

Lesson 2 – Lesson Plan

Objective:

Students will graph a point on a number line, given the coordinate of the point, use real numbers to describe real-life situations, and compare real numbers

Jump to Movie

Procedure / Development of Learning Activity:

1. Give a brief lecture about real numbers such as natural and whole numbers and integers.
Natural = 1,2,3…, Whole = 0,1,2,…, Integers = ….-2,-1,0,-1,….
2. Given the coordinates of A,B, and C on the graph. The students will tell what number is the coordinate of these letters.

3. Given several real-life situations to the students, have them write the appropriate algebraic expressions.

• 25 degrees above zero
• a 5 yard loss in football
• withdrawal of $250 from a checking account
• a gain of 1-1/2 on the stock market

4. Give a better concept of how to identify > (greater than) or < (less than) by using the chalkboard.

Examples:

Back to Lesson Plan

Lesson 3 – Lesson Plan

Objective:

Students will identify the representations of numbers that are in the word problem and translate from English to Algebra.

Jump to Movie

Procedure / Development of Learning Activity:

1. Given four word problems on the chalkboard, the teacher will demonstrate to the students how to find the representations in each word problem.

1. The larger of two numbers is twice the smaller. Write representations of the two numbers.
2. The price of a book is $3 less than twice the price of a tape.
3. The first side of a triangle is 3 times as long as a second side. The third side is 5 cm shorter than the first side.
4. This year, the price of a movie ticket increased by one-fifth of the price last year.

2. Give hints such as of, is, and and, ask the students to see if they are able to catch all of these hints in each word problem. Can use this for group activity.

Back to Lesson Plan

Lesson 4 – Lesson Plan

Objective:

Students will multiply rational expressions.

Jump to Movie

Procedure / Development of Learning Activity:

1. Demonstrate to the students how to multiply rational expressions on the chalkboard. Factor both numerator and denominator first before using the Cancellation Property of Fractions.
2. Demonstrate using the FOIL method for factoring quadratic expressions.
3. Given sample problems on the chalkboard, the students will participate in helping and solving these problems.

Back to Lesson Plan

Lesson 5 – Lesson Plan

Objective:

Students will perform operations which include square roots.

Jump to Movie

Procedure / Development of Learning Activity:

1. Review basic square roots first before learn how to solve sums, differences, and products.
2. Tell the students about the rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The radicals can be added or subtracted only if they both are the same identity. The radicals can be multiplied or divided no matter if they are the same or not.
3. Apply the Distributive Property to the radical expressions and simplify them.
4. Apply the FOIL method to the radical expressions and simplify them.

Examples:

Back to Lesson Plan

Roll the Credits

This project was a collaboration of many people’s minds and talents and we wish to acknowledge them here.

Special thanks to the participants of the Wisconsin Summer Institute and to Darla and Adam Barrows, for serving as students for Steve and Harv’s simulated classrooms. Nothing worse than teaching to the wall, or worse, to only a camera.

Here are the resources for the workshop.

• The Workshop in Pictures
• Role-Space Graph
• Case Studies

Relational Autonomy – Presentation by Anna Witter-Merithew & Brenda Nicodemus

click on image for larger version

click on image for larger version

Blog Posts on Street Leverage on related topics by Anna Witter-Merithew:

• Sign Language Interpreters: Stepping Out of the Shadow of Invisibility
• Sign Language Interpreters: Are Acts of Omission a Failure of Duty?
• Sign Language Interpreters: Breaking Down Silos Through Reflective Practice

• Nurse Autonomy as Relational by Chris MacDonald (Contact Doug for further information)

Digiterp Communications has produced a variety of materials – some of which were created with federal or state funding.  These materials are available with an educational copyright.  While having produced them, I am not able to distribute them.

You can order these materials from one of two sources.  First of all, you can order them from the CATIE Center at St. Catherine University.

You can also order them from the Northeast Service Cooperative.  As part of a partnership with the NESC, Digiterp faciltates their ordering them online, but if you have questions about your order, please contact:

Tasha Rostvit
(218) 748-7605
trostvit@nesc.k12.mn.us

There can be several reasons why the CD might not work.

Physical:

Check to make sure that there is not a crack or a scratch on the video.  You are welcome to make back-up copies of the DVDs or CDs to ensure that if one becomes damaged, you will still be able to use the resource.

Software:

The CD-ROMs use a combination of two software programs:  Adobe Reader and Apple QuickTime.  Because they were produced a number of years ago, there can be compatibility issues.

If you are using a Mac, your system may be set-up to view PDF files with the software program, Preview.  To have the videos play, you need to use Adobe Reader to open the PDF file on the CD.

If this doesn’t solve your problem, please send an e-mail to info@digiterp.com.

Created by Digiterp Communications

with funding and support from

NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project

and the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning

May 2003

Distributed in Collaboration with the

Region V RSA Project at the COLLEGE OF ST. CATHERINE
in partnership with SLICES, LLC.

License Information

The contents of this project were originally delivered on CD and were developed under a grant from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning and with support from the NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Children, Families, and Learning , and you should not assume endorsement by the Minnesota State Government. Because it is a state funded project, it has an open copyright and maybe transferred to the hard drive of as many computers as wished. It is also allowable to burn your own CDs, provided they are not used for making a profit. When duplicating this resource, take care to give credit to those who created and produced this project.

Overview of the Project

This project is created with an understanding that most of our life is spent, not listening to or delivering monologues, but in dialogue with other people (and in listening to the conversations of others.) In my experience as an interpreter in a Middle School setting, what was clear to me was that, from a student perspective, the most important thing going on in a classroom was not the teacher?s lecture, but the conversation happening between two students in the corner. That it was the dialogue between students which helped form the relationships which students valued. This project offers an opportunity to see how conversation happens between two Deaf people who know each other well and to reflect on how what we see can be used in our interpretations for spoken English conversations. Given that a conversation with people we don’t know can be a challenging one to understand, this project makes use of digital technology to make your efforts more fruitful. First of all, monologues are offered for each signer to get a sense of their signing styles. As well, each video is presented in two speeds–actual speed and 3/4 speed. This way, you can watch the text at normal speed to see what you can catch–and then watch it in slower speed to see if you are able to catch even more. Additionally, there are outlines for each of the texts which you can go to for further support in your analysis and interpretation.Special thanks to Ketsi Carlson and Joshua Hottle for serving as language models. You will meet them below, but their willingness to be filmed and creativity in coming up with topics to talk about help to make this project both entertaining and informative. I hope that their monologues and dialogues can lead to new understandings and new ideas about language and interpretation.

Doug Bowen-Bailey, 2003

Suggestions for Working with These Texts

1. Watch texts for language use and comprehension.

In the monologues and dialogues, Ketsi and Joshua talk about many varied topics. Particularly, in the dialogues, it can be a challenge to understand some of what is being said. Use the 3/4 speed video to allow you to see more–and use the outlines for texts to help you in your analysis and comprehension.

2. Watch texts for discourse features.

Because the dialogues include interaction between signers, you can watch the texts for what features you see both with the person who is actively signing, and the person who is giving feedback. Notice how the signers sometimes overlap in what they say. Think about the challenges for interpreting interaction, and how some of these features might be included in interpretations of two hearing people in conversation.

3. Practice interpretations and analyze them for equivalence.

1. Select a source text—initially one of the monologues (Because of the interactive nature of the dialogues, doing this process with those texts may be more challenging.)
2. Create and videotape (or audiotape) an interpretation/translation of the text. (This process can happen consecutively, simultaneously, or a as a process of translation, depending on your skill level and area of focus. For a more detailed explanation of this type of “Scaffolded Approach,” download the free study packet for the Life in Parallel CD at http://www.digiterp.com/parallel.html.)
3. View/listen to your interpretation. (Be sure that you cannot see the source text.)
4. Create an outline/map of your interpretation. (See sample next page for outlining techniques.)
5. If necessary, watch interpretation again to complete outline or map.
6. View/listen to source text.
7. Create outline/map of that text. (Don?t begin outlining until the entire text is complete.)
8. If necessary, watch video again to complete outline or map. (At this point, use the outline of the text from CD for support if necessary.)
9. Write outlines/draw maps side by side to facilitate analysis.
10. Do analysis of equivalence of interpretation with source text. Begin with these questions in mind:
    

    a. Is the meaning of the target language the same as that of the source language?
    b. Is the message clearly understood by the audience for whom the message was intended?
    c. Is the form natural?(In assessing, it is important to look for patterns rather than one-time occurrences.)

The outline below is by no means the only way that text could be outlined or mapped. However, it does represent a way in which the main points and supporting details can be organized to show their relationship. The main points begin further to the left on the outline and the details are nested to the right underneath the points which they support. This is an attempt to focus more on the content of the text than on its form. That is, it focuses on meaning, rather than on what individual signs were used. With an outline of an interpretation done in a similar manner, then they can be compared and contrasted to see how equivalent the interpretation really is. In doing these outlines, you can also make notes and comments about the text or interpretation. In some of the outlines, I wasn?t able to tell what was being said. You will see editor?s notes which reflect my lack of clarity. Similarly, you can make notes in outlines for interpretations if there are sections that are unclear.These directions were developed for an Indepdent Study Packet in connection with the CD “Life in Parallel.”

A Sample Outline for Saying the Pledge

• Back in 5th Grade
  • Start school
  • 8:00 am
  • Bell rings
• Students pile into classroom
  • Take off their Jackets
• Beginning Routine
  • Everyday
• Lineup with Boy leading
  • By the flag
  • Singing
    • Cover my heart
  • I didn’t know what was sung
    • I wondered what it was about
  • Interpreter arrived after that
• Time went along
  • Got used to routine
• One Day
  • I was picked
  • Leader with flag
  • All the kids covered their hearts
    • I didn?t know what to do
  • Interpreter showed up
    • I copied from her
    • Wanted to memorize it
      • Kept learning it until I did
  • Next time call on me
    • I was ready to sign it
    • Something I still remember

For more direction, and updated suppport on this prcoess, see www.digiterp.com/parallel.html for more information. The process itself draws heavily on ideas and work described in two articles:

Ross, L. and Criner, S., “Equivalence Assessments: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice,” in Swabey, ed. (2002) New Designs in Interpreter Education. Conference of Interpreter Trainers. http://www.cit-asl.org/proceedings.html

Winston, E.A. and Monikowski, C., “Discourse Mapping: Developing Textual Coherence Skills,” in Interpreters,” in Roy, ed. (2000) Innovative Practices for Teaching Sign Language Interpreters. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/IPTSLI.html

Meet the Signers

In these movies, Ketsi and Joshua introduce themselves. Be sure to take a look at these before moving on to the other monologues and dialogues.

Meet Ketsi Carlson

Ketsi provides a brief introduction of herself. (0:30) and (0:40)

Full Speed

3/4 Speed (Slow motion)

Outline of Text

• Hello
  • Name is Ketsi Carlson
  • Born in Korea
  • My family adopted me
    • Moved to Superior, WI
      • Northern corner of state
    • Lived there since
• For high school
  • MSAD (Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf)
    • In Minnesota
  • College
    • First Year
    • Pillsbury College
      • Southern Minnesota

Meet Joshua Hottle

Joshua provides a brief introduction of himself. (0:35) and (0:46)

Full Speed

3/4 Speed (Slow motion)

Outline of Text

•  Name Joshua Hottle
  • Name sign J-H at elbow
• I was born
  • Parents lived
    • Big Fork, Minnesota
  • That?s where I was born
  • Parents moved a lot
    • Kansas
    • Colorado
    • Oklahoma
    • Back to Minnesota
      • Deaf school
  • Graduate
    • Went to Gallaudet in Washington D.C.
    • Went to Bible college in Maryland
    • Back to Minnesota again
  • Seems I love Minnesota
    • Stuck in Minnesota

What Ketsi and Joshua do not say in their introductions, but is some added context, is that they are engaged to be married in May of 2003. Because of their familiarity with each other, there will be situations throughout the course of the video where added context will be provided either before the video or within the outlines to assist you in your comprehension and analysis.

Note on time codes: the first time is at regular speed and the second one is in 3/4 time. Ex: (0:35) and (0:46)

Saying the Pledge

Ketsi talks about her memory of having to say the pledge in school–when schedules meant that she generally was without an interpreter. (0:52) and (1:09)

Outline of Text

• Back in 5th Grade
  • Start school
  • 8:00 am
  • Bell rings
• Students pile into classroom
  • Take off their Jackets
• Beginning Routine
  • Everyday
• Lineup with Boy leading
  • By the flag
  • Singing
    • Cover my heart
  • I didn’t know what was sung
    • I wondered what it was about
  • Interpreter arrived after that
• Time went along
  • Got used to routine
• One Day
  • I was picked
  • Leader with flag
  • All the kids covered their hearts
    • I didn’t know what to do
  • Interpreter showed up
    • I copied from her
    • Wanted to memorize it
      • Kept learning it until I did
  • Next time call on me
    • I was ready to sign it
    • Something I still remember

Hawaiian Routines

Ketsi talks briefly about her experience working with Deaf students in Hawaii and the morning routines which they had at the school. (0:42) and (0:56)

Outline of Text

• Last summer
  • Work at Deaf School
    • Hawaii
  • Flew
  • Started Work
• First thing in morning
  • Impressive
• Kids lined up
  • Diverse appearances
  • Looking at girl in front
    • Beneath the flag
  • Leading signing
    • Pledge of Allegiance to flag
    • O, Say Can You See?
  • Look different than ours
    • Interesting to see
    • More picture like
    • No music
      • Ours (meaning at MSAD) with music
    • Theirs just from the heart
      • With Expression
    • Impressed me

Missing a Foster Brother

Ketsi talks about her experience of having a younger foster brother who arrived in her life when she was not prepared for him,. In her relationship with him, she learned something about love and growing up. (2:26) and (3:15)

Outline of Text

• When little
  • Looked up at older brothers and sisters
    • Thought about them going to college
  • Being all alone
    • I liked the idea
    • Being in control
    • Spoiled by parents
  • Excited to see them off
    • Have the house to myself
      • During junior year
  • Starting with Peter pressure
    • Clothes
    • Looks
    • Sports
  • One day, door opens in the in walks little boy
    • I ask who?
      • Mom says Foster brother
      • Disappointed
        • Thought would be the only child
        • He just talks and talks
      • I had instant attitude
        • “Don’t talk to me”
      • Went separate ways
      • Didn’t talk for days
        • Eat together than go off separately
      • Mom ask me to baby sit
        • Reluctantly agreed
        • Ask him what he wanted to do
          • He excitedly said biking
        • As a junior in high school
          • I preferred shopping
          • But accepted
        • He took off on his bike
          • I chased him down
          • Paranoid about his crashing
          • Got him to wear helmet
            • And elbow pads
            • Knee pads
          • He took off again
            • Screaming
            • Went on for hours
          • Parents arrived home
          • I was so excited
            • Went to room
            • Tried not to have anything to do with him
          • He kept bothering me
            • He stole my stuff
            • Wrecked my room
          • I held on
            • When I went to school
            • Glad to get away from him
              • Then started to miss
                • His mischief
                • His stories
              • I Came home to visit
                • He started to improve
                • Understood more language
                • Improve some more
            • I began to understand
              • About giving love
                • Before
                  • I held back
                  • Was selfish
                • But this boy
                  • Had no family
                    • I understood
                  • Giving him love
                  • Help us to share
                  • Helped us to get along
                  • He moved away
              • I will always miss my foster brother

Fitting in?  A Poem

Outline of Text

• Starts with sunrise
  • Walking
  • Seeing people enter auditorium
  • Notices man below with different expression
    • He doesn?t understand
    • He sits on bench
  • Sun at noon
    • Look around at the people screaming with joy
    • I am content
  • Notice man
    • He doesn?t understand
    • Something he can?t express
  • Ball bounces back and forth
    • Man takes his chance
      • Off the bench
      • Still doesn?t understand
    • He can?t express it
    • And tries to fit in, struggles,rejected
      • The people in the stands
      • Don?t understand
      • All of them can raise their hands
      • But not understand his inner confusion
      • They want to help, but can?t
    • Man keeps trying to ft in
      • Does the crowd encourage
      • Try to fit in with the man
      • They can?t understand his feelings•
    • Fitting in will never really happen
      • Because the two of us are too different

A Night in the Dorms

Joshua talks about his first time having the opportunity to stay in the dorms at the School for the Deaf and what activities he and his friends occupied themselves with through the night. (1:14) and (1:38)

Woodworking Class

Joshua talks about taking Woodworking at MSAD during his senior year and what project he undertook and finished, with a little help from his father. (1:27) and (1:56)

On the Basketball Court

Joshua talks about his experiences with basketball, particularly the challenges of communication while playing on the basketball team for a Bible College where he is the only Deaf player. (1:40) and (2:13)

Communication at College

Joshua talks about the differences between being in the Deaf World and attending a hearing Bible college. He also notes some difference between his hearing friends growing up and the students at the college. (1:13) and (1:37)

The Future of the Vikings

Joshua talks about some news reports about attempts to both sell Minnesota’s pro football team and efforts to keep it in Minnesota. (1:03) and (1:24)

Challenge for Riches: A Joke

Joshua tells a joke, full of rich classifier description, about an old man who hosts a party at his house in order to determine who he will have as an heir. (3:38) and (4:51)

Coming Soon

Click on image to download PDFs of Outlines for Texts

Coming soon

Created by Digiterp Communications

with funding and support from

NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project

and the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning

June 2003

Distributed in Collaboration with the

Region V RSA Project at the COLLEGE OF ST. CATHERINE in partnership with SLICES, LLC.

License Information

The contents of this CD were developed under a grant from the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning and with sup-port from the NE Minnesota Region III Low Incidence Project. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Children, Families, and Learning , and you should not assume endorsement by the Minnesota State Government. Because it is a state funded project, it has an open copyright and maybe transferred to the hard drive of as many computers as wished. It is also al-lowable to burn your own CDs, provided they are not used for making a profit. When duplicating this resource, take care to give credit to those who created and produced this project.

Overview of the Project

This is the original overview from the CD-ROM.

The creation of this project is really a series of fortunate events–which for all you Lemony Snicket fans realize doesn’t happen everyday. My wife, Holly, teaches English in a Middle School setting, and as part of her unit on folklore and mythology, invited a number of people into her classroom as guest speakers. One, Lise Lunge-Larsen, was not able to speak at all of the classes. She consented to being videotaped so that her presentation could be shown to the other classes. I assisted with the filming and was impressed. Both the quality of storytelling and the lecture’s framework helped to tie the storytelling to a larger understanding of how language and discourse works. Based on my experience as an interpreter in elementary settings, this seems to be critical in knowing how to effectively interpret and serve as a language model for students who are developing their own linguistic capacity.

So, since the tape was already made, I requested its use from Ms. Lunge-Larsen for this project and she graciously agreed. I then invited Daniel Durant, a Deaf seventh grader, to serve as an audience for my sample interpretations so that there might be some degree of authenticity in that work (and you might have some sense of who the interpretation was directed to.) It is not as authentic as if it were an actual interpretation in the class, but this format allows for greater technical control–and thus clearer video.

In the process of development, I realized that the actual CD could be created to allow you an opportunity to serve as a substitute interpreter. Meeting the classroom teacher and Deaf student in advance. Having a chance to look through some notes from the classroom interpreter who had done a fine job of preparing, but was just unable to be present the day of the lecture. I tried to create a model, if a bit unrealistic, example of how you might get yourself ready for this lecture. So your assignment, before you look at the sample interpretations I created, is to serve as a substitute in the classroom. Do a little preparation and then try your hand at interpreting. There is more information on that on the next page.

The artwork was a final stroke of good fortune. I had been looking for a good picture that I could use…and was having little luck. At Kindergarten Roundup for my daughter, I flippantly asked a neighbor, Tahira Richardson, if she was good at drawing trolls. She gave me a quizzical look as she told me that she had been up late the night before drawing a troll. After my request, she quickly agreed to add color and let me use it. I am grateful for the unifying touch the artwork brings and Tahira’s willingness to share her art.

Taken as a whole, I hope this project provides an opportunity for practicing interpreting English narratives into ASL–and deepening insights into how understanding different genres of language can be of assistance in those efforts. Additionally, I hope it will be a testament to the impact that stories and storytelling can have–and how crucial it is for interpreters to develop their own skills to ensure that Deaf students have access to that power.

Doug Bowen-Bailey

Your Assignment…

should you choose to accept it.

This project is produced so that you can act as a substitute interpreter in a middle school classroom. While you will certainly miss out on some of the actual drama of 7th Grade in terms of student interaction, you can try your skills at interpreting an actual lecture given to 7th Graders. This page provides some steps for moving through this assignment effectively.

The video clips below allow you to get some information prior to beginning your subbing job. Thanks for taking this on. It sure is hard to a find a substitute interpreter these days, and so your willingness to take this assignment is greatly appreciated.

1. Meet the classroom teacher.

View the video above to meet Holly Bowen-Bailey, the classroom teacher, and to get a little background on Lise Lunge-Larsen, the guest speaker who is coming into this 7th Grade classroom.

2. Meet the Deaf student.

The video above allows you to meet the student who will be relying on you for the information presented in the lecture. His name is Daniel Durant and he’s awfully glad you were able to come in and sub.

3. Read some of the background information.

The regular interpreter knew this speaker was coming and so had done some research to prepare for the assignment. Due to a child’s illness, he was not able to be here today. But he left his notes for you to read through in the short time you have before the speaker arrives.  See below for preparation materials.

4. Interpret the 6 sections of the Lecture on Folklore Genres.

The lecture is broken into 6 sections; the first an introduction, and then a brief explanation of each genre with an example story. Go through the sections and produce an interpretation for each.

5. Review Sample Interpretations

The lecture is broken into 6 sections; the first an introduction, and then a brief explanation of each genre with an example of a story from that genre.

Preparing for the Class (in an Ideal World)

These entries are from my fictional journal as the classroom interpreter–since I have so much time built into my day for preparation. (Remember, this is the Ideal World.)

Doug Bowen-Bailey

Entry #1

I just found out from Holly that there will be a guest speaker, Lise Lunge-Larsen, next week in English class. Nice to have a little preparation time. Holly told me she is an author and storyteller from Norway. I asked Holly to check with Lise for an overview of her talk. Hopefully, I can get a little information that way, but in case I can’t, I’m going to check in the school library to see if I can find one of her books.

Entry #2

Just back from the library. Found one of Lise Lunge-Larsen’s recent books: The Troll with No Heart in His Body and Other Tales of Trolls, from Norway. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

The jacket notes say that Lise has been telling troll stories to American children after she moved to the U.S. from Norway. She’s also known as the “Troll Lady” so I guess I better think about trolls. In the Author’s note, Lise writes about the importance of story for children’s development. She relates a psychologist’s perception that stories such as the one she tells “bypass the later brain development and go directly to the ancient part of the brain, where they reside right next to fire.” She goes on to write:

This means that love of story is part of what makes us human; it is innate, and it helps us to survive….While ritual and storytelling now may seem unnecessary for the survival of the body, they are necessary for the survival of the soul. (p. 9.)

Seems I better be prepared for some engaging storytelling.

It reminds me of a project I did on involvement in language. I remember reading an article written by Sue Mather and Elizabeth Winston on a case study on creating involvement in ASL storytelling in classroom settings. They studied different ASL reproductions of the story, Too Much Noise and found that the most engaging telling utilized a consistent spatial map. Addi-tionally, it used constructed action (showing the action through classifier use, rather than talking about it) and visual patterns to increase the level of involvement on the part of the audience. These seems like some things I might want to be sure I include in my interpretations.

I wrote a paper about that for the Discourse Analysis class I took. I’ll have to dig that up and review it. (Click here to see the complete paper.)

Entry #3

Had some more time to look through the Lunge-Larsen book. Has a variety of stories in it. Some are new to me, some are familiar. The first story is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. In reading through it, I was reminded of seeing a videotape version of Patrick Graybill telling that story in ASL. Come to think of it, I think that’s the only time I’ve seen a troll described in ASL. I know the videotape is available from the Minnesota Resource Center. I’m going to e-mail them to see if I could get it to watch in time before the presentation.

(The title is: Four for You, Volume 3 from Sign Media, Inc. It’s available for free loan for Minnesota residents. Info at: http://education.state.mn.us/mdeprod/groups/SpecialEd/documents/Publication/001489.pdf. Also available for purchase from Sign Media, Inc. at: http://www.signmedia.com)

I also noticed that she ended almost every story in the book with the Norwegian phrase: “Snipp, snapp, snute Her er eventyret ute!” which means “Snip, snap, snout, This tale’s told out.” I think I might want to be prepared for some interspersing of Norwegian in her stories.

Entry #4

Just got some information from the classroom teacher, Holly. Lise Lunge-Larsen sent this short outline of her lesson. She plans to talk about Folklore Genres, explain a little bit about each genre, and then give an example of each one. After the example, she will try to connect it to more contemporary examples that the students will know. We have been studying genres of literature in this class–like Science Fiction, Mystery, that sort of thing. So I know “genre” means a certain type of story that has particular forms and patterns you can expect. That sounds interesting.The genres she is going to focus on are: cumulative; explanatory; talking animals; numbskull/noodlehead; and fairy tales. Hmm, sounds interesting. I wonder if the talking animals example will be The Billy Goats Gruff. That would be nice.

Entry #5

I just got a call that my daughter has a fever of 104 degrees. Looks like I won’t be here tomorrow when Lise Lunge-Larsen comes. Glad I kept these notes for my preparing so that I can pass them on to the sub. So, since you’re reading them now, I wish you luck. Seems like it will be a fun class.

Roadrunner, Coyote, and Lightbulbs

Building Involvement in ASL Texts

by Doug Bowen-Bailey

Author’s Note | Abstract | Introduction | Importance of Involvement | Involvement in ASL Narrative | Involvement & Interpreter Role | Conclusion | References

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This paper was written for a Discourse Analysis class through the Teaching ASL and Teaching Interpreting Certificate program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. It is part of the Project TIEM.online program and more information can be found about it at: http://www.colorado.edu/slhs/tiem.online. The paper is offered not as a definitive paper on the subject, but a resource for preparation.

ABSTRACT

Interpreters working with young deaf children often find themselves challenged by the fact that these students find little reason to pay attention to the interpreting process, or more generally, to be engaged in communication. This study is an analysis of how involvement can be built into ASL texts. It looks at the use of constructed action and changes in reference scale within a specific ASL narrative, as well as the use of mechanical metaphors of Deaf adults interacting with Deaf children. These examples may provide some strategies for interpreters to more effectively engage deaf students in communication and the interpreting process, and thereby start them down the developmental path to independence. Back to Top

INTRODUCTION

“What do you do when the student won’t look at you?”

In my experience mentoring educational interpreters, (and as an educational interpreter myself), it is a question that I have heard and asked frequently. Deaf and hard of hearing students, who have an interpreter specified as part of their IEP, don’t necessarily understand how to work effectively with an interpreter, or in what ways an interpreter can be a key in their own communication and education. Particularly as young children, they may have limited experience with successful communication, and thus may not have a basis for feeling like there is a reason to pay attention to someone who is attempting to communicate with them, even if the form used may now be more accessible to them.

“So, what do you do…?”

This paper is an attempt to answer that question by looking at strategies for engaging and involving young deaf children in communication. In particular, I will look at the use of ASL narrative – and constructed action within narrative in particular – as a tool for making texts more interesting and for introducing children to the possibilities of language. In addition, I will offer some other strategies from my experience which have proven successful in both my work as an interpreter and as a mentor.

(I want to note here that I am intentionally using the term “deaf” with a lower case “d” to denote that these are children who are not culturally Deaf, signified with a “D.” This lack of acculturation is important because part of what it signifies is a lack of exposure to the involvement strategies which will be discussed in this paper—and thus a lack of engagement with the process of communication and the development of language.)

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IMPORTANCE OF INVOLVEMENT

Deborah Tannen (1989) articulates involvement as “an internal, even emotional connection individuals feel which binds them to other people as well as places, things, activities, ideas, memories, and words.” In addition, she sees it not “as a given, but an achievement in conversational interaction.” (p.12.) In other words, involvement is related to the level of engagement someone has in the process of communication —recognizing that it is required of both listener and speaker in a dialogic situation. Listeners, just as much as speakers, need to be involved and engaged for communication to be successful.

As part of the language acquisition process, children begin to learn and recognize strategies for being involved and involving others in conversation. . Claire Ramsey (2001) references the work of Vygotsky, a psychologist, who established a framework recognizing that “higher cognitive functions, like language and thinking, have social origins. Based on this, he made the strong claim that learning drives development and that we can only learn through our access to interactions with others.” Vygotzky suggests that learning between a teacher and learner takes place in what he calls a “Zone of Proximal Development,” (ZPD) a place where joint attention is established and maintained.

The problem for deaf children, of course, is that they do not necessarily have access to these interactions in a way that allows them to utilize their innate capabilities. Unless they have Deaf parents, or ones who learn to effectively communicate in a visual mode, to use Vygotzky’s term, deaf children do not learn how to participate in this ZPD. While it is outside the bounds of this paper to fully explore the challenges for deaf children’s language development, my point to make is this: many deaf children enter schools with language delays; but not only in a way that prevents them from communicating, but that impedes their understanding of how and why to be involved in communication.

For many interpreters working in educational settings, the reality of this is daily self-evident. I have heard stories of, and personally experienced, many situations where an interpreter works without the student actually watching. While there could be many factors outside the control of the interpreter, there are some strategies which increase the level of involvement in communication—and thus can be utilized to engage students in the communication process.

Tannen (1989) suggests two categories of involvement strategies: one based on the use of sound and one based on meaning. The category based on sound includes: rhythm, patterns based on repetition and variation; and figures of speech. Strategies which use meaning include: indirectness ; ellipsis; tropes (metaphor, irony, proverbs); dialogue; imagery and detail; and narrative.

Her list is obviously based on research in spoken conversation, but linguistic research has shown that these strategies are utilized in ASL. Tannen’s first category is not based on sound in ASL, but on the prosodic nature of the language and the patterning of handshapes and movements. In the second category, Metzger (1995) analyzed more specifically the use of dialogue and narrative. In her work, she concluded that within narrative, ASL uses constructed action (that is the recreation of an event through classifiers and role-playing) to build narrative. Moreover, considering that ASL uses the same features to report dialogue, she concludes that constructed dialogue actually is a sub-set of constructed action. From Metzger’s analysis, it is clear that constructed action is worthy of noting as an involvement strategy.

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INVOLVEMENT IN AN ASL NARRATIVE

Spatial Mapping: A Study in Scale

Winston and Mather (1998), in their study of involvement in ASL storytelling, focused on the use of a spatial map as a means for creating involvement. In their analysis of an ASL re-telling of an English story, Too Much Noise, they found that the presence of a spatial map – evidenced through the use of constructed action and visual patterns – helped to create both coherence and involvement in the text. For the purposes of this paper, I will look at the spatial map within another ASL narrative, “The Roadrunner Wins Again,” by Ella Mae Lentz, (1990) and analyze what features build involvement and engagement.

My reason for choosing this text is an extremely practical one. For the past several years, I have been using Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons as texts for interpreters to practice their skills in creating constructed action. Before I ask them to create scenes from an actual cartoon, I show them Ella Mae Lentz’ creation as a model of how it can be done. Until this class, I had not done an extensive analysis of this text, nor did I have the theoretical framework for recognizing that as a narrative, it served to create involvement on the part of the audience through various techniques. So, my analysis comes out of the hope that I can more effectively use this text in the future—in working with interpreters on ASL narrative skills and in working with them on the importance of creating involvement.

As a preface, I’ll offer a short synopsis of the story within the framework of Labov’s narrative structure. (This structure is outlined in a later section.)

Abstract:The roadrunner and coyote are introduced, invoking the frame of the cartoon series.
Orientation: The coyote then puts together a motor scooter that is powered by a propeller and then sets out after the roadrunner.
Complicating Action: He catches up once, and then is left in the dust as the roadrunner speeds away. True to his character, the coyote continues the chase—pushing the scooter to its limits. Just as the coyote is about to catch the roadrunner, they come to a cliff. The roadrunner takes a sharp turn left, and the coyote heads straight off the cliff, suspended in mid-air for a moment as the realization hits him, and then the scooter and coyote plummet to a canyon shaking impact.
Evaluation: The coyote pulls himself out of the ground and snaps his fingers in disgust.
Coda: The frame of the cartoon returns with the signature sign-off of Warner Brothers: “That’s all folks!”

Features of the Map

The text is a brief one, lasting under two minutes. Within that time frame, however, Lentz creates a richly textured spatial map. To begin with, I will delineate the nature of this map, and how she places the characters within it.

The story contains the perspective of narrator as well as the two characters: the roadrunner and the coyote. In establishing these perspectives, Lentz uses consistent spatial mapping that is cued by the use of physical space and eye gaze. The roadrunner is mapped on the right side of her signing space with the coyote on the left. Narration generally happens in the same space as the coyote, but with an eye gaze that is directed toward the audience. Another factor in this mapping is the change in stance of her left leg. As both narrator and coyote, Lentz stands with with her feet spread comfortably apart. When she shifts into the role of the Roadrunner, her right foot remains stationary, but her left leg closes the gap between her legs. This both adds to the characterization of the Roadrunner as a thin bird, and clearly establishes the spatial framework of where the Roadrunner is located.

The text itself is primarily composed of constructed action—with short connecting segments of narration. Within the different aspects of constructed action, my focus will be on the shifting of reference scale. As will be shown, a signer has the option in reporting action of choosing to use what has been termed “role-playing” or “characterization.” This is the cinematographic equivalent of a close-up. Or a signer can choose to show action in a smaller scale—again in movie terms, a wide-angle shot. Schick (1990), in her work on classifier predicates, labeled these different scales as, “Real-World” and “Model” to identify these different types of space. Other linguists have chosen different labels to mark these changes in scale. Lidell (1995) uses “token space” instead of “model”, and divides the category of “Real-world” into “real” and “surrogate,” depending on whether or not the actual person or object talked about is present. Emmory and Falgier (1999) propose the use of the terms “Diagrammatic” and “Viewer” space to show these scales in the context of signers describing a map of a town and a convention center. Since my focus will be on the reference scales used, I will use Schick’s terminology: real-world and model scale, since it is sufficient for the purposes of my analysis.

Within the parameters of her spatial map, Lentz uses a combination of Real-world (RW) and Model (M) scales. In terms of distribution, Lentz uses Real-World scale for 78 seconds; Model scale for 20 seconds, a combination of RW and M for 9 seconds. There are four transtions into RW and M, each initiated from and returning to RW scale. There are 12 transitions into Model scale. The text begins in RW scale and continues this way for the first 26 seconds (Time code 00:04 – 00:32) At this point, she maintains the character of the coyote in RW scale with her body and left hand, but uses her right hand in M scale to show the coyote moving forward. This mixing of scales occurs intermittently throughout the narrative. Primarily, she uses her right hand in M scale to show the motion of the Roadrunner, and maintains the RW scale body posture of the coyote. However, in one instance, (Time code 1:03) her right hand and body maintain the RW scale of the Roadrunner running, and her left hand uses M scale to show the coyote on his motor scooter catching up.

Scale Shifts and Narrative Structure

The distribution of these transitions between scales has a significant discourse function and understanding narrative structure. Labov (cited in Wilson, 1996) suggests that a fully-formed narrative may consist of these sections, in order:

1. Abstract: A sentence at the beginning that summarizes the story
2. Orientation: Clauses near the beginning which provide a setting.
3. Complicating Action: The events of the narrative
4. Evaluation: The point of the story
5. Coda: The narrative is brought back to present time.

In terms of narrative structure, the absence or presence of shifts in scale can serve as markers for sections of this narrative: The Abstract is the first 11 seconds which serve to introduce the characters in RW scale. Lentz uses freeze frames of each character, providing a fingerspelled caption, just as each Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon begins with a freeze frame and some absurd scientific name. The abstract thus serves to invoke a cartoon framework. The Orientation happens in the next 17 seconds of the narrative in RW scale provides close-up information of the coyote. This, in many respects, serves to provide character development and clearly establish the context of the story. The shift in scale at 00:32 serves both to introduce the character of the Roadrunner and to mark the stage of Complicating Action in the narrative. Over the course of the next 1:06, there are 32 shifts in scale—which provide tremendous texture to this portion of the spatial map and creates suspense and involvement. The final 13 seconds of the narrative occur completely in RW scale. Time code 01:38-01:45 serve as evaluation and provide a close-up of the coyote—showing his emotional reaction to the events of the story. The final 5 seconds serve as Coda by returning to the framework of the cartoon—with Warner Brothers’ signature sign-off, “T-H-A-T-S A-L-L F-O-L-K-S.”

Implications for Involvement

Focusing on the three middle segments of Labov’s narrative structure, I want to take a look at what the use of different reference scales means for involvement in the story.

In the Orientation, the use of the RW scale provides close-up attention to the coyote. This perspective, combined with effective facial characterization, provide the audience with insight into the character of the coyote within a short amount of time. Within this time frame, it is important to note that Lentz does not purely stay in character role, as if this were purely mime or a play. Rather her telling of the coyote’s construction of the motor scooter is punctuated with shifts into the narrator role. Each time a new object is removed from the box (body, propellor, handlebars, seat) she briefly assumes the role of narrator with eye gaze that is directed either to the audience or at the object. These referential shifts provide the texture within a section that does not have a shift in scale. These shifts, combined with effective facial expression, serve to provide an involving example of character development.

Once Complicating Action begins, shifts in scale happen, on average, once every three seconds. These shifts occur both within character—Time Code 00:41-43 close-up of the Roadrunner running (RW scale) and then a classifier construction of the Roadrunner stopping (M scale) followed by close-up of Roadrunner looking at Coyote. As well, the shifts can be between characters – for example, 00:58-01:02, which is a RW scale Coyote riding the scooter, then M scale classifier construction of Roadrunner, then RW scale Coyote on the scooter again. In terms of involvement, these shifts in scale create the effect of a tremendously engaging visual narrative.

In terms of Evaluation, Labov places this section near the end of the narrative. Its purpose is really to convince the audience that there is a point to the story. Changing back to RW scale allows the audience to focus on the emotional impact of the events on the coyote. Wilson (1996), in her study of ASL narrative structure, noted that facial expression can provide evaluative force throughout a narrative. Lentz, through her use of RW scale across the narrative, is able to show what the emotions and motivation of the characters without using lexical selections. For example, the facial characterization of Coyote licking his lips at 00:44 shows that he wants to eat the Roadrunner, without signing WANT EAT. This presence of facial expression and characterization is crucial to efficiently providing evaluative clues, and thereby increasing audience involvement.

Lessons for Interpreters

From my time in an Interpreter Training Program at St. Paul Technical College, I remember a poster that hung on the door of one of our classrooms. It was the picture of a person with a paper bag over their head. Written on the bottom of the poster were words to the effect of : Don’t be an interpreter like this! It was a daily reminder of the importance of facial expression—both for purposes of grammar and for not being too boring too watch. In other words, the poster expressed that our faces were tools for creating involvement. Given my analysis of Ella Mae Lentz’s story, The Roadrunner Wins Again, interpreters also need to pay attention to shifts in reference scale. Within narratives, it is clear that shifting back and forth from Real-World to Model scale creates suspense and involvement in the midst of a story.

While it is outside the scope of my research, I think it would be interesting to compare the use of reference shifts in interpreted narrative and compare it to how Deaf people use these shifts. While my study is limited to only one example of an extremely gifted storyteller, my observation from experience suggests to me that interpreters use far less frequent shifts in scale than do Deaf people. Furthermore, within the same scale, I would suggest that interpreters provide less texture through shifting perspectives between different characters and the narrator.

In this further research, it would also important to analyze how the content of the story influences the use of shifts in reference scale. “The Roadrunner Wins Again” focuses on the rapid movement of two characters. This type of content may be more conducive to the shifting between reference scales. Other narratives that focus more on character development, rather than action, may make use of a greater amount of Real-World scale. While not part of a research study, my observations have led me to believe that within narratives which take place mainly in Real-World scale, there still are significant uses of shifts in perspective—between that of characters and that of the narrator.

So, for interpreters who are asking the question: “What do I do if the deaf student won’t look at me?” one answer is to start developing the skill of shifting between perspectives and transitioning between Real-World and Model scales in narrative. The use of these shifts can dramatically increase the level of involvement within a story, and perhaps lead to more engagement on the part of the student.

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INVOLVEMENT AND INTERPRETER ROLE

Developing ASL narrative skills is certainly one answer for an interpreter being more effective in engaging deaf children in communication. Particularly for interpreters working in elementary settings, consideration must be given to the context in which language occurs and the role that members of the educational team each need to play in creating involvement skills and to make a meaningful Zone of Proximal Development that Vygotzky suggests is necessary for student growth and development.

One important thing to note: the story under study in this paper was an original creation, and not an interpretation. Furthermore, it is one solely told in American Sign Language. Contrast this to the narrative structure that most deaf children see in classrooms with interpreters. There, the interpreted narrative is broken into sections by a picture being shown to the class. At times, the picture is shown at the same time as the interpretation is provided—thus competing with the language input. For children who are not fully engaged with language, it’s been my experience that full attention is often given to the picture, rather than dividing attention between picture and language.

Mather and Winston (1998) make the point that, of the teachers involved in their study, the only one who effectively created an ASL interpretation with a spatial map and a high level of involvement, was the one who read the entire book first, and then retold it in ASL without the English text. In order to build involvement with a student, interpreters may need to find an avenue for telling entire stories directly to students—rather than interpreting from an English text. A decision to create this kind of language-rich situation needs to happen within the context of the educational team. It may be there is another member of that team who is more appropriate to provide such language exposure, but consideration should be given to ways that the classroom environment can be changed to create more involvement.

Child-Directed Speech

Interpreters also need to recognize the different ways adults use language in talking with young children. Brenda Schick (2001) stresses the role of prosody—pacing and intonation—in what researchers call Child-Directed Speech. This type of speech plays a significant role in children’s language development.

While not part of a systematic study, I have observed a feature in Deaf adults communication with children which serves as very successful involvement strategy. For lack of a better term, I will call it “mechanical metaphor,” meaning that the human body is shown as some type of machine. The first example I saw was, for the concept of “sudden understanding,” a Deaf man with one hand pulled an imaginary string under his chin and with his other hand signed light above his head—carrying out the visual metaphor of the light bulb going on. At the end of the interaction, this same man said GOOD-BYE as if there was a string attached to his left hand and that the pulling of his right hand controlled the motion of his left. Another Deaf adult, in conversation with a student about their participation in the classroom, asked if they needed to use a car jack to raise their hand—produced by making the ratcheting motion with his right hand and raising his left hand in stages in coordination with his ratcheting.

These “mechanical metaphors” provided a high level of involvement in conveying a concept. Based on this observation, I began incorporating these and other mechanical metaphors in my work with young children. The string-controlled GOOD-BYE led to a similar O-K where pulling the string changed the O to K. Initially, I pulled the string, but through its engagement of the student, this technique led to the student pulling the string and then incorporating this metaphor in their own language use. As the student became more involved with this language play, strings became jammed, had to be cut, and sewn back on. All of this language involvement began in situations of direct communication with students. However, it translated to an increased level of involvement of the student in interpreting situations—and I found that I could occasionally include such “mechanical metaphors” into my interpretations to provide a higher level of involvement when necessary and appropriate. Click here for examples of mechanical metaphors.

Involvement and Independence

Tannen (1986) claims that the twin desires of communication are to show our involvement and to maintain our independence. In many respects, these are two competing goals, or perhaps, two ends of a continuum that communicators move back and forth between. The relationship between these two goals is vital to consider in the context of educational decisions for deaf students. In an article in the RID Views,(Bowen-Bailey, 2001) I argued that using the framework of fostering student independence is an effective way to explain our roles as interpreters in classrooms. While I still believe that to be the case, I think this focus on independence necessitates an understanding of involvement—and how involvement in language is necessary for young children to gain the skills to become independent. Important in this is recognizing a distinction between being involved and dependent; that is, involvement strategies should lead to patterns of growth and development, rather than a pattern in the student of relying on the interpreter or other specific individuals to do the work for them. With caution about developing dependence, a focus on involvement is necessary for many deaf students to develop the language skills necessary for being able to move back and forth on the continuum of involvement and independence.

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CONCLUSION

Throughout the course of this paper, I have attempted to provide examples of involvement strategies that interpreters can implement in their work to more effectively engage deaf students in language use and communication. Within an ASL narrative, the use of shifts in reference scales serve to create a high level of involvement and help to create narrative structure. Developing these competencies can enable interpreters to include a degree of involvement in their interpretations that will more effectively match the source texts that they are called upon to interpret.

Beyond that, other strategies, such as creating opportunities for direct ASL storytelling and the use of “mechanical metaphors” can help meet the needs of deaf students who are both learning language and learning how to be involved in language. In my work as an interpreter, and as a mentor of other educational interpreters, I have found that these techniques of involvement can be effective tools toward setting deaf students on the educational path to independence.

“What do you do if the student won’t look at you?”

The answers to that question are complex and certainly not fully answered by this paper. I do hope, however, that I have offered a few ideas to put in an “interpreter’s bag of tricks” that can lead to that question being answered more effectively, and subsequently asked less frequently.

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REFERENCES

Bowen-Bailey, D. April 2001. A Declaration of Independence. In Views. Silver Spring, MD: Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc.

Emmorey, K. & Falgier, B. 1999. Talking about Space with Space: Describing Environments in ASL. In Storytelling and Narrative in Sign Languages, E.A. Winston, Ed. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Lentz, E. 1980. The Roadrunner Wins Again. In Tales from the Green Book. (Videotape). Sign Media, Inc.

Liddell, S. 1995. Real, surrogate, and token space: Grammatical consequences in ASL. In Language, gesture, and space, ed. K.Emmorey and J. Reilly, 19-41. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mather, S. & Winston, E. 1998. Spatial Mapping and Involvement. In Pinky Extension and Eye Gaze: Language Use in Deaf Communities, C. Lucas, Ed. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Metzger, M. 1995. Constructed Dialogue and Constructed Action in American Sign Language. In Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities, Vol. 1. C. Lucas, Ed. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Ramsey, C. 2001. Beneath the Surface: Theoretical Frameworks Shed Light on Educational Interpreting. In Odyssey: New Directions in Deaf Education. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center.

Schick, B. 2001. Interpreting for Children: How it’s Different. In Odyssey: New Directions in Deaf Education. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center.

Schick, B. S. 1990. Classifier Predicates in American Sign Language. In International Journal of Sign Linguistics, 1(1), (pp. 32-36).

Tannen, D. 1986. That’s Not What I Meant! How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships. New York: Ballantine Books.

Tannen, D. 1989. Invovlement in Discourse. In Talking Voices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wilson, J. 1996. The Tobacco Story: Narrative Structure in an American Sign Language Story. In Multicultural Aspects of Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities, C. Lucas, Ed. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
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The following video are sections of a lecture delivered in an actual middle school classroom. Some student interaction may be inaudible. See transcripts or captions for some support in filling in the gaps.

Introduction

Lise Lunge-Larsen introduces herself and the topic of folklore. (4:16)

Cumulative Genre

Lise explains about this genre designed for young children and tells the story of “The Fat Cat.” (7:06)

Explanatory Genre

Lise explains about this genre and tells the story of “How the Bear Got His Tail.”(3:46)

Talking Animals

Lise explains about this genre and tells the story of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” (5:28) s

Numbskull Genre

Lise explains about this genre, also known as Noodlehead stories, and tells the story of “The Three Sillies.” (6:23)

Fairy Tale

Lise explains about this genre tells the story of “The Ashlad.” (11:06)

Sample Interpretations by Doug Bowen-Bailey

The following video are interpretations done from the video on the previous page. Daniel Durant, who you met in your preparation, served as my audience. See my notes for reflection on the process–and how it might have been different if I were actually interpreting in the classroom or if I had it to do over.

Introduction

Lise Lunge-Larsen introduces herself and the topic of folklore. (4:16)

Interpreter Notes

The interpretation was produced from the same video file on this CD. One thing that I found challenging in the introduction was trying to introduce a person who wasn’t physically present. In general, during introductions, I try to allow the Deaf person to have plenty of opportunity, whether by pauses in the interpretation or by my location, to get a visual impression of the speaker. Not sure I accomplished that.

One thing I wish I would have done differently was the interpretation of which words English borrowed from the Vikings. In hindsight, I wish I would have omitted a few of the examples, so I could have made the examples that were used clearer. I did attempt to give some kind of construct showing that folklore is a broad topic with many subsets in it. I chose to use a spatial representation similar to a flow chart. You all can decide how effective you think that was.

Cumulative Genre

Lise explains about this genre designed for young children and tells the story of “The Fat Cat.” (7:06)

Interpreter Notes

Lise uses a clear structure in her talk. She begins with explaining about a genre, and then goes into the story. After the story, she has a varying amount of commentary before moving on into the next genre. In my own interpretations, I wish that I would have had more distinct break between her more expository information and her storytelling. In hind sight, I wish I would have given the break a longer pause.

A note on interpreting the Norwegian: Lise used a fair amount of Norwegian in the story, both with the ending (Snipp, snapp, snute…) and in reference to two characters in the story: Skalinkulot and Skahantentot. For those two characters, I chose to just represent them with a physical description. Given time constraints, and the emphasis on reptition, I decided that placing more emphasis on those names would be a distraction to the main point of the story.

Explanatory Genre

Lise explains about this genre and tells the story of “How the Bear Got His Tail.”(3:46)

Interpreter Notes

On interpreting for a expressive speaker: Lise uses an incredible amount of expression, both vocal and facial, in her storytelling. In my interpretations of the video file, I think I gave more of an animated interpretation than I actually would have done in the situation. Given that her performance was part “theater,” I may have made more choices to reference her actions rather than reproduce them as a part of my interpretation. For instance, when she is squatting over the hole in the ice, I might draw the Deaf student’s attention to that, and then go on with my interpretation. I find that sometimes too much expressiveness in an interpretation can sometimes be seen as “competing” with the speaker. While it is important to have engaging features in an interpretation, we must walk the fine line of not having the event become all about the interpreter, rather than about the speaker.

Talking Animals

Lise explains about this genre and tells the story of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” (5:28

Interpreter Notes

In reviewing the interpretation, I wish that I had spent more time in the beginning setting up the physical environment of the story. First setting up the mountains, stream, and bridge, and then introducing the troll. I did that somewhat, but I think it could have been more effective.

I did, however, make use of much of the visual imagery of Patrick Graybill in his telling of this story in the videotape I mentioned in my preparation journal. Again, I would suggest that as an excellent resource.

Numbskull Genre

Lise explains about this genre, also known as Noodlehead stories, and tells the story of “The Three Sillies.” (6:23)

Interpreter Notes

This is a rather challenging story as there is the whole absurdity element, which sometimes can be difficult to translate. As well, there is a challenging description of trying to boost the cow onto the sod roof, and then having the man jerked up into the chimney. What was affirming in my work was Daniel, in the audience, found the whole scene of the man jumping into his pants to be very humorous. Getting feedback like that is always an important sign for me to know that my work is actually accomplishing its goal of creating a dynamic equivalent.

Another challenge was her application of the the genre in looking at sitcoms on television. Given that it was driven by audience interaction and it required a lot of fingerspelling of specific names, I don’t think that interaction was as engaging as it would have been live. I’m not sure I would have done anything differently, but just interesting to note the challenge of that section–and others like it in the other genres.

Fairy Tale

Lise explains about this genre and tells the story of “The Ashlad.” (11:06)

Interpreter Notes

In the “Ashlad” story, effectively characterizing the three sons and the troll seemed to me to be a critical part of the interpretation. Given how effectively Lise used her voice to show the difference between the troll and the Ashlad, I tried to effectively show that with my face and body positioning. Again, you be the judge of how effective it was. It seemed to be well received by Daniel.

One interesting challenge was interpreting how Ashlad tricked the Troll related to getting water from the well. How to show on the one hand that the bucket was huge and heavy, but then have the Ashlad describe it as a “thimble.” English’s use of metaphor shows the irony of it very efficiently. I found it to be more challenging to describe the trick in visual language.

Introduction | Cumulative | Explanatory | Talking Animals | Numbskulls | Fairy Tales

Introduction

So, um, a lot of you probably know I?m a storyteller, and now actually, also, well actually, I have my degree in applied linguistics. But I did my degree, advanced degree in using storytelling to teach English to speakers of other languages. And I have studied folklore at the University of Oslo and I studied it also at the University of Minnesota. So this is some- thing I know a lot about. It?s kind of almost hard for me to narrow it down, something that you could get a PhD in if you want to, to get you interested and thinking about it for one hour.

When I say the word folklore, folk tales, what are some of the things that you?ve been learning about that you know already? There are legends … sure there are legends. That?s a kind of folklore.

Folklore is like a big subject matter, like when you have English, it?s com- posed of a lot of different things. (Talking to Student) You … are you just scratching your neck? I guess that?s allowed. Anything else? That?s all you know? Aren?t you an advanced English class? All you know is that there are legends? There?s got to be more. Come on.

There?s myths too. Thank you very much. Legends, myths…fables. What? And there are folk tales, which is you know, so…Legends, myths, fables, folk tales. There?s actually … if you were to get a PhD you get to study fun things like how rumors are spread, or how gossip starts, or graffiti, or you get to study folk life, how people celebrate various kinds of customs, you know, and how that gets passed on and so on and so forth. It?s really a lot of stuff. And um, the thing that I?ve always focused in on is folk tales.

Fables, you know, are short stories with animals in them. They?re differ- ent from other kinds of stories because they always, the animal isn?t just an animal. It stands for something. So a lion stands for royalty or kingliness and a sheep stands for meekness, and a fox stands for cleverness, and everything stands for something. And they always have a moral at the end.

These texts were created specifically for interpreting practice, based on comments from educational interpreters that one of the great challenges they faced in preparing for national Interpreter Certification was that they rarely had the opportunity to see Deaf adults signing–and to exercise their interpretation skills going from ASL to English.  These are not rehearsed texts and that is an intentional decision.  Within them, there will be errors, digressions, and repairs–elements of ASL discourse that is all too often missing from materials produced for interpreting practice, but which is definitely a part of the interpreting experience when working with actual people.  So, as you approach this work, don’t expect perfect, polished texts, but more natural language examples.

1.  Do text analysis.

After each of the text’s description, there is a timecode listing how long the text is.  Choose a shorter one and analyze it for meaning, structure, and different linguistic features. One helpful tool can be mapping out the main points and details in a format similar to figure at right.

2.  Shadow and re-tell the texts.

In shadowing, while the movie is playing, attempt to copy as closely as possible the text.  In the beginning, you may want to focus only on one feature; for example, facial expression or body movement.  Eventually, try to copy as much of the text as you can.  In re-telling, watch the entire text,and then try to re-tell it as closely as possibly, focusing on including the meaning and feeling of the text, rather than the individual signs used.

3.  Do consecutive interpreting.

After analyzing the structure of the text, pause the movie after each main point.  And do a consecutive interpretation.  This may be easier to do in pairs and have one person use the mouse for pausing, and the other focus on the interpretation.  To pause, simply click on the play/pause but-ton on the left hand side of the control bar at the bottom of the movie.

4.  Do simultaneous interpreting.

Interpret them as you would have to in an interpreting situation.  The important thing is to recognize that you have other options for practice,and you can work up to the actual simultaneous interpretation stage.  As well, because there are 17 separate texts on this resource, you can choose from this “grab bag” to be able to work with a variety of situations in many different ways.

These strategies are only suggestions and there are certainly more things that can be done with them.  It is the Region III – Low Incidence Project’s hope that you will find these to be useful tools in your work of skill development.

Cheryl Blue and Nancy Crane both work as consultants for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services ~ Northeast.  Cheryl is based in the office in Duluth and Nancy works out of Virginia.   On this resource, they tell a wide variety of stories, ranging from personal narrative to more expository texts related to work situations and others.  But before you move on to the actual texts, be sure to take the time to meet them here and get a sense of their signing style.

Personal Background

In this text, Cheryl gives a little background on her educational and work experi-ence.  (6:08)

Spinach Quiche

Cheryl explains how to prepare a Spinach Quiche.  Be wary of working with this one when you’re hungry.  (2:54)

A True Ghost Story

A personal experience of an encounter with a ghost. (2:45)

Technology and Telecommunications

A brief history of how technological changes have affected Deaf people’s ability to communicate. (2:36)

A Visit to the Emergency Room

A story about a son’s accident and going to the hospital for treatment. (2:08)

Tainted Teeth

A story from working in a Mental Health program. (1:43)

Communication Tips

A sample of a talk to an employer who has just hired a deaf employee and is planning on setting up a meeting to figure out how best to work together.(3:06)

Idiom in the Classroom

A Middle School story  of dealing with an English idiom. (1:18)

Working with the Police

A description of Cheryl’s efforts in working with the Duluth Police Department to improve relations with Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. (2:44)

Personal Background

In this text, Nancy gives a little background on her educational and work experience. (4:23)

Counted Cross-Stitch

Nancy explains how to begin a Counted Cross-stitch project, including materials and the process of how to actually do the sewing. (6:35)

Interpreter Follies

Nancy explains about how an interpreter’s folly led to both some laughs and a conversation with the Governor. (2:04)

Long-Distance Pacemaker

Nancy explains about her father’s heart condition and how it is monitored. (1:45)

D.C. Driving

An experience Nancy  had driving in Washington, D.C. while she was a student at Gallaudet. (2:22)

Mistaken Identity

A story of being frequently mistaken for someone else. (2:29)

A Daughter’s Long Recovery

An explanation of the long process of remedying Nancy’s daughter’s broken leg.(6:35)

Reunion Time

A story of attending her husband’s class reunion. (3:48)

The staff of the Region III Low-Incidence Project:

Regional Low-Incidence Facilitator: Pat Brandstaetter
Administrative Assistant: Tasha Honkola

Language Models: Cheryl Blue & Nancy Crane

Audience for ASL Texts: Susan Lorenz

Lighting Assistance and Advice: Rolf Hagberg

Filming and Computer Design/Producer: Doug Bowen-Bailey  Digiterp Communications

A special thanks to the State of Minnesota’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services  ~ Northeast and for the willingness of Cindy Otto, the Regional Manager, to allow Cheryl, Nancy, and Susan to be a part of this project.