All posts by kathymacmillan

More Storytime Magic

Early Literacy, Publications, Resources for Educators and Librarians, Songs and Rhymes

MacMillan_cover_1p.inddMore Storytime Magic

by Kathy MacMillan and Christine Kirker

ALA Editions, December 29, 2015.  $52.00

Order now from the Deaf Camps, Inc. Online Bookstore (autographed copies that support a great cause!) or the ALA Store.

“MacMillan and Kirker continue their successful formula for helping librarians and others who plan stories and activities for children aged two and up…a welcome addition for public and school library professional collections.” – American Reference Books Annual

“Another excellent resource from this author pair, this title presents songs, stories, and activities arranged by themes, such as fairy tales, animals, friends, and food. The stories and songs include originals and adaptations alike, and many of the tunes are sung to well-known traditional songs…For those who wish to specify the elements of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) demonstrated in storytime, the coding found with each activity is helpful…With fun activities and timely information on the CCSS, this is an ideal choice for administrators, librarians, and parents eager to promote current literacy standards.” – School Library Journal

“The authors do a very good job of providing activities that can be used for different age groups as well as different time allotments and settings.” – School Library Connection

“…a worthwhile purchase for any youth department where there is a focus on storytime.” – Booklist

MacMillan and Kirker’s knack for creating storytimes that engage and delight young ones have made their previous books bestsellers. Now they’re back with an all new assortment of original fingerplays, transitional rhymes, movement songs, flannelboards, sign language rhymes and other activities to spice up storytimes for ages two and up. This ready-to-go sourcebook for children’s librarians, early literacy specialists, and other adults who work with young children offers everything needed to plan and host quality storytimes, including

  • more than a dozen thematic groupings of activities, featuring such fun topics such as “All About Me,” “Bugs and Insects,” “Fairy Tales and Castles,” and “People in my Neighborhood”;
  • recommended storytime books for each theme, along with material lists, patterns for flannelboards and stick puppets, and illustrations of American Sign Language signs; and
  • coding for each entry indicating which Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten skills it supports.

Using the guidance and activities contained in this book, storytimes will be more magical than ever!

New Developments for Maryland’s Deaf Culture Digital Library

Deaf Culture Resources, In the Community, Resources for Educators and Librarians

Things are moving ahead for Maryland’s Deaf Culture Digital Library, the first of its kind in the country!  Congratulations to Montgomery County Public Library for being selected to host this amazing resource.

Here’s the latest press release:

For Immediate Release: 6/22/2015

Montgomery County Public Libraries Selected to Manage Maryland’s Deaf Culture Digital Library
County Executive Ike Leggett has announced that Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL)has been selected by the Maryland State Division of Library Development and Services (MS-DLDS) as the site of the State’s Deaf Culture Digital Library (DCDL).“This is a true honor for Montgomery County Public Libraries,” Leggett said. “It is a well-deserved recognition of our library system’s long tradition of helping to identify and address the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community for resources, collections, programs and technologies.”

Irene Padilla, assistant state superintendent of Libraries (Division of Library Development and Services) said, “Montgomery County Public Libraries’ services are renowned throughout the state of Maryland and across the nation. We are excited that MCPL has agreed to work with the MS-DLDS to ensure that the Deaf Culture Digital Library is the ‘first stop’ information center that will furnish statewide access to deaf resources. DCDL will provide highly competent assistance to Maryland residents and library staff in local public library systems, academic librarians in colleges and universities, and other libraries in the State of Maryland.”

“It’s a privilege and honor to be selected as a site for the DCDL,” said MCPL Director Parker Hamilton. “The Deaf Culture Digital Library is important to MCPL and the community, because it will improve availability and access to a comprehensive collection on deaf culture and programs that will help lead to better appreciation and awareness of deaf culture and the deaf community. We look forward to making resources more readily available to customers in the State of Maryland.”

The groundwork to formalize the foundation of the Deaf Culture Digital Library will take place in 2016, beginning with formation of the DCDL Advisory Board. The Division of Library Development and Services will begin taking applications for membership on the Board in the fall. The Deaf Culture Digital Library will be staffed with a full-time coordinator and an assistant. Additional details will be announced as they become available during the months ahead.

The final report to the Governor on the Deaf Culture Digital Library may be seen at:
http://tinyurl.com/o3dcb7o.

For more information about the Deaf Culture Digital Library, contact Susan Cohen at 301-637-2964 or Irene Padilla, 410-767-0444.
Release ID: 15-250
Media Contact: Bonnie Ayers 240-777-6507

Do you know about Project ENABLE?

In the Community, Online Resources, Resources for Educators and Librarians

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Project ENABLE is the result of an extraordinary partnership between the Center for Digital Literacy, the School of Information Studies (iSchool@Syracuse) and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. This project provides free online training modules designed for public, academic and school librarians to help them make their libraries truly inclusive for all users. Thanks to funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, anyone interested in creating accessibility in libraries can access these trainings, and modules can also be customized for individual or group use.

Once you sign up for a free account, you’ll take an initial assessment and then have access to five self-paced training modules, focusing on disability awareness, disability law and policy, creating an accessible library, planning inclusive programs and instruction, and assistive technology in libraries. Each module features interactive learning activities and a brief self-assessment, for a total of ten hours of instruction. Additional resources on the site include a template and checklists for a library accessibility action plan, universal design, Americans with Disability Act compliance, and sample lesson plans for school librarians. A certificate of completion is available for those who complete the training.

With training and resources of this caliber available for free, no librarian has any excuse to plead ignorance about how to provide accessibility. Sign up for a free training account today at http://projectenable.syr.edu/

Searching for Laurent Clerc

Deaf Culture Resources

A few weeks ago I was presenting at a conference in Mystic, Connecticut, so I took the opportunity to drive up to Hartford for the day and follow the Hartford Deaf History trail.  I am an enthusiastic student of Deaf history, so I was excited to see the places I had read about for myself.

(For those who may not know: Hartford, Connecticut is where the first permanent school for the deaf was founded in 1817 and where American Sign Language was born.  Read more at the American School for the Deaf’s website.)

First stop on my tour: Laurent Clerc’s grave.  Laurent Clerc, the brilliant Frenchman who gave up the worldly joys of Paris to come to America with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and establish a school for deaf children.  Laurent Clerc, the first Deaf teacher in the United States.  Laurent Clerc, without whom ASL and Deaf Culture as we know it surely would not have been possible.

I arrived at Hartford’s Spring Grove cemetery on an unseasonably cold and blustery April day, to find the office closed and no clues to point to where the great man’s grave was in the huge cemetery.  No worries, I thought, the internet will help.

Except that every description of Clerc’s burial place lists the cemetery and nothing else.  Fortunately, there was one picture of the gravesite that happened to show the fence beyond – a useful clue!  Armed with that photo and feeling rather like Dan and Amy Cahill in The 39 Clues, I set off to hunt down the spot. Half an hour later, I found it.

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Now, being a librarian by training, I have to leave some breadcrumbs for other folks.  So here it is:

How to Find Laurent Clerc’s Grave

1) Enter Spring Grove Cemetery at 8035 Main Street, Hartford, CT.  (It is next to a church and the entrance is set back from the street a bit, so easy to miss!)

2) Go down the center road once you get inside the cemetery.

3) Veer to the right.

4) When you see the “Section 1” sign, pull over and park:

20150424_140116

5) Look to your right. You will see a tree and a monument.  The fenced-in area behind the tall monument is the Clerc family plot:

20150424_140124

Unfortunately you cannot approach the grave very closely because the Clerc plot is entirely fenced-in.  The graves of Clerc and his wife Eliza have been given new headstones in recent years, but there are other old stones in the plot that are impossible to read from the other side of the fence.

When I finally found it, I stood outside the fence and signed a message of thanks to Laurent Clerc for all he had done and all the lives he had impacted.  I know that ASL has changed a lot since his time, but I like to think that, wherever he is, he understood.

 

Wordless Picture Books – Something for Everyone!

Early Literacy, Resources for Educators and Librarians, Signing with Young Children, ,

I am so pleased to share with you this article by my good friend, early childhood educator Louise Rollins of Maryland/DC Hands & Voices.  Though this article specifically addresses techniques for using wordless picture books with deaf and hard of hearing children, these ideas will benefit hearing children as well.  So if you thought wordless picture books couldn’t make for a satisfying storytime – think again!  This article originally appeared in the Hands & Voices Communicator, Summer 2015, Volume XVIV, Issue 4 and is posted here with permission.

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When you search for books for your child, you can identify high-quality children’s books in part because they convey much of the story through the pictures. This is especially important for children who are learning language, as our deaf or hard of hearing children are, since they may not always understand the story through language alone. Wordless picture books are a category of books with very little or no text, where the story is conveyed entirely through the pictures. The same skills that children practice while reading books with text can apply: retelling, understanding story structure, taking multiple perspectives, and making predictions, inferences, and personal connections. Additionally, wordless picture books present unique benefits for deaf or hard of hearing children using any communication modality.

Wordless picture books are excellent for helping your child understand the sequence of events in the story. During book sharing with a traditional book, a child sees part of the story in the picture and perhaps understands part of the story through the text that is read to her, then has to piece together a narrative from those two fractured elements, filling in the blanks on her own as she is able. Using a wordless picture book, your child can understand the events through the picture first, then learn from you the language that describes what she sees. This process helps develop your child’s story comprehension and build her vocabulary.

IMG_2946Because the pictures may be open to some interpretation, wordless picture books create an interactive reading experience where you and your child can discuss what you think is happening in the story. You can encourage your child to take on the role of narrator; even if your child cannot read print yet he can “read” these books independently or to you. Storytelling opportunities help your child practice organizing his thoughts, including sufficient information for his audience, and selecting relevant details. In other words, while practicing reading, your child is also practicing important writing skills, without even picking up a pencil.

When you read wordless picture books, you can modify your storytelling to use single IMG_2990words or shorter phrases. You might want to do this if your child does not yet understand longer strings of connected language, or is still developing his attention span. If you are learning to sign, you do not have to feel bound by the print and feel pressure if you don’t know every sign in the text. If you are learning to cue, you do not have to worry about cueing long passages at one time. Instead, you can focus on telling the story and enjoying book sharing with your child.

What about older children?

Wordless picture books are not limited to simple stories aimed at younger children. You can find intricate and sophisticated stories appropriate for older children as well. The flexible nature of these books fosters creativity and reduces the pressure for your child to produce the “right” answer. If you have a reluctant reader who feels anxiety when presented with print, she may be more comfortable with a wordless picture book. Successfully interacting with a book can empower your child to see herself as a reader and engender a love of reading.

el deafoThe genre of graphic novels has been rapidly expanding over recent years, creating more age-appropriate opportunities for older children and teens to enjoy wordless picture books. You will find graphic novels that range from little or no text to very print-heavy, but all are sure to convey the story clearly through pictures. An excellent graphic novel to check out is El Deafo by Cece Bell. Although it is text-heavy, it features a deaf main character and positive themes for deaf and hard of hearing readers, and has been well received by fans and critics.

Favorite wordless picture books

By Lita Judge:

untitled - Copy red

 

 

 

 

By Suzy Lee:

mirror shadow wave zoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By David Wiesner:

flotsamtuessector mr free

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had such a hard time paring down the list of my favorite wordless picture book titles or authors! For many more titles, click here and look for “wordless” in the book descriptions.

 

A final thought

Wordless picture books can provide you and your child with less pressure and more freedom to enjoy story time together. Please remember that you can try every single one of these suggestions with traditional books as well. Ignore the text, read the story in a way that matches your or your child’s language skills, make up your own story, let your child take a turn – whatever you do, make reading fun!

 

Louise Rollins has worked with deaf and hard of hearing children and their families in early intervention, school, and recreational settings in Maryland for thirteen years. She loves high-quality children’s literature and book-sharing with families.

Hands & Voices is a non-profit, parent-driven organization dedicated to supporting families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

 

A Conversation About Deaf Culture

Deaf Culture Resources, , , ,

One of the assignments in my online course, Basic ASL for Library Staff, is to create a description of Deaf Culture that students can use when sharing what they have learned with co-workers, family members, and friends.  Kathleen Westbrook of the Appleton Public Library (Wisconsin) came up with the following imaginary conversation, which I am posting here with her permission:

Friend: Whatcha been up to lately?

Me: Well, I’m taking a Basic American Sign Language for Library Staff. It’s been great.

Friend: Are you learning a lot of signs?

Me: Oh, yeah, quite a few, but I’m also learning about Deaf Culture.

Friend: Deaf Culture? What’s that?

Me: Well, it’s a lot like any culture, you know? A group, a community, of people with a shared language…shared customs…experiences… history…beliefs. Like Japanese Culture, or Italian Culture.For the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the shared language is-

Friend: Sign language?

Me: Yep. And here in America, it’s ASL.

Friend: Wait, Isn’t sign language universal?

Me: Nope. We’ve been learning a bit about the history of ASL. It’s based largely on French Sign Language; as a matter of fact, the first main teacher was a Frenchman, Laurent Clerc, a Deaf guy.

Friend: I did not know that.

Me: That’s a whole story in itself. But getting back to Deaf Culture–and Deaf is with a capital “D”–at the heart of it is the idea that the Deaf and Hard of Hearing –

Friend: Hey, don’t you mean “hearing impaired?”Isn’t that more “P.C.?”

Me: Actually it’s not! Because at the heart of the culture is the idea, or belief, that being Deaf or Hard of Hearing is a difference, rather than a disability or an impairment; that they are able to do so many things, with the exception of hearing, and they can and do contribute to society just as they are, without needing to be “fixed.”They believe that their differences are assets.They call it Deaf Gain.

Friend: Gosh, I never really considered it that way.Because I love to hear so much -music, birds, the lakeshore and stuff–I can’t imagine that losing my hearing could be anything but tragic.

Me: Oh, I hear you–no pun intended. There are so many varied experiences of people who fall into that continuum of deafness–for some it is definitely a loss. Not everyone who has the condition of deafness necessarily embraces the Deaf Culture. But, just think, for instance, if you were born deaf, or became deaf at a very young age, you wouldn’t necessarily think of yourself as missing something or losing something; being deaf would be part of your identity, like height, or eye color, or gender, you know? Many people like that consider themselves Deaf with a capital “D.” There are Hard of Hearing folks that embrace the culture; people who become deaf later in life, or people that grew up deaf but with hearing people in hearing environments who discover and embrace it; and there are hearing people – friends, family members, teachers, interpreters, and others–immersed in it as well, immersed in the language and community, sharing the belief of Deaf Gain. But for sure, not all hearing people are.Hey, have you ever heard of audism?

Friend: No, can’t say that I have.

Me: You know, the idea that you’re superior because you can hear, or that deafness is a tragedy for all who are deaf? It’s a kind of prejudice, whether intentional or not. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of it at times, without realizing it. Hey, instead of saying that the Deaf are “hearing impaired,” I could say that I’m “signing impaired!”

Friend: Ha. Wow, it sounds as if you’ve gotten a lot of food for thought. Me too, now, actually.

Me: Yeah, it sure has been eye-opening–in more ways than one–because ASL is such a visual language, you really have to watch carefully for all the nuances of the gestures, the body movements, facial expressions…

Friend:Show me some of the signs you’ve learned so far.

Me: I’d be happy to!

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Want to learn more about Deaf Culture?  Check out these links for more resources!

Click here to read Kathleen Westbrook’s reviews of some of her favorite ASL resources for kids and families.

 

EL DEAFO by Cece Bell named a 2015 Newbery Honor Book!

Children's Novels about ASL and Deafness, Resources for Elementary Students, , ,

el deafoCongratulations to Cece Bell, whose graphic novel memoir of growing up deaf, El Deafo (Amulet Books, 2014) has been chosen as a 2015 Honor Book by the John Newbery Medal Committee of the Association of Library Service to Children!

To find out more about this charming book for middle-graders, click here to read my earlier review of El Deafo.

 

Review: Hands and Hearts by Donna Jo Napoli

Picture Books About ASL and Deafness, Resources for Educators and Librarians, Signing with Young Children

cover of Hands and HeartsHands and Hearts by Donna Jo Napoli. New York: Abrams, 2014.

I have long been familiar with Donna Jo Napoli’s fiction for young adults, especially her achingly beautiful Hush: An Irish Princess’ Tale and the fairy-tale retellings Beast, and Zel.  But until I read the afterword of this picture book, I had no idea that Napoli is also a linguist and an activist supporting the language rights of Deaf children!  You can find more about her linguistics work, including links to a really cool series of bilingual ASL/English ebooks she helped develop, here.

Back to the book at hand: on the surface, this is a simple, lyrical tale of mother and daughter spending a day at the beach, but every bit of it is built around the things their hands do: waving hello to the waves, digging in the sand, making a tent, and even being “Yak yak hands/yak yak fingers/telling as we run/out the gate down the path.”  It’s a subtle reference to mother and child signing, and indeed, each page is accompanied by illustrations teaching a relevant sign such as RUN, WATER, or SUN.  Amy Bates’ dreamy illustrations make this a sweet, gentle tale of family togetherness.  A lovely addition to the ASL picture book canon.