I’m delighted to share this interview with Melody over at the ASL Picture Books Blog, where I got to discuss some of my favorite ways to share ASL with kids!
Category Archives: Resources for Educators and Librarians
Book your program or workshop now!
Now booking programs for schools, libraries, childcare centers, and camps for:
Schools, libraries, and nonprofit organizations in Maryland: Did you know you can apply for FREE programs and workshops with Arts in Education grant funding from the Maryland State Arts Council? It’s super easy to apply. Simply contact me to discuss a program or series that best meets your needs. Then I fill out the application, and all your site coordinator has to do sign off on the application (or provide a letter of support) and fill out a brief follow up evaluation after the program or workshop. Grant payments are made directly to the Teaching Artist from MSAC – so you don’t even have to handle any money. Find out more about Arts in Education grants here.
Recommended Reading: THE INVENTION OF MIRACLES by Katie Booth
The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell’s Quest to End Deafness by Katie Booth
Summary: When Alexander Graham Bell first unveiled his telephone to the world, it was considered miraculous. But few people know that it was inspired by another supposed miracle: his work teaching the deaf to speak. The son of one deaf woman and husband to another, he was motivated by a desire to empower deaf people by integrating them into the hearing world, but he ended up becoming their most powerful enemy, waging a war against Sign Language and Deaf culture that still rages today. The Invention of Miracles tells the dual stories of Bell’s remarkable, world-changing invention and his dangerous ethnocide of Deaf culture and language. It also charts the rise of Deaf activism and tells the triumphant tale of a community reclaiming a once-forbidden language. Inspired by her mixed hearing/Deaf family, Katie Booth has researched this story for over a decade, poring over Bell’s papers, Library of Congress archives, and the records of deaf schools around America. Witnessing the damaging impact of Bell’s legacy on her family set her on a path that upturned everything she thought she knew about language, power, deafness, and technology.
Unlike many hearing people, I already knew quite a bit about the deep harm wrought by Bell’s crusade for oralism before reading this book. I knew that he had a deaf wife and a deaf mother, and I always wondered how he could have done so much to work against the Deaf community. I expected to be horrified by Bell’s work with eugenics, his attempts to prevent deaf people from intermarrying, and his disregard of the lived experienced and knowledge of deaf people – and I was horrified. What I didn’t expect was to find some measure of understanding for how Bell could have gone so wrong, for how the best of intentions, combined with the massive renown and wealth resulting from his invention of the telephone, led to decades of trauma for the Deaf community. Booth’s study of Bell’s life gives the full story, from the perspective of the Deaf community – which is too often missing from narratives of Bell’s work. Within the rigorous historical study is seated a deeply personal narrative as well, as the author explores her own place as a hearing granddaughter of Deaf grandparents, and what lessons Bell’s dismissal of the Deaf perspective has for all hearing members of the community.
Booth explores Bell’s greatest sin – disregarding the Deaf community’s perspective and wisdom. So it is deeply ironic that the book never capitalizes “Deaf” when referring to Deaf culture or the Deaf community – which has long been the stated preference of the Deaf community. I know too much about the publishing process to suppose that this was the author’s choice; more likely it was a battle that the publisher’s stylesheet won. But it is a distracting and disrespectful detail in what is otherwise an important scholarly work as well as an intensely readable biography.
THE INVENTION OF MIRACLES is out now.
Recommended Reading: THE BUTTERFLY CAGE by Rachel Zemach
The Butterfly Cage by Rachel Zemach
Summary: A tender and perspective-shifting book that offers a rare level of understanding about the subtle and no-so-subtle layers of internalized oppression and deep feelings and dilemmas of Deaf people, written by former Deaf teacher Rachel Zemach. This mesmerizing, funny, and disruptive narrative invites you to be a fly on the wall in a Deaf classroom at a hearing school, experiencing the immense frustration, unbridled joy, and indelible humor that arise for Deaf adults and children in a hearing environment. Rachel struggles with staff, administration, and aides who sabotage her efforts at every turn. The students contend with a principal who removes their textbooks, intercom announcements that are totally inaccessible and a system that renders them all defenseless against these dysfunctional and often absurd forces. You’ll meet seven-year-old Laszlo, the brilliant, language-hungry boy who will capture your heart, and the political, fiercely intelligent elite members of the Deaf community who rally to change legislation after his life takes a shocking turn at age sixteen when he makes a heart-wrenching decision. In a series of short, distinctive chapters, Zemach shares her personal Deafhood journey, poignant scenes from the classroom, shocking individualized education meetings and their impact, and the larger political and historical picture surrounding Deaf education.
I LOVE this book. Honestly, I want to shove it into the hands of hearing people on the street and say, “Read this! Just read this, and maybe, maybe, you’ll start to understand.” Zemach introduces so many important concepts and historical moments that are crucial for understanding the Deaf world – and lends immediacy, context, and humanity to those abstract concepts by grounding them in her own story. She brings her classroom to life before our eyes, showing the wonder and promise of her Deaf students, and the mainstream education system that failed them time and time again. As a teacher/librarian/camp counselor and director who has worked with Deaf kids for many years, I was entranced at how well she shows how much Deaf kids ROCK. Zemach’s writing is lovely, filled with beautiful turns of phrase, elegant descriptions, and, when necessary, unpleasant but very necessary truths.
THE BUTTERFLY CAGE is out now. For more information, visit https://rachelzemach.com.
Recommended Reading: SAIL ME AWAY HOME by Ann Clare LeZotte
Sail Me Away Home by Ann Clare LeZotte
Summary: As a young teacher on Martha’s Vineyard, Mary Lambert feels restless and adrift. So when a league of missionaries invite her to travel abroad, she knows it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Paris is home to a pioneering deaf school where she could meet its visionary instructors Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc—and even bring back their methods to help advance formal deaf education in America!
But the endeavor comes at a cost: The missionaries’ plan to “save” deaf children is questionable at best—and requires Mary’s support. What’s more, the missionaries’ work threatens the Wampanoag and other native peoples’ freedom and safety. Is pursuing Mary’s own goals worth the price of betraying her friends and her own values?
Mary Lambert has always been a restless sort, so when she gets the opportunity to travel to Europe, of course she’s going to take it. But it comes at a cost – traveling with missionaries whose view of deaf people, and Mary herself, is patronizing and harmful. Mary learns hard lessons along the way about who to trust and how to weigh her own choices and actions. As in the previous books in the trilogy, LeZotte immerses her readers into Mary’s world. She seamlessly tackles topics like discrimination, privilege, and diversity within the Deaf community in a story that offers ample discussion starters without ever becoming preachy. Along the way, readers will meet many real historical figures from Deaf history. Mary finishes her trilogy sure of her home in the Deaf community, wherever her travels take her.
I was honored to be selected by Ann Clare LeZotte to write the reading guide for the trilogy, which contains discussion questions and classroom/programming activities. Check out the reading guide here.
SAIL ME AWAY HOME is out now.
Bring Stories By Hand to your school, library, or nonprofit at no cost to you!
I’m thrilled to announce that I have been accepted to the Maryland Teaching Artist Roster! This means that Maryland schools, libraries, community centers, and nonprofit organizations can now access Arts in Education Grant funding from the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) to bring me in for:
The best part is that it’s super easy to apply for grant funding! Simply contact me to discuss a program or series that best meets your needs. Then I fill out the application, and all your site coordinator has to do sign off on the application (or provide a letter of support) and fill out a brief follow up evaluation after the program or workshop. Grant payments are made directly to the Teaching Artist from MSAC – so you don’t even have to handle any money.
Find out more about Arts in Education grants here or contact me to get started booking your grant-funded programs or workshops!
Recommended Reading: UNRAVEL by Amelia Loken
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Marguerite knows her uncle doesn’t like her. True, she’s in line for the throne before him and he contends she’s too deaf to rule, but she’s known since he broke her hand to keep her from using sign language. Now, as the kingdom’s Bishop-Princep, Uncle Reichard has declared war on magic and Marguerite must hide the fact that she’s a witch. While witnessing her first witch trial, Marguerite rescues a child from death with the help of a handsome, itinerant acrobat, Tys. Marguerite flees, hiding in the neighboring empire where magical gifts can flourish. Before her training is complete, war threatens. She returns home, only to witness her uncle seizing the throne. He isolates and imprisons her. Marguerite’s love for her people drives her to continue defying him. But to challenge him means she’ll have to rely on her homemade invisibility cloak, questionable allies, and Tys, the one boy she never should have trusted.
This beautifully-written novel full of adventure, magic, and romance grabbed hold of my heart and never let go! Marguerite is a compassionate and resourceful heroine who knows who she is even when the world tries to define that for her. I never knew how much I needed a story about textile magic until I read this book! The author wove her own experience as a deaf/hard-of-hearing individual and ASL interpreter into Marguerite’s story, and the results are a gorgeous tapestry of political intrigue, swordplay, romance, and feminist magic.
UNRAVEL is out now.
Little Hands and Big Hands 2nd edition releases today!
Releasing today from Hands Up Press:
Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together, second edition
by Kathy MacMillan
Photography by Kristin Brown
Research shows that using American Sign Language with young children can
- reduce frustration for both caregiver and child
- increase IQ
- stimulate language learning
- enhance bonding
- raise a child’s self-esteem
- improve everyday life and communication!
Little Hands & Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together offers solid background information on signing with children ages birth to six, along with hands-on games, fingerplays, songs, and more that caregivers, librarians, and educators can use to smooth transitions, calm a fussy child, or engage a stubborn one. Each activity is accompanied by photos of the relevant signs.
“Author and ASL educator Kathy MacMillan has brilliantly combined the world of ASL with early literacy activities…Explanations and research support are seamlessly woven into each activity…I highly recommend this resource to anyone working with children from birth to age six.” -Betsy Diamant-Cohen, creator of the award-winning Mother Goose on the Loose early literacy program
Order now from the Deaf Camps, Inc. Online Bookstore (autographed copies that support a great cause!) | amazon.com | barnesandnoble.com | bookshop.org
Join me for an online book launch event for all ages:
Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together, 2nd edition
Online Book Launch Event with Kathy MacMillan
Thursday, January 12, 2023
6:00 pm Mountain Standard Time
Hosted by Clearview Library District
Sign, sing, read, and play together in this online storytime for all ages! American Sign Language interpretation and automatic captioning will be provided.
Register now!
Autographed copies of the book may be purchased here, with all proceeds supporting Deaf Camps, Inc.’s scholarship program. To request personalization, email deafcampsinc@gmail.com.
Clerc and Gallaudet Week: A Message from Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action
Public Release from Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action! FOLDA!
Celebrate! Clerc and Gallaudet Week: December 3-10, 2022.
Two visionary leaders in American Deaf Education and the birth of American Sign Language, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (hearing) and Laurent Clerc (Deaf), co-founders of the first-kind American School for the Deaf, were born in the month of December, Gallaudet on Dec 10, 1787, Clerc on Dec 26, 1785. December 3 is also International Day of Persons with Disabilities (est.1992) and December 10 is Humans Rights Day (est. 1948). Such International Days have been proclaimed annually by the General Assembly of the United Nations, joined by the White House and US President.
World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) est. 1951
The WFD, located in Helsinki, Finland realizes the human rights of the Deaf with many cultures to quality education and knowledge of pioneers and deaf historical events that change the world. From Abbe Charles Michel de L’Épée of Paris (the 1760s) to the infamous Milan (Italy) Conference (1880) to the Dark age of Deaf Education globally ever since, and much more.
The Values of Deaf History The FOLDA mission is to promote full library access and quality deaf cultural resources for the Deaf Community, and all, nationally and globally. http://www.foldadeaf.net/
FOLDA believes that knowledge of the past is crucially important to the well-being of individuals, communities, and the future of all nations. “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know,” is a famous quote by Harry S. Truman, 34th US President.
In this case, members of both the deaf communities and the library communities should not assume that the general public, especially most government agencies, know about the Americans with Disabilities Act signed into federal law on July 26, 1990. And also, the Deaf Culture Digital Library (DCDL) was signed into state law on May 15, 2014, by Maryland Governor as well as the Deaf History Month, March 13 to April 15 signed into state law by Ohio Governor on December 6, 2017.
FOLDA encourages OSD (National Organizations that Serve the Deaf ) – their affiliates, chapters, and the related local communities of the nation to ask local public libraries about using their meeting room for presenting a deaf cultural program observing Clerc-Gallaudet Week, December 3-10, 2022. If the date is too close, then plan for March 13 – April 15, 2023.
Members with an interest to create a program at a local public library should let their organizational president know.
In this case, please email your program announcement before November 15, 2022, to FOLDA via ahagemeyer@gmail.com.
The general purpose of such annual deaf events presented at the public library in local communities of the nation, the Deaf with many cultures would be able to work together to build an inclusive library community engagement in local communities of the nation, and globally.
A Brief History
In November 1972, John A. Love, Governor of Colorado declared what we call today Deaf History Month. It was then called “Deaf Awareness Week.” The first movers and shakers of such a first-ever event were David Anthony and Jerome Moers of the Colorado Association of the Deaf.
Two years later in December 1974, then the DC Executive Office (now of Mayor) declared what we call today Clerc-Gallaudet Week, December 3-10. Originally called “Deaf Awareness Week” was launched by the District of Columbia Public Library, later followed by “Deaf Action Week” and “Deaf Heritage Week,” in partnership with the NAD and DC Deaf Community. The library staff who took sign class with two Deaf co-workers, Alice L. Hagemeyer and Ida Mapes, took the responsibility for the week’s agenda, and was a big success.
In 1989, FOLDA suggested changing it to Clerc-Gallaudet Week and to add a new annual event, National Deaf History Month, from March 13 to April 15. NAD board approved of it.
Later we made December 3 – December 10 the official week date. December 3 and December 10 are the International Day of People with Disabilities and of Human Rights as proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1992 and 1948 respectively.
The purpose of National Deaf History Month, March 13 -April 15 is to recognize three turning points in America’s history dating back to April 15, 1817 – The first public school for the Deaf opens in Hartford, CT; April 8, 1864 – Gallaudet University, the world’s first institution dedicated to advanced education for the Deaf and March 13, 1988 – The first Deaf president ever hired in Gallaudet’s 124 years history which led to the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into federal law two years later on July 26, 1990.
In 2005 and 2006, the NAD and the American Library Association (ALA) endorsed National Deaf History Month, March 13 – April 15, respectively.
Recommended Reading: DEAF UTOPIA by Nyle DiMarco
Deaf Utopia: A Memoir – And a Love Letter to a Way of Life by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert
Summary: In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him. A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions. Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.
DiMarco’s memoir is open and honest, at turns hilarious and poignant. The subtitle “A memoir – and a love letter to a way of life” is right on; DiMarco draws back the curtain on what it was like to grow up in a big Deaf family, from the joys of ASL signs zinging around the dinner table to the tragedies of discrimination from the hearing world and the language deprivation experienced by his father. In describing his experiences on America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars, he offers a clear-eyed understanding of the ways producers shape the narratives in reality TV, while also cogently analyzing the accessibility fails along the way. Through candid anecdotes, he tracks his changing understanding of his own sexuality, finally embracing his queer identity. Throughout the narrative, the book weaves in just enough background information about ASL and Deaf culture and history to help even newcomers to the topic understand how DiMarco’s personal story fits into the bigger picture of the multifaceted Deaf community.
DEAF UTOPIA is out now.
Stories by Hand with Kathy MacMillan 