Recently I was asked to present at a professional development about my use of sign language in the classroom. I have noticed great progress in learning letters and sight words with the addition of sign language to my literacy instruction. A variety of research shows that preschool aged students benefit from sign language; from gains in receptive vocabulary, to the relationship between print and meaning to acting as a "picture" of a word for visual learners. Sign language allows students to see, hear and feel the words. the incorporation of multiple senses allows students more opportunities to process the information.
I have noticed in my sight word testing, that children recognize the sign before they recognize the word. A majority of my students will sign before saying the word, showing that sign aides in recall. As the year goes on and I notice more progress with my students I learn more ways to incorporate sign language in my teaching. Recently we had a health and safety themed unit, so I took the opportunity to learn the signs for some fruits and vegetables. I found this helpful with reinforcing initial sounds because many signs for fruit use the first letter of the word; "apple" is the sigh for "a" next to your mouth, "orange" is the sign for the letter "o" under your mouth, "banana" is using one hand to pretend peel the sign for the letter "b."
Pictured is my word wall, which has the letter, a picture that starts with the letter sound, the sign for the letter, and students names and sight words that begin with the letter.
I love your idea to use sign language as an extension to literacy. When I taught kindergarten I introduced the students to the sign language alphabet but didn't think to put the pictures of the signs on the word wall. I love that idea! I have actually used sign language more with my second graders. During word work, students practice the sight words and spelling words using sign language with a partner. The kids love it and they get so excited about knowing a different language!
ReplyDeleteJust recently in my educational research course, a kindergarten teacher selected the use of sign language to develop literacy skills in students as her topic. She did an extensive review of the literature and proposed a research study in which she would compare students who used the sign language method with those who did not. I can check with her to see if it is okay to share her research proposal with you. It was a convincing case for the idea you propose, and she had good research to support the approach.
ReplyDeleteI've done some research on it myself, and have seen the benefits with my kids, I'd love to see what she has to say.
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