Technology and Resources

Technology Components:

1. Bubbl.us concept map: (see larger version in post #3 "Webbing")

2. Google Docs: I created a table in Google Docs to organize the benefits that different programs list about using baby sign language. 

Benefits of Baby Sign Language

I also used the new Google Docs Presentation feature to create a slide show for my final product.

Final Presentation

3. Delicious: I created a "stack" of annotated links in Delicious.com. I used this tool to organize my online resources into one place so I could easily refer to them throughout the inquiry.

Baby Sign Language

4. Digital Camera: I used a digital camera to take short videos of my daughter signing. 

Articles:

Signing with Babies and Children by Claire Vallotton

Research on How Signing Helps Hearing Children Learn to Read 

Pilot Study

Bibliography:

House, H. (Producer), & Briant, M. (Director). (2009). Baby Sign Language Basicsa [Motion Picture].

Garcia, D. J. (2005). Sign with your Baby. Sign2Me.

Linda Acredolo, P. a. (2002). Baby Signs. McGraw-Hill.

Lowenstein, F. (2004). All About Sign Language: Talking with Your Hands. Enslow Publishers, Inc.

Paul, P. (2008). Parenting, Inc. Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Productions, T. L. (2011). Retrieved February 8, 2012, from Signing Time: http://www.signingtime.com/program1

Vallotton, C. (2011). Signing with Babies and Children: A Summary of Research Findings for Parents and Professionals. Two Little Hands Productions.

Personal Connection

Prior to this inquiry experience I viewed a traditional research project as inquiry. Teacher gives assignment, student locates sources, reads information and regurgitates what has been "learned" in a final paper or poster.  Although I knew that this was not the best way to investigate a topic, explore sources or gain knowledge, it is the accepted, convenient, easy standard fulfilling method of teaching. Personally, it is easy for me to develop inquiry rich learning experiences for younger children, 0-6 year olds.  It drives me crazy that kindergarten and first graders sit at desks, fill out worksheets and take tests on the first day of school! What happened to centers? Circle time? Art? Young children learn through hands-on learning and interactions. However, as students progress through school those "center" learning environments are more difficult to produce. Nevertheless, their  critical and creative thinking value is immeasurable. Unfortunately, the experiential learning opportunities are minimally present in kindergarten, making it nearly impossible to incorporate them into high grade levels. 


This project has taught me to alter my thinking to find new ways to make information inquiry learning experiences possible.  The models offer invaluable ideas and guidelines to help form lessons, units and projects that will expand student's learning environment and intellectual thinking. Kuhlthau (1997) writes that, "When the learner is placed at the center, the goal of information seeking is not longer merely getting the relevant information but getting information that leads to a new understanding in the process of learning." This is the type of learning experience I want for myself and for those I am teaching/helping in the library. And there are already so many materials on the Internet--WebQuests, lesson plans and technology tools-- that can help support the development of inquiry lessons.  Creating inquiry rich learning experiences should not be a long-term goal that may be attained if there is time.  Inquiry should be at the forefront of learning with all other components (tests, worksheets, textbooks) made to fit within its perimeters, not the other way around. 

Curriculum Connection

Sign Language has many uses in day cares and special needs classrooms. However, research is beginning to show that it also has reading and literacy advantages when used with hearing, developmentally on target, children. A summary of research surrounding signing with children was compiled by Dr. Claire Vallotton. She writes, "Research shows that teachers who use two modes of communication--with both their mouths and their hands--in the classroom can help their students learn and retain information better" Vallotton, 2011). It has also been shown that finger-spelling with children, and adults that have difficulty reading, helps them transfer the sound they hear to the page (Vallotton, 2011). Dr. Joseph Garcia (2005) writes, "Signs themselves have certain advantages over words. Signs are often iconic--they represent the shape of objects or mimic an activity or movement. Therefore, they can be easily recognized and remembered. Words, on the other hand (no pun intended), are more arbitrary and lack an obvious connection to what is being expressed." I had never made the connection between the visual representation of signing that children can connect to letters and words. However, several of the signing programs and research had mentioned the visual correlation signing offers that is not available verbally.


Below are some academic standards that could be supported or met by using sign language in the classroom, as an inquiry project or as a component to another lesson or activity.  I have created some ideas for incorporating sign language in lessons and the classroom.


Indiana Foundations for Children
Three to Five Years
Early Childhood Foundations


ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS FOUNDATION 1

F.1 - READING: Word Recognition, Fluency, and

Vocabulary Development (cont.)

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is an “ear” skill. It is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds of words, recognize that speech is composed of sounds, that some words rhyme, and that sounds can be manipulated. This is a foundation for phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize the smallest units of sounds in words (the word pink begins with the sound /p/).

Learning to read requires that children have considerable awareness of the sound structure of spoken language. Few young children acquire phonemic awareness unless teachers and other adults take the opportunity to draw attention to the sounds and phonemes of spoken words.

Young children are learning when they:

F.1.15 Match the sound that begins own name with the sound that begins another word or name.

F.1.16 Identify first letter of own name.

F.1.17 Generate sounds from letters.

F.1.18 Recognize that words that look alike may sound alike.

F.1.19 Imitate simple rhymes.

F.1.20 Sing the alphabet song.

F.1.21 Recite/sing one rhyme or song.

F.1.22 Generate and blend the sounds of letter patterns into recognizable words.

F.1.23 Clap out syllables in word songs.

Kindergarten Activities:

1. Have pictures of the sign language alphabet throughout the room and on each table or desk.
2. Sing and sign the Alphabet song.
3. Teach how to sign common nursery rhymes.
4. Finger-spell sight words.
5. Sign the alphabet while saying the letter sound, not name. Have students write the letter with their fingers in shaving cream, rice or some other tactile substance.

ADVANCED CHILD DEVELOPMENT

The Family and Consumer Science academic standards for Advanced Child Development support the course description, which can be found HERE.  Standard 4 Students will evaluate developmentally appropriate practices to enhance child growth and development.  ___  ACD-4.1 Assess strategies that promote physical, emotional, social, intellectual, cultural, and moral development of children. ___  ACD-4.2 Analyze components of an integrated curriculum that incorporate a child's language, learning styles, home experiences, and cultural values. ___  ACD-4.3 Demonstrate respect for diversity with sensitivity to anti-bias, gender equity, age, culture, and ethnicity related to children, parenting, and child nurturing practices. ___  ACD-4.4 Choose positive guidance and discipline practices that promote child growth and development. ___  ACD-4.5 Devise nonviolent, proactive strategies to prevent and manage conflict between children and between adults and children. ___  ACD-4.6 Access, evaluate, and utilize current and emerging research related to child growth and development to assess early childhood practices and procedures. OR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION The Family and Consumer Science academic standards for Early Childhood Education support the course description, which can be found HERE  Standard 4 Students will demonstrate integration of curriculum and instruction to meet children's developmental needs and interests. Examine a variety of curriculum and instructional models. Implement learning activities in all curriculum areas that meet the developmental needs of children. Implement an integrated curriculum that incorporates a child's language, learning styles, home experiences, and cultural values. Demonstrate a variety of teaching methods to meet individual needs of children. Create environments, including learning centers, that provide for children's creativity, exploration, discovery, and development. Establish schedules, routines, and transitions for units, lessons, and activities.

High school child development class activities:

1. Have students investigate the use of sign language with babies and young children. They can use library resources, personal interviews or experiences, or the sites listed HERE.
2. Discuss language development, second language acquisition and communication.
3. Discuss the use of sign language with special needs children.
4. Discuss how sign language can be used to bridge language, cultural and social barriers. 
5. Using what they  have learned, have students develop a game or activity that incorporates sign language to use with a child 0-2 or 3-5 years of age.
6. Students should present their activity to the class along with a multimedia power point that explains their findings.
7. Host a child day at the school where students can play their games with young children. 
8. Reflect/debrief on the experience interacting with the children using sign language. 

Interestingly there is an entire document dedicated to sign language in the World Language academic standards. Read it HERE


The activities listed above, especially for high school students, can help build content literacy skills. Annette Lamb (2011) writes that, "Content literacy involves the integration of strategies and experiences that build understandings related to a particular topic rather than simply acquiring large amounts of information."  By focusing on one or two of the suggestions teachers can integrate a variety of content areas while using sign language as the guiding topic--culture, foreign language, child development, social sciences, history, and ESL to name a few. Sign language has so much to offer professionally, educationally and personally. Take
the aspects that work for your situation and use signing to enhance your learning experiences.

Wishing

I feel that my inquiry was successful. I appreciate the fact that we were given an extended period of time to complete the assignment. I believe that my knowledge growth, information use and final product would not have been as complete if pursued with less time. I think that this is an important observation to note because as teachers and/or librarians the assignments we give students are often expected to be completed within the same week or maybe two weeks of time.  Granted, this is in part due to the curriculum restrictions and schooling time requirements. However, if we are truly seeking to foster critical thinking skills to create life-long learners, it is imperative to strive for inquiry opportunities that can take 4-6 weeks, and then ensure that students work throughout that entire time frame.  Even if a month long project occurs once a year, or better, once a semester, the chance to develop thinking and learning skills is immeasurable for student's future success. When creating inquiry and higher level thinking projects for today's students there are many options and models to follow. A web quest might take a teacher some time to create, but the students can move through it more quickly while still engaging in information rich learning experiences. Alice H. Yucht's "FLIP IT" inquiry model would be a great choice to use with high school students. It is divided into four sections that may make is more feasible to move through an inquiry assignment with less time. The steps: FOCUS, LINKS, INPUT and PAYOFF contain components that lead students through exercises in order to develop "intelligent thinking" skills. 


See an overview of the FLIP IT model:


FLIP It Info-Skills Categories




When I began this inquiry I created a list of 7 questions. I then narrowed my search to focus on two questions: What are the benefits of teaching sign language to hearing children? and How do you teach a baby to sign? I feel that I have been able to successfully answer these questions for myself personally, as well as, to share and use the information professionally.  Through my inquiry process I was also able to answer a third question: How does knowing sign language help children learn in other areas? My inquiry touched on ways that signing with infants and children can increase, enhance and help improve literacy skills.  This is a question that can definitely be pursued more in depth; however, I feel that my inquiry was able to provide resources and information to begin answering this question. 


A challenge for me during this project was to remember that the inquiry process is cyclical. My natural inclination and personality tend towards a linear process. I am someone that loves to gather materials together, read and then reflect on what I have learned. Questioning, searching, re-questioning, wondering, inferring, re-searching, and moving again into questioning is difficult for  me to complete. I find progress in making a list, moving through the activities, checking items off and arriving at an end point. I really wanted to just go through each "W" systematically and end up with an answer to my question. And though I think I did move through this inquiry more linearly than others, and perhaps more than I should have, I really tried to recognize and apply the cyclical process of inquiry that we have studied. Sandy L. Guild (2003) writes," ...the research process...is often presented in a fashion that leads students to assume that the process is linear. We tend to move students through the stages of research in a sequential fashion, providing lessons on each stage, without explicitly providing for the incorporation of a model for recursion." Since I was taught how to research in this linear method, and have a personality that responds well to this type of "learning," I need to make a concerted effort to learn, embrace and include the inquiry models of recursive information seeking processes in my own studies, as well as, in my instruction to students and other library patrons. 


This inquiry was a good experience to help me realize what students are encountering when they seek information and help in the library. Oftentimes they are unable to explain the assignment or what information they need. This is frustrating but after completing this assignment it is easier to understand their confusion.  Students are overwhelmed by the task, the information possibilities or so focused on the final product that they can't process what needs to be accomplished in order to arrive at the final destination. I now have more skills to help students question, assimilate and reflect on their knowledge so that they can fulfill their information needs.  The reference interview requires librarians to take an alternative perspective to the posed problem so that they can ask questions that lead to the true information need. Likewise. helping students through research and inquiry projects requires teachers and librarians to pursue a different approach in order to guide them through the process. 

Waving

The information I focused on for my inquiry project could have numerous applications. I narrowed my topic of baby sign language to two main ideas--benefits and teaching techniques.  Carol Kuhlthau (1997) writes that, "Enough relates to seeking meaning in a quantity of information by formulating a perspective on which to build and determining what one needs to know. Within the ISP, the question of enough is addressed by what is enough to make sense of oneself."  Baby sign language has a myriad of information focuses.  By chooses to investigate the benefits and teaching techniques I made the choice of what was "enough" for myself and my project at this time.  My inquiry allowed me to briefly touch on other aspects that I will explore at a later date. 


The benefits of signing with infants and children offer solid reasons to share what I have learned.  There are several ways in which I could use this new knowledge.


Professionally: (Public or school library)

1. story hours
2. parent educational/enrichment program
3. student inquiry projects
4. teacher/student classroom application and interactions
5. foundation for further study into student learning/teaching methods, literacy skills and language acquisition

Personally:

1. signing with my children, perhaps leading to a further study of ASL
2. supporting family and friends that use baby sign language or have special needs children
3. continuing my personal inquiry and knowledge to enhance my learning and teaching abilities
4. using sign language as a literacy tool as I home school my children 
5. developing skills that could lead to other career opportunities--instructor, interpreter 

In order to include my home video as part of my final product I had to use YouTube to convert and publish it to the web. I wasn't planning on sharing it with the world but now it is out there for others to view. I also shared it with family and friends as a post on my Facebook page. The slide presentation I can see potentially using as part of a library program. It could also lead to a conference presentation if I continued my inquiry into the literacy benefits of baby sign language. Right now I will share this inquiry with my classmates and family; however, I will not limit the possibilities it holds for other applications or "waving" opportunities. 

Final Product

I created a video of Emma using sign language as my final product. I took small videos of various signs and used Windows Movie Maker to bring them all together into a video that tries to reflect a typical day of signing with Emma. I incorporated pictures of how to make the ASL signs so that you could see the actual way to form the sign.  Initially children do not have the dexterity to make the signs correctly. As you will see some of Emma's signs are not exact replicas of the actual sign; however, they are close approximations that are easily understood by her accompanying verbal word or the context.  Though this is a fun way to see baby signing in action I decided that it needed something more to make it complete. I created a slide show in Google Docs Presentation.  Most of the information about baby signing I have posted in my blog.  However, to make this an independent slide show, that could be used to share the information through programming or outside the context of the blog, I took the major points of my inquiry to make the presentation.  My inquiry focused on benefits and teaching methods of baby signing.  I listed these and also incorporated videos as examples of the three baby signing programs I studied. If I was actually giving this presentation I would provide more information as I explained each slide. I did not narrate it as the participates and instructor of this class already have this information through the blog. The video of Emma is the final slide and lets you see what she has learned in a short time.


You will see that some of Emma's signs are similar. Her sign for "eat" and "water" look almost identical. However, when she wants water she also says, "wawa" so it is very clear whether she wants a drink or to eat. There is also some footage of her making animal sounds. These are animals that I sign to her but are difficult to make, I included this so that you could see how she has learned to communicate even though she cannot yet make the sign.  You will also see that some of the signs are approximations as she cannot yet form the sign correctly.  Please pardon my amateur cinematography. It is quite difficult to have the camera ready when the active, independent toddler decides to make the signs!


Brown, Bryan and Brown write that "...technology supports powerful literacy instruction and offers multiple opportunities to collaborate with more knowledgeable learners." By creating my presentation in Google Docs I have the chance to work with others on the project later. It also allowed me to use graphics, pictures, text or videos to create an engaging multimedia presentation.  As I embedded videos from YouTube I realized how many video resources there are about babies signing. I have never explored YouTube as a source for this information. So even as I am concluding this information inquiry I am returning to the "wondering," "webbing," and "wiggling" phases (Lamb). I have answered some questions but still have additional resources and questions to explore in the future as this cyclical process continues.


View my presentation below: It will advance to the next slide every 5 seconds. Click the box next to the "Slide1/10" to view a larger version that will allow you to view the included videos. 

                    

Wrapping in the Library

Signing with infants and children is a wonderful literacy tool that could be used in libraries. Studies have shown that when parents actively engage with their children when reading, through gestures and open ended questions, the children's language skills are increased.  "Parents who use signs with their preverbal children report that their children take a great interest in books, and use signs to actively participate in book-reading with their parents" (Vallotton, 2011). Story hours are opportune times to incorporate signing into children's programming.  Usually parents attend these activities with their infants and toddlers so they can learn signs along with the children.  Signing is already a part of most library story hours, it may just not be recognized.  All of the songs and finger plays that are included in this time generally have a hand motion component--that's signing! If librarians wanted to extend the signing language inclusion and education it would be very easy to learn a new sign each week. Baby Signs offers free poster downloads that are delivered directly through email.  Librarians could download and laminate these posters to have as part of the story hour and then displayed throughout the children's department. 


Signing does not have to stop with toddlers.  Research has also shown that preschooler, kindergarten and elementary aged children can benefit from sign language. "Several studies have shown that signing can help kindergartners, and even older children, gain bigger vocabularies, and improve their spelling and reading skills" (Vallotton, 2011). Media specialists can work with teachers to learn ways of incorporating sign language into the classroom. They could also develop inquiry activities that involve signing focuses or components. 


I have focused on the benefits and techniques of signing with infants and toddlers; however, this information can be transferred to older children and other settings. The possibilities are endless, with a little creative thinking and application of the numerous resources available, sign language could become an important literacy tool. 


Click below to see an example of the posters that can be downloaded and used at home or in the library. 


Baby Signs poster "ball"