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Waconia Middle School
Reprinted with permission from the Waconia Patriot
By Al Lohman
Students hope to make sign language less a foreign language to others.
Spanish and French are the typical non-English languages taught in Waconia Public Schools.
But one of the most used languages in the United States next to English is American Sign Language, or ASL, a visual language for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Now, that language is getting growing attention in the school district thanks to a student-led effort to make ASL a language option.
The effort was driven my middle-schooler Maya Yancey, who was interested in learning a new language and started ASL on her own. She approached middle school principal Shane Clauson about the possibility of offering ASL in Waconia schools, and took it upon herself to gauge interest and commitment from her peers.
“A lot of Americans still think American Sign Language is a foreign language and for people who can’t hear that makes it a very big struggle,” Yancey said.
Since last fall, an ASL club of about 15 students has been meeting weekly to explore and learn sign language. Like their classmate Maya Yancey, club members say they were driven to participate in order to communicate with hard-of-hearing classmates and others in the community. The television drama “Switched at Birth,” which features a teen character with hearing loss, also sparked an interest.
The group is led by Sara Hallermann, deaf and hard-of-hearing teacher for the district. In her role, Hallerman not only works with the 20 hearing impaired students in Waconia schools, she also helps educate instructors and other students on communication strategies to promote learning and interaction among students with hearing loss.
Hallermann notes that hearing has an impact on every facet of childhood development, from language and behavior, to social and emotional growth.
“Hearing is a communication system,” she said. “When what’s going in is not clear, what’s coming out is not clear either.”
Hallermann’s husband is deaf – they met while she was in school studying deaf education – so she “lives and breathes it every day.” And she says she is excited that the ASL club is sparking growing interest among students and teachers in learning the language to be able to communicate with those who are deaf. The goal next year is to start an ASL Club at the high school.
ASL is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. So, Hallermann says her middle school students are just scratching the surface in their first year of study. They learned the alphabet, some basic vocabulary and common phrases. Students also have been assigned various word groups week to week, like colors and animals.
And they took a field trip to “sign language day” at the Minnesota Zoo where they were encouraged not to talk, but sign instead and to focus on the signed version of presentations that day.
Students also have learned the Pledge of Allegiance in sign. And next fall you will see them signing the National Anthem on the video scoreboard before sports events at the high school stadium.