Russell S. Rosen
Literature comprises of literary works that display human thoughts, feelings, perspectives, experiences, and stories. Individuals read literature for personal pleasure, to learn about other people and experiences, and appreciate the diversity of lives and perspectives (Hirsch, 1988). Individuals reading literature also learn about how language is used in various ways by the literati to express themselves, and develop self-images in concordance with their perspectives and experiences. Literature comes in various genres such as essays, novels, narrations, plays, and poems, both fiction and nonfiction (Showalter, 2003). Each genre represents different ways of expression and is formulated with different linguistic structures. Literature appears in various medium such as in print, on video, and in live performance, and is expressed in different language modalities, such as spoken, written, and sign languages. Sign language literature is the focus of this chapter, and it consists of performances by individuals using sign language in creative and artistic ways, recorded on the body, and presented either live or on video recording (Sutton-Spence & Kaneko, 2016). It does not include written works since sign language is not a written language; it is performed “orally” (Sutton-Spence & Kaneko, 2016; Bahan, 2006). The literary works that originally appear live or on video, just like the literary works on paper, can be subjected to study (Czubek, 2006; Supalla & Bahan, 1992; Frishberg, 1988).
The purpose of teaching literature is to show how literary works use language to humanize, civilize, moralize, and persuade learners, and have the learners experience the lives of others and introspect on the intricacies of life (Showalter, 2003). The study of literature provides insights about (a) the human condition and variegates of the human experience, and (b) the different linguistic structures that are used in different genres that reflect the components and flow of life experience (Eagleton, 1996). Studying, understanding, and performing literature contribute to the development of literary skills (Sawyer, 1987) and personal growth and identities (Schimmel & Monaghan, 1983; McDonald, 2010). Deaf children need to learn literacy skills and themes of life. The goal of teaching sign language literature is for the deaf and hard of hearing children who use sign language as their L1 to appreciate different experiences and perspectives, and develop sign language linguistic and cultural literacy. The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview and suggestions on teaching sign language literature as literacy.
Unfortunately, the teaching of sign language literature is not yet a widely accepted or common practice in the field of deaf education. Byrne (2017) found that the common practice in schools and programs for signing deaf and hard of hearing children is that the teachers use sign language translations of written literature, and use sign language to teach the written literature. The translated sign language literature tends to focus on the general human experience. Rarely do they provide information about the deaf experience. In contrast, sign language literature is taught to American hearing learners who not only study sign language as a second or additional language, but also the cultures of deaf communities in high school and collegiate settings. Consequently, deaf children’s sign language literacy is low (Kuntze, Golos, & Enns, 2014). There is a need for deaf and hard of hearing children to study sign language formally, that is, its vocabulary and syntactical, semantic, and pragmatic structures, and sign language literature as exemplars of sign language literacy skills. The study of sign language literature has the potential to meet the linguistic needs of deaf children in that they can acquire sign language naturally and become linguistically competent (Supalla & Cripps, 2008; Czubek, 2006). They can help facilitate deaf children’s identity development and healthy self-image (Kuntze, 1993; Kuntze, Golos, & Enns, 2014).
While some of sign language literature is drawn from written literature, it is not the purpose of this chapter to discuss how deaf and hard of hearing children learn how to read it. In the teaching of sign language literature where the original works are in written form, there is an issue of translating the written form into sign language, including the use of gloss. For a discussion of reading process and how to use sign language to help deaf and hard of hearing children learn how to read, the reader is referred to Kuntze, Golos, and Enns (2014) and Andrews and Simms in Chapter 4 of this volume. It is also not the purpose of the chapter to show how to teach correspondences between sign and its meaning, including connection between meaning with the articulatory features of vocabulary, morphosyntactical structures such as verb inflections and constructed action, and grammar in sign language as a L1 to deaf and hard of hearing children. Instead, this chapter looks at the use of sign language to decode, understand, create, and perform literary works. It can be considered as the next step after the signing deaf and hard of hearing children learn the decoding, encoding, and meaning-sign correspondence skills in sign language.
When signing deaf children “read” literature, they read sign language and about ideas, people, society, and culture. In order to be able to express ideas, and understand people, society and culture, language is needed. Literature is a product of literacy. Sign language literacy, and teaching sign language literacy, involves teaching how to decode and recode signs, phrases, and sentences, to decipher cultural meanings and representations, and to construct scripts of life in literary works. Teaching sign language literature entails teaching about the themes and the language used to express the themes. As such, literacy is to be taught using and through literature.
The teaching of sign language literature in L1 classrooms is the teaching of sign language literacies. The content of literacies in sign language literature teaching and learning are the sign language used in literary works and the cultural information that is discoursed in the works. Studying sign language literature serves to aid children’s development of sign language and cultural literacies. The following is a discussion of theoretical perspectives on literacy, sign language literacy, sign language literature, and the relationship between sign language literacy and sign language literature.
Literacy is activated when individuals think, speak, write, listen, read, and sign messages. It is a set of language-related skills in the ability to understand and communicate with appropriate grammatical structures in a coherent way such that messages are carried clearly and unambiguously from interlocutors to receivers. Literacy consists of discursive systems of formulations of languages into modes of representations and textualities (Finnegan, 1992; Van Peer, 1991; Luria, 2006; Lyton & Miler, 2004; Gee, 2008), and multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). One can speak of, for instance, cultural literacy, mathematical literacy, linguistic literacy, religious literacy, computer literacy, and geographical literacy. The discursive systems are exemplified as different ways of knowing that are governed by the cultural and social practices that shape representations, communication dynamics, values, and beliefs of a community (Gee, 2008; cf. Hirsch, 1988, McLaren, 1988). The goal of teaching literacy skills is to develop in individuals the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and/or sign messages in various media so they can participate in society and their social and cultural activities.
Sign language literacy entails the ability to sign, read signs, and use sign language to express ideas, thoughts, and messages, communicate with, and understand other signers under various contexts and media (Byrne, 2013). Researchers agree on the representations and textualities of sign language literacy. Different types of sign language literacy were proposed. They are linguistic or functional literacy, which is the ability to decode, read, and sign the literary works (Christie & Wilkins, 1977; Hoffmeister, 2000; Kuntze, Golos, & Enns, 2014); cultural literacy, which is the ability to understand the cultural information and representations in the literary works (Christie &Wilkins, 1977); and critical literacy, which is the ability to analyze, critique, and evaluate the representations in the literary works (Small & Cripps, 2004 in Snoddon, 2010). Snoddon (2010) added that while literacy in sign language community evolves as a collective social and historical invention of the Deaf community, it is integrated with knowledge of language structure and cultural information. Sign language literary works are to be studied for their linguistic constructions to explicate personal experiences and cultural representations, and as means to develop linguistic and cultural literacy (Snoddon, 2010).
An object of sign language literacy is sign language literature. It comprises of literary works conducted in sign language. Performance and the use of body provides the text for stories in sign language literature (Nelson, 2006; Rose, 2006; Sutton-Spence & Quadros, 2014; Sutton-Spence & Kaneko, 2016). The works may not be necessarily about Deaf culture; they cover a wide gamut of topics. Sign language performers use sign language to create works to talk about personal topics, some of which are about their experiences as deaf persons and the Deaf culture in general. The focus of sign language literacy is not on the deaf experience or culture per se. Rather, the focus of sign language literature is largely the use of sign language to draw, elaborate, embellish, twist, weave together, and exhibit ideas, thoughts, perspectives, feelings and experiences, connected into a coherent structure and sequence of meanings. Sign language literature is the place where deaf signing children give their voice, identity, language, and culture (Kuntze, 1993; Byrne, 2013).
The teaching of literature should not be any different for both written and sign language literature. It involves teaching for comprehension, which includes decoding and retelling processes. Learners “reading” literature need to be able to decode words or signs into meaning and retell what is “read.” Learners would need to understand the structure of stories, including plot and its components, structure, and progression (Rosenheim, 1960; Propp, 1968). For children “reading” sign language literature, either through live storytellers or on videos, they learn about how performers develop story scripts and complex linguistic structures in a coherent way, and how identities are developed and invested in stories that connect deaf children to the characters, communities, and cultures in the stories (Cummins, 2001), including Deaf community and culture (Snoddon, 2010). To teach sign language literature is to use literary works as archetypes to show how to structure stories and use phonological, morphological, morphosyntactical including classifiers, and syntactical, semantic, and pragmatic features of sign languages in the stories.
The literary system in sign language literature is not different from written literature (Bahan, 1992; Sutton-Spence & Kaneko, 2016). A literary work exudes themes about people, the environs, and their actions. Its components are the characters, settings, and actions. Its sequence may focus on either the characters, actions, and/or settings. The work may comprise of a sequence of changes in either (a) the characters as they conduct different activities under different settings; (b) the settings as they are shaped by a progression of different constellations of characters and activities that imprint on the settings; or (c) the actions that are conducted by different characters and under different settings (Propp, 1968). Bahan (1992) and Supalla and Bahan (1994a, b) added that, like oral and written storytelling, sign language storytelling can be divided and analyzed into lines, stanzas, strophes, topic units, chapters, and parts. The end of the works may include rebirth, regeneration, or closure of the characters, settings, and/or actions (Propp, 1968; Rosenheim, 1960).
In addition to plot structures, the teaching of literature includes an examination of the linguistic structures that are used in different genres. Linguistic structures vary by genres as well as the modality of the language used. The teaching of linguistic structures used in literature focus on how the phonological, morphological, syntactical, and semantic features are constructed and how sign order varies within and across genres. Sign language has certain linguistic features that are employed in not only comprehending but also retelling signed literature. The features are largely shaped by the visual and gestural modality. Valli (1996) and Sutton-Spence and Kaneko (2016) described different techniques that performers devised to use sign language to create visual images, stories, poetries for narrating, demonstrating, and embodying in sign language literature. They include mime and gestures; phonological features of handshape, location, movement, and palm orientation; linguistic features of constructed action, depicting verbs, and morphosyntax modifications for person, time, and place; classifier and polymorphemic sign system; and nonmanual features of facial and bodily expressions. These linguistic features of sign language are used by performers to create characters, spaces, and story plots; to anthropomorphize humans and nonhuman entities; produce signs as metaphors; and devise lines, length, rhythm, and meter in poetry. There are different styles in literary works and each style requires different constellations of literary techniques.
There are different representations and textualities, or genres, in sign language literature. The genres in sign language literature are storytelling in sign language, alphabet stories, number stories, sign language stories, sign language poetry, and plays in sign language. The following are examples of story structures and linguistic systems used in sign language literature when the original works are in sign language.
In alphabet stories, storytellers used each letter of the alphabet as a handshape to create signs that depict scenes. Storytellers vary in the number and order of the alphabets in their stories. Some storytellers create stories using every letter of the alphabet in either forward or backward succession. Other storytellers use certain alphabets as handshapes to create stories. Still other storytellers create a word or concept by using different handshape for different letters of a word to represent persons, actions, or settings.
In number stories, the performers create stories using numbers as handshapes to represent entities, actions, and scenes in stories. Number storytellers also vary in the number and order of the numbers in their stories. For instance, to create stories with numbers as handshapes some storytellers use numbers 1 through 10 in either forward or backward succession, other storytellers use a few numbers, and still other storytellers use a single number.
In sign language stories, performers use personifications, that is, anthropomorphize characters, actions, and settings in stories. The storytellers mimic objects, characters, and scenes by using nonmanual and facial features to anthropomorphize objects, characters and scenes (Sutton-Spence & Napoli, 2010). In anthropomorphizing the objects, characters, and scenes, the storytellers became parts of, and are the story.
Some other performers tell sign language stories by not only personifying people, objects, and the environs but also employing surrogatism to retell their stories. In storytelling in sign language, which are essentially stories that are told in sign language, storytellers use the linguistic principles of sign languages to generate stories. A few signed literature comprise works that employ the techniques of cinematics. Cinematic techniques include performers acting to pan across scenes, track characters, zoom in and out, and create angles of vision in their stories.
Sign language poetry is created using the phonological features of handshape, location, movement, and palm orientation, non-manual features of bodily and facial expressions; use of signs repetitions and metaphors; and creation of new signs out of old signs, or new meaning to old signs (Valli, 1996; Padden & Humphries, 1988). Sign language poetry utilizes mainstreamed poetic techniques of rhyme and repetition with handshapes and signs. The articulatory features of sign language handshapes are selected and modified with rhyme and meter to create artistic effects. Valli (1996) looked at poems and found that rhymes in sign language poetry are “the repetition of the same or similar features, whether handshapes, movements, nonmanual segments, locations, palm orientation, handedness, or a combination of these, [which] occurs at determined and recognizable intervals” (ibid.: 253). Sign language poetry provides deaf children with the melodic flow of language and experience. A subgenera of sign language poetry, signed music, repetitive, melodic, and metered hand movements are pursued in similar fashion as what sound does in spoken music; signing deaf and hard of hearing people have their own “sounds” (Cripps & Lyonblum, 2017).
Plays in sign language provide opportunities for teachers and learners to work on (a) life scripts, and (b) use of sign language in discourse and conversations among characters in plays. In plays, which may or may not expose the themes in the lives of deaf people, deaf children take up the roles of characters, use sign language, have dialogues or plurilogues with each other, and offer speeches or soliquies. Deaf children also learn about the scripts of life. People undergo different life trajectories, face different obstacles, overcome hurdles, and in doing so proceed through a series of steps to reach their goals or destinations. In doing plays, deaf children play characters, use sign language to communicate, and go through stages in the characters’ life trajectories. If a play is about the deaf experience, deaf children learn how to use sign language to talk about their life experiences, the struggles they faced, the resolutions they made, the hurdles they jumped over, and ultimately embody the stages they go through in life.
The following are considerations in the teaching of sign language literature, including teacher inquiries; teaching deaf experiences through sign language literature; use of live storytellers in classrooms; use of signed literary works on videotapes; and criteria for selecting sign language literary works for pedagogical purposes.
Teacher inquiries with their learners about the plot and language in a signed literary work and the learners’ own perspectives and works should be conducted as exercises in critical pedagogy, imagined participation, intellectual conviction, conflict resolution, and with empathy (Showalter, 2003). Teachers use sign language to instruct, explicate, and assess learners for their metalinguistic knowledge, analytical skills, comprehension, retelling and creating sign language literary works. In the discussion of literature, teachers and learners make cross-cultural comparisons of their life experiences with the life experiences of other peoples. To further aid in learners’ mastery of the literary works, the teachers model the characters, actions, and settings in the works, and have the learners memorize, retell, and perform them (Showalter, 2003). In addition, the learners use the literary works and their literary systems as archetypes to develop their own works. Archetypes play a useful role in learning and using literature. By using the works as archetypes, learners learn that life stories follow certain scripts, and that their life trajectories can be understood as a series of scripts. The learners use the literary works as exemplars of life scripts and they fill in their life progression into slots in the scripts that are created in the literary works. They also develop literacy skills in sign language by modeling the archetypes.
Some literary works cover the themes of deaf experience. They include works on psychophysiological experiences of vision and sound; deaf identity and identity development; medical, educational, familial, employment, and social experiences of deaf people; and the construction and development of deaf community and culture (Rosen, 2016). While the focus of this chapter is not on deaf experience per se, the deaf experience is integral to sign language literature. By “reading,” retelling, and creating literary work about the personal experiences of deaf people, the deaf and hard of hearing children will be able to compare their personal experience with the others’ experiences and develop their own identities as signing deaf people (Schimmel & Monaghan, 1983; McDonald, 2010).
Schickedanz (1978) argued that storytelling creates a positive affect for learners and enhances their language development if a live storyteller performs it in the learners’ classroom. Byrne (1996) studied the use of live storytelling in a classroom with deaf learners. He became the storyteller and signed a story to the learners. He observed that when he signed stories to his learners, the learners followed him, moving their bodies in alignment with him, and requested him to repeat parts of the story. Based on the results of this study, Byrne (1996) argued that story repetition is a valuable teaching strategy. The teacher can expand or emphasize certain parts of the story in conjunction with learner interest and comprehension. A study by Beal-Alvarez and Huston (2014) found that repeated viewings by deaf and hard of hearing children of signed stories by fluent sign language storytellers resulted in higher learning outcomes for the children in comprehending the parameters of the story.
Snoddon (2010) conducted an ethnographic study of how sign language literature is taught in classrooms with signing deaf and hard of hearing learners using video technology. Snoddon examined the use of video technology by second, third, and fifth grade learners in their learning of the linguistic constructions and cultural representations in sign language literature. Two deaf storytellers came to the classrooms and signed about their life experiences in the general society and the Deaf World. The storytellers’ stories were videotaped and the teacher and learners analyzed them. Snoddon reported that the learners recognized the social and cultural inequities that the deaf storytellers experienced. Following their analysis of videotaped stories, the learners drafted and edited their personal stories in sign language based on the topics covered in the stories. They shared and performed their own experiences at a school-held conference and were also videotaped. Based on classroom observations, video recordings, and field notes, Snoddon (2010) concluded that video recording use by the learners helped them develop not only knowledge, but also performance skills in sign language literature.
There are works in signed literature that appear on video and are available on the market that the teacher can use in their classrooms. Teachers teaching sign language literature need to know which literary works to use and which features of sign language to study in their classrooms. According to Schuler and Meck (1992), there are considerations in choosing and sharing the literary works. They include how well a literary work portrays a theme in the story, and whether the story has a clear timeline, illustrations, and portrayals of culture. Teachers should be mindful of the emotional needs and readiness of the children to “read” the literary work based on their sign language proficiency. Teachers may look into repositories of sign language literature such as found in Sutton-Spence and Kaneko (2016) and the ASL Literature Database (Byrne, 2017). Byrne (2017) suggests that teachers who want to use the videos in the database would need to first view a number of literary works, select a literary work based on a theme, and retell the story in the classroom with signing deaf and hard of hearing learners. The materials in sign language literature that are selected for classroom teaching and learning need to display not only people in the general population, but also the deaf people. The materials also need to reflect the diversity of deaf people (Anderson & Miller, 2005).
Recall that the purpose of teaching sign language literature is for the learners to develop sign language literacy and be able to comprehend, retell, and create literary works. There are four aspects in the teaching of sign language literacy with sign language literature. The teaching of sign language literacy using sign language literary works involves using sign language to (a) draw information from, (b) discuss about, (c) retell, and (d) develop sign language literary works. The following are suggested techniques for teaching sign language literature for the four aspects of sign language literacy.
There are two lesson structures, one is for comprehending and retelling a literary work, and the other is for learners to create their own stories using the plot and linguistic structures in the literary work as archetypes.
As mentioned earlier, the teaching of literature for comprehension purposes should not be any different from teaching literature in spoken and written literature. The following lesson structure is suggested by Supalla and Bahan (1994a, b), Showalter (2003), and Arenson and Kretschmer (2010) for the teaching of literature for comprehension purposes in L1 sign language classrooms:
1.The teacher introduces a signed literary work and preteaches learners using sign language about the topic and its contents. The teacher inquires and discusses with the learners about their experiences regarding the topic. This is used to assess the learners’ world knowledge and readiness to work with the signed literary work.
2.Have learners watch the signed literary work on video.
3.The teacher checks on the learners’ comprehension of the work. The teacher asks questions using sign language to ask what the signed work is about. The questions to ask are about the theme, plot structure, the main idea, characters, settings, and actions that are shown in the work. The teacher inquires of the learners how the characters, settings, and actions connect with each other, the progression in the plot, and the language and linguistic structures used in the work.
4.Learners respond to teacher questions in sign language.
5.If the learners have difficulty, the teacher reviews (a) thematic structure in the literary work, and/or (b) the sign language linguistic structures that are employed in the signed literary work. The teacher models the story in the signed literary work to explicate the work for the learners.
6.The teacher instructs the learners to prepare a grid, divided into parts or chapters in the literary work, and fill each part or chapter with (a) the characters, settings, and actions, and (b) the sequence of plot and linguistic structures.
7.The teacher asks the learners to memorize the literary work.
8.The learners then retell the plot in the literary work using sign language that should carry the same meaning as the original work.
Supalla’s For a Decent Living (1994b) is a novella in which the protagonist is a deaf boy on a journey to find his Deaf identity. In the story, the first-person narrator draws the viewer to the protagonist’s plight as a young deaf boy living on a farm with parents who do not sign (Supalla & Bahan, 1992). Escaping from his unsympathetic hearing family, he faces the continuing dilemma of proving himself to his family, the Deaf community, and the larger society. The story comprises of several chapters, and each chapter contains several parts, or strophes. Learners’ comprehension of ASL and appreciation of ASL literature is enhanced as they are introduced to the art of narrative expression. The For a Decent Living story is part of the American Sign Language Literature Series (Supalla & Bahan, 1994a, b). The Series includes learner workbook with literal, inferential, comprehension, and literary questions pertaining to story components, structure and progression, and some background information on deaf culture. The learner materials emphasize comprehension and literary analysis of linguistic and cultural aspects in ASL narratives. It also includes exercises for learners to retell the stories (Supalla & Bahan, 1994a). Supalla and Bahan’s (1994b) For a Decent Living learner workbook shows how the signed literary work is to be taught:
1.The first chapter with parts, or strophes, is viewed by the whole class.
2.Comprehension check questions are given to the learners for each strophe. The learners answer each question. The teacher and the learners discuss how the performer tells, i.e., using sign language, the story.
3.Learners are divided into groups. Each group is assigned a strophe to discuss how sign language is used to perform the strophe. They practice retelling it.
4.Each group chooses one learner to retell the strophe to the class. Feedback is given to the learner who retells.
5.The learners are next given a list of literary questions. They discuss each question with the teacher.
In the For the Decent Living lesson, signing deaf and hard of hearing learners are given an opportunity to develop a heightened sensitivity to the concepts that are involved in telling stories. An example is the concept of first-person narrative and use of the first-person point of view. Another example involves the issue of deaf identity in families.
The following is a suggested lesson for the learners to perform a story using the story plot and linguistic structures of a story they “read” as archetypes. The teaching for performance begins with the creation of story plot and linguistic structures drawn from the story.
1.At a point after the lesson on the teaching for comprehension is completed, have the learners develop their own stories based on their personal experiences. The learners use the characters, settings, and actions, and the sequence of plot and linguistic structures, in the story as archetypes. They create a chart showing the characters, settings, and actions, superimpose their life experiences on the grid, and fill in the slots with the characters, settings, and actions in their personal experience.
2.The teacher instructs the learners to sign the stories following the sequence in the chart.
3.The teacher then asks the learners to work with each other in editing their charts and signed renditions.
4.The learners then “publish,” that is, perform their stories in the classroom.
The following is an exposition of the different genres that are categorized by the linguistic levels in the sign language linguistic structures that are found in sign language literature, which are phonology, morphology, morphosyntax, syntax, and discourse. Teachers teach the different literary and sign language structures used in the genres and the learners use them as archetypes with which to develop their literary works.
Sign language alphabet stories. Teachers who teach this genre need to show how literary works can be created using the letters of the alphabet as handshapes to create scenes with characters, settings, and actions. The learners can use several alphabet stories as archetypes for their own alphabet stories. They may elect to use each letter, a few letters, or one letter of the alphabet as handshape(s) to create signs that depict scenes with characters, actions, and settings. For archetypes the learner may model their stories after several ABC stories. One ABC story that is reported in Rutherford (1993) is “The Class Reunion.” The learners can develop plot structure progression using every letter of the alphabet in succession that is found in the story. The learner may want to use the letters of a word as handshapes and use another ABC story such as Barwiolek’s signed rendition of the word GOLF. In “Golf,” Barwiolek (1993) constructed a story of a golfer placing a tee on the ground, placing a ball on the tee, swinging the ball, and the movement of the ball through the air. Barwiolek had the ASL handshape G to designate a tee and placed it on the ground, O to designate a golf ball and placed it on the tee, L for the club and swung the handshape across the ball, and F to refer to the ball and moved it outwards. In another ABC story, “Mountain,” Rennie (1990) fingerspelled MOUNTAIN by fingerspelling each letter in various heights to correspond with the contour of a mountain.
Sign language number stories. Teachers who teach this genre need to show how literary works can be created using number signs as handshapes to create scenes with characters, settings, and actions. Deaf and hard of hearing learners who want to create a number story may use the model of the number stories that are commercially published on video. They may elect to use one number, a succession of numbers, or a set of different numbers to create number stories. For instance, they may model their number story after Seago’s “The Argument” (1993 [1980]). The story employed one number handshape. In this story, Seago narrated about two people bumping into each other, having an argument, later reconsidering, and agreeing to become friends. Using both hands shaped in the 1-handshape, Seago had them moving toward each other to mean two people walking toward each other, the hands make contact meaning the people bumped each other, one hand, representing the first person, made a sign for SCOLD and the other hand, representing the second person, made a sign for INSULT. The hands wriggled, meaning both persons argued and later moved away from each other, the hands moving in opposite directions. They turned around, met again, discussed, reconsidered, agreed, and became friends, using the 1-handshape to denote the signs for TURNED AROUND, MEET, DISCUSS, RECONSIDER, AGREED, and FRIENDS. The hands then make contact with each other and move along together, as if the two people walk away together.
Sign language poetry. Teachers who teach this genre can demonstrate how sign language poetry is developed using signs and nonmanual markers to represent characters, setting, and actions, and signed in a repetitive manner to create rhyme, rhythm, and meter. Learners who wish to create sign language poetry may elect to use signs to create stories and perform using the poetic principles of repetition, rhymes, meter and stanza. For example, they may want to use Krauel’s (n.d./2018) poem entitled “Boating and Drinking” as an archetype. The poem follows the 1–2, 1–2–3 beat. The poem went like this: “Boating boating/boating boating boating/drink drink/drink drink drink/fun fun/fun fun fun/enjoy enjoy/enjoy enjoy enjoy.” Other ASL poems were performed with several handshapes and may be used as an archetype for the learners’ signed stories. In “At the Park,” Kuntze (1995) used different sets of two-handed handshapes to depict certain parts of the environs. The story begins with the baby-O handshape for flowers blooming or budding around. The 5 handshape is used to sign the grass field. The baby-O handshape is first used to sign flowers blooming or budding. The 5 handshape is used to sign for relaxing or lumbering down. The 5 handshape is next used to sign CHILDREN-ALL-OVER, to sign BABY, and then as ADULTS+++. The U handshape is used to sign as people lying down on the grass. The bent-V handshape is then used to sign for swinging swings. The Y handshape is then used for stroller swings. The V handshape is used to sign for LOOKING-AROUND. There is in the poem repeated designation of handshapes to images in linear fashion. Some other ASL stories were performed with several handshapes. In one handshape poetry, “Cow and the Rooster,” performed by Laird (1993), only three handshapes are used: 3, 5, and Y. Each handshape is designated differently within the main object. For example, Laird used the handshape 3 as designated for the rooster, 5 for FARM-ALL-OVER, and Y for the cow. The story begins with the handshape 5 to designate FARM-ALL-OVER, Y for COW and HIND-LEGS, handshape 3 to designate a ROOSTER and its CLAWS-ON-GROUND, and continues to tell the story of the cow and the rooster playing using the three handshapes.
Storytelling in sign language. Teachers who teach the storytelling genre show learners how to use sign language grammar with facial and bodily nonmanual markers to create literary works. Learners can use storytelling as an archetype to develop their stories. Cinematics is a technique that is often used in storytelling. Performers storytell using signs and nonmanual markers to create angles of vision and to zoom in and out of characters and settings, and signs to track characters and pan across scenes. For an archetype, they can use Hernandez’s (2006) “Time Squared” as an example. In the story Hernandez signed scenes that incorporate different shots, zooms, and angles to depict the sky and earth, and then move to different scenes in New York City such as the Statute of Liberty and Times Square, recording “sensations and emotions” during the story in the text (Bauman, Nelson, & Rose, 2006: 112).
Sign language stories. In sign language stories, teachers show learners how literary works are created and performed using body and facial markers to connote characters, and gestures and signs to create messages or sign messages. Constructed action, an aspect of sign language grammar, is a technique performers employ to represent characters, settings, and actions. The stories involve the use of anthropomorphism and personification of entities, actions, and settings. The learners can develop stories with the anthropomorphic and personified facial expressions, gestures, and mimes using the plot structure that appears in sign language stories. One example is “Swan,” a work by Rennie (1990). In the story, Rennie personified a swan, that is, she becomes the swan with her arms flying up and down, and eyes looking downwards, and moving to the water beneath. Another example is Cook’s (2003) From the Gator Ride to the Dentist. He personifies people, objects, and environs in his stories. In one story, Cook talks about a boy who tells his father that he saw a print of a gator on a car ride to a dentist. He places himself in the story, taking the role of the boy, the father, and the dragon, and uses facial and mouthing expressions, exaggerated signs, and sign language classifiers to create spatial constructions of the gator, cars, and the boy. For instance, he took the role of the dragon and described his wide eyes, big teeth, and open mouth. For the boy, he used various facial expressions to denote different moods.
Plays in sign language. In sign language plays, teachers show learners how to have discourses using sign language, and that people’s lives undergo scripts. Deaf children learn how to play characters, use sign language to get into discourses with other characters, and learn about the struggles they face, the hurdles they overcome, and their process toward their goals or destinations. Plays in sign language can be used as archetypes for the learners to develop their own plays based on their own life experiences, the people they meet in their lives, the struggles they face, the hurdles they overcome, and the scripts they develop to go towards their life-long goals and destinations. An example of a play draws from the deaf experience. It is Sign Me Alice, a play that was written by Eastman (1974). The play projects Deaf identity within the majority hearing culture. It is a story about Alice, who was working as a maid at a hotel, and met a doctor who offered to help her learn manual English and the ways of hearing society so she can be a part of mainstream society. Alice was anxious to move up in the larger society, but realized that she has a Deaf identity and that ASL is the language with which she communicates. She backed off from the doctor and decided to be in both cultures. The doctor ultimately realizes the true beauty of ASL. The play is about hearing people’s acceptance and attitudes toward deaf people, sign language, and communication needs, and the realization that deaf people are as normal as hearing people.
Future trends are research studies on the relationship between literature and psychoeducational development, and pedagogical practices and curriculum development in sign language literature.
Research studies in the relationship between the study of literature and psychoeducational development of signing deaf and hard of hearing learners are scant. There is a need to assess how the teaching and learning of sign language literature not only meets but also enhances the literacy development of signing deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Future study should investigate how sign language literature, which carries sign language linguistic structures, helps signing deaf and hard of hearing children learn about language in general and the linguistics of sign languages in particular. There is also a need to study the relationship between sign language literature study, particularly the stories about deaf people’s lives, deaf community and deaf culture, and identity development of signing deaf and hard of hearing children. Another future study should investigate how “reading” sign language literature, with a rich repertoire of life stories and biographies, open doors for deaf and hard of hearing readers to enter into the world of the deaf and to compare, contrast, and identify with their identity and being.
There are a few remaining issues in the pedagogy of sign language literature that need to be addressed. As mentioned earlier, schools and programs for signing deaf and hard of hearing learners tend to use sign language translations of original written literature to teach literature. The schools and programs need to integrate original signed literary works of literature in K-12 classrooms with signing deaf and hard of hearing learners. Not only does original signed literary works need to be integrated into classroom instruction, they need to be integrated into the curricular development and assessment practices. A K-12 curriculum in sign language literature needs to be developed. The curriculum needs to include the variety of storytelling teaching techniques realized through sign language literature with which the signing deaf and hard of hearing learners not only can comprehend and retell, but also create and sign literary works. In addition, learners’ signed literary works need to be evaluated for their plot structure, grammar, and textual coherence. This necessitates the development of assessment forms and procedures in sign language literature.
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