At Battle, there are many language-learning classes: Spanish and French classes, as well as Japanese, German, and even Latin. There are also clubs dedicated to learning to speak another language. But with all of these resources for students to learn how to communicate with people that speak a different language verbally, there are no classes or clubs dedicated to learning how to speak through manual communication. Thus giving Mrs. Rebecca Palmer and Mrs. Shelby Dorfman the idea to introduce our school to its first American Sign Language Club.
Palmer states “A lot of students have interest in learning Sign Language and up the this point there hasn’t been any success in making a class about it during the school day so we decided to make a club dedicated to ASL”
The establishment of the ASL Club was due to both Palmer and Dorfman hearing how students thought it would be fun to learn sign language and that it could be a useful skill to have in the future, but there were no classes or extracurricular activities to learn it. Taking into consideration that they both are very familiar with American Sign Language, they decided after development day that they would create the American Sign Language Club we have now.
The first club meeting took place on September 5 in room G109A from 4:15 to 6:00 afterschool. The club ranges to about ten to fifteen members and so far, they have covered basic manual communication such as the conversation introductions, the alphabet, numbers one to ten, animals, and the terms who, what, when, where, why, and how. Mrs. Palmer, permanent substitute teacher, and Mrs. Dorfman, Special Education teacher, are the instructors of Battle’s ASL Club and say that they as a collective club have not done much outreach to have more students join besides putting fliers around the school, however, there have been some ideas of fundraising and club collaborations between the two of them.
“We’re finding out how to be involved in more things to advocate for deaf and hard of hearing people,” says Palmer.
Palmer added that even with their club hours being more open than others, giving students who already have extracurricular activities a bit of time to chime in and learn a few things, she has received many student emails stating that they want to join the club. The reason they can’t at this time in the school year is due to activities such as sports events to participate in and will be joining at a later time in the school year during their off-season.
On September 26, Best Buddies, a club consisting of both disabled and nondisabled students that focuses on building friendships with all kinds of people, and ASL Club collaborated to have a snacks and crafts day. During the collaboration, members of both clubs made friendship bracelets and got to know each other through American Sign Language. This collaboration gave the ASL Club members an opportunity to put what they’ve learned so far to use while conversing and spending time with members of Best Buddies. Mrs. Dorfman, who is also a sponsor for Best Buddies, says that both groups benefit from the cohesion, given the fact that a few members of Best Buddies use ASL in their everyday lives as an easier way to communicate. She further adds that the use of ASL between both clubs gave the members of ASL Club more comfort in developing friendships with differently-abled individuals
“Finding out more about deaf and hard of hearing people and how they are the same as all of us can create better communication and to break the barrier of not being able to communicate.”
According to Mrs. Palmer, ASL and Best Buddies have planned collaborations once a month throughout the school year. These collaborations were planned by Dorfman and they consist of activities such as a Halloween party, making cookies, and as well as a football game.
Freshman Max Morrow is a member of ASL Club and says that they want to use ASL to communicate with people who have disabilities.
Morrow added, “I would love to be able to communicate with them and make friends that have disabilities and use sign language. I also love working with disabled people because my sister is disabled.”
So far, they have only practiced using sign language outside of club meetings when teaching what she has learned to her parents at home. Morrow says that some signs are more difficult than others, but with the plan to be a part of ASL Club for the rest of their high school career and possibly practicing Sign Language even after that, they feel they will eventually get the knack of the signs that are troubling them at the moment.
With the ASL Club, Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Dorfman are hoping to provide a safe space for students to learn a new language they have possibly not considered learning and to have fun while doing it. In the future, they intend on having an actual deaf person talk to the members of the club and teach them how to have an everyday conversation in sign language with deaf people or people who are hard of hearing.
