Sparta — “OK, voices off!” teacher Tori Zdanciewicz says, and it’s like a switch has been flipped.
Within seconds, all conversation ceases among the 60-some fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Appleview Elementary library. Their eyes perk up and their hands are held at the ready as they turn from spoken English to another language entirely.
The students are part of Appleview’s American Sign Language club, and they’re nearing the tail end of a four-week, after-school course in ASL led by Zdanciewicz with help from fellow fourth-grade teacher Ashley Shelner.
‘It’s been super fun, just learning the new things and the letters and the colors and the numbers.’
— fifth-grader Olivia Kitchel
After going through some warm-up exercises — practicing how to sign their ABCs, and a few common expressions like “Good afternoon,” “Good morning” and “Good night” — the club members get down to business as Zdanciewicz guides them through the new words and phrases of the day.
It’s more than just signs, though, Zdanciewicz explains during the penultimate ASL club session in early February.
“ASL is a very visual language,” she says. “You scrunch up your face to show that you don’t feel good (and) smile when you’re happy. We want to make sure we have that happy expression when we communicate that.”
Students scrunch their noses, raise their eyebrows and flash their biggest smiles back at Zdanciewicz as they work on making sure their expressions are right.
The rest of the session is spent watching educational videos, breaking into groups to practice short, introductory sign-language conversations and rehearsing an ASL rendition of Ben E. King’s song, “Stand by Me,” which the students undertake with a palpable, though still silent, zeal.
Learning the Basics
Appleview’s ASL club takes place during four consecutive Thursdays, and each session is about 90 minutes long. Now in its second year, it was brought to Sparta by Zdanciewicz, who had three years of ASL while in high school at Northview Public Schools.
“Sparta Area Schools was looking for more enrichment for students,” Zdanciewicz said. “They just asked for ideas and I brought up ASL. … I just felt like it was a good language for everybody to know.”
The club has been a massive hit with students. During its first year, there were about 45 kids who signed up. There are about 62 in this year’s group, and about 20 had to be turned away due to a lack of space and resources.
“The kids seem to have a huge interest in it,” said Zdanciewicz. “I think it’s just such a beautiful language that they’re able to just hyper-focus on the visual aspect of it all.”
Zdanciewicz said the goal is to get students familiar with the fundamentals of ASL.
“Just understanding how to start a conversation, how to fingerspell and communicate who they are and where they learned ASL from,” she said.
Zdanciewicz also spends some time covering elements of Deaf culture.
“I feel like that’s an important aspect as well — just for more understanding,” said Zdanciewicz. “There’s ‘Deaf’ with a capital ‘d’ and ‘deaf’ with a lowercase ‘d.’ The capital ‘d’ is someone who identifies as part of the Deaf culture.”
The fourth- and fifth-graders in the club are approaching the lessons with enthusiasm.
“It’s a fun language to learn,” said fifth-grader Keziah Burman. “It’s hard to remember, is all.”
Keziah and fellow fifth-grader London Callender are among the many ASL club members who joined so they could better communicate with deaf friends or family members.
“My baby cousin is deaf, and I want to learn how to do sign language so I can teach her,” said London, noting that the club has been tons of fun so far.
There are also opportunities to use ASL right at Appleview, explained fifth-grader Olivia Kitchel.
“There is someone in the special needs class who is deaf, and it would be nice to communicate with him,” Olivia said.
She said there’s a lot to remember with ASL, and it’s not always easy, but “it’s been super fun, just learning the new things and the letters and the colors and the numbers.”
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