tcrow@taylorisd.org 

Students in Cheroka Roberts’ first grade class are learning sign language. She began teaching the signs for each letter at the beginning of the year, and now she sees her students using their new skills in conversation.

“Students have loved it,” said Roberts. “As we learned the letters and sounds, I taught them the signs, too. It’s kind of become second nature to them since we learned it at the beginning of the year and they have used it.”

Roberts’ love of sign language began at an early age, having learned it from her mother and continuing to use it through high school and college.

“When I was in high school I played Anne Sullivan in the Helen Keller story,” said Roberts. “Then I took sign language in college and had a friend who was deaf.”

The class has continued to use their newly acquired skills during warm-up activities, and students are always looking for opportunities to communicate in sign language.

“I notice them using it when they work in I-station,” Roberts said. “When they practice their spelling words, they like to spell the words to each other in sign language.”

Roberts said knowing sign language proved to be very helpful earlier in the year when she lost her voice.

“One day I came to school without a voice,” she said. “My students would ask me how to spell certain words and I would finger spell it for them and they would get it.”

Now that her students know the basic signs, several of them have shown interest in advancing their skills to the next level.

“Parents have said the students come home and teach them what they have learned,” she commented. “Several ordered a sign language book from our book club order form because they want to learn even more at home.”