Grade Level: 3
Time: 40-60 minutes
Standards: Cultural Communities in Connecticut Present and Past
3.Geo.4.a. Explain the impact of diverse cultures within a local community and throughout Connecticut (e.g., art, businesses, foodways, language, music, religion).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Learning Objective:
Students will be able to identify Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his role in pioneering deaf education in the United States. Students will understand that American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual language with its own rules and practice linking abstract words and phrases to the physical world around them. Students will generate nouns, verbs, adjectives, and sentences.
Teacher Background:
Note: Deaf communities are diverse with people identifying as Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, Hard of Hearing, and Late-Deafened. There are variations in how a person becomes deaf, level of hearing, age of onset, educational background, communication methods, and cultural identity. How people identify themselves is personal and may reflect identification with the deaf communities, the degree to which they can hear, or the relative age of onset. Over the years, the most commonly accepted terms have come to be Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, Hard of Hearing, and Late-Deafened. (National Association of the Deaf)
On April 15, 1817, the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opened with seven pupils in Hartford. The institution, later renamed The American School for the Deaf, was the first American school dedicated exclusively to the education of the deaf. The Connecticut General Assembly granted a charter for the school in 1816 through the persistent efforts of Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, who had a deaf daughter, and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
Click here for more information on Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
Materials:
- Blank paper or lined book pages (printable worksheet)
- Pencil, coloring tools
Introduction (10-15 minutes)
Teacher Prompt:
“Does anyone know how to sign? If someone is deaf, or hard of hearing, they might use a visual language like American Sign Language to share their ideas. ASL has its own rules, just like Spanish or English!
The very first school dedicated to the education of the deaf was started in Connecticut in 1817 by a man named Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. While living in Hartford, Connecticut, he met a nine-year-old girl named Alice Cogswell, who was deaf. Gallaudet taught her how to write basic words by pointing to objects and then using a stick to draw letters in the dirt.
Alice’s father, a doctor named Mason Cogswell, encouraged Gallaudet to study schools for the deaf in Europe. In France, he met a deaf priest named Laurent Clerc, who was developing an early version of sign language. Gallaudet convinced Clerc to return to the United States with him. The return voyage took 55 days and, on the way, Gallaudet learned the language of signs from Clerc, and Clerc learned English from Gallaudet. They then traveled around New England together and raised money for a school. Alice was in the very first class of students when the school opened on April 15, 1817. The school was later named the American School for the Deaf (ASD) and still exists today.
The school was incredibly important because it was a huge turning point in how people thought about and treated deaf people. A long time ago, many people thought deaf individuals couldn’t learn complicated subjects or religious ideas. The school helped to prove these ideas were wrong! It allowed deaf students to socialize and communicate with each other, and as the first example of an educational program for deaf children, many trained teachers from ASD went on to start other schools for the deaf all over the United States. This helped spread sign language throughout the country.
In 1830, while he was principal, Gallaudet wrote an illustrated book called The Child’s Picture Defining and Reading Book. The pictures represented common items, or what Gallaudet described as “sensible objects,” like an umbrella, a window, or a rose, that would help children connect words and phrases to the world around them. Each image was associated with a noun, an adjective, a verb, and a short phrase. The book also contained short stories that students were encouraged to read on their own, using the images as their guide to unlocking the meaning of any unfamiliar words.”
Main Activity: “Sensible Object” Book (20–25 minutes)
Show students some examples from The Child’s Picture Defining and Reading Book.
Then, have each student choose a “sensible object” in the classroom. Following Gallaudet’s model, they should draw a detailed picture of the object and label it with a noun (the name of the object), an adjective (one way to describe the object), and a verb (explain what the object does). For example, a picture of a clock could be labeled: “Clock (noun), Round (adjective), It ticks (verb).” They should then write one sentence using their noun.
Compile all of their work and assemble it into a book for classroom reference.
Opportunities for Assessment
- Class Share (20 minutes, optional): Students can present their page to the class. For an expansion or homework activity, have them learn to spell or sign their word in ASL.
- Closing Reflection Questions (5 minutes):
- How did opening a school just for deaf students change things for people in the deaf community like Alice Cogswell?
- If you were helping a friend who uses ASL in the classroom, what is one simple thing you could do to make sure information is being shared visually?
Learn More
- Watch these videos to learn some ASL!
- Explore important deaf history sites in Connecticut.
- Learn about the painter John Brewster, Jr., one of the American School for the Deaf’s first students.
Slides and Worksheets
Slides Presentation (Canva) (PDF)
“Sensible Object” Worksheet (PDF)
