This week I decided to explore some children’s books that can help students learn about ASL and deaf culture. Using children’s books can be a great way to introduce a new topic to students. It keeps them engaged and excited to learn! Below, I have written a little bit about 5 books that could be used in a classroom!
My Language, Your Language by Lisa Bullard
Description: This is a book about Romelie, a student who makes a new friend in class. Her new friend Camila speaks Spanish with her family, so she teaches Romelie some Spanish words. After learning some Spanish words, Romelie become curious about different languages. Romelie realizes that at home, her family speaks English and American Sign Language. With the help of her mother, Romelie spends the weekend finding new languages that surround her in her town and neighbourhood. When she goes back to school on Monday she is excited to tell her classmates about all of the languages she learned. At the end of the story, Romelie teaches Camila the ASL sign for friend.
Uses: This book would be a great addition to a social studies lesson or unit about different languages in your community or around the world. This book explores not only Spanish and English, but sign language, Arabic, Somali, and French. It could also be used to teach students about diversity and inclusion. Romelie and Camila come from different backgrounds and speak different languages, yet their differences made them better friends and they were able to learn from each other. As well, this book has a question on each page that gets the readers thinking about different languages. I do want to mention that this book is from the United States, so one page uses American language to describe Indigenous languages. This is definitely something to be cautious of if you choose to use this book.
Where to Find: You can buy this book on amazon here, and you can find a read along of it on YouTube here from the Miji Lee Channel.
Hands & Hearts By Donna Jo Napoli
Description: In this book, a mother and her daughter spend a day at the beach where they swim, dance, and play together. Through the day, they communicate using American Sign Language instead of spoken language. This book teaches reader how to sign 15 words using American Sign Language, with the help of sidebars that have drawings of the signs. Each sign that you learn is used later in the book. For example, at the end of the book you learn how to sign the word sunset and on the next page the word sunset is used, highlighted in red. This makes it super easy for students to practice the signs they learn as they read the book.
Uses: This book is a great resource that can be used to teach students some ASL signs and teach them that not all communication is verbal. It gives teachers a great opportunity to teach students about deaf culture as well. This would be a great addition to a lesson or unit about inclusion, diversity, cultures, or languages.
Where to find: You can buy the book on amazon here, and you can find a read along of it on YouTube here from the Rebecca Knowles Reads Channel.
The Moses Books by Isaac Millman
Description: Isaac Millman has created three books about a student named Moses; Moses goes to a concert, Moses goes to school, and Moses goes to the circus. These picture books incorporate simple American Sign Language instruction into stories about a boy named Moses, who is deaf. The illustrations in the book are super engaging and very clearly show the signs, which are related to each individual story.
Uses: These books are awesome additions to a classroom library. They can be used to help students learn some ASL signs and information about the deaf community and the lives of deaf students at school. These books are great because students can connect with Moses and engage in his stories!
Where to Find: Moses goes to a concert can be found on amazon here and a read along of this book by the author Isaac Millman is available on YouTube here. Moses goes to school can be found on amazon here and a read aloud of the book with sign language can be found on the Alissa Amell-Postler YouTube channel here. Moses goes to the circus can be found on amazon here and a read along is available from the Lauryn Shreffler YouTube channel here.
So far I have found resources to teach the ASL alphabet and numbers as well as projects for students to learn more about ASL. I have also explored Handspeak, the ASL dictionary, and books to use when teaching ASL I am excited to continue exploring ASL and ways to teach it to students! If you are looking to learn more as well, come back next week! Thanks for reading 🙂
rachelroses
Hi Hailey, thank you for this great list of resources! I think my favourite was Your Language, My Language because it really promotes inclusivity and the importance of learning about and understanding other languages. I think that this book would be great for teaching about people who have English as a second language as well!
jessicaliebe
Hi Hailey! As per usual you have found some more amazing resources for integrating ASL into your teaching. I appreciate that you included where you could find these books, as I would be interested in checking them out for myself. Thanks for sharing this week!