Interpreting Observation Essay: Deaf/Blind Guest Lecture The event that I attended for the interpreter observation requirement was an event that occurred in the classroom and took place in order to provide interpretation for a guest speaker, Richard McGann, who was Deaf and blind. The event was held at the University of Pittsburgh during the Intro to Interpreting American Sign Language-English class taught by Jessica Adams on Tuesday, November 10th at 5:30PM and the interpreted lecture took place in a typical classroom located on the third floor of the Cathedral of Learning. The classroom used for the guest lecture was the same room that the class meets at regularly, so there had been no special modifications made in order to accommodate the …show more content…
guest speaker by changing to a different room. ˇThe classroom that the interpreted lecture took place in was a medium size classroom, in which the chairs had been rearranged from the normal rows to form a semi-circle at the front of the classroom.
Richard McGann, who was the Deaf-blind consumer, stood at the very front of the classroom facing the hearing consumers, who were sitting in the chairs that formed the semi-circle at the front of the classroom that had been arranged specifically for the interpreted event. The hearing consumers consisted of the students in the class, in addition to the professor’s mother, who attended the class that day as a guest. The interpreters for the event consisted of a team of two interpreters and a Support Service Provider (SSP). The classroom was well lit to ensure adequate visibility for the interpreters and the SSP, and Richard McGann was directed to stand in front of the chalkboard located at the front of the classroom in order to have a dark colored, solid background to achieve even better visibility. While ideally there might have been a larger, even darker background in this type of setting, it was the best arrangement that was possible given the specific ramifications of the classroom. Below is a diagram of the classroom setting and placement of interpreters and d/Deaf/hearing
consumers. Both of the interpreters were Caucasian females who both wore dark colored clothing to the interpreting event. One of the interpreters, Jessica Mock, wore a simple black shirt and dark grey dress pants. She wore her hair, which was rather long, pulled back into a ponytail to ensure that it would not be in her face, which could hinder visibility of her face and therefore could have been detrimental in providing accurate interpretation and signing. Additionally, Jessica Mock was not wearing any large accessories and/or jewelry. These two aspects are particularly important, not only because of the visibility necessary when interpreting between team members, but also when communicating with d/Deaf-blind consumers, who very often read sign language by touching an interpreters hands or face. Hair, jewelry, or any other foreign objects can be extremely irritating for d/Deaf-blind individuals and/or make the communication methods more difficult to understand, so any action made to prevent such irritation is important for interpreters. The second interpreter on the team was the class’s professor Jessica Adams. She wore grey sweatpants and a t-shirt to the event. While the coloring of the attire was appropriate, the informality her attire was not typical for such an interpreting situation/setting, however, this was due to other outside circumstances. Jessica Adams also wore her hair pulled back away from her face and was not wearing any distracting jewelry. Lastly, the Support Service Provider, Kim Mackey, wore normal, everyday casual attire and also did not have any large jewelry worn around her hands. The placement of the interpreters varied during the event in order to accommodate specific activities and various situations throughout the lecture. This was due to fact that the Deaf-blind consumer wanted to move around to demonstrate certain things, such as how a Deaf-blind individual and the SSP work together, etc., and therefore it was necessary for the interpreters to change their placement in order to provide accurate interpretation during these activities. However, through most of the event the interpreter who was doing the voicing would sit in the front of the Deaf-blind consumer in the semicircle, with the other hearing consumers and the second interpreter would stand next to the Deaf-blind consumer and used tactile signing methods to communicate with him. The SSP stood behind the Deaf-blind consumer to supply additional information about the setting by using specific techniques of touching his back. During the event there seemed to be a lot of running around and switching the placement of the interpreters, who was doing the interpreting, who was doing the voicing, etc. This caused the flow of the event to sometimes seem disorganized and confusing. There were specific moments that the team of interpreters seemed flustered during the instances when they realized that how they were handling a particular situation needed to be changed in order to make it easier to provide better, more accurate, or more thorough interpretation. Additionally, sometimes the Deaf-blind consumer would sign very fast and the interpreters were unable to catch everything that was signed. In those instances, they asked him to repeat what he said and to sign a bit slower. Additionally, it was difficult whenever the students, who were the hearing consumers, wanted to ask questions during the time that the Deaf-blind consumer was signing because he could not see the raised hand and therefore the interpreter would often have to stop him mid sentence to alert him of the question from the audience. While I felt slightly distracted during the moments of running around and confusion between the interpreters, I did not find that the interpretation was a distraction. This could be largely due to the fact that the main function of the event was to spotlight the Deaf-blind guest speaker and therefore the interpreters were not a distraction but simply a necessary and expected aspect of the particular learning experience. If the interpreting setting had been in a classroom during a lecture of hearing speaker for a d/Deaf student, it might have been slightly different and perhaps my hearing culture attitude would have cause me to find the interpreter as more of a distraction. As the speaker was a Deaf-blind individual and I was the hearing consumer, I heavily relied on the interpreter to understand what was going on throughout the lecture. While I was able to understand some of the ASL, the Deaf-blind consumer and the interpreters generally signed too fast for me to understand at my current level of American Sign Language ability. I would not have been able to understand much of the lecture at all without the aid of the interpreters and they were vital to the success of the event. Additionally, I would not have known how to ask questions or speak with the Deaf-blind consumer prior to the information supplied in the lecture about the logistics of Deaf-blind interpretation and the methods that are used. It was extremely interesting to learn about tactile signing and I enjoyed that the students were able to communicate with Richard McGann by ourselves by using printing on palm communication to tell him our names. The interpreter observation did not differ greatly from what I expected, simply due to the fact that I had never seen an interpretation of a Deaf-blind individual and therefore had no idea what to expect. Although if the interpreters would probably handle the event differently if they were to repeat the event over again, overall I thought that the interpreters and the SSP did a good job managing any difficult situation and making the necessary modifications to correct, clarify, and make the event run more smoothly. While the event was slightly disordered at times and there was room for improvement, the event was still fun, informative, and the interpreters did a wonderful job connecting the two consumers through communication. After observing the interpreted event, I have a new appreciation for interpreters and for those who need interpreters in order to perform the daily activities that I take for granted as a hearing individual.
As a hearing person in a hearing environment I do not come across a lot of deaf people. I have only encountered three deaf people and in the three situations it was hard for me understanding them. Now I am taking an ASL class and it has been one of the best choices I have made in my educational path. The event I was able to go was the Deaf Pizza Night at Shakey's in Garden Grove. It was on July 16 from 6pm-8pm. There were only 5 deaf people in the event and a lot of ASL students. One of the 5 deaf persons in the Deaf Event was Rennie. He was kind to tell the others that not a lot of deaf people went to the event because the venue was too small. Instead they met at Starbucks located at the Outlets of Orange. Rennie was the only one who was approaching the students the other 4
In the book Seeing Voices, the author describes the world of the deaf, which he explores with extreme passion. The book begins with the history of deaf people in the United States of America, the horrible ways in which they had been seen and treated, and their continuing struggle to gain hospitality in the hearing world. Seeing Voices also examines the visual language of the deaf, sign language, which is as expressive and as rich as any spoken language. This book covers a variety of topics in deaf studies, which includes sign language, the neurology of deafness, the treatment of Deaf American citizens in history, and the linguistic and social challenges that the deaf community face. In this book, Oliver Sacks does not view the deaf as people having a condition that can be treated, instead he sees the deaf more like a racial group. This book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Oliver Sacks states a strong case for sign language, saying it is in fact a complete language and that it is as comprehensive as English, French, Chinese, and any other spoken language. He also describes the unhappy story of oralism (this is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech)) in deaf children’s education. In addition, the first part is about the history of deaf people as well as information about deafness. It also includes the author’s own introduction to the world of the deaf.
Freeman believes that interpreters lack the skills to understand the context of classroom settings, and cannot properly perform dynamic equivalence. This means the deaf students are not receiving the experience as the hearing students. Educational interpreters need to have background in the field of early childhood education in order to properly understand the purpose behind the teacher’s words. Always telling the students what the teacher means is not going to help impact them the way it impacts hearing students. Teachers are trained to say things in ways that challenge the students’ thinking and require them to process questions in a different way. An example of this is
For centuries, deaf people across the globe have used sign language to communicate, mostly using it privately in their own homes as a part of everyday life. Just recently, in the early ‘60s, professional linguists had discovered new truths concerning sign language and its native users. The news of these truths spread like wildfire and, thus, many turned their attention to sign language and the deaf community. With a horde of hearing people and deaf people needing to interact and exchange information with each other, how would they do so with a large-scale communication barrier? Because of this issue, the art of sign language interpreting was born. Although at first glance it seems effortless, sign language interpreting is quite a complex process
This past month, I’ve attended my first two deaf events. In the beginning, I was a little uncomfortable, with my limited ASL knowledge. I enjoyed being amongst so many who knew how to sign. I also enjoyed watching the interpreter during the church service. In my observations, I learned a great deal about deaf culture.
Before the interview, I want to tell you that Deaf culture empathizes various opinion and different orientation to hearing people. They can learn about it effectively. Basically, I got Daniel and Devyn's permission to appointment for the interview. I went to my room. I got my paper and pen with the notebook for interviewing with Daniel and Devyn throughout the questions. At the night, we were ready for our interviews thought on "videophone." I was certain that most of people would say, "videophone?" they never hear about it and what it is. Videophone established The Sorenson Video Relay Service (SVRS) company provided Deaf people who could communicate through on videophone with hearing people for the interpreter, order to the food for the delivery, call the emergency, and more... it wanted to make the equality of human rights respectfully.
Bahan, Ben. Hoffmeister, Robert. Lane, Harlan. A Journey into the Deaf World. USA: Dawn Sign Press.
...er on Deaf Child Accepted” from the New York Times by Greenhouse, Linda on November 3, 1981. Supreme Court agreed to provide a sign language interpreter for deaf third grader. The appeals was based on the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Apparently, Amy Rowley a deaf student who was adept at lip reading and received help from her hearing aid was performing above average from her class without special help. However, the court ruled “she was entitled to be able to understand everything said in the classroom, a goal that could be achieved only through sign language”(Greenhouse 2). Even though Amy Rowley in the top half of her class the court recognized that she is still being denied of her rights. Therefore, the court ruled in her favor to accommodate her for education. With the accommodation she will be given an opportunity to achieve her full potential.
“Through Deaf Eyes” broached many topics and issues that the Deaf community has faced in the past. Language, medical, legal, educational, and social issues are just a few of the issues that the Deaf community has faced. The documentary showed the Deaf community like I have never seen before. There were moments that inspired me, surprised me, and helped me feel that I now have a greater understanding of the Deaf community. I also learned about prominent figures that impacted the Deaf community. I now have a greater foundation to base my learning off of as I continue to learn about American Sign Language (ASL), and the Deaf community 's culture.
Listening to the Voices of Deaf Students: Essential Transition Issues. Garay, Suzette V.; TEACHING Exceptional Children, v35 n4 p44-48 Mar-Apr 2003
There is a bulletin board on which the teachers have displayed all students written work. Displaying students work on a bulletin board sends message that the teachers value student’s work. Displaying student’s work encourages students to learn. It tells them that its ok to be messy and that the mistakes are part of learning. Along on the bulletin board, students’ names are displayed on the classroom door and on other work is displayed on the classroom’ closet doors.
In order to see what it’s like to teach in a school setting, the proficient way of doing that is to go observe a teacher with students in a classroom. In my case, I‘ve spent twenty-five hours throughout this semester observing three math teachers at Bayside High School located in Queens, New York. To be considerate of each teacher’s identity, I’ll be referring to their names as Teacher A who teaches geometry, Teacher B who teaches algebra, and Teacher C who teaches pre-calculus. I’ve taken extensive notes on the diversity of students, the issues of poverty, the methods of how teachers present information along with managing classrooms, and their expectations of their pupils.
In the classroom I am observing in I have watched how the teacher and the students start and end their day by following different procedures for ex: attendance, portfolios, grades, and class rituals like morning meeting, transitions and end of the day procedures. All of these procedures and rituals contribute to the classroom culture and are parts of instructional practices. So when the students come first in, in the morning they have morning circle where they do attendance, weather, lunch choices, how I feel today chart and much more. Each student has a job during morning circle which rotates every day so not every student has the same job. So attendance is kept and done at morning meeting everyday which is important for the teacher to keep
The teacher that I observed was Mrs. Cynthia Carney. She is the kindergarten teacher at Greystone Elementary school. As my first time in the classroom, I tried to observe as much as possible. I had a great first impression of the classroom, it is a very positive environment, and the teacher has definitely established a clear routine and rules that the students follow. The teacher did a very brief (5-10 minute) science lesson/introduction to the unit on weather. Although the teacher did not inform my partner and I about the exact objectives for the lesson, it was clear that she wanted the students to learn about making observations about weather. Her objective
We’ve all been told not to judge someone primarily on the way they present themselves but by the content of their character. “You know my name not my story” is a common phrase that is thrown around in our society today. Despite the effort we give to not judge it happens subconsciously, because we are human. In this essay I will use my observation of others around me to better understand more about how we as individuals size up others based on their Socioeconomic status; a measure of an individual's place within a social class system; often used interchangeably with “class”(Ferris 2016). I will also use the perspective of a symbolic interactionist which explains social behavior in terms of how people interact with each other via symbols to help me better understand the idea behind class consciousness.