ASL III students perform for students in Taft Elementary’s deaf and hard-of-hearing program
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Juniors Kelly Chamberlain and Brett Nelson, in character as Belle and the Beast, have both worked the past couple months perfecting their characters as they hope to perform to the best of their ability for the Taft students. “My goal for the children to learn is that in The words of I king Jordan, a deaf person can do anything a hearing person can do except hear and it’s a message to the deaf children that they can literally do anything,” Chamberlain said.
April 3, 2019
Students enrolled in the ASL (American Sign Language) 3 class will spend Mar. 1 at Taft Elementary School. Taft is a local elementary that has a DHH (Deaf and Hard of Hearing) program. This program allows for access to sign language to all families. The field trip lets the ASL 3 show off the student run production they’ve been working on for the past two months. This is the second year the class has done this project and before going on winter break they chose to recreate Beauty and the Beast.
“When it’s student run and they’re making making the decisions, they’re more invested in in it and they’re going to be taking the time to actually make everything, learn their lines and to prepare for their performance.” ASL teacher Jennifer Battaglia said.
Since Taft has students that range in ability to hear, part of working on the production included making the show all inclusive and making sure everyone has full access to what is going on. Students of the class were assigned two roles, one speaking and one signing.
“I just love being onstage and knowing that we are going to perform for little kids,” Junior Kelly Chamberlain said. “…and just create this happiness inside them because they’re seeing a Disney movie in their own language.”
Students were asked to choose a role that would challenge their skills and go after what they wanted. Chamberlain, who signed for the character Belle, is involved with both theatre and ASL has used this class to explore a potential career path. Junior Brett Nelson, who signed for the character Beast, saw this class project as a good opportunity to try something new.
“My goal is to perform to the best of my abilities and for the kids watching to enjoy it.” Nelson said.
But most importantly, this production benefits the deaf students of Taft. With no Disney movies in their native language, the ASL students are provided an opportunity to bring these children a very special experience.
“The little kids have so much fun seeing this movie come to life and to be able to understand it as opposed to being completely lost with trying to understand the action while trying to read the captions, they finally get to understand it… [and] everyone’s excited.” Battaglia said.
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