Deaf ESL Students - Gallaudet University

epistles were posted side by side by the
board. In fact, much of the project
bedecked the walls, reminding students
of the work they had done and
reinforcing their understanding of
graphs and printed language. Handson
instruction, emanating from the
students themselves, was important. I
was able to incorporate all of the students
in the discussion. After weeks of
language arts, fractions, writing, analysis,
graphing, counting, and math, we
sat down together and ate our special
lunch.
I was glad that Juanita was there to
enjoy it with us.
13, enero, 2.000
After winter break, Juanita did not
return. One day passed and then
another. After a while, the word was
official. She was back in El Salvador.
She was visiting her family.
People tell me that I’m not just a
person who feels a special bond for
Juanita, but that I am a role model for
her. As time passes and she comes to
know me, she’ll look to me as a person
from a similar background and feel
that if I was able to turn my life into a
success, she should be able to do it,
too. Like Juanita, I am deaf and
Latina. Like her, I couldn’t hear the
language that my parents used in our
home. And like she is doing now, I
struggled long and mightily to master
English even while missing blocks of
school time.
Like Juanita may do, I forged my
identity not from natural growth into a
heritage that was my birthright but
from a wider experience that I claimed
and identified as my own. There are
pieces of me that come from my
Mexican family and pieces that come
from my American deaf friends. There
are pieces of me from the migrant
summer school and from Gallaudet
University. There are also pieces of me
that come from my work prior to
teaching—when I was in the Peace
Corps in Ecuador.
In class, our activities continue.
While Juanita visits her family, whole
days have become whole weeks of education
and transpired without her. Her
drawings still hang on our classroom
walls. A chair, with her name printed
carefully on it, remains empty.
We’re waiting. ●
*Juanita is a pseudonym used to protect the
identity of the child.
Francisca Rangel, B.A., American Sign Language/Deaf
Culture/Multicultural specialist with the Laurent Clerc
National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University,
is completing her master’s degree in Deaf Education at
Gallaudet University this semester. She welcomes comments
about this article: Francisca.Rangel@gallaudet.edu.
22 Spring 2000