Tutoring the Deaf

I'm a tutor for the Deaf at an amazing school in Arlington. It's different. I've been tutoring hearing students in Irving all school year and got hired to tutor a few Deaf students at this other school in Arlington. Everyday is an experience though.

My goal is to help these students pass the TAKS, which is a complete bore and I hate the biased langauge within the TAKS. As I continue to tutor these children, I realized that I don't feel qualified, but I was hired. My ASL vocabularly is growing as I tutor these kids, but I definitely need more practice, especially when it comes to subject specific vocabulary. One thing that really irks me about the TAKS though is that many of the terms they use are not interpreted into ASL word for word, so when I'm reviewing these questions from the TEKS, I'm having to do tons of explanation just to get them to understand what is being asked.

Another thing that I find extremely frustrating is that writing English is completely different than ASL. I'm teaching ESL to Deaf students at this point. They have a basic understanding of how to write, but using words like "tense" or "audience" doesn't make sense. There really aren't signs for those words and the questions don't make sense. I really took for granted the vocabulary I have in English because now I'm really attempting to portray these concepts in ASL.

I have to say though, I love working with them. Unlike many of my hearing students in Irving, they really want to learn and want to pass the TAKS. I really hope I can help these kids; I know they are helping me.